
This podcast episode features an interview with David Hirschfeld, CEO of Tekyz, a company specializing in AI development. The discussion centers on the challenges and opportunities of building successful AI startups in 2025. David emphasizes focusing on solutions that genuinely address customers’ needs and desires.
He underlines that forming cohesive and effective teams is crucial for driving innovation. He emphasizes the need to confirm product-market fit to understand market conditions that inform development investments. This systematic approach not only enhances the chances of success but also maximizes the impact of the final product.
Finding the Right Problem
- David emphasizes the importance of identifying a problem that customers face daily or weekly with a quantifiable cost. He argues that focusing on fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is crucial for understanding customer motivations.
Building a Strong Team
- David stresses the importance of building a team with a strong culture of analytical thinking and creative problem-solving. He supports in-person team building, even for remote teams, to create community and shared values.
The Launch First Process
- David’s Launch First process involves simulating the product before development, validating product-market fit through pre-launch sales, and focusing on problem-solution rather than product-market fit.
Product Market Fit vs. Solution Fit
- David distinguishes between product-market fit (people might buy it) and product-solution fit (people will use it). He suggests that startups prioritize ensuring their product effectively solves problems before committing to further development.
Niche Analysis
- David outlines a niche analysis process that identifies the target niche offering the most significant impact at the lowest cost for the problem addressed. This involves creating a matrix to assess the impact and cost of various issues across different niches.
AI Transformation
- David emphasizes that AI transformation is about updating old software habits with what AI can do. He believes that the real power of AI lies in building a solution to one problem exceptionally well.
Transcript
[0:00–0:12] David Hirschfeld: Founders who are in love with their problem and in love with the customer, those are founders that find a way to become successful. The ones that are in love with their idea and their product fail in massive numbers.
[0:13–0:24] David Hirschfeld: So how do you get those founders who have what they believe is a great idea and everybody’s going to want to buy this, how do you back them up and turn it into a clinical exercise?
[0:26–0:28] David Hirschfeld: And that’s what Launch First is all about.
[0:30–0:46] Interviewer: What’s the one problem you’re perfectly positioned to solve? Hard question, and one that demands more than just a single answer. AI startups today are like architects trying to build an entire city when they haven’t even mastered how to build a single room.
[0:48–1:05] Interviewer: Every feature becomes another building, every idea another street. until a little AI chaos, we call them unexpected edge cases, flummox it all up and it starts giving back not so good answers.
[1:06–1:21] Interviewer: You know, the stuff we don’t expect. Soon, these founders are stretched too thin to build anything that lasts. One problem costing money, one solution that makes their lives measurably better.
[1:22–1:33] Interviewer: This week, a conversation with Techies CEO David Hirschfeld, where we try to cut through the noise and actually show you something that’s simple. But remember, simple is never easy to do.
[1:34–1:49] Interviewer: As David says, founders who are in love with their problem are usually in love with the customer. Those are founders that find a way to become successful. The ones that are in love with their idea and their product fail in massive numbers.
[1:50–1:50] : Why?
[1:51–2:03] Interviewer: That’s worth unpacking, especially as we start seeing what AI is going to do in 2025. Before the problem, let’s jump into your FUD factor.
[2:03–2:15] Interviewer: What’s your FUD factor? The one perfect problem to solve, simplify. It all comes down to something deeper than features or benefits, addressing fundamental human fears.
[2:15–2:28] David Hirschfeld: What is the problem that you’re trying to solve? And why does it matter? From a perceived impact, you’re solving this problem because people perceive this as a big problem.
[2:28–2:39] David Hirschfeld: And because it costs a quantifiable amount that they’ll save that money back or they’ll get that money back if you fix the problem for them. Those are two separate numbers, right?
[2:40–2:50] David Hirschfeld: Perception and actual are two. And you need to know both because perception gets them to lean forward and say, can you fix that for me? And the cost is the way that you get them to spend money with you.

[2:50–3:01] David Hirschfeld: So you get, right? Because the higher the cost and the higher perceived impact, then that means you can get more people interested and you can charge more for your product. So who is that early adopter?
[3:02–3:12] David Hirschfeld: Which niche has the highest perceived impact and has the highest cost for the problem you’re solving? And tease it out in terms of their survival.
[3:13–3:29] David Hirschfeld: What is it about that problem that makes them scared? Right. What? Because it all comes down to fear and discomfort. If somebody is afraid and uncomfortable, they want that discomfort to go away and they want to mitigate the fear.
[3:30–3:45] David Hirschfeld: Right. And and those are always problems. Right. I mean, when even if you want to go on vacation, the only thing that motivates people is to try to assuage those things. Like you want to go on a vacation because it sounds exciting because that excitement mitigates this fear of being bored and missing out.
[3:45–4:14] David Hirschfeld: so everything is about I hate to say it, it’s all about fear, uncertainty, and doubt my DM really nailed this idea early on this idea of focus on fear, uncertainty, and doubt and I always thought that was just a very negative way of scaring people so you could win deals, and I started to realize it’s not just that, it’s really the primary thing that motivates everybody to do the things
[4:14–4:49] Interviewer: that they do. I was interviewing Richard White of Fathom, who’s the AI note-taking service, and a great example. He’s a total product dev guy. So her first thing was hypothesis, and that we can take transcription. This is pre-AI, when his investors would even freak out if he said AI, because that wasn’t a good thing, like 2020-ish. And so he said, we can take transcription to nothing. That was the hypothesis. And the thing I love listening to him, he would then prove that obviously and now he’s proving more and more but he kept so so focused and
[4:49–5:15] Interviewer: disciplined around growing not getting too crazy not trying to compete with sales people like gong is his big competitor who’s totally sales focused and is a very unique flavor he can do it but kudos to gong if you’re doing a sales specific one there’s going to be energy psychology the aggressiveness that’s going to be very different than somebody taking a note-taking at a CPA service, you know?
[5:16–5:17] David Hirschfeld: Right, exactly, right, yeah.

[5:18–5:23] Interviewer: So he applied that same sort of one lean kind of focus. I know it’s like not the lean startup.
[5:24–5:34] David Hirschfeld: Yeah, well, that’s the definition of lean, is basically you make a hypothesis and then you come up with an experiment to prove that the hypothesis is true.
[5:34–5:48] David Hirschfeld: And when you talk about product-market fit, there’s only one measure for product-market fit, and that’s people will pay more than what it costs you to find a customer. You only know you have it when you’ve received money enough times that you know it wasn’t a fluke.
[5:50–6:02] David Hirschfeld: Founders who are in love with their problem and in love with the customer, those are founders that find a way to become successful. The ones that are in love with their idea and their product fail in massive numbers.
[6:03–6:15] David Hirschfeld: So how do you get those founders who have what they believe is a great idea and everybody’s going to want to buy this? How do you back them up and turn it into a clinical exercise?
[6:16–6:18] David Hirschfeld: And that’s what Launch First is all about.
[6:19–6:38] Interviewer: Understanding these core motivations takes more than insight. It takes a team to transform that AI understanding into action. Remember, transformation, AI transformation, is about taking our old software habits and updating them with what AI can do with us.
[6:39–6:51] Interviewer: And David’s approach to building these teams reveals something unexpected. When you’re building something that matters, the foundation isn’t just your idea. It’s your team.
[6:51–7:14] Interviewer: David spent nine months in India, not over a decade, not because it was trendy, but because he understood something fundamental about creating really good teams People talk about using offshore he says but they literally treat it like throwing a ball over a fence and hoping there somebody else on the other side to catch it Building in the AI age isn’t about location.
[7:15–7:31] Interviewer: It’s about creating a culture of analytical thinking and creative problem solving and giving people the space to be creative with AI. Well, talk to us about your launch first process and how you put, because simple is hard to do.
