I help founders get ready and connect with investors • Seasoned entrepreneur • Building tech startups for 25yrs (zero→£mil ARR, twice)

With 30 years in startups, I now run the Gipity AI Dev Studio: Expert help to launch your MVP in 30 days. www.gipity.com

𝐌𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲... 👇

1968 BC (Before Computers): Born into analogue world

1982-86: Discovered computers! Vic 20, BBC micro, ICL 2900 mainframe & more

1986-89: Computation degree, UMIST (University of Manchester, Institute of Science & Technology)

1989-99: IT consultant/project manager: Logica, IBM, Reuters, Bankers Trust & Deutsche Bank

1994-97: first side hustle: scuba diving instructor & own London dive school

1996: published first website & first ever disk-mounted website on a UK magazine cover

1999: developer/project manager at 2 early London digital agencies

1999: vision/architect/investor. created first UK under-a-tenner domain name business, Easily

1999: built+launched early/successful dot-com: domain/email/web hosting ISP

1999-2001: ceo. managed growth from 0 to 2,000 daily domain sales & 30+ staff in under 2yrs

2000: invented the web-based DNS dashboard for domains

2000: created early no-code solution for one-page websites: £100k ARR

2000: highly commended "Entrepreneur of the Year": European E-commerce Association E-business 2000 awards

2001: 64th in Sunday Times "Top 100 pre-IPO e-businesses in Europe" E-League

2001: ran one of the first successful web affiliate schemes, generating 40% of rev

2004: hit 400,000+ domain registrations, 30,000+ websites & 40,000+ email accounts

2004: 3,500 commission earning affiliates & word of mouth to 100,000+ customers

2004: negotiated successful multi-million pound dot-com exit/sale of Easily

2002: vision/investor. launched one of the first ever B2B mobile text marketing services: SMS Expert

2007-11: early digital nomad: B2B Saas startup from beach/desert

2007-19: ceo. ran leading text marketing B2B Saas: zero to multi-million turnover

2007-19: cto/architect. developed 850k lines of code & supported 1mil daily transactions/API calls

2020... consultancy/advice/support for early-stage tech startup founders

2022... helping hand-picked founders find the right investors

• 2018: vision/architect/investor/cto...
Clickacall: instant video calls from anywhere with single click
Nearevo: proximity discovery for internet of things
Scan+Click: contactless business cards
Secly: personal online security

• 2021 l2o: supporting next generation of startups
• 2022 Venture Cards: all startups, in one place • connecting the right founders and investors

• 2024 The Gipity AI Dev Studio: Expert help to launch your MVP in 30 days

Steve Procter

After 30 years in startups, with the last 5 helping other founders, I've realised there are other more established businesses out there. Who knew! Apparently, some even have actual budgets to get stuff done 🤣

So, as much as I love founders, it's time to spread my wings and help build apps, tools, AI agents and lots more useful stuff for all these other exciting companies and business people. (founders still very welcome, obvs)

And of course, doing it all using my new found love of AI-assisted development for speed and power. Plus 44 years of coding and engineering experience to guide things along the way.

A year ago, tech cost the earth to create, and developers would take 3-6 months to give you something basic. But with AI, the world has moved on.

What kind of app, internal tool or AI agent could you use today to save a tonne of time and money in your business?

DM, or comment below. I'll provide a free evaluation to get things started.

I’ll build your AI agents & apps | 44yrs in tech | Exited founder (0→£mil * 2)

"Code" is sooooo old fashioned. I've got an old web app I built 10 years ago. just got 1 client who uses it these days. I only think about it for 10 mins every year when I send him an invoice.

A server update created a bug today. I had to go into the code and debug. It was really, really weird - not seen this code in over 5 years.

It felt like walking through a museum.

Did people really used to write this weird language called "code" to make their computers do things in the olden days.

Startup ideas that are too early are brutal. I've been there several times and got the t-shirt. Quite literally, as back in the noughties, printing t-shirts and business cards, and paying for fancy logo designs before you'd even launched was just what you did.

But I'd never put a founder off trying if you have a mad idea in your head.

Because very often, nobody really knows. After 30 years in startups, I've realised that timing is just plain weird.

