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ID:
2025-11-24-wilson-fong-business-partnerships
Participants:

Call Summary: Strategic Business Opportunities and Mentorship

Overview​

Wilson presented two concrete business opportunities to Gary: a potential partnership in David Thompson's AI strategy platform (Signal Pattern) and a freelance technical role for a $6B food conglomerate's brand standardization project. The conversation included live platform demonstrations, direct mentorship about commitment, and strategic planning for collaboration.

Key Topics Discussed​

Signal Pattern AI Platform Partnership​

  • Platform Demonstration: Wilson walked Gary through David Thompson's AI-powered strategy and development engine

    • "This guy David Thompson... built this thing. So basically what it is, it's a strategy and full-on development engine."
    • Takes ~7 minutes to generate comprehensive strategy using 36 specialized AI agents
    • Generates market validation, user insights, competitive analysis, PRDs, pseudocode, API docs
    • Real-time Bayesian confidence scoring (80%+ validation on tested ideas)

  • Market Validation: Platform already impressing enterprise executives

    • VP of Product at Intuit reaction: "We just paid McKinsey $3 million and they took 18 months to print out... what you all just fucking put together in 20 minutes."
    • Head of Apps at Hyundai: "I've been doing this for months and you've just spat out in 15 minutes. It took me months to get to 60% of what you've done."

  • Partnership Structure:

    • David Thompson: Technical founder (ex-CEO of Momentum Labs, sold to global engineering firm)
    • Wilson: Business development lead
    • Gary: Technical due diligence and potential development partner
    • Professional services arm opportunity: "We can take the product and run with it and actually create a professional services arm on top where here's your idea and we can be the build team"

Jollibee Foods Corporation Project ($6B Company)​

  • Client Background: Filipino fast food conglomerate owning 19 brands

    • Brands include: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Smash Burger, Chow King
    • Problem: 5,000+ franchisees globally creating brand inconsistency

  • Project Scope: Brand standardization system

    • Phase 1: "Develop a Gen AI wrapper where we take all of the standards and we plug it into an LLM"
    • Create username/password protected internal portal for franchisees
    • Integration with Primo (digital asset management platform) via REST API
    • Wilson's quote: "It's money, and this could lead to a long... this little job could be like two years of fucking freelance work for you"

  • Technical Requirements:

    • Build prompt interface for brand guidelines queries
    • Asset validation and compliance checking
    • API integration with existing DAM system
    • Enterprise-grade security and access control

Direct Mentorship and Life Advice​

  • On Gary's Pattern: Wilson's observation about "grass is greener syndrome"

    • "You seem to have grass is greener syndrome, Gary. In the middle of what you're doing, you seem to try and trick yourself into believing that there's something better somewhere else."
    • "The grass is already green where you're at. Gary, you don't need to find someplace else."

  • On Building Partnerships:

    • "Any business that we do, it's not a fucking get rich quick. That's not the game."
    • "If you look at every fucking team that builds products that you aspire or inspires you... every one of these people have unconditional love and trust for each other."
    • "I've been married 30 years. That's my mindset. Try and stay with the same people as long as possible."

  • On Commitment:

    • "If you and I wanna find success, we have to stay at it as the same team. You can't give up."
    • Required values: "Great work ethic... learn and grow mindset... right principles and values of not fucking over anyone else"

Gary's Response and Ideas​

  • Testing his own idea: Gary immediately ran his "co-creative capitalism" platform concept through Signal Pattern

    • Platform validated idea at 83% market hypothesis
    • Identified high-margin goods, rapid trend cycles, strong IP play as key success factors

  • Technical confidence: "From what it sounds like, what this is, based on particularly Gemini 3, I think that this is quite doable."

  • Proposed approach: "Let's create a prototype together. And then it's like, we'll be like, oh, I guess we can do it."

  • Community building vision: "It actually motivated me a lot to double down on building community around for engineers because I do want to be a go-to person if someone's looking for work."

Key Quotes​

  • Wilson on selling: "I can sell ice to ice blocks, dude. You know that."
  • Wilson on partnership: "If we're on the same boat together, dude, I will not let you down. And you have to do the same for me."
  • Wilson on his network: "Look at how many people I've got... I'm talking McKinsey, I'm talking VP of product management at GE... seriously fucking huge people."
  • Gary reflecting: "I was thinking about how people always say you need a mentor, but like not one that has low context on your life and your goals."

Action Items / Takeaways​

  1. Gary to evaluate Signal Pattern: Complete technical due diligence on platform, assess build difficulty and David's competitive advantage
  2. Jollibee project scoping: Wilson to send detailed product spec and user stories for prototype development
  3. Prototype development: Gary and Wilson to build proof-of-concept for Jollibee brand standardization portal
  4. Partnership exploration: Consider three-way partnership with David Thompson on Signal Pattern commercialization
  5. Follow-up timing: Reconnect after Thanksgiving (Wilson cooking for 37 people)

Strategic Insights​

  • Business Model Evolution: Shift from pure product to product + professional services
  • Enterprise Sales Leverage: Wilson's extensive Fortune 500 network provides immediate market access
  • Technical Validation: Both projects technically feasible with current AI capabilities (particularly Gemini 3)
  • Trust Building: Emphasis on starting with smaller paid projects to establish working relationship
  • Long-term Vision: Building sustainable partnerships based on shared values rather than quick wins

Personal Development Themes​

  • Need for commitment and follow-through on projects
  • Avoiding "shiny object syndrome" and grass-is-greener mentality
  • Building trust through consistent delivery and mutual support
  • Focusing on completion rather than constantly seeking new opportunities
  • Value of high-context mentorship relationships