[7:31–7:45] Interviewer: And with your experience and with your teams, how do you sort of make things look simple, even though there’s a lot going on in the background? You know what I’m saying? I mean, to make it actually working, that’s what I mean by simplicity, not just the design, but like the functions.
[7:46–7:58] David Hirschfeld: Right, and it’s not simple, right? There’s a lot of moving parts, right, that have to coordinate. There’s a lot of planning involved, and it comes down to discipline and culture.
[7:59–8:11] David Hirschfeld: Basically, putting systems in place, getting everybody comfortable with the systems, and continuing to identify patterns that are efficient, putting the systems around those patterns, and getting everybody comfortable.
[8:11–8:30] David Hirschfeld: Because you want to, and then automating as much of that as possible. Because the whole goal of this is to have predictability and consistency and quality and efficiency, right, without restricting everybody so that their work, you feel like they’re a cog in a machine.
[8:30–8:47] David Hirschfeld: Because then you lose all the creativity. And so, you know, whether you’re documentation or an administrator, tester or developer or project manager, everybody has to be treated in such a way that everybody’s opinion has a lot of respect and that having an opinion is important.
[8:48–8:58] David Hirschfeld: So, like, if I have somebody, we need this done, I don’t want them to say, OK, I’ll have that done right away. I want them to come back and say, here’s a better way to do it. Are you sure you want to do that?
[8:59–9:18] David Hirschfeld: Maybe we want to wait because of these other factors. And sometimes it gets a little frustrating. I just want my team to do it. But I’ve built a team where they’re very analytical, and so often we’ll have a debate about things that are a technical approach or architectural approach or how to the order of delivery or whatever it is.
[9:19–9:25] David Hirschfeld: And it always benefits the client, always benefits our business by having this kind of a culture in our business.
[9:26–9:28] Interviewer: But you worked with some folks in India for many years.
[9:28–10:00] David Hirschfeld: um well actually my team is yeah my team is still in india so but i make 15 trips to india between 2010 and the pandemic to build my teams in india you know people talk about using offshore but they literally it’s like throwing a ball over the fence and hoping there’s somebody there to catch it um and that it’s not how you build an exceptional team right you have to basically be part of their culture and acculturate them in your culture.
[10:00–10:21] David Hirschfeld: And then, and you build, that’s how you build teams. So, and it takes a lot of travel and a lot of time changes. You know, I figured I added it up once I spent nine months in India during those, what, 11 years, 10 years, nine months total time working with my team several times a year and some years.
[10:22–10:36] David Hirschfeld: But then we can build, it doesn’t matter where they are. Building an exceptional team has to do with protocols and discipline and consistency and analytical thinking and, you know, certain traits.
[10:36–10:48] David Hirschfeld: And once the team forms right, then they become fiercely defensive about not polluting their team with people that don’t fit in the culture.
[10:49–10:58] David Hirschfeld: So, yeah. Then they become independent. Then they grow themselves at that point. But to get there, it takes some work.
[10:59–11:12] Interviewer: No, totally. And it’s funny that people use the word remote, where what you’re outlining is if you’re really going to do, especially working with a team at a level, that I get the sense that you’re really doing a lot of projects.
[11:12–11:33] Interviewer: It’s not just seeing them in person, but part of the getting to know their culture, knowing how you can adapt and how they can adapt. And basically, what’s funny, the last thing you turn when it works, it’s not remote. You may not even see them. I know some people in India I haven’t even met yet that I know more about than some people I’m really local to. That’s an internet thing.
[11:34–11:50] David Hirschfeld: Right. I even created a company in India, Techies Tech, Techies Tech Private Limited, and my director of development who started with me as a tester.
[11:50–12:06] David Hirschfeld: And she was a clear outlier, just brilliant and never good enough at anything. So she was like, you know, in all of our off hours, just focused on just being better and smarter. And so I just kept pushing her into higher levels of responsibility.
[12:06–12:22] David Hirschfeld: And she said, I’m not skilled enough to do that. And I said, well, too bad you’re doing it. And I’m here to support you, so don’t worry. And she will always rise to the occasion until she finally took over the whole development team. And now she’s my partner in that Techies Tech. We founded that just last December.
[12:22–12:35] Interviewer: But even the best team needs a clear target. This is where David’s process gets real, turning ideas into testable hypotheses before writing a single line of code.
[12:36–12:49] Interviewer: Here’s where we enter the simulation. This is where if you’re watching along, I don’t care if you have an AI startup, this applies to creatives, to entrepreneurs, to small businesses. Give it a shot because this high value problem isn’t limited to AI.
[12:50–13:04] Interviewer: AI just helps us do it a little bit better. And here’s where most AI startups get it backwards. They build first, then search for problems to solve. David’s approach, simulate before you stimulate.
[13:05–13:16] Interviewer: If you come up with a simulation of your product that’s realistic enough so people don’t ask you, how do I know you can build this? They need to trust it. That’s a critical success factor.
[13:16–13:27] Interviewer: It’s about validating your market before investing in development or creating the product in the first place. But this only works if you’re solving a problem people face regularly.
[13:28–13:45] Interviewer: This simulation is where you come in. Maybe you have a startup, a business, a creator building influence. What applies here applies to all of us, I think. If we’re taking a startup to 2025, I know let’s say it’s a product development, sort of like a fathom or something.
[13:45–13:58] Interviewer: I mean, not a SaaS, but subscription model. Walk us through sort of like not just your process, but you’re talking to them. What are the key points and what should a startup look for in this evolving world of AI heading into 2025?
[13:59–14:30] David Hirschfeld: The best startups are people that say okay I work in an industry and I struggle with this problem often like on a daily or weekly basis If I struggle every twice a year it not top of mind enough to be good for a startup problem to solve because it very difficult to get people to continue to keep the top of mind when they you know thinking of a product but if it’s something you struggle with daily or weekly then that’s a problem and you know that the
[14:30–15:01] David Hirschfeld: impact to you is significant and you can easily quantify the cost because of the impact so you have both the perception and you have the cost then that is a good problem to tackle now if you’re in an industry with lots of people just like you all struggling with the same problem you’re struggling with and you know that because you go to conferences or you have some reach to that population now you’ve got the foundation of something that should be a successful startup
[15:01–15:20] David Hirschfeld: because once you solve the problem unless you’re just not honest with yourself about other people struggling with the problem what the real cost of the problem was you should be able to go to all these other people and you should be and they should relate to the fact that you understand their problem and that they need it at all, right?
[15:20–15:48] David Hirschfeld: And you know what the cost is. You’re offering it at a value that makes it obvious they need to do this. So, and there are rare, there are other factors that come into play that make it difficult for some of those people to make that decision because of where they are in the organization or because you’re changing a mindset and a workflow in a context where changing minds and workflows is more difficult, and some of those things can be an impact.
[15:48–15:54] David Hirschfeld: But you’re 50% of the way there. You have a much, much higher chance of being successful if you have those foundational pieces in place.
[15:56–16:06] Interviewer: Perhaps the most misunderstood part of building successful AI solutions, the difference between fitting a market and actually solving a problem.
[16:06–16:24] Interviewer: In part four, product market fit versus solution fit, get beyond the words. David is dropping some truth bombs. The one thing that everybody misses is how to confirm product market fit before you invest your money in developing the product.
[16:24–16:39] Interviewer: This is where he says the lean startup usually fails. You don’t really want to build something and find out that nobody actually wants it. But this is what 95 out of 100 startups do. The difference, product market fit, means people might buy it.
[16:39–17:10] Interviewer: product solution fit means they’ll actually use it and you out you focus a lot on product market fit obviously and uh you have a number of outlines on your site of like what traditional product market fit i don’t even know what that means but in general what happened before compared to how we do product market fit now what are the common things that people should watch out we’re having Googled product market fit and studying something from McKinsey in 2004 that’s like not even
[17:10–17:11] : in the same universe anymore.
[17:12–17:23] David Hirschfeld: So the one thing, I love lean startup, but the one thing that it misses is how to confirm product market fit before you invest in the development of your product.
