I sit down with my friend Jonathan Courtney, a.k.a. Jicecream, to dig into the 9 biggest startup opportunities I see right now across B2C, AI, mobile, and IRL. We each pick ideas, trade reactions, and pressure-test them live. The conversation ranges from agent-first "action apps" to elder tech, third spaces, hobby retreats, pet health, AI-native media, and the case for selling AI "junior employees" to small businesses. Listeners walk away with a concrete map of where to build in 2026, plus the framing I use to decide which niche is worth marrying.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
01:14 – Idea 1: Unscripted Creator Shows (Twitch model for tech)
07:50 – Idea 2: Action Apps: AI Agent Native Apps
16:39 – Idea 3: Loneliness and IRL Communities
26:47 – Idea 4: Elder Tech: Building for 65+
33:21 – Idea 5: Adult Hobbies
38:17 – Idea 6: AI Employee and AI Agents
45:33 – Idea 7: Personalized Nutrition/Health
53:08 – Idea 8: Pet Health and AI for Animals
57:34 – Idea 9: AI-Native Media Companies Done Right
01:03:18 – Stacking Ideas: Live + Retreats + Entrepreneurs
01:07:22 – Final Thoughts
Numbered Section Summaries
1. Live, Unscripted Creator Shows Jonathan opens with the Twitch playbook applied to business audiences. He argues the polished interview podcast is losing ground to long, messy, live streams where the host just talks. TBPN selling for over 100M is the proof point: low viewership, very high-value viewers. The takeaway is that anti-AI authenticity will keep gaining share as AI sanitizes the rest of the feed.
2. Action Apps: Agent-First Mobile I lay out my favorite category. Today’s apps assume a human taps, scrolls, and types. The agent-first version of an inbox, CRM, or expense tool just does the work and shows you the exceptions. This is the mobile-to-mobile-first transition all over again, and incumbents will lag the way Facebook lagged into Instagram.
3. Loneliness, Third Spaces, and Niche Communities Jonathan shares the Dads of Marathon Discord — 13,900 members for a single game — and a $90K painting retreat he ran in February. We dissect why Central Perk works and Starbucks 2026 repels you. The opportunity is paid memberships, niche Discords, and physical spaces that recreate the hangout. 222 and Fabric are the templates worth studying.
4. Elder Tech for 65+ Boomers are 70M people in the US with disposable income and underserved pain points: hearing, mobility, social, memory, vision. Jonathan adds that his own business, Facilitator.com, found its highest-spending customers are 45+, reached via Facebook ads. Build for older adults without making the landing page feel like a retirement home.
6. Personalized Nutrition by Vertical Jonathan walks through living with GERD, paying for blood-work services that give him nothing actionable, and building his own "Stomach Helper" Claude project to make sense of it. About 60M Americans have GERD. The play is Zoe-style data + AI insights + meal delivery, focused on one condition rather than generic wellness. Migraines, IBS, and similar conditions are equally open.
7. AI-Native Media + AI Employees I make the case for AI-native media companies done at the top 1% quality bar — Rowan Chung-style AI avatars that built 400K followers in 18 months. Slop loses; high-quality AI-assisted media wins, especially when paired with a product to sell. We close on AI employees: pick a vertical, pick a job title, list the 50 jobs to be done, and ship an agent that does them for a tenth of a junior’s salary. Brand it as "juniors," not as senior replacement, to clear the trust bar.
The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends – https://www.ideabrowser.com/
LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future – from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn ‘what if’ into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/
The Vibe Marketer – Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/
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Unscheduled CEO Podcast: https://www.unscheduledceo.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-courtney-4510644b/
