Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, expressed his confidence that we will soon witness a billion-dollar unicorn with less than ten workers in a widely reported interview with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. He didn’t stop there, though. He also disclosed that, in his tech CEO group chat, he maintains a betting pool wherein bets are placed on when a founder would reach a billion-dollar valuation without employing any staff. He said that without AI, this would not have been possible. “But it will happen now.”
With the capacity of internet tools like AI expanding and contractors becoming more and more common, entrepreneurs have less and less incentive to hire a co-founder. There has never been a better moment to be a single entrepreneur. These are a few ways that “invisible teams” are transforming the workplace.
AI tools
Instead of raising enormous amounts of finance, solopreneurs are using AI to handle a lot of the labor-intensive work. According to one study, AI can increase corporate productivity by as much as 40% by 2035.
“I believe venture capital (VC) as we know it will become obsolete in this next phase of startup entrepreneurship because we don’t need outside funds or expensive teams to make a huge impact,” stated Zach Sekar, co-founder of the AI accelerator program and community The Fulcrum. “Launching, testing, and iterating on solutions has become much less expensive in recent years.”
Numerous AI tools are now available that can significantly boost a solopreneur’s productivity and simplify operations. Users frequently share the tools they use on Reddit’s r/Entrepreneur subreddit, ranging from those that automate entire workflows, like Talonic, to ones used for one-off jobs, including logo development (e.g., Logoai.com). I’ve discovered that ChatGPT can be useful for automating many types of busywork, such as creating ad copy and sending more persuasive emails, given the appropriate prompt.
Also, it’s worthwhile to investigate any profession you believe AI is incapable of performing; you might be pleasantly surprised.
First, evaluate your abilities and determine what you need to grow your company. Next, look at available AI solutions to assist you in filling in the gaps.
Online education
It is certain that when you launch a firm, you will encounter many tasks that you are unfamiliar with. You will need to acquire knowledge.
Even though it can take some time to grasp the fundamentals of branding and digital marketing, you don’t need a graduate degree to accomplish them well—at least not when your business is just getting started.
Independent contractors and freelancers
Many jobs are better left to real people, even though AI may eliminate a lot of pointless busy work. However, the task doesn’t always require a full-time employee. Sometimes what you want is an independent contractor or freelancer.
Despite their similarities, freelancers and independent contractors differ slightly: a freelancer is a self-employed individual who works on a contract basis, typically on a short-term basis and is not hired full-time. Conversely, an independent contractor functions more like a contract worker and can work for several clients at once.
If you need help with a certain project or assignment, hiring one of them can be suitable. Before committing to a full-time hire, it’s also a terrific method to test the waters. Much less work goes into onboarding, and you can test things out with a short-term contract first.
The freelance industry has grown significantly in recent years. According to an Upwork Research Institute survey, annual earnings from freelancers in the US economy reached $1.27 trillion in 2023, a 78% rise from 2014. For many of the same reasons that people choose to become entrepreneurs, people are forgoing full-time jobs: the ability to determine their schedules and decide what to do with their time. It’s a win-win situation for companies and independent contractors in this sense.
However keep in mind that they are not full-time employees, so you shouldn’t anticipate the same level of work from them as you would from a salaried employee when hiring a freelancer or contractor. This implies that neither you nor their schedule may be changed from the parameters of the task that you and they agreed upon. Examine your local employment regulations if unsure of what distinguishes an employee from a contractor.
Remote workers
Having remote workers has many benefits, particularly if your business is just getting started. You can hire people from anywhere in the world and save money on office space.
There are many ways for remote teams to stay in touch with each other, and WFH is here to stay. Project management tools like ClickUp, Jira, and Monday.com are crucial for ensuring that projects are on schedule and that everyone is in agreement. Communication platforms like Slack and Zoom facilitate team communication. Moreover, you may use programs like Bonusly and Lattice to measure the contentment and engagement of your workforce.
Naturally, having these things by themselves won’t guarantee a successful business; you also need to make sure that you’re promoting a feeling of inclusion and belonging, which calls for regular communication and the establishment of clear expectations.
Nobody can predict with certainty when we will witness our first one-person unicorn, not even Sam Altman. But one thing is for sure: solopreneurship is now more feasible than ever thanks to invisible teams.
(Tashia Bernardus)