[17:24–17:34] David Hirschfeld: So because you don’t really want to build something and find out nobody wants it. But this is what nine out of 10 startups do, maybe 95 out of 100.
[17:34–17:46] David Hirschfeld: I mean, the percentage is so high. And then it’s just a matter of whether you have the cash reserves to pivot enough times to find product market fit, if there is one, before you run out of money and you go down.
[17:47–18:00] David Hirschfeld: And I’ve worked with lots of startups where this has happened. And I’ve worked with some that have been wildly successful. So, right, but the ones that aren’t successful, they always fail for the same reason. They didn’t validate product market fit early enough.
[18:00–18:11] David Hirschfeld: And there’s only one way to do it. And that’s to ask somebody to pay you money for your idea. And if they will pay you money for this product that they will eventually get, then you know you’ve got product market fit.
[18:11–18:24] David Hirschfeld: You may not have product solution fit. That’s the other half of the equation. And that’s that once you give it to them, they actually start using it because it was designed in a way that actually facilitates solving the problem for them in a way they want to do it.
[18:24–18:37] David Hirschfeld: But that’s what an MVP should be built for. Everybody builds it for product market fit, which is wrong. It should be built for product solution fit only. So you should already know what your product market fit is.
[18:37–18:47] David Hirschfeld: So what does that mean? That means go out and build your sales and marketing engine first and go out and do prelaunch sales before you build the product.
[18:48–18:59] David Hirschfeld: Because if you come up with a simulation of your product that’s realistic enough so that people don’t ask you, how do I know you can build this? That’s a critical success factor.
[18:59–19:10] David Hirschfeld: So if you’ve got a good enough simulation, I call it a high-fidelity prototype. These are mock-ups that actually animate just like the real product, so it looks like you’re demoing a real product.
[19:11–19:26] David Hirschfeld: So if you build that, so that’s the part you invest in, the design and the iFidelity prototype. And then you go through a niche analysis process where you figure out, okay, I’ve got all these niches I can market my product to, right?
[19:26–19:45] David Hirschfeld: You’ve heard the people that said, who’s your market? They go, everybody, right? Okay, that’s a formula for failure. So because you have to figure out, okay, maybe there’s 20 or 30 niches that you could market your product to when you really break it down.
[19:45–20:03] David Hirschfeld: And I have my own definition of what makes a niche. But you want these niches to be very small and tight. And then when you look at it from a niche’s perspective, what are the all the various problems at a root level that they struggle with because it’s slightly different for each niche.
[20:04–20:15] David Hirschfeld: How you would word it. Right. And you want to know from their perspective, like what is their survive? When do you get to the survival point in this? In other words, when you ask, why does somebody need the product?
[20:15–20:30] David Hirschfeld: And they answer it. You go, well, why does that matter? Why does that? And you just keep asking why until they get to where because I don’t, I’m going to lose my job. We don’t fix that. Or because my career is at an end if I can’t solve this problem with losing employees.
[20:30–20:49] David Hirschfeld: It’s got to be something that affects somebody at the level where their gut twists a little bit when they talk about that problem. And that’s how you know you’re at the root level of the problem. So you list all these problems out, and then you have a matrix where you say, okay, how impacted is this niche because of this problem from a perception perspective?
[20:49–21:19] David Hirschfeld: Right? And then you build out this matrix. This is kind of a tedious process, but it’s how you really figure out which is the niche that has that highest Impact for the problems of struggle one or two problems that they struggling with and then you do that same matrix from a cost perspective because they may have a really high perceived impact but the actual cost is very low or vice versa right So you’re looking for where those two things, that perceived impact and that cost, are the highest possible, right?
