How to Become a 10X Founder

Last week, I joined an amazing live HBS case study in NYC led by Jeffrey Bussgang, titled How to Become a 10X Founder.

Jeffrey is a seasoned VC, entrepreneur, and HBS professor. In his latest book The Experimentation Machine, he shows how AI is reshaping how we find product-market fit and build companies.

He’s lived through every tech cycle — from the dot-com boom to mobile, Web3, and now AI. His take?

And for founders, this changes everything. He admits that classic school cannot keep up with the advancements and tells students to learn how to use AI tools — and go build.

TL;DR

• AI is evolving at breakneck speed — and it’s a $16T+ market opportunity by 2030

• AI performance vs. cost is outpacing Moore’s Law

• The rise of the 10x Founder: a small team can now use AI (agents) to build faster, cheaper, and smarter

• Example: Topline Pro doesn’t sell an AI product, but they win by being an AI-native company — automating product creation, customer acquisition, and delivery

• Human value hasn’t disappeared. It's shifted:

  • Creative Instincts

  • Strategic Thinking

  • Judgment & Taste

Tools & Insights

25 ChatGPT Prompts for Marketing
Prompts crafted to boost your productivity, spark creativity, and simplify your work.

Manus
Build beautiful internal tools and dashboards without writing code.

AudioPen
Voice to structured notes, perfect for those on-the-go bursts of genius.

Gamma
Create slick, AI-powered slide decks and docs that don’t feel like PowerPoint jail.

Field Notes: The Rise of the 10X Founder

This case didn’t just share theory. It showed what being an AI-native company can look like — and how it shifts the paradigm of company building.

🚀 Redefining What a Founder Can Do

In the past, building a startup required a dozen engineers, months of dev time, and lots of capital.
Now? A small team using AI can outpace larger teams by leveraging agents for execution, scale, and speed.

Jeffrey shared that he used to tell his HBS students:

Today, his advice has shifted:

Because now, you can be the 10x Founder.

⚙️ AI-Native in Practice: Topline Pro

Topline Pro is a startup that builds websites for small service businesses — fast. But what’s fascinating is how they do it:

1. Find Leads
   Scrape Facebook to identify SMBs without a website.

2. Build Product
   Use AI to pull images + content and auto-generate a personalized website.

3. Sell the Product
   Record the creation process as a video (with voiceover) and send it to the lead — a fully automated demo they can run for any company.

4. Close the Loop
   Almost everything runs on AI. Their sales outreach, product delivery, and follow-ups are faster than most traditional agencies could match.

It’s not just automation. It’s orchestration — with AI as the engine.

📈 Breaking Moore’s Law

🧠 Humans Still Matter

So where do we fit in?

Jeffrey put it well. The edge is now:

• Creative Instincts – Asking the right questions, and creatively using the available tool.

• Strategic Thinking – Applying AI in the right areas. Building moats, not just products.

• Judgment & Taste – Let AI execute, while you focus on what makes users feel right.

AI is not here to replace you, but to elevate you.

Final Thoughts

AI product vs. AI-native. Not every company has to create an AI product or service, but every company needs to use AI to build and deliver their products & services.

To win in this new era, you don’t need to be technical — but you need to be able to use technology. Be curious, fast, and relentlessly experimental.

The 10x Founder is a mindset that leverages AI within small teams to build smarter. Fast loops, sharp strategies, and creativity as the multiplier.

Keep building.