On this episode of Redacted, we skip the guests and get back to the heart of the show: what it really looks like to build and run Offline with AI in 2026.

David walks through the Hot List, a prototype feed of restaurants opening around Raleigh. An AI monitors Instagram and local news the way a person would, and David built the front end by having Claude recreate Offline's existing app with the new data. Taylor then shows the other half of the loop: a homegrown survey tool that embeds the live prototype, plays an intro video, and asks AI-generated follow-up questions based on each person's answers.

From there, the conversation turns to strategy. We cover Offline's North Star metric, the inactive members they most want to reach, and the evidence-guided approach that starts with the most basic question of all: are people even going out to eat?

The episode closes with a bonus segment on rebuilding the company website in roughly an hour of human time, and what that says about how small teams can multiply their output with agents.

Timestamps
00:00 Cold open
00:45 Welcome back: just the two of us
01:55 Showing how it came together, not just what we built
02:40 The old prototype → interview → meeting loop
03:50 Introducing the Hot List
05:40 The Updates tab and opening-day reels
07:20 Back end: hiring an AI to watch the city
09:10 RapidAPI and monitoring Instagram
11:50 Borrowing the Offline app's skeleton
13:20 How do we put this in front of users?
14:15 Taylor's AI-powered survey tool
16:45 Survey requirements off-the-shelf tools can't hit
19:45 AI follow-up questions on Cloudflare
21:20 Checking Typeform's AI forms
23:50 North Star metric and the inactive cohort
26:35 An agent to watch the numbers
27:25 If you hired a head of product
30:45 Evidence Guided, RICE and ICE
32:05 Are they even going out to eat?
34:15 Packaging the show into chapters & wrap
35:55 Bonus: rebuilding the website in an hour
41:30 SEO, AI search, and Webflow's MCP

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Show notes from the episode: https://github.com/instanttaylor/redacted-podcast

Where to Find David:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidshaner/

Where to Find Taylor:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorcotner/

More about Offline: https://www.linkedin.com/company/offline-media-inc-/

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This episode of Redacted is hosted by David Shaner and Taylor Cotner, and presented and produced by NC Tweener Fund.

We couldn’t share posts like this without our amazing sponsors:

Platinum:
NC IDEA: https://ncidea.org

Gold Sponsors:
- Balentine: https://www.balentine.com/triangle-entrepreneurs
- EisnerAmpner: https://www.eisneramper.com
- Robinson Bradshaw: https://www.robinsonbradshaw.com

Silver Sponsors:
- Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co
- Bank of America: https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/technology-industry-group.html

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• Atomic Object: https://atomicobject.com/