The Tea On Pivoting to AI-First Products
Welcome to The Tea On: a series of tactical lessons from founders and leaders who've faced scale-up challenges.
The Tea On Pivoting to AI-First Products
In this Product Season, the question isn’t if you should use AI, but how to ensure it actually builds a "moat" for your business. Many startups treat AI as a shiny feature, but the real growth multiplier lies in moving AI to the core of your value proposition.
João Afonso Pereira, Senior Machine Learning Engineer @ Loka, is leading an unfiltered look at how to move beyond the chatbot and start architecting products where AI is a strategic advantage, not just a line of code.
João will share the "scars and successes" from three real-world case studies to show how Loka helps businesses transform the way they build, ship, and monetise in the age of Agents.
Learn How They Did It:
This session delivers three tangible, implementable learnings you can bring back to your product team:
Feature vs. foundation: how to evaluate whether your AI bets are building defensibility or just adding surface area your competitors can copy in six months
Architecting for the age of Agents: what changes in how you build, ship, and monetise when AI moves from assistant to autonomous actor in your product
Reading the scars: what Loka's case studies reveal about the decisions that compound and the ones that create technical and strategic debt.
Bring your own AI product questions for João.
Event Details:
Format: Talk (25-30 min) → Q&A (10–15 min) → quick networking
Free event. RSVP required (limited seats).
You’re in: F2 Scale-Up Seasons → Product Season (Apr–Jun)
This is part of Founders Founders' year-long events roadmap for scale-ups: People → Product → Revenue → Markets.
The Tea On (free · 45 min) = tactical lessons → #HowTheyDidIt
MasterBuild (paid · 4h) = hands-on workshop → #HowYoullDoIt
Ready to apply these frameworks? Join João and the Loka team for a 4-hour deep dive to architect your own AI strategy: