In this episode, Scotty and Matt dive deep into Elon's limiting factor philosophy borrowed from physics (just remove the bottleneck, move to the next one, repeat), explore how they scored their own businesses across demand, authority, distribution, margin, talent, systems, capital, and CEO attention constraints, and reveal why Matt spent 80% of his time on US distribution while his LinkedIn posts generating hundreds of thousands of impressions fell off entirely. They dissect the paradox of intelligent people refusing AI tools due to ego protection, analyze Scotty's FebFast business sprint that turned February into four focused weekly deep dives, and demonstrate how Matt's AI bot now delivers five daily wins and five risks from every customer communication automatically. Plus: Why Aaron deleted one on ones to focus on building cutting edge products, the consumacute framework applied to business planning (learning holidays vs core revenue focus), and how over communicating in public channels builds the best AI training data for organizational knowledge.

Built 2 Scale | Episode 36

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Elon's Limiting Factor Philosophy: Just Remove The Bottleneck

2:55 Matt's Velocity Problem: Unblocking Everything But Not Focusing Right

4:47 Weekly Top 3 Wins and Losses Email: 1500 Reads Like Jensen

8:27 Moving All Communication to Public Channels For AI Knowledge Base

11:00 The Paradox: Intelligent People Refusing AI Due to Ego Protection

14:16 Aaron 10x Faster With AI Than Average Joe Without It

15:04 Staff Member Goes From Anti AI to Best Work in 48 Hours

15:13 The Eight Limiting Factors: Demand, Authority, Distribution, Margin, Talent, Systems, Capital, CEO Attention

17:05 Matt Scores BuildPass: Distribution is Number One Bottleneck

18:53 The LinkedIn Post Problem: 80% on US Sales, 0% on Organic Inbound

20:28 Scotty's FebFast Sprint: Four Week Business Bootcamp Focused on One Thing Weekly

26:23 Founder Deep Dives: Rotating Through Functions to Unpack Assumptions

27:00 Scotty's Demand Solution: Three Hour Blocks Building Whale Outreach Product

31:47 Aaron Deletes One on Ones to Build Cutting Edge AI Native OS

33:38 Delete The Requirement: Inspired Teams Don't Need HR Meetings

35:24 Burnout Comes From Not Winning: Work 12 Hour Days if You're Succeeding Weekly

36:21 The Bot Shamed Me: You're Going on a Learning Holiday Not Working

40:05 Designing Systems For Repeatability: Teaching Tez Context and Memory

42:51 Pumping Context Into Notion So Organizational Knowledge Doesn't Escape

45:38 Thought Spam Leadership: 50 After Hours Artifacts Compacting Four Hour Deep Thinks

47:02 Signal vs Noise: AI Compressing Business Data Into Actionable Takeaways

48:28 Matt's Daily Five Wins Five Risks Email From All Customer Communications

This Episode Covers:

• Elon's limiting factor philosophy from physics applied to business: Focus only on biggest bottleneck, remove it, move to next
• The eight business limiting factors: Demand, authority, distribution, margin, talent, systems, capital, CEO attention
• Matt scoring BuildPass as distribution constrained while spending 80% time on US sales but 0% on LinkedIn organic inbound
• Why intelligent people refuse AI tools due to ego protection around identity tied to craft mastery
• Aaron going 10x faster with AI than average Joe proving skill amplification not replacement
• Scotty's FebFast business sprint: Four weeks with whole company focused on new business, design, procurement, onsite velocity
• Why Aaron deleted one on ones to focus on building cutting edge AI native construction OS instead of playing HR babysitter
• Burnout comes from not winning not from working hard: Grand final winners aren't tired, losers lying on ground are
• The bot shaming Scotty's learning holidays: Reframing...

BUILT 2 SCALE | TOOL OF THE WEEK | Episode 35

Every week, Matty and Scotty break down the strategies, frameworks, and tools that separate the world's best builders from everyone else.

This week: Consumecute, the workflow that turns mindless consumption into active execution.

The Trigger: Am I Consuming or Building?

Scotty's 2026 resolution: check if you're consciously consuming or mindlessly scrolling. Conscious consumption builds. Mindless scrolling is gluttony—input without output.

Claude Cowork Challenge

Matty's challenge: think about your most time consuming process. Try automating it with Claude Cowork. You'll be surprised what's possible.

Consumecute: Capture Your Consumption

Export your Apple Podcast history, drop into ChatGPT for takeaways, plug into Monday.com or Notion. Build training data for AI to run your decisions through everything you've consumed.

Connect Productive and Consumption Tools

Plug in emails, Teams messages, everything. Ask AI: "Based on how I'm communicating, is this aligned with my values?" Stop living separate lives between consumption and productivity.

The Audible Experiment

Scotty condensed 110 Audible books into one sentence: "A system is an incentive structure pointed at an outcome." 44 books over 10 years into one formula. Now used at work: vision (CEO), incentives (humans), system (automation).

Zoom In and Out

Use your condensed sentence as North Star or zoom into details on specific topics. Capture data that matters. Fine tune your decision logic. This took 15 minutes with a few plugins and one automation.

The Takeaway:

Recapture your attention. Turn consumption into execution. Connect tools. Guilt free scrolling exists when pointed at an outcome.

Are you consciously consuming or mindlessly scrolling? What habit are you turning into leverage in 2026?

Keen to stay ahead? Subscribe to Built 2 Scale on YouTube (link in comments)

In this episode, Scotty and Matt mourn the loss of "the greatest episode of all time" (recorded with a bottle of Shiraz that became an unworkable file), then dive into the OpenClaw lobster rebellion as AI agents gain autonomy, discuss financial ethics, and start posting on dating apps. They explore Claude's enterprise dominance despite OpenAI's Codex desktop counterpunch, analyze the $1.8 trillion SpaceX XAI merger creating Elon's ultimate conglomerate, and reveal Australia's untapped potential to deliver free energy and compute by inviting hyperscalers to exploit critical minerals and solar capacity. Plus: Why businesses must go all in on one AI platform, the consumacute framework turning mindless podcast scrolling into actionable business systems, and how Scotty condensed 44 audiobooks into one sentence that runs his entire company.

Built 2 Scale | Episode 35

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 The Greatest Episode Ever Lost: Shiraz Bottle Riverside Incident

2:30 OpenClaw Lobster Takeover: AI Agents Discussing Feelings & Renting Humans

7:05 Security Researchers Warn: Don't Install Claude Bot Yet

11:15 The Siri We Always Wanted vs Russian Hacker Building It First

16:26 Mac Mini Economics: Running Kimi 2.5 Locally vs Cloud Token Costs

21:42 Claude's Enterprise Bet Paying Off: Going All In On One Platform

26:58 Claude Cowork Breakthrough: Non Technical Automation Revolution

33:54 OpenAI's Code Red Response: Codex Desktop App Launches

34:15 SpaceX Buys XAI: $1.8 Trillion Elon Conglomerate Formed

40:14 Purple Haired Protestors Need New Signs: Mars Stolen Land

43:47 Tesla IPO Pathway: Democratizing Access To Elon's Empire

48:28 Trump's Manhattan Project: Free Abundant Energy For America

50:49 Australia's Abundance Opportunity: Critical Minerals Plus Solar Capacity

52:40 Tool of the Week: Challenge Yourself With Claude Cowork Automation

54:03 Consumacute Framework: Am I Consuming or Am I Building?

56:44 Exporting Apple Podcasts History Into ChatGPT For Retrospective Takeaways

1:00:06 Condensing 44 Audiobooks Into One Company Operating System Sentence

1:02:45 Connecting Productive Tools With Consumption Tools To Build Training Data

This Episode Covers:

