EPISODE 13
Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton sit down with serial entrepreneur Dennis Mortensen (IndexTools, Visual Revenue, x.ai, and now LaunchBrightly) to unpack what it was really like to build an AI company years before large-language models existed. Dennis recounts owning the x.ai domain before Elon Musk, hand-labeling 32 million emails to train an early scheduling agent, and the costly product-design decisions that followed. He shares hard-won lessons on focusing on pain over technology, reverse-engineering post-acquisition goals, and why parenting teenagers is the ultimate sales boot camp. Dennis then introduces LaunchBrightly, his new platform that automates every product screenshot in your help center—and he caps the chat with an exclusive free-setup offer for Founder Mode listeners.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – x.ai Before Elon
01:34 – Hand-Labeling 32 Million Emails
05:45 – Product Design > Prediction Precision
14:45 – Birth of LaunchBrightly
29:56 – Special Offer & Next Steps
OFFER
Mention “Founder Mode” when you connect with LaunchBrightly to get your first batch of up to 1,000 automated screenshot-update recipes created for free.
Connect with Dennis
LaunchBrightly • LinkedIn • X/Twitter
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Connect with Kevin
Connect with Jason