The Startup Ideas Podcast - The OpenAI Launch Nobody's Talking About (ChatGPT Skills)

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up, everyone. Welcome to the Startup Ideas podcast. Today is December 22nd. I'm going to talk about a huge news item. Open AI quietly launched something. Not a lot of people are talking about. I'm going to talk about one trend. You could take advantage of, build a business around. I'm going to talk about one app that I'm using that, you know, I think you should too. I'm going to talk about one startup idea and just give it away to you. And at the end, I'm going to give you a mobile app framework so you can actually go and build a mobile app in 2026. And that's today's episode. So the news item I want to talk about that I don't think a lot of people are talking about is quietly OpenAI has launched skills.

Starting point is 00:00:48 So we've seen Anthropic and Claude Skills, a lot of people talking about that, including myself, how amazing it is. But quietly, we have Codex now officially support skills. Skills are reusable bundles of instructions, scripts, and resources that help Codex complete specific tasks. You can call a skill directly with dollar sign dot skill name or let codex choose the right one based on your prompts. So what's really cool is they're just following the agent skills I.O standard, the one by Anthropic. A skill is just a folder, basically an MD, skill dot MD file for instructions and metadata. And all of a sudden, your chat, GVT and codex has just become a lot more. more valuable. So there's tons, tons of ways that you're going to be able to use agent skills

Starting point is 00:01:43 within Codex or chat, GPT. It gives some examples here in the official announcement, some technical stuff because it's talking about codex specifically, but like a notion spec to implementation skill. Have Codex read and update your linear tickets skill. Have Codex automatically fix your GitHub CI failures skill. So it does a lot of things. And, you know, I think a lot of people don't really understand the difference between what is a skill, what is a subagent, and what is an MCP. So just to, you know, give everyone a little bit of a foundation, a skill is like a written guide that tells, you know, Clode or, you know, Codex or chatypte exactly how to do a specific task. For example, analyze spreadsheets this way or write email.

Starting point is 00:02:35 in this voice or design, you know, design the interface like this. So you can basically call and reuse the same skill again. And it just, it allows for a more consistent output. So what is a sub-agent? Well, a sub-agent is making a few extra copies of, you know, the LLM that you're using, you know, clode or codex or chat chit, each with its own job, such as you review the code, you write tests, you update docs. The main LLM can hand out pieces of a big task to help these workers.

Starting point is 00:03:10 So work happens in parallel and stays organized. And an MCP is just a universal power plug that lets the LLM access other tools. Like we saw that, you know, it's going to update your linear tickets. Well, it needs access to that and that's through MCPs. So highly encourage everyone kind of, you know, plays around with this. You can see over here on agent skills.io, I'll include it in the show notes. It kind of explains a little more about what agent skills are. It says here, it's an open format, a simple open format for giving agents new capabilities and expertise.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Agent skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that can discover and use to do more accurately and efficiently. And who doesn't want that? It says what an agent's. skill can enable domain expertise. So package specialized knowledge into reusable instructions from legal review processes to data pipelines, new capabilities where you can give agents, you know, new capabilities like creating presentations or building MCP servers, repeatable workflows, interoperability. So yeah, there's a lot there. There's some example skills that they give as well on GitHub. And I just think that not a lot of people are talking

Starting point is 00:04:31 about it. So I had to let you know about it. So that's the one news item that I think you should be paying attention to you. That could be super valuable for you in 2026. If you have a business that's doing at least $50,000 a month in revenue, I've got something interesting for you. It's called offline mode. It's a two-day event that me and my team are putting on at a 20,000 plus square foot Mansion, yes, this is what it looks like on January 23rd and January 24th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'll include a link in the description if you're interested in coming, but it's basically for people who have a business that's kind of cranking, but they really want to put it in rocket ship mode. They want to create a set of businesses that generate tons of money, tons of

Starting point is 00:05:22 cash flow, tons of product market fit, tons of impact, but they're not just quite there yet. It's also about, you know, making your business AI first, how you can actually, you know, build not just one product but multiple products. And you're going to leave with, you know, tactical answers to your questions. So if that's you, and this sounds interesting, I'll see you there. So that's the news item. The trend that I've been hearing about is something called face yoga. I don't know if you've heard about it, but if you go, I'm going to go onto Idea Browser and just check the trend, face yoga. You know, I'm sure you've heard of yoga, obviously.

