The 6 Builders who will Thrive in the Era of AI

The Designers who Code, The Creative Hackers, The Industry Academics

I founded Worklife in 2019 as the first venture capital firm designed for a new era. Where work is more creative and anyone can start something. Where life is more flexible and not tied to an office. Where everyone is a triple threat. 

One of the first blog posts I published after founding the firm was a list of archetypes I created to encapsulate where we saw the world going from a Worklife perspective. 

• The Designers who Code

• The Career Jumpers

• The Ambitious Advisors

• The Creative Hackers

• The Industry Academics

• The Community Builders

This body of work is one where I’m surprised by the number of readers who reach out for a revised version whenever we see a new trend: the pandemic, tech layoffs and the software recession, return to office, proliferation of AI, the new government administration… Irrespective of the current trend or dominant headline, these archetypes have surprisingly not changed for Worklife. Our fund and investment strategy has stayed consistent for five years because our mission from the beginning has been clear and we’re still hell-bent on improving the work lives of creatives, technologists, and building a world where everyone is a founder. 

Whether it’s a podcast, newsletter, animation studio, clothing company, independent music project, bootstrapped software company, or the next trillion dollar tech company, Worklife backs companies that make it possible for anyone to start something.

I’ve spent the last few weeks deeply reflecting on AI in the context of Worklife’s mission and values. I wrote about if you want taste, study the greats and Tomato Girl Summer vs. AI Slop, and finally I feel like we’ve seen the AI ecosystem start to unfold and we’re ready to revisit each archetype in light of AI. 

The Designers who Code 

In the modern era of building, “vibe coding” has picked up where The No-Code Movement left off. There’s a lot more nuance today in how people are building, software developers are using Replit, Cursor, and other no-code tools in ways that are pleasantly surprising. Classically trained developers are notoriously opinionated about tooling and the last generation of “off the shelf” tools for builders required too many customizations to be considered professional-grade tools for developers at top companies to use exclusively. 

Today, we’re seeing builder culture explode in a way that’s upbeat, inspiring, helpful, and humble. It’s all of the good vibes developers have experienced on GitHub for years extended to non-technical builders, first time founders, and truly anyone with an idea.

In light of AI, there are not only designers who code but also designers who have been code-adjacent their entire career. There is no hand-off to a developer to build a prototype, in fact there is an existential question if traditional prototyping will continue to exist when “vibe coding” in its current state is much more streamlined and interactive than a static prototype in a tool that’s only used by designers. My hope is these platforms become even more visual, I’ve been desperately looking for a new vibe-coding interface that feels less like an IDE and more like a visual canvas.

Since the pandemic and the shift to remote-first work, we’ve seen a collapse of middle management and a consolidation of roles and functions across engineering, product, and design. I believe we’ll continue to see these teams converge into one as designers who can code (or as some say developers with taste) prove to be one of the greatest assets inside of a company and one of the most highly sought after founder archetypes for venture capitalists.

Scott Belsky made a wise observation across the hundreds of startups he's invested in and advised, “a consistent unfair competitive advantage I’ve witnessed when the talent stack was collapsed - when the lead designer was also the product leader, when the front-end engineer was also a designer, when the designer is also a great copywriter, when the product leader was also the founder/ceo, etc.”

While this example of researcher to designer to developer ratio is from 2020, this is a good pre-AI baseline to remember as we continue to see fewer, more experienced operators taking over these roles and responsibilities.

source: nn/g

The Career Jumpers

As we’ve seen for the last decade or so, careers are less about climbing the corporate ladder and more about identifying ambitious leaps into new industries that align with an audience you’ve built over the years.

This isn’t the sous chef who studied under a famous chef and spins out on her own restaurant, it’s the person who loves food, buys a camera and a mic for their kitchen, and builds their food empire from their home.

In the world of modern media, niche expertise continues to produce the next generation of greats in the industry. It’s Salt Hank who launched his own media company, cookbooks, spice company, and new restaurant Salt Hank’s opening at 280 Bleeker Street in NYC on June 14, Madelyn a cheesemonger in Cleveland with an insane depth of knowledge at a fairly affordable price point, Sam the batched cocktail guy helping anyone make the most beautiful cocktails with 3-5 ingredients from Target. I personally love his Matcha Martini.

Preview of Salt Hank’s opening on June 14th.

One of the most interesting things about The Career Jumpers is many of them are actually The Category Creators.

My friend Greg Isenberg is a great example who started a venture-scale startup acquired by WeWork, then studied many industries and unexpected ways that anyone on the internet can earn at least six figures, and now is the go-to source for modern education, company ideation, and inspiration online that leads to many different revenue streams.

What exactly is his job title? Is it founder? Kinda. He’s a true multi-hyphenate that’s impossible to categorize with a single job title because he’s operating a number of businesses and shipping helpful resources for anyone to startup something. He’s created his own swim lane with uncapped upside and much more lifestyle flexibility than a typical venture-backed founder.

Here’s an example of an idea from his latest project ideabrowser.com

The beautiful thing about The Career Jumpers in a post-AI world is how few employees you really need if you want to jump into starting a new company in an entirely different industry. Early marketing and sales can be almost entirely automated, even customer support requires very little human touch once you figure out customer FAQs.

While Blaze is one of dozens of tools that put your marketing efforts on auto-pilot by generating blog concepts, drafting social media posts, and delivering many social media assets, I love their brand positioning and clear value proposition. With AI, a solo founder can truly have superpowers.

The Ambitious Advisors

This category is a little counterintuitive for tech folks because Silicon Valley venture capitalists hate agencies, advisors, fractional help, and non-traditional agreements because startups operate with limited capital and a short amount of runway to turn an idea into an enduring business.

While The Ambitious Advisors are typically not a good idea for venture-backed startups, successful startups know how to leverage this group as a key pillar in their go-to-market motion.

When you look at the predecessors to the “vibe code movement,” WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, even Linktree, Beacons.ai, and Patreon are arguably all tools to enable anyone to have a website or presence online, you’ll see agencies have played a pivotal role in acquiring new users, educating sectors that are less tech savvy like small business owners, and contributing to retention as solo creators and SMBs have some of the highest churn rates due to the increasing costs and overall competition to stay in business. The Ambitious Advisors play an important role as advocates, evangelists, affiliates, and a powerful extension of your sales team.

Although vibe coding platforms are growing at an unprecedented rate, The Ambitious Advisors still play an important role today because although everyone is obsessed with building on evenings and weekends in Silicon Valley, the same is not true for artists, creatives, and small business owners in their respective areas of expertise.

Today, there are over 33.3 million small businesses in the U.S. and over 80% of them operate without any staff. While Amazon, Shein, Revolve, and online retailers have changed the way consumers shop for physical goods, the local downtown is buzzing with all types of services.

From self-improvement like personal training, medical spas that offer laser, Botox, fillers, microblading, lymphatic drainage, and all types of preventative wellness and beauty treatments to internal work like therapy, professional coaching, breathwork, yoga and meditation, solo founders and service providers are a thriving economy, however these practitioners optimize their days and nights to serve as many clients as possible and very little time using technology apart from Instagram.

The winners in AI outside of Silicon Valley will be the consultants, agencies, and indie builders that have deep expertise on the latest tools, can quickly ship beautiful end-to-end products for all types of businesses, and can operate from anywhere in the world on their own schedule.

Stay tuned for part II, which breaks down The Creative Hackers, The Industry Academics, The Community Builders.