Welcome to yet another episode of the Build In Public Podcast! 🎉

Today I'm super excited to have my friend Rishard Rameez, CEO and co-founder of Zown, joining us for what might be one of the most mind-blowing business model conversations I've ever had on this podcast.

Rishard built Zown after a viral Reddit rage post about paying $70,000 in real estate commissions went absolutely nuclear - hitting the front page with 600+ comments and a million views. Instead of *just* complaining, he decided to flip the entire real estate industry on its head.

Here's the crazy part: Instead of YOU paying massive commissions when buying a home, Zown gives YOU a big fat check at closing.

Yes, you read that right - they PAY you to buy a home through them. When I first heard this, I made him explain it three times because it sounded too good to be true.

In this episode, Rishard breaks down the brilliant math behind how they turn bloated real estate commissions into down payments for buyers, cutting 2-3 years off the path to homeownership.

We dive deep into their production line approach to real estate, how they unbundled the traditional realtor role, and why they're expanding from from Canada to the US.

What we covered:
✅ From the viral Reddit post to $300M+ in transaction volume
✅ How Zown gives buyers $15K+ checks instead of bills
✅ Unbundling realtors: education vs showing vs negotiation
✅ Why 40x wealth gap exists between homeowners and renters
✅ Fundraising a radical idea and moving to Silicon Valley
✅ The production line approach to real estate transactions
✅ Why you're literally paying someone else's mortgage when renting

This is business model innovation at its finest - taking an industry everyone complains about and completely reimagining how it should work.

If you've ever been frustrated by real estate commissions or felt priced out of homeownership, this episode will blow your mind.

Relevant links:
My Twitter: https://x.com/thisiskp_
Rishard's Twitter: https://x.com/rameez_rishard
Zown: https://zownhomes.com/
The Original Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/trx40r/do_we_really_need_real_estate_agents/

Past guests include Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO of Vayner Media), Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), and more.

Welcome to yet another episode of the Build In Public Podcast! 🎉

Today's episode is something completely different - a LIVE BUILD SESSION where I teamed up with Conor Martin, one of my favorite builders on Twitter, to show you exactly how vibe coding works from zero to deployed app in real-time.

Conor is a vibe coding expert who's built multiple apps with Bolt.new and created an entire course platform using the tools he teaches. We decided to record this special episode because I keep getting DMs asking "KP, how do I actually get started with vibe coding?" - well, here's your answer!

In this episode, Conor and I walk through building two complete apps live: an import duty calculator for work use cases, and a beautiful gratitude journal for personal projects. We show you the entire process from ChatGPT prompting to final deployment on Netlify - no editing, no shortcuts, just real building.

What we covered:
✅ What vibe coding actually means
✅ Live builds of two complete apps from scratch to deployment
✅ The best tools: Bolt.new, Lovable.dev, Cursor, Windsurf, and Replit
✅ How to use ChatGPT to generate perfect prompts for Bolt
✅ Integrating Stripe payments, Supabase databases, and OpenAI APIs
✅ Design tricks and responsive mobile optimization
✅ Common limitations and security considerations
✅ Why your v1 should probably suck (but be deployed fast)

This is for anyone who's been curious about vibe coding but didn't know where to start. Conor and I break it down so simply that even complete beginners can follow along and build their first app by the end of this episode. Let us know if you have any Qs along in your journey!

Relevant links:
My Twitter: https://x.com/thisiskp_
Conor's Twitter: https://x.com/conormartinai
Connor's Bolt Course: https://boltnewcourse.com/
Bolt.new Hackathon: https://hackathon.dev
Story behind the hackathon: https://kp.substack.com/p/hackathon
My side project examples: http://fileforge.in/, http://agencyhunt.xyz/

Past guests on the Build In Public podcast include Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO of Vayner Media), Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), and more.

Welcome to yet another episode of the Build In Public Podcast! 🎉

Today I'm thrilled to have my friend Shamir Allibhai, CEO and founder of Eddie AI, join me for one of my favorite conversations on the podcast yet. Shamir is building the "Cursor for Video Editing" - an AI assistant that helps video professionals focus on their craft and stories by handling the tedious post-production work they hate.

What makes this episode special is the honest and authentic exploration of various topics that founders often have to think through. Like why he chose to focus exclusively on video professionals (and said no to everyone else), the internal struggle of picking your ICP, how Eddie AI bridged the gap between customer expectations and AI output, the three vectors that lead to startup success, Reid Hoffman's message of why your v1 should probably suck, and so much more.

Shamir and I also dive deep into his founder journey, from his days at the BBC making documentaries to building a venture-backed AI startup. We explore the fascinating paradox of applying non-deterministic AI technology to the precision-demanding world of professional video editing, and he and his team solve it.

This is the kind of founder-to-founder conversation I live for - honest, vulnerable, and packed with insights you won't hear anywhere else. Grab some coffee and enjoy this fun chat ☕️

Relevant links:
My Twitter: https://x.com/thisiskp_
Shamir's Twitter: https://x.com/theShamir
Shamir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamirallibhai/
Eddie AI: https://heyeddie.ai/

Past guests on the Build In Public podcast include Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO of Vayner Media), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Gina Bianchini (CEO of Mighty Networks), Adam Draper (MD of BoostVC), Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad), Arvid Kahl (Author of Zero To Sold), Tiago Forte (author of Building A Second Brain), and more. Check out the website here: https://www.buildinpublicpodcast.com/