Starting point is 00:06:08 But people are doing these like face yoga techniques to get slimmer faces. And there's a lot of opportunity here if you want to create different apps because there are, you know, a ton of. of opportunities in yoga, right? There's people making millions of dollars a year with these yoga apps. But face yoga is kind of a sub-niche that I think is interesting and is getting a ton of volume. You're seeing 110,000 searches in August. The average CPC is about a dollar. The competition is low. And I just think that you're going to see, yeah, I think there's an opportunity to build products, apps, you know, around face workouts, facial exercises, face yoga, face lifting yoga exercises, jawline trainer, face slimming exercises. So there's a lot of opportunity here. A trend I

Starting point is 00:07:07 never heard of heard of, but face yoga. Face yoga involves facial exercises, stretches, massage to tone facial muscles, potentially reducing signs of aging like wrinkles and sagging by firming the skin, much like body yoga strengthens muscles, offering a natural and holistic way to improve facial definition. You can even see here people are creating YouTube videos on it, 10-minute cheek lift face yoga tone, right? Like there's an opportunity to build an app that's, you know, just some of these exercises and you can charge for it or make it free and do advertising your sponsorship. So face yoga, a trend I have recently. heard of that, hey, might get your creative juices flowing.

Starting point is 00:07:57 One app that I wanted to talk about that I've been using literally for 14 years, and some of you've heard of this one, it's the things to-do list app. So it's by a company called Culture Code, not affiliated with them at all. And it's the to-do list app. People often ask me, like, how do I stay focused? How do I, you know, because I'm working on multiple companies and a lot of people work with me and stuff like that. And I keep everything in to-do list.

Starting point is 00:08:34 And it's just, sorry, into things, not to-do list, as my to-do list. And what I like about it, it has like, what I'm focusing on today, what is my upcoming and what is something I want to do someday. And it isn't a monthly fee. It's just like a one-time fee. There is some stuff to be desired here. I will say, like I could use some AI features and stuff like that. But overall, if you're looking for like a simple to-do list app,

Starting point is 00:09:03 I just find this things to be the simplest, the simplest one there. And I've tried other things. I've tried more intense ones, ones that are on like the GTD framework and sort of more, yeah, like kind of more the kitchen sink type apps. But I don't know. I always come back to things, does what I need to do. And I recommend it. I recommend it for people who are looking for a simple to-do list app.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Let's give away a startup idea. So the startup idea of today is one that was on the, like, you know, here you can check here. Every day for the last 24 days, we've been giving away a free startup idea. Here's day 22. I'll include the link in the show notes if you want to. You get these ideas for free. You just got to claim them.

Starting point is 00:09:57 So today's idea I really like. It says, call an expert service for non-developers stuck at 80% done. So how many of us have built a vibe-coded app and are like 80% of the way there? We use things like, you know, cursor or Replit or V0. and then we kind of just give up. So the idea is something called last 20. Last 20 is a phone of friend for builders who are almost there. Upload your code, describe the block, get matched with an expert who's hit that wall before and knows the way around it.

Starting point is 00:10:31 15 minutes on a screen chair. That's it. Problem solved. Basically a hire a vibe coder. Ship it. Maybe you charge $15 to $50 per session or maybe you do a yearly thing for agencies. Maybe it's like $100 to $500 a year who can't afford installed client work. Experts set their rates.

Starting point is 00:10:49 So you basically create this marketplace and then you charge a percentage. Maybe it's 5, 10, 15%. So many of us are becoming vibe coders, right? There's literally millions of us, but at the end of it, we're kind of just like, how do I do this one thing? And there's so many, you know, I think this is so true. There's so many YouTube comments of people being like, how do I do this? agency Slack channels asking, has anyone shipped this integration for?

Starting point is 00:11:17 Okay, so here is the main, you know, hire a vibe coder, phone a friend opportunity. And if you look at the search data, it's absolutely beautiful. You know, AI helpers, AI tutors, all this sort of stuff is just going up into the right. And I think that's why it's such a huge opportunity. It scored a nine on 10. the problem is a severe pain. I don't think it's, you know, the feasibility is a five on ten. Like, it's not that hard to do.

Starting point is 00:11:48 And the why now, nine on ten, perfect timing. So, you know, I think I always check the value letter and idea browser. It's just get your creative juices flowing around how you can actually go and build this product. So I would start with like a lead magnet around an AI product. project roadblock guide with the goal just to get people's email addresses, get their phone numbers. Then you do a front end offer. So freemium access to an AI help tool. Then the core offer, expert help sessions. You do like a paper session access to expert advice. And then eventually you layer on the annual subscription offering priority access and additional features. And then eventually

Starting point is 00:12:34 you do the agency thing, right? You do the enterprise package. So I think this is sort of the ladder and, you know, the key stages here. Just like why I like the value that I've talked about this before, but it's basically you give free value to build trust and capture leads. That's the guide. You do the front end offer, which is like a low ticket product to convert leads to buyers. That's that free medium access to an AI help tool. So maybe it's like a Chrome extension that allows users to capture AI project issues and submit them to experts. And I know someone's like, oh, Chrome extension, it's going to be so hard to create. Well, with cursor and things like that, you know, it's not out of the realm of possibility to create it. And you can use, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:22 you could, you probably can create something pretty lightweight that does this. And yeah, so I, overall, I think this is an interesting idea. I think it would, it would do quite well. And I hope someone takes it. I hope someone does it. And please, let me know how it goes and as you build it. Because I would actually use this. You can even, by the way, just do this idea for like one product. So Replit has Replit Bounties, which is sort of this idea where you can hire someone to help you with Replit. But this is basically Replit Bounties for all the different vibe coding tools, cursor, V0, you name it.

Starting point is 00:14:07 So you can even just do like v0 bounties.com or just focus on one platform or cursor, cursor help.com or text a cursor coter or something like that.com. I do think that last 20 is like a very catchy name. So I do think someone should take that idea. But thinking about doing this on one particular channel first, one particular. a platform and then eventually expanding this to all the different vibe coding tools, I think that's the move. We're going to end this episode with a framework. This is a framework I saw on Instagram by a account called Buildercult. So it's basically here's the six-step playbook to viral validation. So let's just talk about, you know, if you're building an app, how can you

Starting point is 00:15:02 get viral validation? So the first step is warm up your account. So you sign up to an Instagram account, you sign up to a TikTok account, warm it up. Watch videos in your niche every single day of the week, comment, like, share, follow like-minded creators. And this prevents shadow bands. So many people just create a brand account and then start posting stuff and it's not really working. Well, it's not really working because the platforms are trying to prevent shadow bands. Step two is to design the idea. So your app must have one visually heavy element.

Starting point is 00:15:43 Example pimple popping. Must be explainable in three words. Track your acne. This is just an example. And it must solve a fundamental human insecurity. Lose weight, productivity, height, class, this sort of thing. So you want to, the apps that do the best are just sort of the the simplest apps that you can explain so simply that, you know, just in a few words, that you can

Starting point is 00:16:11 very important have one visually heavy element because that's going to be helpful when you're creating organic content that you hope to go viral. Step three is to build the simplest MVP you can. So do something like literally three screens minimum, embarrassingly simple. Give yourself two to three days to build it. You can use, you know, Rourke. app that's a mobile app builder you can use anything.com that's a mobile app builder you can use vibe code app that's a mobile app builder but yeah give yourself a couple of days iterate on it show it to friends show it to people DM it to people and get their get their feedback post step four is post daily until one goes viral that's the goal so you're going to want to create one video per day for

Starting point is 00:16:57 30 days minimum or four videos per week you're going to want to test different angles of the same app idea. And hopefully one will catch. They say in this one will catch. That's not true. Not necessarily it will catch in 30 days. It might take you 60, 90, 120. But, you know, it's shots on net. But you'll know when one hits because the comments will explode. Step five is to build the community, you know, before the product. So you have this like wait list, right? So you create a Discord. They say telegram. I'm not a huge fan of Telegram. Discord, WhatsApp for the waitlist or an email newsletter for the wait list, post updates like building the app, here's what I'm adding. This keeps early believers engaged while you're building it and you're iterating and converts

Starting point is 00:17:45 into day one users. And then finally launch the app once it's secure and stuff like that. Finalize features, convert the Rourke or anything or vibe code app into a full-fledged product using cloud code. Launch with a hard paywall, something like superwall.com, post-content daily, different angles, same value, and then hopefully scale from zero to 10K MRI, MR, purely organic. So that is today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm trying this new format where I'm giving a news item, a trend, an app, a startup

Starting point is 00:18:22 idea, a framework, all the alpha to give you the highest probability of winning because I want to see you win in 2026. If you've gotten to this far, please, please like and comment and subscribe, share this with a friend. I read every single comment that you write, so I will see you in there. And yeah, have a creative day, my friends, and I'll see you next time.

The Startup Ideas Podcast - The OpenAI Launch Nobody's Talking About (ChatGPT Skills)

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