Today, I felt trapped in the blank canvas syndrome. Not that I didn't have anything to write about - I did! I just didn't like the two ideas I had drafted last week.

Following up on what I wrote about last week on F2F #29: Talk to me, bAIbe, I decided to use Voice Mode on ChatGPT to help me find what to write about and it worked semi-well.

Min 0: I am clueless

I laid out my idea to ChatGPT: I want to talk to you about something specific so that we can have a casual, free-flowing, conversation so I get in the mood and eventually I will get the a-ha moment.

Maybe my initial prompt wasn't very good, but I feel like it didn't quite understand it. The initial small talk was too abrupt, peppering me with questions all the time like: "what do you want to talk about?", "what is a subject that interests you now?". I would've preferred something less direct like "what is something that you deeply belief that doesn't get talked about sufficiently?" or "what causes you frustration in X?".

Min 12: I am wandering clueless

After the initial prompt, I decided to set out for a walk, to see whether changing scenery helped and whether physical activity spurred more creativity. Therefore, I have started walking around the neighbourhood.

As I was wandering the streets, I had the feeling that the AI was as directionless as I was. I wasn't getting what I sought.

I suggested discussing why do marketers become thought leaders in AI, given their rise to popularity on social media, but I realised it's because they haven't. They've become thought leaders in AI marketing only.

I tried steering the conversation left and right but it didn't feel great. It felt forced, so I decided to leave it instead, and asked the AI about one of the drafts I had:

Turns out, it then started asking interesting questions: "who is that for?", "why do you want to send that message?", "what experiences drove you to come up with this?" and stuff like that.

Min 22: I found the idea and.. a product?

One of the reasons why I podcast, write and give talks at conferences and meetups is because I learn when I explain.

Active production (speaking or writing) enhances memory compared to passive consumption of information. This phenomenon, first identified in 1972, shows spoken words create stronger memory traces (source) than silently read ones. 

I learnt during my middle school years that I wasn't good at learning through listening nor reading, but through explaining ideas to others. That's when I started getting my best grades in all the subjects.

So I decided to talk to the AI to force this to happen and... voilà!

After talking through my idea for about ten minutes, I found that I no longer needed the idea for my next issue.

Instead:

• The process has become this week's issue. I think it's valuable enough to be sent out to you (let me know otherwise!).
• I have found a good idea for a product.

A product? Yes, or a methodology, or a framework... I still don't know! But by talking through my frustrations as an angel investor I've come up with something I can offer to my portfolio companies that might be very useful to them.

I've sat down and drafted and refined the whole thing and I am very excited about it. I can't wait to roll it out when it's ready.

Know Your Angels (KYA) is the KYC (Know Your Customer) of angel investments. I can't believe this doesn't exist yet, but that is usually because it's a terrible idea, in 99% of the cases. In the remaining 1%, things can happen.

But I'll leave you with the cliffhanger.

Next week: Know Your Angels.

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Gratitude & asks

• Thank you Roger Casals for the coffee today and the GREAT chat to catch up after almost a year. Our chats are always mentally stimulating, so I value them dearly.
• Thank you Ivan Landabaso for your enormous effort of sharing what's good in startups and VCs filtered with your non-BS approach.
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• 🙏 My portfolio company Delitbee needs intros to restaurant chains and franchises in Spain. Let me know if you can help with that.

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