{
  "name": "Yusuf Young",
  "formerly": "Yusuf Hasanogullari",
  "tagline": "I build technology that adapts to the people using it.",
  "intro": "I am actively researching SkillSiftr and building Aether Many and CRM From Within. SkillSiftr explores how experienced people can move into work the AI economy needs. Aether Many and CRM From Within are part of a broader sovereign-AI thesis: people and companies should own the intelligence, software, and data they depend on. I also share Robotaxi Predictor, a project I built from personal interest. Before these, I built and exited FunnelBud.",
  "email": "yusuf@yusufyoung.com",
  "links": {
    "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yusufyoung/",
    "x": "https://x.com/yusufyoung"
  },
  "projects": [
    {
      "name": "SkillSiftr",
      "url": "https://www.skillsiftr.com/",
      "group": "building",
      "status": "active research",
      "description": "A research-stage project for helping mid-career U.S. professionals move from work disrupted by generative AI into AI implementation, governance, operations, and technology-transformation roles. I am speaking with companies about their needs and designing the first complete transition to test. The planned base is Austin, Texas.",
      "more_url": "https://www.skillsiftr.com/research/",
      "more_label": "See the active research"
    },
    {
      "name": "Aether Many",
      "url": "https://aethermany.com/",
      "group": "building",
      "status": "in development",
      "description": "A personal AI agent that learns how you work, builds new abilities, and cooperates with other independently owned agents without giving up your control. I want people to own the intelligence that acts for them."
    },
    {
      "name": "CRM From Within",
      "url": "https://crmfromwithin.com/en",
      "group": "building",
      "status": "in development",
      "description": "A service that builds an SME's first CRM around how the company already works. The company owns the software. CRM From Within can also build a better-fitting replacement before helping an existing CRM customer move into it.",
      "more_url": "/crm-as-a-service/",
      "more_label": "How the idea developed"
    },
    {
      "name": "Works Like Us",
      "url": "https://workslikeus.com/en",
      "group": "concepts",
      "status": "early concept",
      "description": "AI trained for one company, owned and run by that company. Works Like Us fine-tunes an open model on approved examples of how the company works, improves it through feedback, and runs it on infrastructure the company controls."
    },
    {
      "name": "Company Native",
      "url": "https://companynative.com/",
      "group": "concepts",
      "status": "early concept",
      "description": "A concept for replacing generic rented software with custom software a company owns. Company Native would carry over the existing data and workflows, help users move safely, and maintain the new system."
    },
    {
      "name": "Robotaxi Predictor",
      "url": "https://robotaxipredictor.com/",
      "group": "shared",
      "status": "personal project",
      "description": "A Tesla robotaxi fleet tracker I built for myself and decided to share. It estimates how many vehicles appear active and compares the rollout with published investor expectations."
    },
    {
      "name": "FIRE Decision Lab",
      "url": "https://firedecisionlab.com/",
      "group": "shared",
      "status": "Archived \u00b7 September 2026",
      "description": "I wanted to know whether a portfolio could fund spending indefinitely. I turned that research into a free planner, strategy comparisons, articles and tools for practising difficult market decisions. I stopped work in September 2026 after attempts to build a regular audience did not gain traction. The completed work remains available."
    }
  ],
  "track_record": [
    {
      "name": "FunnelBud",
      "url": "https://www.funnelbud.com/",
      "role": "Founder and CEO",
      "result": "Founded and built the CRM and marketing automation company before Holdflight acquired it in 2025.",
      "evidence_url": "/documents/holdflight-funnelbud-acquisition-2025.pdf",
      "evidence_label": "Holdflight's acquisition announcement"
    },
    {
      "name": "AI trading bot",
      "url": "/the-hardest-part-of-my-ai-trading-bot-was-the-software-around-it/",
      "url_label": "Read about the bot",
      "role": "Private project \u00b7 live",
      "result": "I used to spend a lot of effort reading public sources and trading on them by hand. My bot now does that part, so I can focus on the trading that matters most to me and that I enjoy thinking through myself. Here's what building it taught me about the future of software."
    },
    {
      "name": "Cirrato",
      "url": "https://www.lrsoutputmanagement.com/products/cirrato/",
      "role": "Global marketing",
      "result": "Built the company's inbound marketing and sales process."
    },
    {
      "name": "Oracle",
      "url": "https://www.oracle.com/",
      "role": "Sales",
      "result": "Worked in technology sales before leaving to build FunnelBud."
