Edition 8: Humans of Build Club

An inside peak inside the arena, spotlighting builders turning their dreams into reality.

Humans of Build Club

[Edition #8] Interview with Andrew Suryanto, with Rebecca Williams & Annie.

Welcome to the 8th edition of the Humans of Build Club newsletter, a series spotlighting the authentic human story of ambitious AI builders 🚀👩‍💻⚙️ Sign up for new stories!

This week, we’re chatting with Andrew Suryanto, who is the founder of Airal: An AI development agency and AI startup. His agency builds chatbots and AI applications for anyone who needs them with the vision to productize this process. He is also the President of UNSW’s AI Society, and a supportive and active fellow of Build Club.

How did it all start? What was the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey like?

From a young age, I always wanted to be the inventor with a workshop, perpetually building, iterating and innovating on new technologies.

I didn't have much clarity on how exactly to do this so I settled on the easiest thing to work on and build from scratch, which would be software. The ceiling of software projects seemed incredibly high and the barrier to entry was pretty low. No materials are required for software, no cleanup and no physical storage either.

The start of my entrepreneurial journey was creating custom clothes, where I found that I could make good enough products but didn't have anyone to sell to and I wasn’t aware of the markets commonly used by people doing handmade crafts.

That endeavour failed so I decided I needed the ability to market and a support network. That brought me to The Builder's Club.

What inspires you as an entrepreneur?

Passion, drive, ambition and the fire in someone's eyes that ignites when talking about something.

Whenever I see that, I want to meet them, know them and help them. We need more of these people in the world.

How do you acquire your technical expertise for the projects you work on?

Youtube, failing over and over again and more recently, AI. Uni studies aren't able to adapt fast enough to the almost weekly updates to the AI landscape.

Why do you do what you do?

My why as an entrepreneur and current president of UNSW's AI Society in this AI chapter is to educate and assist industries that arent software or software-adjacent to get acquainted and be able to use this technology.

Why? As fascinating and amazing as AI is, it is dangerous. Today's human society is not ready for the responsibility, power or change AI brings to the table and now that AI is out in the world, it will be used for every single one of its millions of use cases.

My mission is to spread awareness of what it is and how it can be used responsibly to minimise the inequality that would arise between those with AI and those without AI.

What are you most excited about right now?

I am very excited about the current state of my society. It really lifts my spirits to see my internal team working so hard to bring AI to the forefront of public consciousness at UNSW.

What are you building right now?

Right now, I am building a bespoke AI solutions workshop; Workshop Airal. Workshop Airal will serve as an AI R&D lab for smaller businesses and companies without in-house AI capability, providing development and consultancy services. My aim is to have a library of free guides, templates and software and upsell to more customized services when required.

To be the “Workshop the Hero comes to for the Weapon to slay their Dragon”

Additionally, I am also in the process of scaling UNSW’s AI Society as it’s president elect, conducting social and educational events to provide a space for anyone interested in AI to connect and learn.

Do you have an ask for people reading this post?

I could have many different asks, but I'll keep it to just one: Should you want to collaborate with me or my mission in any capacity, reach out. My (virtual) door is always open.

You can stay up to date with Andrew Suryanto’s builder journey by following their LinkedIn here

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