#364 How AI Is Transforming Small Business and Entrepreneurship

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:00)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation. Before we dive in, I wanted to personally thank you for listening. Many of the ideas we discuss on this show inspired my new book, AI Augmented Teams. If you're looking for practical ways to combine human expertise and AI to achieve better outcomes, I think you'll find it valuable. Learn more at paidar.ai.b. That is paidar.ai.b.
Now, let's get started with the show.

**Tom Lahat** (0:30)
However, we have started noticing, and we talked a lot with users, and we asked them, why are you opening the business?
And the new reason is that people are starting a business because they couldn't find a job on the market, and they're scared that their next year or two would have no, they would be unemployed. And when they want to get a job, people will ask them, so what happened in the last two years, and they wouldn't have a good answer.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:00)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation, where we explore how people process policy and technology drive effective change. This is Dr. Darren, Chief Enterprise Architect, Educator, Author, and most importantly, your host.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:18)
On this episode, how AI is transforming small business and entrepreneurship with Tom Lahat, Co-Founder and CXO of Tailor Brands.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:31)
Tom, welcome to the show.

**Tom Lahat** (1:33)
Thank you, Darren. Thank you for having me.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:36)
Hey, I think this is going to be a great conversation. There's a lot going on in the world today, especially on AI, there's a lot of people concerned about their jobs. There's a lot of people concerned about how are they going to make ends meet and what impact AI is going to have on our society as a whole. We got a lot to talk about today, Tom.
But before we do, everyone that listens to my show knows that I only have superheroes on the show, and every superhero has a origin story, a background story. So Tom, what's your background story?

**Tom Lahat** (2:14)
First of all, considering me a hero, that will be a first. So thank you. I'll tell my family.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (2:19)
Well, I only have superheroes on the show. So either you snuck in, which means you got a superpower of sneakiness. But I don't think that's it, Tom.

**Tom Lahat** (2:29)
So I think in the world of founders, if that's even the world, I don't think I have a classic story of the business, the background and that part. So I'll take you back. I was always a designer, a graphic designer, to be honest. That's how I got into the entrepreneurship world. Basically, I'm photography and design. And if you would ask me when I was 17 or 18, what would I do when I grow up? I would be an artist, a photographer, that does some graphic design to make some money. That would be my story. And I fell in love with graphic design. I think YouTube was at its peak, basically. So everything I learned... Maybe that's my... By the way, maybe that's my superhero skill. I can't... Everything I have done until now, maybe it's good or bad, I'm not sure, but I've learned from doing, from YouTube or Instagram or whatever. So that's a big skill that I have. So I was really into graphic design and photography, and I had my own agency, basically.
And it was my first experience in the real world, getting feedback, getting clients, understanding what works, what doesn't, how to get my name out there. And I did it alone, and it was awful and amazing, and it was frightful, and the best and the worst thing I've done. It was my first time, basically.
And then with the years I went and I studied at Parsons, a design school in New York.
And there maybe it's a classic story that I mean to other friends from New York. We dropped off school, dropped out of school to start the company, Tailor Brands, where initially our goal was to make design something that was considered very expensive. And if you started business, the last thing you want to do now is pay $2,000, $1,000 for graphic design.
We wanted to automate it. I don't want to say the word AI, because AI didn't exist, so it wasn't that. But our goal was to make it reachable. And the company when we started was focusing around branding and making sure that within a few clicks, you'll have a beautiful logo and a website and a business card so you can focus on whatever you want to do. And for me, it was a segue, because that's what I did. You know, I had my small business. I was focusing on design. So it was my first step suddenly in the tech world. So I had my partners and talented, smart partners that I had for the last 10 years, you know, the YALI, the CEO, and the Dove, the CTO. And together, for the first time, pretty in the young age, I would say, you know, 2026, we started the company. And the same thing I would say on my design agency, it was on the startup, which became the company. The first years were the most, the hardest and the best times of my life. Really, you know, like we... Living in New York, starting your company, raising money, doing everything for a pretty young age, for the first time.