How I Run a $1M+ Startup with AI (7 Workflows You Can COPY Today)
September 8, 2025
AI Summary
5 min readHow a 15-Person Team Operates Like a 50-Person Company Using AI
Rowan Chung, founder of The Rundown AI, runs a media company generating millions of dollars a year with a team of about 15 people. The secret isn't hiring faster—it's using AI agents to make the team operate at a speed and scale that would normally require 50 employees. In this conversation, he walks through seven specific AI workflows his company uses internally, sharing the actual prompts, tools, and conditions that make them work.
The AI Avatar That Grew 150,000 Followers
The first workflow is the one that went viral on Twitter. Chung had a problem: as a writer first, he wasn't comfortable on camera, and he had no time to record short-form video. So he cloned his face and voice using HeyGen for the avatar and ElevenLabs for the audio, then had an editor stitch the AI-generated footage together with B-roll and storytelling.
The key detail is that the avatar appears for only the first three to four seconds of each video. "The avatar portion of it isn't that great, but if you just show like three, four seconds, it looks more real," Chung says. The voice, on the other hand, is sometimes better than his own—he mispronounces things anyway.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:28) **Seven AI Workflows at The Rundown** - Rowan previews the seven internal AI workflows he'll share, covering business operations and content creation, with free templates for listeners.
- 2 (02:53) **Workflow 1: AI Avatar for Short-Form Video** - Rowan explains how he cloned his face and voice to create short-form videos from his writing, growing to 150k followers in under a year.
- 3 (09:54) **When NOT to Use an AI Avatar** - Rowan explains why a public company CEO or anyone prioritizing authenticity should avoid this workflow.
- 4 (13:58) **Workflow 2: Voice-Dictated Writing with Claude** - Rowan walks through his process for turning walking ideas into 90%-ready tweets using a custom Claude prompt.
- 5 (18:50) **Workflow 3: Claude as an Editor-in-Chief for Newsletters** - Rowan shows how he uses a long-running Claude chat to refine newsletter content, treating it as a co-editor.
- 6 (22:53) **Workflow 4: AI Meeting Scheduler (Ava the Lindy Agent)** - Rowan demonstrates a custom Lindy AI agent that replaces Calendly by scheduling meetings via email.
- 7 (30:04) **Workflow 5: Perplexity Comet as an AI Tutor for YouTube** - Rowan uses Perplexity's Comet feature to turn any YouTube video into an interactive AI tutor.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Join me as I chat with Rowan Cheung about how he uses practical AI workflows that help his small team at The Rundown operate like a much larger organization. He demonstrates how they use AI for content creation (including AI avatars and writing assistance), business operations (meeting scheduling and email management), and team efficiency (onboarding and research). Each workflow includes specific tools, prompts, and implementation strategies that listeners can adopt for their own businesses.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
02:53 - 1) AI avatars for content creation
13:56 -2) AI Tweet Generator
19:27 - 3) AI Newsletter Editor
22:53 - 4) Lindy AI Agent Personal Assistant
30:01 - 5) Perplexity AI Tutor
34:01 - 6) New Hire Onboarding GPT
37:32 - 7) Email Manager/Sponsorship Finder AI Agent
Key Points
• Rowan uses AI avatars (HeyGen + 11Labs) to create short-form video content, showing only the avatar briefly while using B-roll for most of the video
• Voice dictation combined with Claude AI trained on personal writing style creates Twitter/social media content that's "90% ready"
• Lindy AI serves as a meeting scheduling agent that works 24/7 without requiring Calendly links
• Perplexity Comment functions as an AI tutor for YouTube videos, allowing users to ask questions about video content
• Custom GPT for new hire onboarding eliminates repetitive questions by containing company SOPs, policies, and team information
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