Meeting Summary: OpenTeams Partnership and Applied AI Vision

Overview

Ian Newell, a senior leader at OpenTeams, connected with Gary to discuss a potential W2 employment opportunity that would allow Gary to build his Applied AI community while contributing to OpenTeams' mission of democratizing technology. The conversation revealed deep philosophical alignment around creating distributed wealth through accessible AI tools rather than concentrated power in tech giants.

Key Topics Discussed

Gary's Applied AI Community Vision

• Core Concept: "Who is organizing people around this idea, both business owners and people that could help those businesses"
• Market Gap: Most businesses aren't utilizing available AI tools effectively
• Event Series Idea: "Applied AI Live" - biweekly sessions where AI engineers whiteboard solutions for 1-2 business owners
• Validation: AITX (Austin AI meetup organizers) strongly endorsed the concept
• Gary's Positioning: "I think there's so many tools that have been built that businesses are not utilizing... the pathway to really big dignified work"

Current Project Example

• Fast Food Chain Engagement: Helping a major chain vectorize their knowledge base and create brand asset validation service
• Practical Application: "You upload a poster of a possible Thanksgiving promotion of a franchisee. And you're like, okay, this is corporate guidelines"
• Gary's Insight: "None of this is rocket science, but it's the pathway to really big dignified work"

Nubari Platform Vision

• Core Concept: Described as "opt-in Palantir" - a shared contextual data layer for organizations
• Value Proposition: "Once you integrate Nubari, any incremental new app service that's installed on top... it's not that much overhead"
• Gary's Framework: "Truth management, like collective truth management... individual applications suck because they have a fragment of the truth"
• Market Potential: "Probably create tens of thousands of million dollar businesses"
• Education Use Case: Platform could become "core operating system for the future of modular education, LMS, tutor, etc."

Travis's Vision and OpenTeams Culture

• Ian quoting Travis: "Gary's going to build something big in the next year or two, three years. If I just get a year or two of Gary's time, I'm perfectly happy with that"
• Freedom Philosophy: "You can build your thing on the side. You can build it with OpenTeams abroad. It's a choose your own adventure route"
• Democratization Mission: Ian described creating "tens of millions of millionaires" vs one trillionaire
• Ian's Experience: "I didn't believe them when I came in, that they would give me as much freedom... They've given me full freedom"

Employment Terms Discussion

• Structure: W2 preferred over 1099 "because you think just like we do"
• Autonomy: Full freedom to pursue Applied AI consulting contracts
• Role Creation: "We'll be creating it for you... help build this role"
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Run Applied AI community events
  • Help develop AI Rodeo concept
  • Build own consulting organization
  • Serve as "biz rel" for OpenTeams

Philosophical Alignment

• Gary on Mission: "Democratizing human flourishing... that's like the one mission that any technologist should be working on"
• Critique of Silicon Valley: "It's quite different than the mindset of Silicon Valley with the hyperscalers... let's dominate everything. Let's candidly lie and overhype things"
• New Roles in AI Era: "New technologies enable new kinds of people to exist and are important"
• Ian's Perspective: "It's the only organization I've been to that has looked at the world in that capacity"

Alpha Schools Context

• Current Problems: Charging $10K per student per year but operating at a loss due to poor engineering
• Architectural Issues: "Complete chaos" - lacking unified platform vision
• Gary's Assessment: "You need a CTO that understands... to unify all these things and lead these engineers to want to be part of the same platform"
• Nubari Opportunity: Could provide the architectural foundation Alpha Schools lacks

Key Quotes

• Gary on his calling: "It's my job to build a movement around perplexity's API. Is that really the highest calling that I should be doing at this point in my life?"

• Gary on human skills: "Be part of a system, but not be sucked in and improve the system at the same time without being rejected like an antibody"

• Ian on AI accessibility: "80 percent of the world is going to be a bunch of AI misfits as this continues"

• Gary on Austin: "Austin, Texas, is the main place that I want to be at because it is the intersection of God and tech for me"

• Ian on OpenTeams: "We actually are democratizing. We're making it available to everybody in a sense that makes sense for it to be available to them"

• Gary on movement building: "God gives you certain talents to apply to the calling that he puts on your life. And I didn't get these movement building skills for no reason"

• Gary on Travis: "Travis and you are both focused and open ended. That's like the perfect... highest rating I've gotten in a long time"

Strategic Insights

Market Opportunity

• Massive gap between AI capability and business adoption
• Most businesses need guidance, not more tools
• "Biz rel" emerging as crucial role distinct from developer relations
• Community-building creates natural funnel for consulting services

Platform Strategy

• Nubari represents architectural approach to solving data fragmentation
• Enables ecosystem of specialized apps without integration overhead
• Creates opportunity for domain experts to build vertical solutions
• Aligns with trend away from monolithic platforms

Cultural Fit

• OpenTeams culture genuinely supports entrepreneurial autonomy
• Travis values long-term relationship building over short-term extraction
• Company mission aligns with Gary's values around human flourishing
• Rare combination of technical ambition and humanistic philosophy

Action Items / Next Steps

• Tuesday Meeting: In-person coffee meeting scheduled for early December in Austin
• Compensation Package: Ian will discuss W2 terms with Travis and share via Slack
• Role Definition: Gary invited to help craft his own job description
• Community Launch: Consider small December event or wait for bigger January launch
• Platform Exploration: Investigate building apps on top of Nubari for education sector

Notable Side Topics

Young Innovators and Cultural Resistance

• Discussion of 24-year-old high school dropout who started first AI consulting company in Louisiana
• Cultural Challenge: "A lot of people are calling him Antichrist" because he doesn't fit traditional mold
• Gary's Analysis: Need to champion displaced young people toward productive futures rather than resentment

Comparison to Other Opportunities

• Perplexity: Gary in interview process but concerned about San Francisco being "a little bit godless"
• Wabi Platform: Turned down offer - interesting concept ("personal software") but wrong focus
• Key Distinction: Existing businesses and institutions are where the value is, not "infinite personal SaaS"

Movement Building Philosophy

• Gary's experience with previous movements in crypto and other spaces
• Realization that technology must serve human flourishing, not vice versa
• Austin as strategic location: "intersection of God and tech"
• Importance of finding missions that align with deepest values

Future Vision

The conversation painted a picture of OpenTeams as a unique organization attempting to democratize AI technology through:

1. Platform Architecture: Nubari as shared truth layer enabling modular innovation
2. Community Building: Applied AI events connecting businesses with implementers
3. Cultural Values: Prioritizing distributed wealth creation over concentrated power
4. Autonomous Teams: Supporting employees in building their own ventures
5. Human-Centric Focus: Technology serving human flourishing rather than domination

Gary expressed strong interest in the opportunity, seeing it as alignment between his movement-building skills, technical capabilities, and spiritual calling to democratize human flourishing through technology.