Well, awesome. I like raw and real. I don't know
how many of the audience members do, but I think
most of the most qualified audience members appreciate
that. And they see like, okay, wow, these two
entrepreneurs are willing to talk about, you
know, the good, the bad and the ugly, the behind
the scenes. I'm going to read through your report
because I really like the extensive nature of
what you provided with your form and the diligence,
the honor that you gave us on that. And I think
it's very helpful for people to understand the
background. Dilip Dube, your vision is to democratize
the power of artificial intelligence so that
business leaders, especially in mid -market companies,
can drive innovation, scale profitably, and stay
competitive without needing technical expertise
or massive teams. His mission Dilip's mission
is rooted in the belief that AI should be a tool
for empowerment, not complexity. This vision
resonates deeply with growth -minded audience
members because it bridges the gap between cutting
-edge technology and world -world leadership.
Dilip speaks from experience having founded and
exited multiple AI ventures. and advise 100 -plus
organizations globally. He brings practical,
actionable insights that leaders can apply immediately.
His focus on clarity, simplicity, and ROI ensures
that the audience walks away not just inspired,
but equipped to take meaningful action in their
own businesses. I know that's up to me as well,
right? How do I facilitate the questions to drive
that? So Dilip's not just a founder and AI strategist.
He's also mentored over 22 AI startups, an advocate
for ethical, purpose -driven innovation, and
through his platform Sutra. He's helping leaders
implement AI in weeks, not months, without hiring
data science teams. He's passionate about making
complex technology accessible and believes the
future belongs to those who can align tech with
human leadership. Dilp is always open to meaningful
conversations and collaborations that drive positive
business and societal impact. And you can learn
more on the website as well as find him on LinkedIn,
the website being dubay .ai. We do talk to a
lot of self -proclaimed AI experts in the world.
I'm sure you run into them too, Dilip. And that's
not a bad thing. It's like, who's qualified to
be a math teacher? I think anybody who's learning
math is qualified to teach. Yet there's a big
difference, in my opinion, between those who
are experts and those who also know behind the
scenes the Sam Altman level. what's really going
on and the mark zuckerberg's the jeff bezos like
these guys they have completely different levels
of access you mentioned some exits in this process
do you mind if we start there what what did the
exits look like um and uh what years were they
in was there was it all great and amazing are
you multi -billionaire now because of it um or
were there some ugly truths to it as well i'd
love to know more about that no certainly um
jackson so uh I'll start with the first AI venture
that I started in 2013. Now, remember, this is
2013. This is pre -ChatGPT, me walking into CEOs
of big companies, multi -billion dollar companies,
and telling them, I can solve your business problems
using AI. You can only imagine, you know, and
some of them later told me that, hey, we had
a decision to make, like, laugh right at your
face in that meeting or let you step out and
then start laughing. Because obviously nobody
believed AI can have the impact. And we literally,
the first company I started in, this is 2013,
and that exited in 2018. We were able to save
this company $43 million leveraging AI, but they
could not sign a contract, Jackson, with AI written
in it. We had to take out all mention of artificial
intelligence for them to be able to sign a contract
with us. And now we're in 2025 where if you don't
have AI written in a contract as a vendor or
a software vendor, you probably don't get a deal
because everybody's looking for AI. So the world
has changed. Let me ask you this. I got to ask
you this on it too. Currently, it's unverifiable.
At least, I don't know the company name. You
presented an idea of $43 million in savings.
What's the company name? So that company, because
it's always under confidentiality, I can't disclose
the name of the company. The claim is not verifiable,
audience. I wouldn't believe it until I know
the proof of the evidence. So are there other
companies that you're willing and able to talk
about that are provable evidence? Oh, certainly.
There are many companies who have given permission.
This is a publicly listed company and hence have
some much more strict requirements. But again,
this is 2013. You talked about exits. The company
I started was bought by three private equity
companies in New York. Is this verifiable though?
