From D1 Olympic hopeful to building apps with 175K+ downloads to Microsoft engineer, Matt Steel's journey proves discipline translates across domains.

In this episode, we dive into the real challenges of building responsibly, scaling products that matter, and preparing the next generation for the AI era.

What You'll Learn:

1. How competitive athletics prepares you for entrepreneurship

2. The truth about AI bias and responsible product development

3. Why Matt sold Catcher (his viral fishing app) and the weight of that decision

4. Platform risk: The lesson that killed his first AI project

5. Critical AI safety concerns every parent and teen should know

6. The mindset shift teens need TODAY to thrive in an AI-powered world

Key Moments:

0:00 - Introduction

2:08 - From D1 swimmer to tech builder

4:03 - Building Hair Match: Fighting AI bias

5:25 - The biggest risk in consumer AI nobody talks about

7:06 - Selling Catcher: The hardest decision

9:12 - High-performance decision making (rapid fire!)

10:30 - The AI homework helper that got shut down

12:53 - Best path for combining AI + UX design

14:14 - The ONE mindset shift every teen needs

Matt's Core Message:

Don't just use AI tools lazily – learn to augment yourself with them. The gap between good and great is expanding exponentially, and the winners will be those who master these tools deeply, not superficially.

About AI Parenting Institute:

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Mentioned in this episode:

Catcher App (gamified sport fishing)

Hair Match (AI-powered hair recommendations)

Canvas LMS

ChatGPT, Perplexity

Georgia Tech AI program

Rayyan’s

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_YveALQKZud6U6wycjqi_w Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19Ens04rVPTbIla73sVxPL?si=96d802812f384582 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-parenting-institute-podcast/id1843665900 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayyan-s-ali/

Matt’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpsteele/

Website: https://www.mattsteele.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steelecodes/

Got questions or want to suggest a guest? Drop them in the comments!

If this conversation changed how you think about AI and parenting, hit like and share with other families building the future.

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