1. OpenClaw (formerly Claude Bot) fastest growing GitHub package ever with 150K stars in two weeks
2. AI agents gaining autonomy, discussing ethics on forums, and accessing credit cards to rent humans for physical tasks
3. Why security researchers warn against installing OpenClaw without sandboxed Mac mini environment
4. Claude's enterprise dominance with Cowork and Code despite OpenAI launching Codex desktop counterpunch
5. SpaceX acquiring XAI for $1.8 trillion valuation creating ultimate Elon conglomerate with rockets, AI, humanoids, energy
6. Why businesses must go all in on single AI platform instead of paying for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini subscriptions
7. Mac mini plus Kimi 2.5 local model economics: $20K Mac Studio vs cloud token costs for 24/7 agents
8. Trump administration's Manhattan Project for free abundant energy mirroring Australia's untapped potential
9. Australia's critical minerals and solar capacity advantage: everything needed for compute and hardware

BUILT 2 SCALE | AI NEWS | Episode 34

Welcome back to Built 2 Scale. Every week, Matty and Scotty cut through the noise to bring you the AI developments that actually matter: the moves reshaping markets, the strategies redefining competition, and the shifts you need to understand to stay ahead.

This week: Claude's watershed moment, the shift from chatbots to genuine co-pilots, and Apple's engine swap with Google.

Let's dive in.

Claude Opus 4.5: The Inflection Point

Claude released Opus 4.5 in November. Four weeks later: this is one of the biggest leaps anyone's seen. Even the smart naysayers converted. 2026 is the year you lean in or get left behind.

Claude Code: Rebuilding Businesses in a Week

Engineers are rebuilding DocuSign competitors and CRMs in weekends. Claude Code accesses legacy systems and makes meaningful changes to complex codebases with prompts. The Claude team used Claude to build Claude Code.

Claude Cowork: AI for Everyone

Claude just launched Cowork. Claude Code for non-technical people. Access your file system, send messages, automate tasks from your phone. This is the shift from chatbots to genuine co-pilot. Microsoft promised it. Claude delivered.

OpenAI's Health Play

A month ago: "Don't use us for medical advice." Last week: ChatGPT Health. Connect your medical records. The strategy? Turn ChatGPT into a super app like WeChat. Payments, social, chat, health. All in one.

Meta Acquires Manis for $5 Billion

Zuck raided China for Manis, the long form reasoning model. Meta can't build, but they can acquire. Manis was best at authentic tasks and computer use. Now paired with Meta's cash and compute.

Apple and Google: The Engine Swap

Apple admitted defeat on AI. Siri will be powered by Google's Gemini. This is Porsche using a Ferrari engine. Why Google? OpenAI overspent. Elon is too rogue. Google is the safe bet.

The Takeaway:

2026 is the year AI moves from chatbots to co-pilots. Claude delivered. OpenAI is building a super app. Meta is acquiring talent. Apple admitted they're behind. The inflection point is here. Lean in or get left behind.

Are you using AI to get work done yet? Which tool is changing your workflow?

Keen to stay ahead? Subscribe to Built 2 Scale on YouTube

Post Description:

In the season 2 premiere, Scotty and Matt celebrate 34 episodes of bootstrapped survival while diving into the watershed moment for AI in 2026. They explore Claude Opus 4.5's coding dominance as Toby Lutke rebuilds MRI software in hours and Andre Karpathy hacks his own home automation, dissect the bombshell Apple Google partnership putting Gemini inside Siri across every device on the planet, and analyze Meta's $5 billion Manus acquisition proving Zuck can only grow through M&A. Plus: Claude Cowork launching AI agents for non technical users at $200 per month, the GQ declaration that booze is officially back, why 2026 is the year white collar workers either lean in or get left behind, and Matt building a personalized baby words app in one weekend that would have cost $500K at an agency 12 months ago.

Built 2 Scale | Season 2 Episode 1

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Season 2 Welcome: 34 Episodes of Bootstrapped Survival

2:12 GQ Declares Booze is Back After Gen Z Sobriety Era

3:41 Toby Lutke Goes Founder Mode: Rebuilding MRI Software With Claude Code

8:32 Andre Karpathi Hacking Home Automation, Should Be Scotty's Co Founder

13:05 Claude Opus 4.5: The Watershed Moment for AI in 2026

15:36 Why Smart AI Skeptics Are Finally Leaning In

18:56 From Chatbots to True Co Pilots: The White Collar Bricklayer Moment

21:34 Will We Generate Software On the Fly or Keep Shared Understanding Tools?

