ElementaryMBA

1. What's the most honest way for a founder to think about AI in their business?

A magic founder that runs the business for youA fast, sometimes-wrong assistant: AI drafts, you decideA guaranteed source of true facts and pricesA replacement for talking to customers

2. Which is the right way to START looking for a business idea?

"I have a cool AI tool — what can I build?"Copy whatever startup is trending"People keep complaining about X — can I solve a problem they'll pay to remove?"Ask AI to invent a guaranteed winner

3. What's the one thing customer research must establish that no AI persona can give you?

A list of survey questionsWhether real people will actually payA summary of themesA catchy product name

4. What's the fix for generic AI marketing 'slop'?

Publish more of it, fasterFeed AI your own voice and rewrite the draft in your own words, with specifics you've verifiedUse a longer prompt and ship it uneditedAdd more buzzwords

5. What is the actual goal of a minimum viable product (MVP)?

To be a finished, perfect productTo impress investors with polishTo learn fast and cheap whether the idea works, by testing the riskiest assumptionTo use as much AI as possible

6. When you build with a model's API, what do you actually pay for?

A one-time flat fee foreverPer token — both your input and the model's output — so long prompts and answers cost morePer user onlyNothing; APIs are free

7. Your friend will post a 5-star review if you give them a free product. What does FTC guidance require / prohibit?

Nothing — it's a real person, so it's fineYou must disclose the material connection clearly and conspicuously; and fabricated/undisclosed reviews can be illegalYou can post it as an independent review if it's positiveOnly big companies have to disclose

8. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, can you copyright a logo you got from a single AI prompt?

Yes — whatever AI makes for you is automatically yoursPurely AI-generated output isn't protected; copyright needs human authorship, and prompting alone isn't enoughYes, if the prompt was very detailedOnly if you paid for the AI tool

9. Which AI use BUILDS customer trust rather than destroying it?

A bot that pretends to be a human with no way to reach a personTelling customers when they're talking to AI and giving a clear path to a humanPosting AI-written fake reviews to look popularLetting a chatbot invent your return policy

10. Why isn't 'I generated a lot of stuff quickly' proof that an AI tool is worth it?

Speed always equals valueBecause you must compare it to a baseline — time, cost, and quality — or fixing AI mistakes can cost more than you savedBecause AI tools are always freeBecause quality never matters

12 · Check your understanding