    }
  ],
  "positions": [
    {
      "kind": "belief",
      "title": "The sovereign-AI thesis",
      "heading": "Own the intelligence, software, and data you depend on",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/thesis/",
      "summary": "People and companies are building more of their work around AI and software they do not control. A provider can change the model, price, rules, or access. Generic systems also push different people and companies toward the same way of working.",
      "full_text": "People and companies are building more of their work around AI and software they do not control. A provider can change the model, price, rules, or access. Generic systems also push different people and companies toward the same way of working. I use \u201csovereign AI\u201d to mean something simple: the person or company relying on the intelligence should control it. The same principle applies to software and data. They should adapt to their owner, preserve what makes that owner different, and remain portable when a provider changes. That thesis leads to several projects, not one generic consultancy. Each project has a different customer job and must get better at a different repeatable process. I am actively building Aether Many and CRM From Within. Works Like Us and Company Native are earlier concepts. Aether Many is the agent runtime. It is meant to let each person or company run agents that learn, build abilities, and cooperate while remaining accountable to their owner. CRM From Within builds an SME's first CRM around how that company already works. It can also build the better-fitting replacement before helping a company move out of an existing CRM. The company owns the resulting software. Works Like Us explores company intelligence. It would fine-tune open models on approved examples of one company's work, run the model on infrastructure the company controls, and improve it through feedback. Company Native explores software migration beyond CRM. It would replace existing generic SaaS with custom software while carrying over data, workflows, and users. It stays separate because migration risk and retraining are different work from building a CRM or training a model. The common thread is ownership. The reason for separate brands is specialization: agent infrastructure, CRM building, model training, and system migration create different skills that should improve with each user or customer. I wrote earlier about the path from language models to more general intelligence and why privacy in an agent is a judgment problem."
    }
  ],
  "writing": [
    {
      "title": "Why I think AI agents will replace much of today\u2019s software",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/the-hardest-part-of-my-ai-trading-bot-was-the-software-around-it/",
      "date": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "Privacy in AI agents is a judgment problem, not a classification problem",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/agent-privacy-is-a-judgment-problem/",
      "date": "2026-04-10"
    },
    {
      "title": "The future of value [IN PROGRESS]",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/the-future-of-value/",
      "date": "2025-12-26"
    },
    {
      "title": "How to combine bottom-up and top-down problem-solution finding to create genius level new companies",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/how-to-combine-bottom-up-and-top-down-problem-solution-finding-to-create-genius-level-new-companies/",
      "date": "2025-11-29"
    },
    {
      "title": "What is CRM and how will it change in the age of abundant intelligence?",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/what-is-crm-and-how-will-it-change-in-the-age-of-abundant-intelligence/",
      "date": "2024-12-21"
    },
    {
      "title": "The strategy mistake I made at FunnelBud for years",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/the-strategy-mistake-i-made-at-funnelbud/",
      "date": "2024-10-19"
    },
    {
      "title": "The path from LLMs to AGI",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/the-path-from-llms-to-agi/",
      "date": "2024-07-14"
    },
    {
      "title": "Comprehensive Guide: How to understand what your customers need based on qualitative interviews",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/comprehensive-guide-how-to-understand-what-your-customers-need-based-on-qualitative-interviews/",
      "date": "2024-07-06"
    },
    {
      "title": "How the software industry will change when development cost nears zero (who will still make money?)",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/how-the-software-industry-will-change-when-development-cost-nears-zero-who-will-still-make-money/",
      "date": "2023-06-16"
    }
  ],
  "pages": [
    {
      "title": "From CRM As A Service to CRM From Within",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/crm-as-a-service/",
      "description": "CRM From Within is an in-development service that builds an SME's first CRM around how the company already works."
    },
    {
      "title": "How I decide",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/how-i-decide/",
      "description": "Principle-centred decision making, an acceptable worst case, and maximum optionality."
    },
    {
      "title": "Privacy",
      "url": "https://yusufyoung.com/privacy/",
      "description": "Your choices for visitor measurement and how Aether, Yusuf's website AI assistant, handles conversations."
    }
  ],
  "looking_for": [
    "Use or shape one of the products. Tell the assistant which product you are considering and what you need it to do. Start here.",
    "Build something together. I want to meet engineers, researchers, and operators whose skills fit a concrete part of the work. Describe the fit.",
    "Discuss investment or a business partnership. Share the company, stage, and question you want to explore. Give the context.",
    "Hire me for a hard product, growth, or AI problem. Explain the outcome you need, the constraints, and the timing. Explain the problem."
  ]
}