TL;DR? Two months ago, my co-founders and I embarked on a thrilling expedition into the vast universe of generative AI, launching our venture, Time Under Tension. Our mission? To help agencies and brands unlock the immense potential of AI and redefine their consumer experiences. If you’re intrigued by the disruptive force of generative AI, or if you’re simply curious about the rollercoaster ride of running a start-up in the tech space, I invite you to step into our world. This article provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into our journey so far, the challenges we’ve overcome, the milestones we’ve reached, and the exciting road ahead. Get ready for an inspiring insight into the future of AI and the birth of a business at the heart of it.

🚀 Reflections 2 months in

It’s been 2 months almost to the day since we (3 co-founders) shook hands and agreed to launch Time Under Tension, a business focussed on helping agencies and brands use generative AI to create amazing new experiences.

Whilst I’m usually my own harshest critic, I’ve got to admit I’m taken aback by how much we’ve achieved in a very short space of time. Whilst the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” might be true, keeping the boats afloat, let alone sailing them through the generative AI hype, is a different matter altogether.

Fast forward 2 months, we already have a clearly defined offering, an (ever evolving) method, a strong belief (or beliefs!) that drive us and critically have already signed on clients who trust and believe in what we’re doing.

So, if not for myself, I thought it would be useful to put into words the things that have been happening behind the scenes, the questions we’ve asked ourselves along the way and what we feel about the road ahead.

💥 Taking a lead position on the next boom era

The early days of the internet were a bit like the wild west – but for those who weren’t around back then, it felt very similar then to the hype around generative AI today. Back then, large companies like Microsoft, Intel, AOL sparked and fanned the flames of the internet boom, new titans like Google, Amazon and Ebay emerged and many (many!) “new age” agencies launched to help clients traverse the new space … all powered by the excitement of the world having a new means and purpose for interfacing with their screens.

The parallels (and our excitement at the new experiences being made possible) between todays generative AI boom with the internet boom years couldn’t be any clearer. We wanted in.

🤨 Firstly, deciding exactly what we want to do

We started by asking what is it we want to do, to be famous for? Drawing parallels from yesteryear and the excitement of what’s possible today with generative AI, we all share a passion for the new conversational era unfolding around us.

We pretty quickly agreed that “G-S-D” (Getting Shit Done!) is where we want to be. Build a portfolio of creative, meaningful, purposeful, outcome led work.

• Designing and building new conversational experiences
• Working with new generative AI creative tools
• Defining new generative AI assisted business processes
• Exploring the unknown and helping clients find answers

We needed a website (and Twitter and LinkedIn and Instagram) where we could clearly articulate our vision and views.

🥁 Drumroll please!

With a strong network between us we soft launched Time Under Tension to our LinkedIn network and at the inaugural Dazed & Diffused event (more about that later) which Tim and Yash had started planning a few weeks earlier.

It’s always heartwarming to get such positive feedback when launching something new and exciting … but now the real work (getting work!) starts.

The boring, not so boring, stuff!

Amongst the many other back-office logistics (company formation, accounting software bla and bla) there were choices to make on our tooling, the biggest was Microsoft Office or Google Workspaces. After a brief stint on Google, we u-turned and chose Microsoft, in no small part down to their direction with integrating ChatGPT into Office through Office Copilot.

Amongst other collaboration tools, we started to use a shared version of mymind to keep track of the daily cool stuff we come across, which we came across thanks to YouTuber Matt Wolfe.

🏗️ Next, getting some shit done!

Between the three of us there is no shortage of opinions and curiosity. So, there’s not been a better time to get back on the tools than now! And on the tools we are. In the short space of time we’ve managed to do a fair amount (I am sure to miss a lot!), but in summary we’ve;

• Launched multiple prototypes (up on our Imagine section of the website)
• Set up and played with the technical infrastructure (e.g. AWS, Azure) for LLMs and to enable our PoC’s
• Created hundreds if not thousands of generated AI assets (images, text, video, 3d, music and more!)
• Played with virtually every major new tool launched, from asset creation (like Firefly, Dalle2, ChatGPT, Runway ML and many many more!) to dedicated AI solutions (like MyAskAI and countless GPT enabled plug-ins, extensions and more)
• Even launched apps with code 100% written by AI
• Inevitably became prompting masters in the process of all this

The things we’ve learnt probably deserve a blog post of their own!

📣 Talking, talking, a whole lot of talking!

With the hype the way it is, it’s almost impossible to avoid conversations about generative AI. Since launching Time Under Tension, we’ve been graciously invited to talk at a number of events, which has the dual benefit of helping us with exposure and also being another opportunity to share our excitement of experiences made possible thanks to generative AI.

Between the three of us we’re covering a lot of ground! We’re sitting on panels including at Canva recently where we discussed the role of generative AI on product designers. We’re being invited to a selection of cross industry events from Retail to Financial Advisors.

And we’re humbled that we’re continuously getting invited to other talking opportunities too.

🙋🏽‍♂️ Dazed & Diffused

As the space was gaining momentum last year Tim O’Neill (Time Under Tension) & Yash Varma (Empress Capital) had the foresight to take a community approach to generative AI. They launched “Dazed & Diffused” – the first generative AI meetup (hosted in Melbourne and Sydney).

Now onto it’s forth meetup, the event has rapidly grown in numbers with over 100 AI ventures, enthusiasts, artists and curious folk attending the last one to hear amazing stories from the community.

Dazed & Diffused is definitely something we will continue to organise as the community interest gets stronger each day.

📱 Sharing and caring as we go

For those who follow us on socials, you’ll be aware we’re active – very active! It’s almost impossible not to be with so many new things emerging every day. New LLM models (from ChatGPT to Pi, open source and more), new tools (from the big ones like Adobe to emerging Text-To-Video tools like Runway ML), new creative methods and new experiences … we try to cover as much as possible and share things as we learn with our network.

🤑 Crunch time, does it work (spoiler, hell yes!)

While it’s still early days, I’m super proud to say we have already signed on clients (with a number more close to joining). Our toolkit, training & workshopping assets, methods and ideas are forming quicker than we planned (or can keep up) and it doesn’t even feel like we’ve gotten started yet.

The road ahead

With so much done in just 2 months (not withstanding all the things I’ve left off or forgotten to include here!), we’re pumped about being so deep in the generative AI space. Needless to say there is so much more for us to do and for the generative AI space to evolve too. But given what the first 2 months have looked like, I’ve got no doubt we’re in for some fun times ahead!

If this sounds interesting to you and you want to work with us to forge ahead in this new space, drop me a line.