I’m starting my own AI tech company. The story.

Julia McCoy
6 min readNov 2, 2024

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Back in the CEO seat, and it feels damn good. Didn’t realize how much I missed it. 😅

I’m starting my own AI company, First Movers!

The vision gets clearer every day (I literally started it 7 days ago) and boy oh boy, is it HUGE.

We are going to make a tremendous difference.

It will be a LOT of things, but will start out as a hybrid consulting firm.

With an entire apps marketplace coming.

……..……..……..……..……..……..

Here’s the story.

In January of 2023, I ventured into AI, after originally being an AI naysayer.

As a 9x author & the founder of a 100-person writing agency, with over 60,000 completed client projects (success rate 99% — I worked hard and learned constantly, then taught what I learned), I was a wary & careful adapter.

I knew that artificial intelligence and machine learning tools were just detecting, predicting, generating.

Not originating.

Not creating. Not innovating. Not researching. Not fact-checking.

So — I saw BIG holes in AI.

But then–EVERYTHING changed.

And it was adapt or die.

…………

I still remember the day it all changed.

Where I saw, firsthand, the real use case of how AI will begin to change everything.

First week of January, 2023…

I was watching yet another YouTube video on “the best AI tools” — it felt like hype, at first–and then I sat there, my jaw on the floor.

I paused the screen. Zoomed in.

(I was on my iPhone.)

I was seeing a real-life, tangible product of something I couldn’t believe was possible just a month ago.

Because I was looking at an AI tool an entrepreneur had built that AUTOMATED every single one of the 40+ steps in my human content writing process.

Literally, the kind of high-dollar, well-researched content I wrote and sold was produced in under 5 minutes by AUTOMATION.

That tool was Content at Scale (now rebranded to BrandWell).

When I saw that, I decided to join the “dark side” (running joke by friends in the industry).

I pitched the CEO on working there, and was hired.

In my time there, which has officially ended October ’24 (I am no longer working there in any capacity whatsoever), I got to do some pretty epic stuff:

  • Work inside the use cases of over 50M words of production/month
  • Start as VP of Marketing, go to President
  • Get on 27 flights last year
  • Speak over 200 times
  • Host 3 events of my own
  • Give 3 keynotes

I built models to help folks adapt and taught them from stage.

Hundreds of writers found new footing.

All in all, I am forever thankful for everything I was able to learn and do while there working with the BrandWell team.

Now, nearly two years later — October of 2024, I’m stepping back into the entrepreneur life.

I’m building my own firm: First Movers, an innovative hybrid consulting/tech AI company.

It’s going to solve a HUGE gap that I believe exists today in AI.

Because successfully 25'xing and automating your marketing isn’t found by you just blindly adding more tools or tossing them at your team…

It’s found in that rich, gray area BETWEEN the AI tools + the goals.

It’s found in how you connect both.

There are innovators (First Movers) that have come up with INSANE ways to automate pretty much everything.

I talked to the owner of 4 $100M businesses on Sunday night, on the phone.

He had successfully automated over 80 roles down to a few AI agents & customized chatbots.

Hearing him talk, I KNEW we were looking at the future of work.

It’s here already.

Most just don’t realize it and aren’t tapping into it.

We have big obstacles in enterprise adaption — misuse and misapplication of AI–but once we streamline the use cases with the tools, and simply adding to that the exponential nature of how this is growing at unprecedented rates of acceleration, I believe we will solve all of that.

For more on that, watch my video:

At First Movers, we’re going to give marketing teams + marketing agencies (our first target) what they need: the frameworks, puzzle pieces, and agentic AI processes — that CONNECT the tools to the goals.

I will learn so much from being inside these use cases (the full automation of marketing as we know it — that’s my goal).

I’m assembling a dream team to make it all happen.

David Shapiro is our technology/innovations advisor.

Alex Rodriguez is my AI integrator.

Around him and me, I will be building an integrations operations team.