Something can appear in the zeitgeist on a random Tuesday that wasn't there last week, and will be gone again if you don't launch for another 3 months.

The difference now is you don't need permission, investment, or 6-12 months to build and test it.

It has never been cheaper or faster to build a small, real app and put it in front of people.

Don't overthink it. Cut it down. Ship something real. Then let the market slap you (gently) across the face and tell you what it thinks.

Your gut matters. But the market is the only judge that counts.

If you're sitting on an idea right now, stop polishing it and let's get the first real version built and launched.

You never know.

I heard a very powerful line yesterday, by Olivia Moore at a16z:

"Humans Are for Ideas, AI Is for Execution"

As long as we, as individuals and societies, hold to this belief, then we will continue to have purpose.

The moment we start letting AI take control of the creative juices, it's game over.

Pure chat-based GPT usage in businesses will begin a steady drop. AI agents are where it's at - always on, always working for you, 24/7. Not just politely responding if you ask it stuff, otherwise sitting silently in the corner.

What are AI Agents and Automations? To answer, let me ask you a question:

If you are a business owner, consultant, operator or founder, what's one recurring job you'd like taken off your plate?

Something repetitive, annoying, time-consuming, easy to get wrong, or just plain old boring.

• Not "run my whole business".
• Not "take over my entire marketing outreach".
• Not "do everything".

One thing.

If you claim to love every single task you do (really?), ask a colleague or your assistant. I bet there is something.

That "something" is the best way to understand what an Automation is:

It's simply a workflow that you already have in your business, and currently driven by a human. You know the steps or can easily define them, and you have instructions, a system, and a set of tools that execute them.

And that's what we can automate using technology, removing or hugely reducing the need for that human involvement at every time-consuming step. By the way, these tech-driven automations often don't require AI.

An AI Agent on the other hand, takes your automation and does a lot more. It can execute your workflow with its own judgement. Driven by AI means you can give it an objective, let it figure out the steps (within constraints), use tools, and adapt when things change.

Neither are magic robots. They're just tools (AI-powered or not) that can sit in the cloud, connect to the right systems (docs, email, calendars, call transcripts, your CRM or other internal systems, or whatever), and take over the mundane in your business.

A few years ago, they were out of reach of many small businesses. But with AI-assisted development, experienced builders can now create these at a much lower cost and faster than ever before.

For now, it is likely they will still be overseen by a human supervisor. But think of the hours saved every single week, and imagine what you or your team could do with that time back.

Yes, you can make AI a grand vision. But in the real world you and your business occupy, it often starts with one annoying task that quietly drains your time and energy.

Tell me the task you want to get rid of, and I'll tell you if it's actually a good candidate for tech automations and AI agents.

“the only metrics that will truly matter to my life are the individuals whom I have been able to help, one by one, to become better people.” ― Clayton Christensen

I build tools that help people think, not tools that think for people.

Founder & CEO of Curiouser.AI, a values-based AI company committed to human intelligence, imagination, and the rebirth of trust.

Instructor at UC Berkeley.

3x founder.

Harvard MBA.

My work sits at the intersection of AI, ethics, philosophy, and strategic imagination.

I write daily about what technology is doing to us, what it could do for us, and how leaders can navigate the age of acceleration without losing their humanity.

I believe the future belongs to those who slow down, think deeply, and design technology that elevates people instead of replacing them.

If you’re here for honest analysis, clarity, and a saner approach to AI, welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

(LinkedIn caps connections at 30,000, but please feel free to follow me. I’m grateful to stay in conversation through my writing.)

Stephen Klein

AI 1.0 Has Failed, The Data is Undeniable

Yesterday, Fortune reported on a new NBER study of 6,000 CEOs across four countries.

90% of firms said AI had zero impact on productivity over the past three years.

Zero.

Economists are resurrecting Solow's Productivity Paradox from 1987: "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."

Here's the full picture:

MIT found 95% of enterprise AI pilots deliver no measurable P&L impact.
Microsoft Copilot has penetrated just 3% of its 450 million paid seats.
Gartner says only 6% of enterprises moved AI past pilot.
S&P Global: 42% of companies scrapped most AI initiatives in 2025, up from 17% the year prior.
Deloitte: only 20% of leaders report actual revenue growth from AI. 74% still "aspire" to it.

