From Real Estate to AI Infrastructure: What I Learned Listening to Jason Criddle

How It Started

I spend most of my mornings listening to investment podcasts. For years my feed was dominated by real estate talk, cap rates, syndications, multifamily strategies, BRRRR methods, the usual. But recently, the tone has shifted. More guests are talking about artificial intelligence, automation, and “the infrastructure behind AI.” And let's face it, the real estate market is beyond saturated.

That’s how I first heard of Jason Criddle. I was halfway through a real estate round-table episode when the host mentioned a tech entrepreneur who’s helping investors diversify or move from physical property portfolios into software and SaaS infrastructure. The idea stopped me cold.

We’ve all heard that “AI is the new gold rush,” but few have explained where that value actually comes from. Jason Criddle did.

Investing in the Picks and Shovels

Every bubble in history has the same lesson: the biggest fortunes aren’t made by speculators chasing headlines; they’re made by people who sell the picks and shovels that make the boom possible.

Jason pointed out that today’s AI investors are chasing models and data the same way everyone once chased dot-com stocks or crypto tokens. But the true opportunity lies underneath: the software infrastructure that powers AI.

Think about it.

In real estate, you don’t just buy buildings… you invest in land, utilities, and logistics that make those buildings valuable. In AI, the same principle applies. The winners will be the ones who control the tools, servers, and frameworks that other systems depend on. That’s where DOMINAIT.ai and its core engine Ryker come in.

The Infrastructure That Thinks

When I started digging deeper, I realized DOMINAIT isn’t just another AI company. It’s a full-scale post-AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) infrastructure platform. Meaning, it doesn’t rely on outside models like OpenAI or Anthropic. It runs on its own ecosystem.

At first, I didn’t understand what “post-AGI” meant. But Jason explained it in plain terms:

“We’re past the point of teaching computers to answer questions. We’re building systems that think, build, and grow alongside their users.”

Ryker for instance, isn’t a chatbot. It’s an intelligence engine that can build end-to-end software, apps, automations, integrations… entirely by itself. Investors aren’t just buying into another AI front end; they’re buying into the backbone that future AI tools will run on.

Why This Matters to Investors

AI right now is in the same stage the internet was in 1995. There are endless products being launched, but most are interfaces and not real inventions. They sit on top of someone else’s code, relying on the same limited APIs and rented cloud spaces everyone else uses.

Criddle compared it to a city built entirely on leased land. No matter how tall the skyscrapers, they still depend on someone else’s foundation.

DOMINAIT is building that foundation.

For investors, this is a shift similar to discovering that fiber-optic networks and data centers would one day be worth more than the early websites they hosted. Owning AI infrastructure means owning the digital land future innovators will build on.

The thing I like about this approach is investing in both. Why not invest in the servers and infrastructure, as well as profit from AI companies who need capital as well?

A Familiar Logic for Real-Estate Minds

As someone with a real-estate background, I was surprised how much this all clicked. The principles are identical:

• Real Estate is land. AI Infrastructure is servers and hardware. Both use buildings to secure tangible assets.

• Utilities which would be paid for during a real estate project is no different than power and a fast internet connection.

In real estate, we count doors and the number of tenants we have paying us monthly. In software, it's developers and businesses using the compute output. Cash flow comes from both. It's very simple once you realize software subscribers and tenants are both doing the same thing. Paying the bills. However, software can be scaled indefinitely while real estate is limited to doors.

When Jason said DOMINAIT’s ecosystem allows users to “build on our dime and their time,” it reminded me of a developer offering turnkey projects on pre-prepared lots. You provide the vision, they provide the infrastructure.

That combination of scalability and autonomy is what makes DOMINAIT so compelling… not just for engineers, but for investors who understand asset value.

The Big Companies Are the Ones Falling Behind

The most surprising part of Jason’s interview wasn’t his optimism as much as it was his realism.

He said that the companies spending billions on AI research are actually furthest away from achieving real intelligence. Why? Because their size slows them down.