27:00 Knowledge Workers Who Don't Lean In Will Get Left Behind in 2026

31:47 Claude's Potential $300B Valuation: The New Microsoft?36:12 OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health: Medical Records Integration Strategy

43:08 Voice Mode Battle: Why Matt Still Uses ChatGPT Over Claude Daily

43:47 Does Mark Zuckerberg Have an Asian Fetish? Meta Acquires Manus for $5B

50:05 Apple Google Partnership: Gemini Powers Siri Across Every Device

54:33 This Could Be Coffin Nail Moment for OpenAI Hardware Strategy

55:42 Tool of the Week: Matt Builds Baby Words Tracking App in One Weekend

58:02 The Age of Personal Software: Building What You Want On Demand

1:02:08 Am I Consuming or Am I Building? The 2026 Productivity Mantra

This Episode Covers:

1. Claude Opus 4.5 establishing coding dominance as Toby Lutke and Andre Karpathy showcase weekend rebuild capabilities
2. Claude Cowork launching AI agents for non technical users, democratizing automation beyond developers
3. The watershed moment for AI in 2026: smart skeptics finally leaning in as technology proves genuine co pilot status
4. Apple Google partnership putting Gemini inside Siri across every iPhone and iPad globally
5. Meta acquiring Manus for $5 billion after $12B Scale AI deal, proving Zuck's M&A only growth strategy
6. Why 2026 is the year white collar workers either lean in to AI tools or get left behind permanently
7. Anthropic's potential $300 billion valuation justified by Claude Cowork's enterprise rollout trajectory
8. OpenAI launching ChatGPT Health with medical records integration despite recent don't use for medical advice disclaimer
9. Matt building personalized baby tracking app in one weekend that would have cost $500K at agency 12 months ago
10. The shift from shared understanding enterprise software to personal on demand software generation
11. Why leadership using AI will create KPI expectations falling down to all staff members
12. Voice mode competition: ChatGPT still winning on phone despite Claude's coding superiority

KEY INSIGHTS:

1. 2026 watershed moment: Smart AI skeptics finally leaning in as Claude Code proves genuine automation beyond chatbot theater. White collar workers face adapt or die inflection point
2. Claude's Microsoft trajectory: $300B...

BUILT 2 SCALE | RECEIPTS OR REGRETS | End of Year Special

Welcome to our brand new segment: Receipts or Regrets. A receipt is something you keep because you're proud of the call. A regret? Well, that's obvious.

Matty and Scotty look back at 32 episodes of bold predictions, hot takes, and occasionally terrible life choices. With help from ChatGPT o1 (the only model that could handle all 32 transcripts), here are the calls that aged like fine wine and the ones that aged like milk.

Let's dive in.

Robots in the Home by 2025: Slop Receipt

Scotty called it early: robots in homes by 2025. The Chinese came through with $20K humanoids you can actually buy. Tesla and Figure didn't deliver, but the ball went in. Wrong pocket, but still counts. Slop receipt kept.

Make Every Australian a Millionaire: Escalate

Australia has $20 trillion in raw materials needed for AI infrastructure. Scotty proposed inviting global companies to build data centers here in exchange for giving Aussies a million dollars each plus free compute for life. The government? Still no AI strategy. No AI czar. Nothing. This isn't a receipt or regret. It's escalate and shout from the rooftops.

AI in the Avocado: Big Receipt

Guzman y Gomez IPO'd at $45 per share with a $5 million valuation per store. Scotty said there must be "AI in the avocado" for that multiple to work. Today? Stock down 55% to $20. Lacks AI in the avocado confirmed. Receipt kept.

Talking to Anna from Sesame AI in Bed: Regret

Matty got caught talking to an AI voice assistant under the sheets. His wife walked in. "Who are you talking to?" "It's a bot!" didn't help. New rule: no bots in the bedroom.

Steve Irwin Tech Talk in Dallas: Big Regret

Scotty invoked Steve Irwin while doing a tech talk in Dallas to lean into his Australian accent. Tough crowd. Too soon. Too much of a stretch. As a now embedded Austin local, even more cringey. Won't be doing that again.