I want to make sure. No. Okay. I just want to
make sure we're talking about the non -verifiable
one. No, no, no. Yeah. What is verifiable? So
what's the company name and what's the background
on it? Yeah. So the first AI company I started
was called Ziva, X -E -E -V -A. And that company
started in 13 and then exited out in 2018, 19.
I exited out of the company at that time to three
private equity companies in New York. So that
was my first exit. Now, again, this is still
pre -ChatGPT and it's an AI company doing procurement
work for the world. A lot of exit was very good
for the shareholders, everybody on the cap table.
But everybody was still toying with the idea
of, hey, what can AI be in 2019? It's only in
2022, 23 that... world changed and everything
became AI centric. So. So on that exit, do you
mind if I ask, was it five figures, six figures,
seven, eight, nine, 10? Yeah. Yeah. So it's,
it's, it was close to a $50 million exit. So
that's, you know, and, you know, obviously always
confidential, but very, very thankful for the
investors who came together and invested. Certainly,
you know, post that event, I stayed with the
company for a year and then stepped out. Wow.
Well, congratulations to you. And that's a big
move. I'm sure you can understand the world of
so much unverifiable. claims that my audience,
I got to protect them on the reality. So Dilip,
you've been leading the world of AI since 2013.
You know, I claim to have started in the world
of AI in 2010, but I downplay it myself. I didn't,
it wasn't with a specific intention of AI. I
didn't even know the term, but looking at all
the things that we built, it's like, holy crap,
we were building. ai stuff um without even realizing
it um so it's neat that you've actually had a
clear vision around ai since then um and so you
know for the visionaries who are listening in
um a lot of them can't even imagine a 50 million
dollar exit um some of them are looking at man
where do i where do i find the 50 billion dollar
exits we can go either route um but which um
you know if you speak for other Speak to other
visionaries out there. What advice do you have
for them? What insights do you have about launching
and moving forward their visions? So in this
space that we are playing, especially in the
AI world, Jackson, I think there is a big challenge
between the hype things that are happening and
then the real things that are happening. And
I have seen, and again, There is value, I believe,
especially in the AI world, in still doing great
foundational work, which is... You talked about
Sam Altman, you talked about Bezos and all the,
you know, certainly Elon Musk. So they have,
I think, in many ways, cornered the market on
foundational models, especially LLMs, right?
So you have three, four, five, maybe seven globally
that are amazing and they're continuing to get
better and compete with each other. You know,
just Google just came out with a new release
for Gemini, which is fantastic. And I'm sure
others. will respond. So that is a multi -billion
dollar and maybe coming late to the party situation
there. So if you are a ex -co -founder of OpenAI
and you can raise $8, $10 billion on a thought,
certainly do that. And I admire that. But the
real value creation in my mind is happening in
the application there. and there's applying all
these great foundational technologies to solve
real world problems for companies and if you
slice it further the near future opportunity
lies with to me not large companies who already
have divisions and lots of talent and lots of
tools and solutions purchased, but mid -market
companies who are struggling to figure out how
to kind of narrow this continuously widening
gap between their ambitions to use AI and getting
to real value from AI. And this sector is ripe
for value creation in my mind. so huge and that's
exactly what we were working on in 2010 um in
2011 both those uh we and i'm i'm super happy
to hear it because visionaries again dillip's
unlocking some secrets that every venture capitalist
that i've ever talked to um you know in a real
setting um where we're talking you know in depth
about businesses mid -target mid -market mid
-market mid -market um it's always been that
so with lloyd who was written about in alex hermosi's
book 100 million dollar offer we had developed
a software for newspapers to be able to drive
digital revenue streams because they were getting
eaten alive by the online world and then At Restaurant
Connect, where Adam and I were building out software
for reservations and dining room management,
same thing, mid -market. Trying to help the restaurants
that were at mid -market level was ultimately
the key for scale on both of those brands and
companies. And so we're talking about the nuts
and bolts. We're talking about the boring. Aspects
that get overlooked. Not creating an AI that
deep fakes my photo into a ninja. Thank you,
AI. That was fun. Thank you, Jim and I, for doing
that. But actually finding the practical realities
of what are the pain points? What are the weaknesses
that these businesses, that these brands, that
people are facing that other people don't want
to acknowledge? That's where the financial successes
can come in. And so, visionaries, we're not talking
about chasing money. As much as if you yourself,
even if you're not using AI right now, if you
have five to 10 years of expertise in what you
do, you know the pain points, you know the challenges.