[21:19–21:55] David Hirschfeld: And you do that for the top two or three of all of those problems you identified because those are the only problems you want to focus on, and that’s the niche you can go after, right and and you can validate this in what not the discovery interview process which a lot of startup methodologies use right where the problem with that is that you’re asking the same questions from people in different niches very often and you get a lot of cross mixed information so instead you just think which of these niches do you already know pretty well and you can kind of
[21:55–22:08] David Hirschfeld: fill in the matrix well, but for the ones you don’t, then you ask two or three people in each of those niches that you don’t know very well, and you ask them about, you know, are you struggling with this problem? How much does this impact you?
[22:08–22:19] David Hirschfeld: How important is it to you find a way to resolve this? There was something to resolve it. How much would that improve your business? Things like that, right? Don’t tell them, I’ve got a product with this feature.
[22:19–22:32] David Hirschfeld: What do you think? Because that’s a meaningless question. Anyway, you didn’t have some cost. You do that from the perception. Then you create basically a little bubble graph. And then all of a sudden, there’s two or three niches that float to the top.
[22:32–22:58] David Hirschfeld: And then there’s a whole bunch of other steps we go through to validate which of those two or three niches is the ideal niche. A final interview process where we’re now validating that all the assumptions we made about the problems and about that niche are true, at least the 30% to 40% of the people there so that we know when we finish our prototype and we go out and we start to market as a pre-launch sale to those people in that Nipsa are going to probably buy.
[22:59–23:13] David Hirschfeld: And if they do buy in enough numbers, now you know you have product market fit and you have revenue that you’re generating that helps you fund the development. It’s harder up front.
[23:14–23:15] David Hirschfeld: It’s easier on the back side.
[23:15–23:25] Interviewer: But we should be able to actually go forward and get an idea of where we’re going without being like in this ego test. And the only way we can do that is by realizing we don’t know anything.
[23:26–23:39] Interviewer: Let’s go ask the customer. Let’s do that every single day. The real power of AI isn’t building everything, being the all smart everything. It’s in building a solution to one problem exceptionally well.
[23:40–24:15] Interviewer: And that transformation starts with finding the high value problem. if you’re solving. So number one, find your daily problem. You want this problem to be daily or weekly. Two, test before you build. And three, build for solution fit, right? It might fit, they might pay for it, but do they want to use it repeatedly? This is one of the ways that David’s going to show us how he’s doing it. And now his own two AI apps that he’s developed from this process of launch first and taking AI, not just wrapping chat GPT called an API wrapper.
[24:15–24:25] Interviewer: For those who don’t know, they just use chat GPT and act like it’s their software. He’s building his own for these two pieces and is challenged by something, even with AI,
[24:25–24:33] : that even in creating it, you have to realize how fast this is moving and how someone else might come up with the same idea.
[24:33–24:50] Interviewer: but a lot of it, especially with AI, I’ve never seen a place that if you identify the problem right, if you really dial in what you’re talking about with launch first, I’ve never seen cash move so quick when people actually have got it dialed in and solve like a really clear problem.
[24:50–25:02] Interviewer: I know somebody will copy it and buy it and blah, blah, blah. Here, get their money, be really kind to them, actually treat them like somebody important, which they are, and they’ll pay you and they won’t go away.
[25:02–25:18] Interviewer: and I’ve seen people creating these bits like on podcasts. So you upload the podcast. I don’t need it, but transcribes it, does the social. Now you’ve got pretty much everything to review, and I can tell you it will save you like five, ten hours a week, easy.
[25:18–25:25] Interviewer: And it’s a very simple API reference from ChatGPP. I mean, this is not rocket science.
[25:25–25:37] David Hirschfeld: Right, there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit still, right, because AI is so consumable. and it’s so amorphous. It does whatever you want it to do.
[25:38–25:48] David Hirschfeld: So you just have to think of a thing that has high value and is discrete, and you automate it. We’re working on a couple products right now.
[25:48–26:08] David Hirschfeld: That niche analysis piece I was telling you about, we’re working on that as an AI. So it’s not just as simple as a wrapper for open AI. There’s more to it. but it’s a huge deal because that’s where founders get fatigued is doing that effort, right?
