Bethany Crystal is on track to generate $500K in revenue this year with no full-time employees. The software behind her business (sales pipeline, invoicing, collections, an AI training app, and an AI teammate that literally sits in on her meetings) wasn’t purchased off the shelf. She assembled and customized it using tools like Claude Code without writing any code.

18 months ago she joined us at NYU with a failing iOS app and no plan. Now she'll show you exactly what changed. In this session, she'll offer a peek under the hood at the real system running her real business and the story of the two pivots it took to get here. Then she'll facilitate a hands-on build in Claude Code where you'll start your own business OS before you leave the room.

If you've been waiting for proof that you don't need a technical co-founder to start something real, this is it. Bring your laptop, stay for Q&A.

About Bethany: Bethany Crystal (formerly Union Square Ventures, Stack Overflow, Tech:NYC) is the founder of Build First, an AI learning lab that has trained 3,000+ people, ages 8 to 80, to build their first AI-powered tools.

NOTE: THIS EVENT IS ONLY OPEN TO CURRENT NYU STUDENTS, FACULTY, & STAFF. EACH ATTENDEE WILL BE REQUIRED TO SIGN IN WITH THEIR NYU ID CARD

THIS EVENT IS NOT OPEN TO ALUMNI