You can start tying that to AI tools and to mentors
like Dillip and say, how do I bring solutions
to life for the people who are struggling? with
matters that I have expertise in. Dilip, what
are your thoughts on that? Feel free to completely
haymaker me and say that's not what I meant,
or feel free to run with me on this. Yeah, no,
I very much align. To that thought, Jackson,
and I'll add a couple of elements to it. So if
you think of what AI is today, right? And I say
this to all business leaders, right? All entrepreneurs,
all visionaries. Well, AI is the first technology
or first software technology where you don't
need to learn AI to use AI, right? And that is
a game changer. Because all you need to do is
to ask a question and let's call it a prompt.
And it provides you with fantastic response to
that question at very deep level, depending upon
how good of a question you can ask. Correct.
Now, guess who can ask really good questions?
These are the people you just. talked about,
people who have 10, 15, 20 years of expertise
in their domain, they really don't need to learn
AI. They just need to learn to use AI. And by
asking the right question, they can create tremendous
value for themselves and certainly the stakeholders
they may be serving. So 100 % align with you
there. And it's a great opportunity to create
value now. I love that. And this goes back to
us saying that most of the market that struggles
financially doesn't like, but it is a very strong
and important truth to realize. The rich get
richer. The rich really do get richer. This is
a natural law called the compound effect. And
we can't avoid it. You can hate the law. You
can hate the law of gravity that it keeps you
grounded. Or you can learn to say, you know what,
how do I use this law for myself? And so if you
have a rich database of information in your brain
to access. then you can utilize that with AI
to be able to explore how can I maximize the
data that I have, the information that I have
in order to create abundance for my life. It
is amazing what ChatGPT and what Jim and I and
other AIs can use for that exactly. So Dilip,
let's dive deeper into the vision. Where is your
vision taking you? Well, I think it's all about
harnessing the power of AI to have real impact.
And the real impact could be businesses, real
impact could be certainly in the social context.
And I think we are just at very early stages
as a community, as a race, as humans exploring
that. So if we can do so, I think we can create.
certainly much better and more successful businesses.
We can certainly impact quality of human life.
And I'm an optimistic guy. So with all the challenges
AI produces in parallel to all the opportunities,
I believe we will overcome those challenges and
leverage this for overall good. And that's the
vision that I buy into, a very optimistic future
that I see with this vision. Dilip, what are
some of the practical application layers that
you see that we're on the cusp of cracking right
now or that maybe just came out and you're excited
because it's actually usable? I think if you
look at applications, they are in every function,
every domain in the world. To the point you were
making earlier, Jackson, one element to think
about here is mid -market businesses can become
big businesses in an AI world. I'm trying to
recall the source of this information, but I
think I was reading somewhere that there'll be
going to be more billionaires, more millionaires
that'll be created over the next 10 years than
ever in the human history because AI has that
power. I'm going to add a practical example of
that real quick and then let's dive right back
in because I heard the quote too, and I believe
one of the people who spoke about this was the
CEO of NVIDIA. And granted, while he's got some
of the most information on AI, he's got a bias,
right, too, that exists with that. But I believe
it because of my own practical experience as
well. So, guys, I'm going to show you two different
systems that I built with AI. that I have no
business building, that I should not have the
ability to create. One of them is for Wild Words
Retreat. Huge shout out to Sue Anderson, who's
launched this amazing retreat in Tennessee. And
we needed a calculator to build retreat experiences
for brands. And so I literally built this with
AI going in and saying, hey, we want to be able
to create an experience where brand owners and
founders and... Culture teams can come in here
and say, I want lodging for this many nights
for this many people, my check in checkout date.
