AI · Ventures
How to use AI to start a business from scratch
Use AI to test the idea, get to know the customer, do the math and draft the first plan. The decision and the risk are still yours.
Artificial intelligence can greatly shorten the road between having an idea and opening a business. It helps turn the dream into concrete questions, imagine who the customer would be, put together the basic numbers, list the documents needed to open and write the first promotional material. What it doesn't do is take the risk away from you: you are the one who tests the idea on the street, talks to real customers and signs the contract.
Think of AI as a partner who works through the night, never tires of silly questions and isn't afraid to say the numbers don't add up, as long as you ask.
Why AI is not a chatbot
For someone about to open a business, a chatbot is that tool you install to answer customers. The AI this text is about is something else: it thinks with you before there's even a customer.
In Bairo's view, "AI is not a chatbot, but an extension of your consciousness." For entrepreneurs, he puts it in practical terms: AI extends your ability to plan, calculate and write, but the courage to begin can't be outsourced.
Step by step today
- Write the idea in one sentence and ask the AI to take it apart:
My business idea is: [describe it in 2 or 3 lines].
I live in [city/neighborhood] and I have about [amount] to start.
Play the part of an honest consultant and tell me: who would the
customer be, what problem do I solve, who already does this near me
and what are the 5 biggest risks of this idea.
- Turn the risks into cheap tests. Ask: "For each risk, suggest a test I can do in one week, spending almost nothing." Example: selling to order before renting a storefront.
- Prepare the questions for talking to customers. AI doesn't replace a real conversation, but it gets you ready:
I want to talk to 10 potential customers without trying to sell anything.
Write 8 open questions to find out whether they really have
this problem, how much they pay today to solve it and what annoys them.
- Do the math. List fixed costs, costs per unit and price. Ask for a table and the break-even point, which is how much you need to sell each month not to lose money. Check every number on a calculator.
- Understand formalization. Ask what's needed to open as an MEI or as a company in your case, then confirm on the Entrepreneur Portal (gov.br) and with an accountant. Rules and limits change.
- Create the name and the first introduction. Ask for ten name options, check whether the name is already registered at INPI and whether the social media handle is free.
- Write the 90-day plan:
Based on everything we've discussed, put together a 90-day plan
broken into weeks, with at most 3 tasks per week, so that
I can test this business while spending as little as possible.
- Go back to the AI every week with what actually happened. A good plan is one that changes with what the street teaches.
How Bairo did it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez opened and lost many businesses before the attempt that worked. A salon with his partner, a hair-treatment course, a natural cosmetics brand, events and digital printing. He says that, years ago, he wanted to bring artificial intelligence into one of those businesses, was told it wouldn't work and gave up. The technology became a trend later.
On the seventh attempt, AI stopped being a postponed dream. He spent six months at home, in front of the computer, without knowing how to code, building with the tools of his own time. Out of those months came the foundation of the platform and the artificial intelligence of CEASA Bank, a financial platform for agribusiness. When the banks refused to integrate the solution, he used the no as ground, as he always had.
Precautions
AI helps you think through the business, but it doesn't know your neighborhood or the latest laws: check everything about taxes, licenses and contracts with an accountant or lawyer; don't paste customer data or spreadsheets with personal information; be wary of market figures without a source (it can invent statistics); and remember that it tends to repeat what's common, so ideas from people who break the mold can look "risky" just because they're different.