Building with AI
Mak Banjac builds with the current generation of AI models — not as an engineer buried in the internals, but as the entrepreneur who turns that capability into a product or a venture. The bias is toward shipping: a working thing, in front of real users, fast. Where a lot of AI talk stops at a demo, his instinct is to get something useful into the world and improve it from there.
The reason AI fits him is the same reason refurbishment did years earlier. It is a domain where the raw material is abundant and the people who can turn it into something real are scarce. That gap is exactly where an entrepreneur wants to be standing.
Shipping, not slideware
His bias is toward systems that actually run. Not a prototype that hints at an idea, but a working, automated version a real user can try. When a small team needs to get from concept to a functioning product quickly, that speed is the contribution he brings.
Making: 3D Printing
Away from any business, the same instinct runs on a 3D printer. He takes a digital design and produces a physical object he can hold. Where AI turns an idea into a product, the printer turns it into matter — the maker reflex expressed in plastic instead of pixels.
Where It Started: Refurbishment
The first proof of the pattern was hardware. At seventeen he sourced discarded MacBooks and Apple accessories, restored them, and put them back into the world with their value intact — a funded venture run under DISTI doo. It taught him margins, logistics, and the discipline of shipping something a customer can judge on the spot. The full story →