I’m Eric Harrison, cofounder and CEO of Thryv, and I want to talk to you straight: entrepreneurship is lonely, most networking is broken, and if you’re thinking about AI you need a plan that helps your people, not replaces them. This article is inspired by a conversation recorded by DoneMaker and breaks down practical steps, mental models, and specific tactics you can use to hire, scale, build community, and introduce AI responsibly so it amplifies performance.
Table of Contents
- 1. Face the loneliness: the real, unglamorous part of building
- 2. Test with honesty: how to run a side gig without burning bridges
- 3. Sell your vision first — don’t outsource the storytelling
- 4. Build a community that actually works: peer groups, not networking events
- 5. Match like a neighbor — stage, personality, and life context matter
- 6. Make vulnerability your best operational tactic
- 7. Hire slow, contract fast — fix mistakes before they scale
- 8. Keep doing sales — your early messaging is the #1 lever
- 9. Use AI to research and automate, not to replace the human connection
- 10. Build a town, not a product dashboard — people value real connections
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final takeaways — how to move forward with people and AI
1. Face the loneliness: the real, unglamorous part of building
You’re not failing because others don’t understand you — entrepreneurship is just a weird job. I started my first company in college, hit a six‑figure run, and then ran out of cash after two and a half years. That crunch taught me two things fast: the technical skills matter, but the emotional and social skills of running a company are brutal when you don’t have peers who get it.
When you’re building, you’ll make decisions alone that change other people’s lives. You’ll have to hire, fire, and handle payroll. If your spouse, your friends, or your parents don’t run companies, they often can’t give you the feedback you need. That’s why the first step is admitting the loneliness — naming it — and then actively repairing it by joining or creating small groups of peers who understand the context of your decisions.
2. Test with honesty: how to run a side gig without burning bridges
If you have a full‑time job but something else keeps pulling at you, don’t pretend you have more time than you do. Be honest. Schedule two calls a night. Tell the people you speak with you’re juggling a day job. You’ll be surprised how receptive people are when you’re transparent.
Practically, that looks like this:
- Block two 20–30 minute slots on weeknights for exploratory calls.
- Offer early‑morning and weekend time slots for those who want them.
- Make clear boundaries: “I work full time; I can meet before 8 AM or after 7 PM.”
That slow, honest cadence lets you validate whether the side project energizes you enough to flip the switch. If you dread going to your day job, that’s a major signal: your energy favors something else. When you decide to move, be candid with your employer. Don’t ghost them — offer to make the transition smooth. You’ll preserve relationships and your reputation, and you’ll likely get support rather than backlash.
3. Sell your vision first — don’t outsource the storytelling
One mistake founders make early is hiring salespeople before they themselves learn to sell the core idea. Sales reps can execute a playbook, but they don’t own your vision. You do. Be the first person to sell what you’re building, especially at early stages.
Try this approach:
- Be honest in outreach: “I don’t have customers yet, but here’s the vision and why I think you might want to be an early adopter.”
- Use customer conversations as learning sessions — an early buyer often gives you the quickest feedback loop.
- Don’t outsource every first touch. Your authenticity is often the differentiator.
When you explain the problem and your vision in your own words, you attract people who’ll take a bet on you — and those relationships become the first accelerants of growth.
4. Build a community that actually works: peer groups, not networking events
Networking events are loud and shallow. A hundred people, a nametag, and everybody subtly selling — it’s not where you talk about the time you didn’t pay yourself. The difference between a networking event and a community is intimacy. You want a setting where people bring their hardest problems and trust the group to help.
That’s why we built hands‑placed peer groups of six founders who meet twice a month for ninety minutes. The structure forces vulnerability and then channels it into concrete help. When you join a group like this, these things happen:
- Someone says, “I didn’t pay myself this week,” and the room helps with how to approach payroll, cash flow, and difficult conversations.
- Someone says, “Should I fire this client?” and the group gives frameworks and scripts.
- People become friends and quick consults when you need a 2 AM gut check.
5. Match like a neighbor — stage, personality, and life context matter
Getting placed into the right group is everything. Matching should consider:
- Stage and revenue — your immediate problems must be similar.
- Personality — you need people you can be candid with, not just those at the same ARR.
- Life context — parenthood, location, and responsibilities shape what advice actually applies.
Imagine moving into a neighborhood. You don’t want someone right across the street who keeps different hours, has different values, and has no kids if you do. Peer groups mimic that neighborhood feel: you want people you’d feel comfortable knocking on their door when things get real.
6. Make vulnerability your best operational tactic
Vulnerability isn’t soft — it’s operational. When you tell peers what you actually suck at, you activate specific help. In communities I run, the biggest wins are usually small, weirdly human things:
- Two members met and started a coffee company because they shared an obsession in a chat.
- Someone asks for a tough client exit script and leaves with a plan that saves months of stress.
- Someone admits they’re bad at hiring, and another member shares a hiring checklist that changes their retention.
These wins look small but compound. Vulnerability creates trust and triggers help you wouldn’t find on Reddit or in casual networking.
7. Hire slow, contract fast — fix mistakes before they scale
One regret I had early on was hiring full time too fast for problems that weren’t validated. A better pattern: hire contractors first, then convert to full‑time when the role proves it’s essential. This saves time, cash, and morale.
Hiring tips you can use right now:
- Use contractors for narrow jobs with clear deliverables.
- Document the workflows — if a contractor consistently adds value, build a full‑time role.
- Avoid hiring clones of yourself; you cannot scale by duplicating one person’s intensity.
You hired because someone does something better than you or because they free up your time. If they’re frustrated because you expect them to be you, you hired wrong. Set expectations and celebrate the different strengths people bring.
8. Keep doing sales — your early messaging is the #1 lever
If you can’t explain your value clearly, a hired salesperson won’t be able to either. Early on, you should be the one who crafts and tests the message. Sales is research: every conversation should inform product, pricing, and who your real customer is.
Try this simple script for early outreach:
- State the honest status: “We’re early — no customers yet.”
- Share the hypothesis: “We think [problem] exists because [evidence].”
- Ask a low‑risk question: “Would you be open to a 20 minute call to test whether this could help you?”
Honesty attracts people willing to be customers and co‑designers. The feedback loop from those conversations is how you iterate faster than a playbook alone ever could.
9. Use AI to research and automate, not to replace the human connection
AI is powerful. Use it where it removes friction and gives you time back, but don’t let it substitute human judgment in relationship work. Here’s a practical taxonomy for where to use AI:
- Research augmentation: feed your data, notes, and docs into a tool to summarize, find inconsistencies, or extract next actions.
- Automation for scale: use AI to handle repetitive tasks like scheduling reminders, mass basic outreach drafts, or summarizing meeting notes.
- Assistive generation: draft a version of copy or an email that you always review and humanize before sending.
Real examples you can adopt today:
- Load your call notes and ask for a one‑paragraph hook you can use in follow‑ups.
- Give AI your hiring scorecard and the candidate’s resume, and ask for a recommended interview script focused on gaps.
- Automate low‑value tasks (e.g., formatting, draft replies) so your real talent spends time on strategic work.
Critically, teach your hires to use AI as a teammate: “Use AI to draft the first version, then spend your time making it feel human and specific.” That way AI amplifies output instead of replacing the judgment and relationships that make your business durable.
10. Build a town, not a product dashboard — people value real connections
If you’re tempted to build a sexy member portal with all the bells and whistles, pause. Most people join communities for two things: great conversations and great people. A flashy dashboard is rarely used. Focus on the rituals, newsletters, and introductions that mimic how a town works:
- Rituals: regular meetings with predictable formats (e.g., two monthly 90‑minute sessions).
- News: a lightweight, regular update that surfaces interesting member wins and asks.
- Introductions: thoughtful pairing or small group matching based on stage and personality.
Think like a mayor of a small town — curate the residents, encourage neighborly interactions, and create channels where people can trade favors and advice instead of building another unused app.
How to introduce AI into this town
When you introduce AI into a community or team, follow a rollout that respects trust and transparency:
- Start with an internal pilot focused on research tasks and manual automation.
- Share examples of outputs and ask members to critique and improve them.
- Make AI usage visible: include an attribution line like “Drafted with AI — edited by [name].”
- Measure outcomes: time saved, improved response rates, and changes in member satisfaction.
That approach keeps people in the loop, reduces fear, and positions AI as an assistant that frees humans to do higher‑impact, higher‑trust work.
Practical checklist: hiring with AI in mind
- Define which parts of the role are relationship-driven vs. repetitive.
- Use contractors to test AI-augmented workflows before hiring full time.
- Create a clear rubric: what AI can do, what humans must do, and how you’ll train hires on both.
- Measure retention and job satisfaction — AI should increase these, not decrease them.
If you do this the right way, AI becomes a productivity multiplier that makes jobs more interesting, not obsolete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will AI replace people in service-based businesses?
A: Not today. In service businesses, relationships and context matter a lot. AI can automate research, help draft communication, and speed up repetitive tasks, but the human connection — the judgment, the trust, the negotiation — still lives with people. Use AI to make people better at their jobs, not to eliminate the relationship component.
Q: How do I know if my side project is worth quitting my job for?
A: Pay attention to your energy and the feedback loop. If you’re consistently choosing your side project over your day job, and you dread going to work, that’s a big sign. Also, if the side project produces repeatable interest from customers or partners after honest outreach, you have momentum. Make the move with candor toward your employer and plan for a smooth transition, not an abrupt exit.
Q: What’s the simplest way to start using AI right now?
A: Start by using AI for research: summarize call notes, extract action items, and generate a first draft of follow‑up emails. Keep the human in the loop to edit and personalize. Replace the low-value parts of work first, then expand to more complex automations with monitoring and guardrails.
Q: How should I match members into peer groups?
A: Prioritize stage, personality, and life context. Stage aligns business problems; personality aligns vulnerability. Ask screening questions, do short interviews, and imagine whether you’d want this person living on the same street as your other members — that mental model helps a lot.
Q: I’m worried about authenticity if I use AI for writing. How do I keep my voice?
A: Always edit. Use AI to generate a first pass, then rewrite the parts that reveal personality. Train a short set of prompts that preserve your voice (e.g., examples demonstrating tone) and ask your team to pass every AI output through a personal filter before publishing.
Final takeaways — how to move forward with people and AI
You have two big responsibilities as a founder: build something customers want, and build a team/culture that can sustain growth. Neither happens in a vacuum. You need empathy, honesty, and a process for matching people into the right roles and communities.
AI is a tool, not a verdict. Use it to speed research, automate repetitive tasks, and free your team for higher‑value work. Don’t use it as a cover to stop hiring thoughtfully or to avoid candid conversations. The businesses that win in the next decade will be those that pair human judgment and relationships with smart AI workflows — the combination multiplies impact.
If you want to explore this more with peers who get it, visit thrivers.co or connect with me on LinkedIn. Build your town, protect your people, and introduce AI as the teammate that helps your people do their best work.
Watch the full podcast here: Use AI to make their job easier OR replace them with AI – Eric Harrison – The DoneMaker Podcast