I want a keynote speaker. I want a full time
culture facilitator as part of this. I want photography
included, et cetera. And. We built an AI to help
expand upon what are some of the liabilities
to prepare around and how do we put together
an itinerary? And so it even calculates in different
levels of discounts based on the type of experience
that you want to build out. This took me a few
hours to build out. That's crazy. I would have
literally charged a client. over a hundred thousand
dollars to build this and it would have taken
at least six to eight months to build it prior
to ai at least for my expertise another system
very similar this is for my brand but anybody
can use this i've created a world -class advisor
leadership training system and what it does is
it allows sales reps or customer support reps
to put in a name and a brand to evaluate strengths
weaknesses opportunities and threats prior to
calling somebody and then know what are the responsible
questions that I should be asking as an advisor
to guide people through a process to find out,
are they pre -qualified to work with us or not?
And at the end of the report, once you've recorded
all of your notes and you've had this conversation,
you hit finish, it actually gives you your notes.
You can just drop it right into go high level
or your serum of choice. And it has built into
it a first -class advisor labs that I designed
as an escape room style experience to teach people
to become. better advisors because it's just
so stinking hard to find people who are great
advisors so those are two examples of systems
that now anybody could take those systems even
and go to ai and say hey create me something
similar and boom it's going to create something
based on on your it's crazy what we're able to
duplicate and create these days those are two
applications that if i get ahead of the market
on it and i launch it nobody else cares to pay
attention to what we're building with it those
are both $50 million, $100 million projects.
So Dilip, again, feel free to dive into the application
or feel free to just continue to expand upon
what we're talking about. Yeah, I think that,
by the way, thanks for sharing those. That's
fantastic. But, you know, the AI has progressed
to that level where you could literally prompt
to get to a application outcome. And again, you
being in the space, you know it's... Not really
that simple. There's still dots to be connected
after the initial work. But still, the time has
gone from six months to maybe six days or certainly
six weeks. Back to painting, to your point. You
get me so excited, Dilip, about this. It goes
back to that story of Picasso where somebody
says, can you paint me this? And then they say,
how much it costs? And he says, it's $10 ,000.
I say, what? It only took you 10 minutes. Guys,
it took me 15 years of working with brands to
be able to create something that sophisticated.
But yes, it did only take me... four to six hours
of tinkering. I've spent about 20 to 30 hours
optimizing it. But again, these are those applications
that if you have the expertise and you're willing
to dive in and learn from it, and you're willing
to, and then go to mentors like Dilip, like,
Hey, bounce these ideas off of them and be like,
Hey, how do we work together on stuff? Incorporate
men like this into your life so that they can
guide you on creating more abundance of success.
So yeah, you nailed it. It's not that easy, but
it is available. And, and, and, i think you and
many many in your audience already know this
so to to build an application you need at least
three components right so one is just to get
your data right correct um second is to build
that application in ai and then the third one
is to make sure it integrates with the systems
external internal so it is usable where you need
it right And in these three components, this
is what has changed in an AI world. Well, who
can get your data AI ready? Well, AI is the best
technology to get your data cleaned up, indexed,
and in the tech world, create embeddings and
make sure it is right and leverageable by your
AI application. So that is great advancement
in itself. You have the data, which used to take
forever. You just shared some fantastic examples
of leveraging AI to be your assistant or partner
in building our application. But you certainly
put your domain knowledge and expertise on top
of it, without which this probably won't be feasible.
It'd be worthless. Yeah. Yep. It'd be worthless.
We tried. I've actually done that. We experiment
with people. Absolutely. And then you have to,
you know, even if it's externally or internally
facing. If you're solving a scheduling problem
on a shop floor or you're solving a lead gen
marketing or qualifying lead problem for the
external world or your sales teams, they have
to integrate with other systems in your business.
If these three things can happen, you can have
immediate impact. We are feeling the pain right
now, Dilip, of not integrating it properly. Right.
We really understand that first class business
and it is such a challenge to over. And the nice
thing is it's it's easier to overcome these days
because you can use systems like ChatGPT to help
you understand, well, how do I integrate this
or what all goes into the experience of really
providing this in a world class way? And it can
help you. It makes you want to cry. You're like,
oh, my gosh, I still have to do all this. But
at least we have clarity these days, whereas
in the past you were just like shooting in the
dark. Right. And the component after you build
these three is probably the most interesting
part of it is because if you build the AI application,
it is learning. It's getting better every second.
As you collect more data, it's getting more sophisticated,
it's learning more. So there's no versioning
thing in AI in my world, but as this model is
getting more data, it's evolving, suddenly the
same application can do so much more, can go
so much deeper, can be so much more insightful
than where it started. Now, remember, starting
point already is amazing, right? The value creation
is amazing. But a few weeks later, a few months
later, as leaders, as domain experts, as visionaries,
you start realizing, oh my God, I'm solving a
much bigger problem or I'm solving things that
we didn't think could be solved before. And I'll
give you an example of one of the companies in
my portfolio. They built this mid -market platform
where from data to value, they can go end to
end for mid -market companies. And they thought
they were solving scheduling problems on the
shop floor, budgeting problems for financial
institutions. And I walk into this company, it's
about a $70 million company in Starling Heights,
and their head of sales stops me. And he said,
well, I want to talk to you about Sutra .ai,
which is the company's platform. And I was like,
why would somebody in hardcore traditional company
sales want to talk to me? He cornered me for
20 minutes and explained how he has changed the
way he's selling to his customers because he
actually opens this AI and all the application
that they have on the platform and start taking
every objection their customer has. away and
then sits back and say well can you really even
multi -bid this because i'm the only one who
can do this today yeah and that was profound
for me and this person has absolute zero ai background
and he went from a ai unaware person to an ai
believer to an ai evangelist like in in six months
dude that's huge that's exactly Every time a
company comes to me and says, how much is it
going to cost for? I say, let's just open AI.
Let's just open ChatGPT. I don't want to threat
you on this. Let's just do what it says about
things. And you can use yours. You don't have
to use mine. So it is super helpful from a validate.
And what it's doing in that regard is it's actually
helping us kill transactional relationships and
move towards being able to empower true transformation.
Um, and that's, you know, I don't, I don't want
to do business with somebody based on, based
on numbers. I want to do business with somebody
based on them, inspire me. So I know we're, we're
actually over time right now. I'm super grateful
that you stuck around and that you're willing
to do this. I hope that I inspire you to stick
around more and come back more. I would love
to talk to you again. I'd love to pick your brain
and, and explore what's possible in this world.
We got 8 billion people, visionaries. to help
in this world. And those of us who are willing
and able to get after it and build great legacies
and make an impact for better, there's just so
many opportunities when we have the chance to
join forces. I know, Dilip, you've got lots of
people in your network already and lots of things
that you already have going on. But if you're
inspired to do so, we'd love to have you back
on the show. And I'd love to, again, connect
with you personally about the projects that we
have going on. If somebody else in the audience
wants to connect with you, what's the best way
to do so? Just Dilip. at dubey .ai. So d -u -b
-e -y .ai is my site. You can come there or just
email me and I'll love to continue the conversation.
And Jackson, thank you so much for having me.
This was fun. So great to see you're already
doing fun things in this world. Super inspired
and would, of course, be an honor and pleasure
to be back. Oh, we're excited, man. Vision Pros,
you heard it. We'll see you next time on Vision
Pros Live. Thanks for being here, everybody.
Have a fantastic rest of your day. Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward
to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is gonna get more and more
fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.