78% of organizations report active AI use. Only 1% consider themselves mature.

That's not an adoption problem. That's a paradigm problem.

The Bank of England warned of a global market correction from AI overvaluation. The IMF compared it to the dot-com bubble. 

A top economist says three of four "horsemen" of a bubble are present. The only missing piece is an IPO wave.

OpenAI plans to go public in Q4 2026.

$1.1 trillion in projected mega-cap AI spending through 2029. And 90% of CEOs say it hasn't moved the needle.

This isn't a technology failure. It's a premise failure. And we'll get to that tomorrow.
—
"The trick with technology is to avoid spreading darkness at the speed of light."
Follow me if the Hype-as-a-Service AI narrative is wearing thin.
— Stephen Klein, Founder & CEO, Curiouser.AI | Lecturer, UC Berkeley

Founder & CEO, Curiouser.AI | UC Berkeley Instructor | Reflective AI - Technology That Helps People Think | LinkedIn Top Voice in AI

I teach AI Ethics.

Which is precisely why I’ve started to wonder whether AI ethics might be one of the greatest diversions in modern history.

Hear me out.

The Tao describes a hierarchy of moral order in society.

At the top is the Way, a shared understanding of how life ought to be lived.

Lose the Way, and society falls back on virtue.

Lose virtue, and we rely on benevolence.

Lose benevolence, and we enforce justice.

And when justice fails, all that remains is ritual, the performance of morality without its substance.

THE PERFORMANCE OF MORALITY WITHOUT ITS SUBSTANCE.

Look around.

By almost any measure, we are deep in the ritual layer.

Our justice systems often feel procedural rather than just.
Our political discourse has abandoned benevolence.
Virtue itself has become something people perform rather than practice.

And the Way, a shared vision of the kind of world we want to build, feels further away than ever.

Which raises a question.

What exactly are we doing when we debate AI ethics?

If we cannot agree on what a good society looks like, whose values get encoded into the machines?

If we cannot agree on what justice means for humans, how will we define it for algorithms?

If we cannot agree on what we owe each other, what does “responsible AI” even mean?

AI ethics, as it is often practiced today, risks becoming the most elaborate ritual of all.

Conferences.
Frameworks.
Principles documents.

The performance of moral seriousness by an industry moving too fast to be serious, and too profitable to stop.

I’m not saying the conversation doesn’t matter.

I’m saying it cannot truly matter until we have the conversation that comes before it.

The one we keep avoiding.

What kind of world do we actually want to build?
-
"The trick with technology is to avoid spreading darkness at the speed of light"
Stephen Klein is Founder of Curiouser.AI and teaches at UC Berkeley.

The Awesome Power of Human Judgment and Discernment

More than 40% of executives say AI saves them 8+ hours weekly.

Their employees? Two-thirds say it saves two hours or less. And 40% say they'd be fine never using AI again.

That gap, from a Section AI survey of 5,000 white-collar workers reported in The Wall Street Journal, isn't about optimism versus pessimism.
It's about the judgment tax executives aren't seeing.

A new Workday study of 3,200 employees quantifies it: for every 10 hours AI saves, nearly four hours vanish into correcting errors, rewriting flawed outputs, and verifying what the tools got wrong.

Only 14% of employees consistently see positive net outcomes from AI.
One UX designer told the WSJ: "Unless you have some judgment or discernment... you could really do harm."

That judgment, the ability to evaluate, translate, iterate, is what makes AI valuable.

It's also what organizations eliminate through headcount cuts to fund AI deployment.

89% of organizations haven't updated even half their roles for AI capabilities. Employees are using 2025 tools inside 2015 job structures.

And companies are more likely to reinvest AI savings into more technology (39%) than into developing the people who operate it (30%).

The result? 56% of CEOs, across 4,454 surveyed by PwC in 95 countries, report no financial benefit from AI. Only 12% see both revenue gains and cost reductions.

The technology works. The judgment to use it is what's missing.
—
"The trick with technology is to avoid spreading darkness at the speed of light."
Stephen Klein is Founder and CEO of Curiouser.AI and teaches AI Ethics and Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley.

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