Me, My Customer, and AI: The New Rules of Entrepreneurship - Hardcover

by Henrik Werdelin (Author), Nicholas Thorne (Author)

Now a USA TODAY Best Seller!

Unlock the future of entrepreneurship with Me, My Customer, and AI. This game-changing guide from startup veterans Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne shows you how to harness AI in order to break barriers, accelerate growth, and build a business that truly matters.

From entrepreneurs Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne--founding partners of Prehype, the global venture development firm behind some of today's most innovative startups--comes Me, My Customer, and AI, the must-read guide for building successful businesses in the age of AI.

With artificial intelligence reshaping every business and industry today, who better to reimagine the rules of entrepreneurship than very the team who create groundbreaking companies, teach applied entrepreneurship at top universities, and empower founders with their Entrepreneur Residency program and Audos, the revolutionary AI cofounder for future entrepreneurs? Me, My Customer, and AI is both a roadmap and a rallying cry for the 60 percent of people in the US who have an idea for a new business.

Its message? There has never been a better or more critical time to start a business. AI removes barriers. It automates market research, accelerates prototyping, and streamlines customer engagement--freeing you to focus on what truly matters: solving real problems and creating lasting value.

Drawing from their extensive experience launching and scaling companies like BARK, Ro, and AndCo, the authors bring wit, wisdom, and practicality to every page. And with innovative actionable exercises, they won't just inspire, but they will equip and embolden you to--

• Identify your unique advantages and find your entrepreneurial focus
• Find problems worth solving for people worth serving
• Build meaningful, scalable customer relationships.
• Turn customer insights into sustainable competitive advantages

Me, My Customer, and AI is an indispensable and inspiring guide for anyone seeking to create lasting value in a world where technology is quickly commoditizing everything else. The future belongs to entrepreneurs who can cofound companies with AI while remaining radically human. Come along and join them.

Author Biography

Henrik Werdelin is an accomplished founder, investor, and author with over fifteen years at the forefront of entrepreneurship. Werdelin's first entrepreneurial success came as cofounder of BARK (BarkBox/BARK Air), the NYSE-listed company that brings joy to dogs and their people. He also cofounded Prehype, the highly regarded startup studio behind ventures like AndCo, Ro, ManagedByQ, and now Audos, an AI platform helping aspiring entrepreneurs create startups smarter and faster. Active in applied AI since 2019, he cohosts the podcast Beyond the Prompt, with Stanford's Jeremy Utley. Werdelin is the coauthor of the forthcoming Me, My Customer and AI, a book that explors how AI reshapes the entrepreneurial landscape.

Formerly an Entrepreneur in Residence at Index Ventures and head of product development at MTV International, Werdelin has been involved in multiple successful startups and incubations (including HotPotato, AndCo, ReadMill, and Sunrise, which were eventually bought by the likes of Facebook, Fiverr, Dropbox, and Microsoft). A native of Denmark with stints in Paris, London, and New York, Werdelin is the author of The Acorn Method, frequently speaks on entrepreneurship and AI, and has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the "Top 100 Most Creative People in Business" and by Business Insider's Silicon Alley 100.

Nicholas Thorne is an entrepreneur and student of entrepreneurship. He is a cofounder of Audos, the entrepreneurial AI company, which he created to capture his learnings from a decade of building the venture studio, Prehype. He is the coauthor or Me, My Customer and AI.

Through Prehype, Nicholas has worked with entrepreneurs to start dozens of companies and has documented the methods used by founders in the firm's portfolio to create companies like BARK (NYSE: BARK), Ro, and Public.com among others. He frequently shares his learnings at Stanford University and beyond, with lectures on novel entrepreneurship methods and how AI will impact entrepreneurship. He serves on the boards of Ferry and For Them, among other young companies in the Prehype portfolio.

Nicholas graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, where he launched his first online business--an on-demand delivery service for dorm essentials. After graduation, he started his career in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs before leaving to pursue entrepreneurship fulltime. He is a born-and-raised New Yorker, where he currently lives with his wife and two sons. He serves on the board of the Mt. Sinai Parenting Center and is an ambassador of the Dream Charter Schools.