STEVE SANFORD
ChatGPT isn't a strategy. Putting AI to work is.
Asking an LLM questions won't save your business. Building with AI might.
Forty years building companies. I'm showing what that actually looks like: agents, systems, real work, not another demo. Follow along if you're ready to stop guessing.
THE SHORT VERSION
Every small business is about to face this shift. I've made it before. Watch me make this one.
I'm an engineer by training and a builder by instinct. For 40 years my real job has been one thing: find a problem worth solving, figure out if I can solve it, and ask whether it can become a business. Ad agencies, production studios, film, consulting. Different industries, same engine.
Then a global pandemic took every client I had. Not because I made a bad call. Because of something nobody could control. Profitable companies, gone in a few weeks.
So I did what I've always done. I found the next problem and built. This time on AI. And for the first time I built something that runs without a room full of people. That's Contero.
WHY I'M FILMING IT
Most small businesses are about to hit the same wall I did. Shift to AI, or get passed. The trouble is nobody shows them what that actually looks like from the inside. The honest version, not the highlight reel.
So I'm documenting it. A video series tracking the real launch of Contero as a SaaS. What's working, what's breaking, what I'd change. If you run a business and you know you need to make this move but you're not sure where to start, follow along. It's for you.
TRACK RECORD
- 01Four decades building companies across advertising, production, film, digital advocacy, and now AI.
- 02Bet on streaming before most people had heard the word. Early, not wrong. Timing matters.
- 03Turnaround CEO for venture-backed firms. Global strategic communications for regulatory fights and M&A.
- 04Built high-end Unreal Engine green-screen studios and human digital twins at scale. A show I produced took a Southeast Emmy.
- 05Co-founder of Simulus AI and Contero. Building real AI SaaS platforms, not demos.
WHAT I BELIEVE
Human Prompted. Human Approved.™
Use as many agents to challenge the work as you use to make it. Speed without judgment is just faster slop.
ChatGPT is the New Kleenex.
People use the brand name for the whole category. Using a chat window is not the same as putting AI to work in your business.
Playing with AI isn't implementing AI.
Trying ChatGPT is common. Creating stupid pictures isn't implementing AI. Building AI into how the work actually gets done is still rare, and that's where the advantage is.
The leverage is agents, not answers.
One model answering questions is helpful. A team of agents and subagents doing the work, while you direct and approve, is leverage.
Technology isn't the point. The application is.
The only question that matters: does it solve a problem someone will pay for?
WRITING
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Follow the build. The whole thing.
The wins, the hard parts, and exactly how I'm making the shift to AI in real time.