Sam Levan

How AI‑native leaders build second brains

Learn from others what it is, and what they do with it.

You can't call yourself an AI-native leader if you haven't built a solid second brain, for yourself first and then for your team.

Don't know what that is? You're not behind. It's a new skill, a human one, and most of what's written about it is noise.

I share here what I learn from other execs: what they built, how they use it every day, and what I'm building myself.

Have a second brain? Let's talk.

New to second brains?

A second brain is everything your AI needs to know about how you and your company work: the decisions, the processes and best practices, the brand, the meetings and emails behind them.

Why do leaders build one? They want to:

  • reduce cognitive and information overload
  • make better decisions, faster
  • create a learning loop that makes Claude (or whatever AI they use) more useful over time
  • build a knowledge pool that outlives the AI tools, and even their role in the company
  • build automations and workflows that give them and their team leverage
  • have more time for... being human
Maxime Gaudin, CTO at Gladia, on why he built his own second brain. 60 sec.

See the setup of other AI‑native leaders

I ask every guest to open theirs: the machines, the files, the process.

Maxime Gaudin
CTO, Gladia
A Mac mini, a local Git, and a pile of paper that searches itself
  • A Mac mini at home, unreachable from outside the house
  • Giddy: his own small Git service, a local GitHub, where every email, Slack, WhatsApp and meeting lives
  • Paper Trail: an app on top that indexes a pile of scanned paper and searches it, no folders
  • Cursor as the front door, OpenCode + OpenRouter to switch models

See what they do with their second brain

Building a second brain is fun(?). But what for? Let's hear it.

Maxime Gaudin

How to start the day like a champ

Emails, Slack, WhatsApp, Linear and the news, triaged and read to him while he trains. "I walk in feeling in control."

Maxime Gaudin

How to improve (and defend) business decisions

Who decided what, in which context, kept where the AI and the team can both see it.

Maxime Gaudin

How to create decks that engage fast

Markdown outline first, every claim checked against the brain, then the agent makes it pretty. 20 minutes a slide.