Faisal Abid

At 26 years old, Faisal Abid has started multiple companies, worked for tech startups that have received millions of dollars in funding and he regularly gives talks for Google. We discuss how a severe train accident removed his some of his fears and stresses that were holding him back. These same fears often prevent people from starting up their dream businesses. Faisal talks candidly about starting Anspot (MatchFuel), and Dynamatik, including getting investors, paying employees and the conversation with his parents when he told them he was dropping out of university. He relates key lessons he learned from starting his first few companies, including the importance of launching without waiting to complete "all the details." He goes on to talk about how important it is to become a life long learner and how his desire to learn helps him in startups. 

Faisal gets into how the newest company he works with (Zoom.Ai) helps productivity. We talk about day to day problems with productivity and the best apps and strategies to avoid problems while working. We also talk about the perceptions that surround AI in general and how automation of tasks is helpful to society rather than harmful. 

I learned a lot from this podcast with Faisal including to pull the trigger on launching the Artificial Entrepreneur. I agree strongly that you should aim to not be the smartest person in the room - lest you stop learning. If you are the smartest person in your office and you are doing repetitive tasks you should aim to expand. I may have waited another month prior to completing this interview to launch but here we are! 

Faisal Abid is a software engineer, author, teacher and entrepreneur. Faisal is an author published by Manning and O’Reilly and has also appeared in leading publications with many articles on ColdFusion and Flex. He is a founder of both MatchFuel and Dynamatik and now works as a Software Engineer at Zoom.Ai. He has worked in the past as part of Kobo and League.