[26:08–26:30] David Hirschfeld: There are diligent founders that will go through it and really do it all and it becomes such a huge value to them plus it gives them that much more evidence when they do decide they want to raise money later on in terms of their market research and the depth of what their product, the importance of their product in the market.
[26:31–26:42] David Hirschfeld: So we’re doing that. And the other one, which is our most expensive development activity, is estimating projects because we do a way more detailed job than most people when we create our estimates in terms of the breakdown.
[26:42–26:54] David Hirschfeld: And so we’re building an AI tool, again, more than just a wrapper around open AI. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s an AI tool to automate our process that basically mimics what we do. Nice.
[26:54–26:55] David Hirschfeld: We’re estimating projects.
[26:55–26:59] Interviewer: God, it’s such a great time to be around, isn’t it?
[26:59–26:59] : It is.
[26:59–27:02] Interviewer: It is. It is. But then it’s a little scary.
[27:03–27:12] David Hirschfeld: Yeah, don’t tell me. Don’t tell me. Is anybody going to need this estimator in a year? Because AI will be building everything for us. Right? I don’t know.
[27:12–27:15] Interviewer: Oh, wait. Fear, uncertainty now. No, not again.
[27:16–27:20] David Hirschfeld: No question. Now, I have to figure out a tool to replace that, right?
[27:21–27:21] : Right.
[27:21–27:29] Interviewer: Oh, David, thank you. It’s been a real blast. Hey, where can people get in touch with you after the podcast website and things like that, socials? Where can they get reach out to you?
[27:29–27:46] David Hirschfeld: Yeah, thanks. You can go to my — well, LinkedIn is a good place to get me. DM Hirschfeld. You have to look at my online. But the easiest way to find me is on my website, techies.com, spelled T-E-K-Y-Z.com.
[27:47–28:08] David Hirschfeld: And you can email me at david at techies.com. so yeah and I’d love to hear from people even if it’s just a fun conversation about startups or about how to transform your business with AI you know you hear about digital transformation everybody talks about that it’s really it’s AI transformation that’s the next buzzword.
Key Takeaways
This podcast episode provides valuable insights for AI startup founders, emphasizing the importance of:
- Focusing on solving real-world problems: Identify a problem that customers face daily or weekly and that has a quantifiable cost associated with it. →
- Validating product-market fit before development: Create a high-fidelity prototype that simulates the product and conduct pre-launch sales to gauge customer interest and willingness to pay. →
- Building for solution fit: Ensure that the product effectively solves the problem in a way that customers find valuable and usable. →
- Building strong teams: Foster a culture of analytical thinking, creative problem-solving, and respect for everyone’s opinion. →
Hirschfeld’s “Launch First” process provides a practical framework for navigating the challenges of building successful AI startups.
For an in-depth understanding of David Hirschfeld’s innovative strategies for developing thriving AI startups, connect with him on LinkedIn or explore his website at https://tekyz.com. Embrace the power of AI transformation and start creating solutions that solve real problems for your customers.

David Hirschfeld founded Tekyz, a company dedicated to transforming business software development. With over 30 years of experience, his journey began with a physics degree from UCLA and a successful sales career at Computer Associates. After launching and selling his first software company in 2000, David found his passion for empowering entrepreneurs.
He developed the Launch 1st™ methodology, which focuses on generating revenue before coding begins. This helps startups gain traction while minimizing risks. With a commitment to innovation and collaboration, David leads Tekyz in providing AI-powered development and SaaS solutions, making a meaningful impact in the tech world.
Tekyz is set to launch two new AI applications: one for automating the Launch 1st Methodology Niche Analysis and Estimiz, an AI-based project estimation tool. Outside of work, David enjoys golfing and woodworking.
You can learn more about David Hirschfeld and Tekyz by following his LinkedIn profile — David Hirschfeld LinkedIn Profile.
For more information about Tekyz’s services and how they can help you harness the power of AI in healthcare, visit tekyz.com or contact the founder directly at [email protected].
Find Your High-Value Problem: Why 2025’s Best AI Startups Solve Just One Thing was originally published in Tekyz Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.