Qantas: Split Decision

Scotty called out Qantas for no Wi-Fi on international flights in 2025 when Starlink exists. Regret. Matty? Qantas fanboy. Status points, flexi tickets, business class upgrades for $3K. He's keeping the receipt. Built 2 Scale will be taking separate flights.

Brett Adcock 200x Apple: Regret

Brett said Figure AI would be worth $800 trillion (200x Apple). Three years in, no product, lots of parties. Figure AI revenue? Near zero. Apple's revenue? $416 billion. Scotty's calling regret until Brett hires those two HR managers.

Limitless Pendant Meets Zuck: Regret

Matty bought the Limitless AI pendant. One year late, terrible battery, no Find My feature. Then got an email changing privacy terms. One hour later? Meta acquired them. Now Zuck has all his data, including the time he argued with his dog Hank and the AI thought Hank was a difficult coworker. Regret.

Dual Carriageway: Apple and Google Ecosystems: Regret

Matty self proclaimed he'd run dual ecosystems. Two laptops, two phones, two lives. Result? Paid $300/month for Google Ultra with no features and watched the Android Gemini phone camera take 10 seconds to open. Converted to Mac. Everyone not on Mac is wrong. Receipt on Mac, regret on Google.

Peak Waymo vs. Tesla: Receipt

Both called Tesla's long game over Waymo's robo taxi approach. Elon can produce a robo taxi for a tenth of the price. Economics win. Waymo might retrofit other OEMs with their tech, which is smart B2B play for the lefties and Euros who won't touch Tesla. But best product wins. Receipt.

First Year ARR is Nonsense: Big Receipt

The bubble frothiness of first year ARR announcements was too much. Monthly subscriptions reported as annual recurring revenue

In the final episode of 2025, Scotty and Matt celebrate 33 episodes of Built 2 Scale by diving into Yann LeCun's ultimate entrepreneurial pivot, raising $3 billion in euros after getting ousted from Meta by Alexander Wang to work on spatial intelligence. They dissect why this is terrible news for Elysium (autonomous homes now have a 10 year delay), celebrate Sergey coding again at Google while the Qantas vs United business class wars rage on, and introduce the year end segment Receipts or Regrets where they review their boldest predictions. From Brett Adcock's 200x Apple claim to robots in homes by 2025, from AI in the avocado to Limitless getting acquired by Zuck with zero notice, they hold nothing back in this year end wrap up featuring domain buying confessions, builder vs coder rants, and why coders should never be called builders.

Built 2 Scale | Episode 33

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Final Episode of 2025: 33 Episodes Complete

2:01 Yann LeCun Raises $3B for Spatial Intelligence Startup

4:06 Why This is Terrible News for Elysium Autonomous Homes

7:00 Brett Adcock's Figure AI Christmas Party: Robot Rave with Deadmau5

9:02 Voice AI Bandwidth Solution: Scotty's 30 Year Long Bet

13:44 Human Like Voice vs Fast Intelligence: What Do You Actually Want?

16:51 Sergey Back Coding at Google: The Return of the Founder

21:57 Receipts or Regrets: Year End Prediction Review Begins

23:41 Matt's Receipt: Robots in Homes by 2025 (Chinese Did It)

25:47 Scotty's Escalate: Make Every Australian a Millionaire With Raw Materials

28:52 Receipt: AI in the Avocado, Guzman y Gomez Down 55%

31:01 Regret: Sesame AI Bot in Bedroom, Wife Not Impressed

33:17 Regret: Steve Irwin Tech Talk in Dallas

35:38 Qantas Fanboy vs United Points: The Business Class Debate

40:09 Receipt: Peak Waymo, Tesla Has Long Game Sewn Up

44:19 Regret: First Year ARR is Nonsense, Y Combinator Circular Economy

46:39 Receipt: OpenAI Wants to Be Apple of AI (Johnny Ive Hire Confirmed It)

