14.ai Dispatch #24
Croissants, card readers, and the inevitable robot uprising.
Look, we had a week. Between teaching AI to be more human than humans and watching Marie solve problems we didn’t know existed (and honestly, might not have), here’s what went down in our little corner of SF.
We’re famous now (kind of)
“5 Days Inside Silicon Valley AI Boom” featuring... us?
Earlier this month, Will Phillips stopped by our office while filming his new documentary. We had a morning filled with demos, croissants, and conversations about how AI is reshaping customer support from the ground up.
Will spent five days embedded with founders across the Valley, and we were lucky to be one of the teams he featured. The episode captures everything from humanoid robots in garages to YC teams turning support into autonomous agents, offering a real look at what this AI wave feels like from the inside.
Huge thank you to Will for spending time with us.
Check out the documentary here.
We tried to interview Marie.
This is how it went. We’re so lucky to have this type of energy around.
Raclette: Dîner des Pionniers de l’IA
We’re hosting a dinner for French AI folks because regular networking events aren’t French enough.
Come melt an inappropriate amount of cheese, swap ideas, and meet others in the community.
📆 Thursday, December 4 @ 6:30 PM
📍 Maison 14.ai, Lower Haight
+1 welcome.
This week’s revelation: Every startup is now a media company (sorry)
Remember when you could just build a product and people would buy it? Yeah, neither do we.
Alisa was chilling in SF coffee shops last summer watching founders have existential crises about Instagram Reels. Then she saw someone drop $50 on a single video that brought in 1,000 users overnight.
Her discovery? Viral videos are basically just Mad Libs. Same format, different nouns.
So she built Bluma (YC F25) - basically Canva but for people who think they’re too good for Canva.
You bring clips, AI does the editing, everyone pretends they’re Casey Neistat.
Formats that apparently always work:
AI voiceover + text that makes you angry enough to comment
“POV: You’re [relatable thing]” + shameless product placement
Whatever trending audio TikTok decided we’re all using this week
Key insight: The algorithm doesn’t care if your video was made by AI. It only cares about watch time. The machines judge the machines. We’ve come full circle.
Next week: How to turn TikTok into your personal ATM
TikTok Shop is the new mall. The question is no longer “does this work?” but “how do you scale it without burning out your team?”
Join Jordan West, e-commerce investor, host of The Social Commerce Club, and the founder behind multiple successful brand exits, for a live deep dive into how top-performing shops go from zero to 7-figure months.
Jordan will break down what actually separates shops that plateau from those that explode: the creative tests that matter, the partnerships worth investing in, and the retention loops that keep GMV compounding.
Basically: how to turn a viral moment into a durable growth engine.
We’ll cover:
Finding and launching products with real viral potential
Using influencers and affiliates to scale GMV consistently
The mistakes that kill momentum before you hit 7 figures
How AI improves creative, targeting, CX, and campaign optimization
Perfect for: E-commerce founders, marketers, and operators looking to master the strategies driving the next generation of high-performing TikTok Shops.
Come through.
📆 Wednesday, November 12 @ 9 AM PT
14 origin story (totally real)
When I was 8, I kept complaining about my mom’s crock pot dinners.
She just built a “ticket box” (a shoebox with a slot cut in the top) and forced me to submit my complaints formally.
Every week, I’d write the same ticket: “Please. No crock pot.”
Every week, she’d respond: “Thank you for your feedback. Ticket resolved.”
Nothing ever changed. The crock pot remained undefeated.
I submitted 200+ tickets that year. She maintained a 100% resolution rate and delivered zero solutions.
Twenty years later, it hit me:
My mom accidentally invented every enterprise helpdesk I’ve ever used.
The week in unnecessary observations
Nutella doctrine: Ugo’s startup fuel of choice involves croissants, cocoa, and cultural continuity.
Safeway startup moment: Michael pitches an AI for card removal.
Outcome over outputs: Matthew shows how clarity on “good” turns evals into solvable problems.
7 Habits re-read: Marie distills Covey’s wisdom into whiteboards, Slack bots, and actual work-life prioritization.
Daily coding reps: Michael compares coding to scales, spices, and spark plugs. Intuition compounds faster than commits.
Chat vs email: Michael breaks down reply psychology. Fast isn’t always better, format is everything.
Let’s chat about chatbots
Need an AI to handle your customers so you don’t have to? We got you.
Book 15 minutes of our time (we promise to be normal).
Jobs that pay SF rent
🛠️ Founding Engineer @ 14.ai (San Francisco, CA)
⌨️ Support Executive @ Landeed (Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, India)
🃏Customer Service @ Cardless (San Francisco, CA)
What we’re consuming instead of working
Marie: Full-stack AI companies, Y Combinator
Matthew: 2 Years of ML vs. 1 Month of Prompting, Lev Ostatnigrosh
Maya: Inside Cursor, Brie Wilson
Michael: LLMs can get “Brain Rot”!, Xing et al.
Ugo: A cartoonist’s review of AI art, The Oatmeal
🫡 Until next time: may your templates trend, your agents stay sane, and your TikTok Shop keep compounding.
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