Aakash Gupta is a creator, product advisor, author, and the host of one of the most popular newsletters, podcasts, and social accounts for product managers and AI builders. He built a following of over 350,000 people on LinkedIn through six years of daily posting and now uses AI to create leverage across his work and family life.
He’s also a dad of two who stepped away from a VP of Product role to build a career with more flexibility and be more present with his kids. Aakash joins Startup Dad to share how he built a Parent OS using Claude Code, AI agents, and automations to manage the invisible workload of parenting. We discussed:
- Building a Parent OS with AI: How Aakash created a personal operating system that combines context libraries, AI skills, and automations to manage family logistics, reminders, and everyday parenting tasks.
- Using AI to become a more present parent: Why Aakash believes AI’s biggest benefit is not more screen time, but reducing the amount of time parents spend on their phones handling tasks in front of their kids.
- Creating personalized AI storytelling: How Aakash built a storytelling system that remembers his kids’ preferences, previous stories, and family values to create better experiences for his children.
- Automating the invisible work of family life: How AI helps manage school applications, activity registrations, subscriptions, travel planning, and reminders that usually fall on parents to track manually.
- Turning AI into a family coordination system: How Aakash uses AI as a shared operating layer between him and his wife to keep everyone aligned without constant communication.
- Why parents should start building with AI now: Why Aakash believes every parent should learn how to use AI effectively, not just for productivity, but to prepare their families for a future where AI becomes part of everyday life.
Aakash’s Open Source Parent OS
https://github.com/aakashg/parenting-os
Where to find Aakash Gupta
Where to find Adam Fishman
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Welcoming Aakash Gupta, author and podcast host
(04:55) Why Claude is the most powerful software ever built
(07:11) Why AI is underused by families
(10:42) Being a father first, creator second
(12:29) Leaving a VP of Product role for his family
(15:16) Advice for dads considering the creator path
(17:44) Calendar non-negotiables and daily time blocking
(21:51) Building AI-powered storytelling for his kids
(26:22) Inside the Parent OS: a live demo
(37:48) The automations his family uses most
(43:39) Where AI automation fell short
(46:39) How to build your own Parent OS from scratch
(52:37) How AI scored a free museum day in Poland
(1:01:19) Advice for builders about to become parents
Resources From This Episode:
Parent OS: https://github.com/aakashg/parenting-os
Product Growth: https://www.news.aakashg.com/
The Growth Podcast: https://www.news.aakashg.com/s/product-growth-podcast
Claude: https://claude.ai/
Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code
Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/
Cursor: https://cursor.com/
Whisper Flow: https://whisperflow.ai/
MCP (Model Context Protocol): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/
GitHub: https://github.com/
Notion: https://www.notion.com/
Slack: https://slack.com/
Canva: https://www.canva.com/
Figma: https://www.figma.com/
Typefully: https://typefully.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/
Claude Opus: https://claude.ai/
ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/
OpenAI: https://openai.com/
Codex: https://openai.com/codex/
Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/
Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/
Google Flights: https://www.google.com/travel/flights
Air Zoo: https://www.airzoo.org/
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: https://imaginationlibrary.com/
Alien (Film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/
Inside Out (Film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/
Kia Telluride (Car): https://www.kia.com/us/en/telluride
Hyundai Palisade (Car): https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/vehicles/palisade
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