He Built an AI Company 5 Years Before ChatGPT. It Failed

Lucas Meadowcroft is the co-founder and CEO of CROFTI, an AI automation firm working mostly in construction and manufacturing. In this episode he talks about building one of the earliest AI platforms a decade ago, years before ChatGPT existed, raising capital, and eventually having to shut it down because the market simply wasn't ready. He's now applying those lessons at CROFTI, including a project building a business from scratch designed to hit $10 million in revenue with zero employees, using AI to handle everything from site data capture to invoicing. Lucas also shares how he built a Claude-powered LinkedIn agent that filters his messages and books meetings automatically, cutting out a lot of the noise that used to eat up his day. This one's a good listen if you want to see what AI automation actually looks like inside a business, not just in theory. Guest: Lucas Meadowcroft, CROFTILinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasmeadowcroft/ Host: Leonard De BeerHelping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreachLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/