Insiders React: OpenClaw and Claude Cowork have changed everything for startups w/ Gary Lo, Open BA

The agentic AI revolution is finally escaping the coding bubble. What does that mean for startup founders?

Just 13 days after recording his first conversation with Yaniv, Gary Lo called to re-record. The reason? OpenClaw and Claude Cowork dropped some huge AI agent updates, and it shifted Gary's perspective enough to change the whole conversation.

In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein sits down with Gary Lo – founder of OpenBA, one of Australia's most compelling pre-seed AI startups – to unpack why OpenClaw and Claude Cowork news marks a 'Cursor moment' for the rest of the world: the inflection point where AI stops being a productivity tool for tech teams and starts fundamentally reshaping how every industry works.

They break down why tool use will make LLMs genuinely transformative, why non-technical business owners are already buying Mac Minis to run AI agents, and what the shift from 'human-first' to 'LLM-first' product design means for how you build and position your startup today.

This episode is essential listening for any founder trying to figure out where to place their bets in an agentic world.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why OpenClaw and Claude Cowork signal a 'Cursor moment' beyond software engineering
How tool use transforms LLM weaknesses into strengths
Why the long-promised vision of "everything as an API" is finally becoming real
How to think about building for agents vs. humans, and why most current tools aren't optimized for either
The "done list" mental model: how agentic coding is collapsing the coordination layers in software workflows
Why being "a tool worth calling" – like Supabase – is a smarter bet than competing directly with AI models
How Gary is applying LLM-first thinking to OpenBA's roadmap right now

Resources mentioned in this episode:

OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai/
Claude Cowork (Anthropic's agentic desktop tool): https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-cowork
Cursor (AI-native code editor, referenced as the original 'Cursor moment' for coding): https://www.cursor.com
Supabase (referenced as an example of a tool that rides the agentic AI wave): https://supabase.com
OpenBA (Gary Lo's startup - AI platform for buyer's agents): https://openba.com.au
Gary Lo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-lo-engineer/

The Pact

Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please:

Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app

Subscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/

Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following

Key links

This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains.

Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar.

Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A

The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/

Learn more about Chris and Yaniv

Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/

Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/

Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur

Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(313)

ScaleStudio: The new tool putting our principles into practice

After nearly 300 episodes of The Startup Podcast, Chris Saad is bringing everything he's learned about building world-class products and product strategy into a single tool: ScaleStudio. In what may b...

3 Aug 46min

Rob Snyder demonstrates his PULL framework in real-time – using Yaniv's startup

A few weeks ago, Rob Snyder came on the pod to introduce his PULL framework for identifying real product-market fit. Now, Yaniv turns the tables and subjects his own startup, Vera, to the same scrutin...

27 Jul 52min

Why you should run your startup like a poker player (Replay)

This is a remastered Replay of one of our most popular episodes, "What Startups Can Learn From Poker", which was originally published on 21 December 2022. Enjoy!Original description: All season, Chris...

20 Jul 43min

Avoiding ‘team debt’ by building small and smart (w/ Matt Cook)

Is hiring a person still your default answer to a problem? For a growing number of startups, it shouldn't be.In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by returning guest Matt Cook, co-founder of Scou...

13 Jul 56min

How good timing makes great products w/ Paul Orlando

Every startup pitch deck has a "why now" slide. Most of them are nonsense, barely considered, and only there to tick a box.But timing is more than a slide, it can make or break a company. It’s the dif...

6 Jul 55min

Make your product irresistible: Rob Snyder on the PULL framework

You’ve done all the research, implemented every startup strategy you could find, but your product just isn’t selling. Where do you start looking for the problem? And how do you identify and implement ...

29 Jun 53min

Success is 90% luck. So how do you build a successful startup? (w/ Mike Grossman)

Founders are told that if they work hard, build the right product and hire well, the outcome will follow. It's motivating. It's clean. And according to today's guest, it's mostly wrong.Mike Grossman h...

22 Jun 54min

Insiders React: Anthropic’s Fable, Mythos explained + SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO

The Startup Podcast is back for its 300th episode – and it’s an absolute doozy. In today’s Reacts, hosts Chris Saad and Yaniv Bernstein break down how Anthropic became the new industry leader in AI, a...

16 Jun 52min