Then, we have technology.

I’m partnering with experienced tech CEO Babar as my application / engineering partner. His company has built over 45 apps from the ground up. Their next foray was AI, and he met me at the ideal time.

Then, there’s a SLEW of others who have volunteered to be initial partners, innovators, and even investors in my new firm.

I am absolutely blown away with the people that believe in me.

………………………………………………………………………….

Meeting the in-between of the goals and all the AI tools is a magic place.

In fact, I believe the future of work is found there.

And that’s the sweet spot where I believe I can serve humanity in ways that cannot even be quantified.

My hybrid AI tech + consulting company will have expert partners/advisors (because I will NOT be doing this journey alone 😛 ) … to help you —

🧰 Match up the best AI tools

🗺️ With every PROCESS, framework and METHOD (or we get to building it for you, if it doesn’t exist)

🏢 To automate EVERY part of your sales and marketing

Knowing that there exists $100m company owners that took their team from 85 down to 2 folks assisted with agentic AI processes…

Means that it is bloodbath times, folks.

I want to help YOU get AHEAD of what’s coming and become a FIRST MOVER. 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍

Be one of the two hires left standing…

Or one of the the top marketing agencies / teams that benefits HUGELY from adaption.

To do this well, I also want to build actual solutions for the new age coming at us. Yes — I actively want to build solutions for the AGI era.

We have our first products for this in mind.

And we will need some funding to do what I want to do with my partners.

What we are talking about has never been done before.

It will herald in the new age and give millions a way to access decentralized non-fiat solutions in a better, more ethical, less control-oriented format.

I cannot believe I am even writing this, folks.

It’s an incredible honor to be a leader in this wild journey we are a̵c̵c̵e̵l̵e̵r̵a̵t̵i̵n̵g̵ hurtling forwards into.

With the premise of total human work being automated actually coming true, we are on the brink of a New Earth (aka, Age of Abundance / Technology Age).

So, what will I be doing now?

→ At First Movers, along with an expert team, I’ll be leading custom buildouts to connect the AI tools with the right frameworks for MEGA efficiency inside marketing agencies.

I will be leading 100% of projects that my consultancy takes on (personally in every project).

I cannot WAIT to get my hands dirty at this scale.

…You want your sales and marketing completely automated? I’ll look at all your pieces and take it to my tech & solutions team I’m building out — and we’ll BUILD.

Push-button marketing solutions.

The right goals.

Matched up to the right tools.

We have our first 7 clients lined up. Hit me up at julia@firstmovers.ai if you want to be one. Not charging anything. Just show me all your systems, tasks, and goals, and let me put my brain on the task of total automation of all of it.

Additionally, besides getting back to running my own company, I’ll be creating content full time:

→ Near daily content on my YouTube channel, Julia McCoy, as I dissect and learn.

→ Weekly content on my new podcast, Leaders of AI Podcast, which just launched— co-hosted with one of the brightest minds in the future of AI — Dave Shapiro.

Watch our first episode below:

Sub on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts — wherever you listen, we’re streaming there.

How you+I can work together:

· I’m actively building and taking on consultancy clients who want to build custom AI-led processes to automate EVERYTHING (sales and marketing).

· I’m also actively taking on stage/speaking gigs. Want a female leader in AI? I’m your girl. Email julia@firstmovers.ai, or click to see my speaking deck: https://bit.ly/juliamccoyspeakingdeck

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Guys…

I am SO, SO, SO, SO, SOOOOOO PUMPED.

Future’s bright. 🥂

Couldn’t do this without all of you…

Delighted you’re here with me.

To the moon 🌙 🚀 , and beyond.

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Julia McCoy
Julia McCoy

Written by Julia McCoy

Julia is a keynote speaker, 9x author, CEO of FirstMovers.ai, and hosts Leaders of AI Podcast w/ Dave Shapiro. She lives, breathes, eats and sleeps AI adaption.