Backstory: Why I dropped everything to start this company

My name’s Connor O’Brien. A year ago, I left my comfortable marketing job to learn everything I can about AI and system automation. I knew it was the future, so I decided to drop everything and go all in.

I gave myself a year. I called it my “year of learning.”

The goal was simple: learn how to bring AI to the recreational boating industry. Specifically, I wanted to solve the problem of lost leads, the ones that slip through when no one’s around to talk to the customer.

And I wanted to do it in a way that supports humans rather than replaces them.

I chose this problem because I’ve worked in marinas my whole life, experienced the boat buying process firsthand, and know the joys of boat ownership (you may detect a hint of sarcasm in that last part…). It’s an industry I understand and a niche I love.

Fast forward to a year later and I’ve spent 1,042 hours (trust me, I tracked it) learning everything I can about AI. Tools, technologies, systems, you name it. And let me tell you, what I was learning at hour 5 was pretty much obsolete by hour 1,000.

It’s hard to keep up.

But maybe the most important thing I learned was how to spot which parts of AI are here to stay and which parts are going to be useless in a year or two.

And that, my friend, is how I developed my business plan. I focused on the parts of AI that are here to stay. And I figured out how to use them to build a system that fits seamlessly into any marina, boatyard, or marine service business (mechanics, riggers, electricians, divers, and canvas shops).

Top 5 lessons I learned: