AI & Solopreneurs: The Untold Future of Work!

Hi, I'm Amy Shapiro, journalist at CEK. I'm here today with Anat Dyagi, the CEO and founder of Midsummer. Anat, thank you so much for joining us. >> Hey, thanks for having me. >> It's such a pleasure to have you. >> Thank you. It's such a pleasure to be here. >> Wonderful. Well, to start off with, um, can you tell us a bit about Midsummer? What is it that led you to start this venture? >> Um, maybe I'll, uh, first, uh, tell

about how I came to it. It's uh we have our own book club, me and some friends, >> and uh we listen mainly to audio books and there's like this trend of um the romanty books. It's like fiction books and uh we really enjoy the graphic audio productions. It's like a dramatized audio with a full cast of actors and background music. It's like listening to a movie and it gives you that same unwind. Um, but it takes months to produce and I was like I was tired of waiting for them to produce the next chapter, the next um not chapter, the next series uh the next um book in the series. Um so I was uh joking with my friends. I was telling that maybe I'll try to do it myself. And uh long story very very very very short. Uh here we are in Midsummer which does dramatized audio productions. And so for the

layman, what is a dramatized audio production as opposed to like a traditional audio book? >> Okay, so normally audio books are like one nar narrator and it's very flat. And when you listen to um fiction uh books, it's really annoying to listen to one person does all the voices like a male does female and uh vice versa. It's like really really hard to listen. Um, so I love the the dramatized audio which gives it the real effect of like immersive in the book like fun listening, >> right? And so obviously this idea

started with you and your friends in this book club, but when you're thinking of the audience for Midsummer, who is it that you envision will enjoy this? Because it seems like it could be for everyone, readers, non-readers. So um my uh like target audience is actually not the listeners so much but the authors who loves to like they love to hear their um their characters come to life. >> It's for them it's like I wish I had a photo of every like author that I um made his uh initial chapter anyway because we're like in a very initial stage. Uh so they're like no way like the the jaw is dropping and it's like for them it's the most fun uh experience here in it come to life. Um so initially I'm I'm turning to authors and publishers and like it's really now launching in these days. >> So we're starting uh our marketing.

>> Fantastic. So talk to me about being a soloreneur. >> Yes. So, I've been soloreneuring it since uh it just started off as like a fun side project and that got demand uh which is always great. Uh I didn't really have the time to even find a co-founder. So, so here I am and it's really difficult because you have to do it all. But as somebody that worked in tech and used to um work in a team and like you have the designer and the development and every like the communication takes time and everything takes really really long like being a solopreneur these days when AI is so

enabling. Well Well I think it's like we're going to see a lot more of solopreneurs. >> Right. I was going to ask because I understand Midsummer's quite a quite a new startup. >> Yeah. that was it AI that enabled you to start it now and how uh what are the challenges and opportunities specifically with AI versus working with contractors or uh other employees? >> I think that um not like the the initial

like for somebody that doesn't really know how to work with it and doesn't really know how AI works. I think like thinking that everybody can now is not like feasible. It's still requires to read the code. I always encourage read the code. Read the code because you will be surprised what AI puts in there. Um, so I always encourage to read the code and you have to be on it and to understand. AI also isn't creative and doesn't really know the use case that you're doing and what's because it doesn't know new stuff. It only knows old stuff. That's how it works. Um, so basically working with an a an ALS

multitaskers and people that are like that have a lot of like multifunctions that are able and know a little bit of marketing and know a little bit of development and know a little bit of like product and design and like it really enables the multitaskers and the like multi-talent people do more. >> So >> speaking of 2026 is just around the

corner. >> Yeah. What uh what milestones are you looking to achieve? What are we hoping to expect from Midsummer in 2026? >> Oh, producing so many books um enabling authors to see like uh to hear their uh creations come to life and like mainly producing books. That's like my personal goal. Um as many as possible. >> Fantastic. Well, it looks like 2026 or it sounds like 2026 is going to be a big year for Midsummer and I can't wait to see what comes for you. Thank you so much, Anat, for your time.