Builder First, Founder Second

Jeremy Toeman doesn’t call himself an entrepreneur. He’s a builder.

Always has been.

His first invention was a self-feeding cat dispenser made from an old coffee can and some duct tape. He was nine.

That instinct—to solve a problem with whatever tools were available—stayed with him. Whether it was assembling computers in high school, renting out Super Nintendo games to his classmates for a dollar a week, or launching his first web consultancy in 1995, Jeremy was never chasing a title. He was chasing the joy of creating something real.

“I never really planted a flag that said, ‘I’m an entrepreneur, I just like building things. That’s the common thread.”

That clarity has guided a career that’s spanned both startup trenches and billion-dollar media companies. Jeremy helped launch products at Vudu, Sonos, and Boxee. He was the first hire at Sling Media, helping transform a wild vision into a product that actually worked. He’s been a fractional CPO, a corporate innovation lead, and a startup founder multiple times over.

But the path has never been linear.

After selling his last startup and spending several years in big tech—most recently leading product at WarnerMedia—Jeremy was itching to build again. He had seven startup ideas on the table. He wasn’t sure he’d pursue any of them.

Then, two back-to-back lunches changed everything.

“The first guy said, ‘That one’s the winner—do it and I’ll advise you,’” Jeremy says. “The next day, another person said, ‘If you do that one, I’ll fund it.’ That was my sign.”

The idea? Augie—an AI-powered growth engine for modern marketers..

Like most of Jeremy’s ideas, it came from trying to solve his own problem. He was running a podcast with a friend during the pandemic and needed a way to make short, engaging videos to promote it. But everything felt clunky. Slow. Complicated.

“Why is making video this hard?” he thought.

So he built a prototype and showed it to the friend—JT White—who eventually joined him as co-founder. They launched Augie in early 2022.

The idea was simple: help individuals and companies create professional-grade video content, without needing a production team or editing expertise. But the execution wasn’t.

Jeremy knew the market was about to get crowded. When they started, the buzz around generative AI was just beginning. Within months, dozens of startups were chasing the same space. And then OpenAI released ChatGPT.

“Suddenly, our technical advantage kind of vanished overnight,” he says. “Everyone could slap a UI on top of ChatGPT and call it a product. The whole category exploded.”

But Jeremy wasn’t trying to be a wrapper. He and JT focused on product depth. Rather than solve one piece of the video creation process, Auggie solved all of it—script writing, asset sourcing, editing, subtitling, and publishing. In one platform.

Their belief was simple: the winners wouldn’t be the flashiest. They’d be the stickiest.

“When we get in the room with a marketing team and walk them through Auggie, they don’t leave,” Jeremy says. “We’ve had almost zero churn on the customers we’ve worked with directly.”

It hasn’t been easy. And Jeremy’s honest about that.

The funding climate changed just as they launched. The tech landscape shifted daily. And competing with OpenAI means waking up every week wondering if the next product announcement will put you out of business.

But he also knows what not to do.

“There’s an advantage to being an older founder,” he says. “I’ve already made most of the mistakes. I don’t need to burn money on flashy branding or growth hacks that don’t scale. I know what matters.”

What’s mattered most so far? Speed, partnerships, and knowing the user.

Jeremy and JT used their networks to lock in key relationships early—like their partnership with Getty Images, which gave them instant credibility with major publishers and corporate clients. They joined TikTok’s business program. And they kept the product evolving fast enough to stay ahead of the noise.

But perhaps most importantly, they’ve stayed focused on real use cases.

“We’re not chasing hype,” Jeremy says. “We’re trying to solve the entire problem, not just one part.”

That shows in the product. While other AI tools offer single features—automated subtitles, voiceovers, or stock clips—Auggie integrates it all. And it does so in a way that respects the user’s content.

“If you upload something to Augie, we’re not training a model on it,” Jeremy says. “We’re not mining your data. We’re just trying to help you make great video, fast.”

The company isn’t chasing scale at all costs. It’s focused on staying useful—and staying alive.

“We’re not the loudest,” Jeremy says. “But we’re still here. That counts for something.”

When asked about what makes Augie stand out, Jeremy doesn’t default to tech. He talks about trust. Depth. Customer success. The long view.

“We believe there’s going to be a lot of shakeout in this space,” he says. “People don’t want 15 AI tools. They want one that works. We’re betting that solving more of the problem makes us more valuable over time.”

He’s betting on product. On reputation. And on being just a little more thoughtful than the next guy.

And that, for a lifelong builder, feels like the right bet to make.

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