How Michael Batko gets AI to do the busywork
Shownotes
The outsized returns from AI come from revenue growth, not cost-cutting—yet 99% of businesses outside the tech bubble have barely started exploring it. Michael Batko, former Startmate CEO and now founder of Hourglass AI, joins Yaniv to discuss how he helps companies of 20-100 people with no engineering team build bespoke AI systems. The conversation covers the company 'AI brain' built from structured Markdown files, the skills-based collaboration model that prevents teams from rebuilding the same tools, and why behaviour change is the hardest part of any AI transformation. For engineers and founders, the episode is a practical look at what actually works when AI building is cheap but maintenance and adoption remain hard.
Key takeaways- Custom software for N-of-1 use cases is now viable because AI has collapsed build speed and cost, making bespoke solutions economical for SMBs that could never afford them before.
- The two hardest bottlenecks in AI adoption are behaviour change and systematic thinking about processes—technology is the easy part.
- Hourglass AI builds a 'company AI brain' as a structured Markdown file tree ingested from inboxes, CRMs and documents, refreshed daily, with access controls ring-fenced by person.
- Skills are maintained separately from knowledge: one person builds a workflow skill, an admin approves updates, and the whole team uses it, preventing inconsistent duplicate tools.
- The highest-ROI automations are post-meeting follow-up emails, inbox management with full company context, and finding revenue triggers like DA approvals for timely outreach.
- Michael's personal terminal setup opens Claude Code projects with a single keystroke, continuing conversations across his own brain, client brains and work folders.
- Most people's AI experience remains a chat box Q&A; the mindset shift comes when they see something built or done agentically rather than just answered.
- 00:00 Revenue vs Cost Cutting
- 02:43 Hourglass AI Model
- 04:23 Speed and Customisation
- 07:49 The Real Bottlenecks
- 10:09 Discovery and Specs
- 14:37 Building vs Maintaining
- 19:45 Company AI Brain
- 21:57 Skills and Collaboration
- 29:46 Batko's Terminal Setup
- 44:46 Claude Lords and Champions
- 49:29 Speed of Change
- 52:20 Agents and Wallets
- Hourglass AI: https://thehourglass.ai
- Startmate: https://startmate.com
- Granola: https://www.granola.ai
- Claude: https://claude.ai
- Apify: https://apify.com
- Supabase: https://supabase.com
- NitroSend: https://nitrosend.com
- Obsidian: https://obsidian.md
- Data for SEO: https://dataforseo.com
Michael Batko is the founder of Hourglass AI, which helps companies implement AI to improve productivity, and was previously CEO of Startmate, Australia's largest accelerator, for eight years.
This episode is presented by SparkLaunch and Dam Secure.
- SparkLaunch (https://sparklaunch.io/wizardry): Applied Wizardry listeners get an extra 20% off.
- Dam Secure (https://damsecure.ai/wizardry): Applied Wizardry listeners get their first month free.
- Justin McArthur, Executive Producer and Video Editor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur/
- Steph Hefferan, Editor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/