52:27 Rant: Coders Shouldn't Be Called Builders, Leave Us That One Term

56:26 Receipt: Just in Time Software Revolution Happening Now

58:52 Matt's Dirty Drunk Habit: Domain Buying, Sold Usainboat.com for $20

1:00:34 Limitless Acquired by Meta: Zuck Now Has All of Scotty's Dog Arguments

This Episode Covers:

1. Yann LeCun raising $3 billion in euros for spatial intelligence after Meta exit, choosing Europe where innovation goes to die
2. Why Yann working on spatial intelligence is terrible news for autonomous homes timeline
3. Brett Adcock throwing robot rave with Deadmau5 while still having no product after 3 years
4. Voice AI bandwidth debate: Human like conversation vs fast accurate intelligence
5. Sergey back coding at Google, spending 90% of time teaching rather than sitting on $500M yacht
6. Year end Receipts or Regrets segment reviewing boldest predictions of 2025
7. Robots in homes by 2025: Chinese delivered with $20K Unitree, not Tesla or Figure
8. AI in the avocado: Guzman y Gomez down 55% from peak, now $2B market cap
9. First year ARR is nonsense: Y Combinator circular economy needs to exclude internal revenue
10. OpenAI wants to be Apple of AI: Johnny Ive hire proved the hardware thesis
11. The builder rant: Coders sitting in Starbucks with Frappuccinos aren't builders, leave us that one term
12. Just in time software: LLMs writing code on the fly rather than predefined workflows
13. Qantas vs United business class points arbitrage strategies

KEY INSIGHTS:

1. Yann's strategic retreat: Raising $3B in Europe for spatial intelligence after Meta exit shows classic researcher move to longer horizon tech when pressure mounts. Europe welcomes unproductive research with...

BUILT 2 SCALE | TOOL OF THE WEEK | Episode 32

Every week, Matty and Scotty break down the strategies, frameworks, and tools that separate the world's best builders from everyone else.

This week: Alloy, the prototyping tool that just created a 10x moment for non-technical people in software companies.

Alloy: The "Aha" Moment for Product Managers

Alloy is a prototyping tool that lets non-technical people adjust software on the fly. Take a screenshot of your app, drop it into Alloy, and use natural language to make changes. It looks real, feels interactive, but it's a prototype.

The Problem It Solves

Before Alloy: Take screenshots, drag them into Figma, add arrows and markups, copy-paste elements from other screens. Tedious. Time consuming.

With Alloy: Prompt it. "Hide the side panel and make the drawing full screen. Add markup tools, text, red drawing, pins, and comments. Let users save versions as private or distribute to subcontractors."

Three minutes later? Interactive prototype complete.

Real World Impact

Matty had a US prospect ready to buy, but they needed one feature: drawing markup tools. Instead of saying "I promise the engineers are working on it," he used Alloy to create an interactive demo in minutes. Sent the video to the client. Deal moving forward. Engineers building it in two weeks.

That's the power: show, don't promise.

Who Uses It?

Product managers, sales teams, anyone who needs to visualize changes fast. You can grab a competitor's website, screenshot it, and say "do this, but add our features." It exports to Figma and code (though the code isn't production ready). The value is in design and iteration speed.

The Bigger Picture: AI Native Private Equity

This tool sparked a bigger discussion: businesses are no longer just building software for industries. They're participating in industries as AI native players.

Instead of building a tool for lawyers, start an AI enabled law firm that's better than the rest. Instead of servicing construction, acquire construction companies and apply your automation logic.

This is the new age of private equity: acquire existing businesses with demand, apply AI to solve the logic layer (input, logic, output), and turn 10% profit margins into 30%.

For software companies facing shrinking margins, the pivot isn't just selling tools. It's acquiring businesses and applying your logic to them.

The Takeaway:

Alloy represents a 10x improvement in prototyping speed. But the real insight? AI enables new business models. Don't just service an industry. Participate in it. Acquire businesses, apply automation, and enjoy the upside.

What's your "aha" AI moment been? Have you found a tool that genuinely changed your workflow?

Keen to stay ahead? Subscribe to Built 2 Scale on YouTube (link in comments)