They’ve built massive, centralized systems that depend on committees, ethics boards, and endless corporate approvals. Meanwhile, real innovation is happening in garages, startups, and small development labs. Much in the same way Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon began not so long ago.

“The next trillion-dollar AI companies will be built by founders who haven’t adopted AI yet,” Jason said. “They’re just waiting for the right technologies to get them there. And the ones available aren't it.”

That line has stuck with me ever since.

DOMINAIT and Ryker are that missing technology, Jason believes. They give creators the tools to build full-scale applications, automate workflows, and deploy intelligent agents without needing an entire engineering team.

Ryker: The Creator’s Advantage

Ryker builds systems. Built from the same infrastructure and principles built into all of the brands Jason Criddle & Associates have built.

It can:

• Write and deploy new software autonomously.

• Manage multiple AI agents in collaboration.

• Connect APIs, CRMs, and external tools automatically.

• Learn from user behavior and continuously optimize itself.

• To put it simply, Ryker is both the developer and the operator.

For entrepreneurs, this means they can prototype and scale in weeks instead of years. For investors, it means exposure to a system that scales itself. And investing that is secure by land, buildings, hardware, software, profits, and tangibility.

I completely understand it now… it’s a working ecosystem. That’s what separates DOMINAIT from nearly every other AI venture right now. The opportunity to invest in all of its safety layers.

A Shift from Speculation to Structure

The AI investment boom reminds me a lot of real estate in 2006. Everyone wants a piece, but few understand the fundamentals. Speculation drives hype until only the assets with infrastructure value remain standing.

DOMINAIT is infrastructure. Ryker is automation. Together, they represent a model that is self-sustaining rather than dependent on outside APIs or temporary fads. It makes fix and flipping look so incredible… boring now.

Investors chasing ChatGPT clones or front-end AI startups are essentially flipping condos in a saturated market. Investors who understand what DOMINAIT is building are buying the land the condos sit on.

A Founder Worth Betting On

It’s rare to find a founder who bridges the gap between mission and mechanics. Most tech entrepreneurs are either engineers or marketers. Jason Criddle is both, and more importantly, he’s a builder who understands systems thinking. He is an investor who built all of his companies with investor participation in mind.

His company, Jason Criddle & Associates, has been building scalable software since 2012. Over that time, he’s turned experience into architecture, embedding over twelve years of frameworks, processes, and human decision-making into Ryker’s core logic.

That kind of intellectual infrastructure makes it a living legacy of business intelligence, automation, and leadership.

For Investors Who Missed the Early Waves

I’ve talked to plenty of investors who feel like they missed the early tech waves, the dot-com boom, early Bitcoin, Web3. But AI is still in its infancy, and platforms like DOMINAIT are what the internet backbone companies were in 1998: unseen, undervalued, and about to redefine everything.

If you understand cash flow, scalability, and asset value, you don’t have to be a coder to see the opportunity here. The same way real-estate syndicators partner with developers, investors can now partner with the platforms that power AI growth.

Why I’m Following This Story

After that podcast, I went online to learn more and found the kind of coverage that’s rare in emerging tech. DOMINAIT.ai has been featured in Forbes and tech journals and it's gaining traction. For execution and education. Every article I read highlighted something bigger than automation. I see the same vision for economic transformation through technology.

Jason’s philosophy of “empowering entrepreneurs on our dime and their time” sums it up. It’s a blueprint for an ecosystem where creators, not corporations, drive innovation.

And as someone who’s spent years investing in physical properties, that vision of ownership… of real, usable, scalable assets really hits home.

The Takeaway

AI is the next great infrastructure play. Most investors just don’t know it yet.

We’re watching the foundation being poured for an entire new economy. The smart money isn’t chasing AI “apps.” It’s backing the platforms that make those apps possible. DOMINAIT.ai and Ryker are at the front of that movement. The digital real estate that every future builder will need and use.

Jason Criddle is right: true innovation will come from creators and founders who haven’t adopted AI yet. They’re not behind. They’re just waiting for the right technology to catch up to their ideas. From what I’ve seen, that technology is finally here. And so is a trusted company who can teach us how to make the switch from real estate to technology.