Social•Jan 15, 2026
Most Companies Mismanage AI Adoption—Here's Why
"You're Likely Screwing Up AI Adoption..." & more in today’s Operator Links, full post + sources in the comments.
By Hiten Shah
Social•Jan 15, 2026
Guard Small Signals: Culture Drift Undermines Growth
We lose a team member before that team member drags down culture. That's not about the person we lose. It's about the people who stay. My job as a leader is to create an environment where everyone can thrive. Culture...
By Lincoln Murphy
Social•Jan 15, 2026
Turn Customer Conversations Into Decisions in 4 Weeks
My cat has a more rigorous research process than most B2B companies (it's probly the glasses) Meanwhile, companies are treating customer research like throwing spaghetti at a wall and asking AI to help them figure out what noodles stick. Here's...
By Anna Furmanov
Social•Jan 15, 2026
SaaS Valuations Dropped as Standards, Not Performance, Rose
Public SaaS valuation multiples didn’t fall because the businesses got worse... ...they have fallen because the bar is higher 👇 Looking across public SaaS over the last 12 months, here’s what’s actually happened: 📉 Median EV / Revenue has fallen...
By Ray Rike
Social•Jan 15, 2026
Maintain Multiple Buyers to Preserve Deal Leverage
Most founders don’t realize how exposed they are until they’re already in a deal. One buyer, one offer, one path forward. At that point you’re not negotiating, you’re just trying to get to the finish line without losing it. The buyer feels...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Jan 15, 2026
AI Agents Need a GTM Specialist, Not Just Sales Teams
"You can't just hand an AI Agent to the sales team or marketing team to deploy. Not if they don't have the skills to implement the agent, train it, manage it." with @kylecnorton CRO @kylecnorton "You have to find that GTM...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 15, 2026
Auto-Close Tickets only when AI Reply Succeeds
Any @Zendesk experts out there? We have a gen AI reply out there for @haveibeenpwned which attempts to answer a support question, but has a fallback for if it can’t. How can we automatically close the ticket if a reply...
By Troy Hunt
Social•Jan 15, 2026
Join 250k+ B2B Leaders at SaaStr AI 2026
250,000+ B2B founders and operators in the SaaStr community. For 3 days in May, we're all going to be in the same place. SaaStr AI 2026. May 12-14. SF Bay Area. If you've ever gotten value from SaaStr—this is the...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 15, 2026
HubSpot Alumni Land Top Roles at Rising Companies
I'm happy to see some of the HubSpot alumni joining some very high potential companies, particularly: 1. Dannie Herzberg leaving Sequoia to be President of Baseten 2. Ryan Meadows leaving Klaviyo to be CRO at Lovable 3. Katie Burke getting...
By Brian Halligan
Social•Jan 15, 2026
AI Accelerates Partners Turning Into Competitors by 2026
One thing that has really really accelerated the past 12 months is your partners competing with you. Expect the trend … to continue even more, and much faster, in 2026. The pace of the AI Age is leading to partners becoming competitors...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Agents Free Software Success From User Skill Limitations
One big problem with traditional software is it depends on the customer being great at their job. By definition most customers aren't above average in their work. A positive side effect of agents is they decouple software success from client...
By Nick Mehta
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Claude Cowork Needs Clearer Marketing and Standout Features
OK, I've got Claude Cowork feedback. TLDR - there are many things that I love about it, but even as a non-engineer, I will be sticking to Claude Code for now. I suspect Anthropic is doubling down hard on this...
By Allie Miller
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Vibe Coding Enables AI‑Built Apps Without Developers
I think the hype around “vibe coding” has confused what it really does, and why it’s actually so disruptive. It’s not about “one shotting” Salesforce or Notion. That’s just not possible. You can’t build anything like that in 100 days...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Top Sales Reps Earn $300K on 100% Commission
Me: You don't pay sales reps a base salary. How many make good money? CEO: "more than half make $300k/yr" 🤯 First time I've heard of top sales reps takingn 100% commission work. Its working for this founder. LMK if...
By Nathan Latka
Social•Jan 14, 2026
SaaS Becomes Water: Brand, Not Product, Wins
The 2026 SaaS market will be like the market for selling water. But what’s the difference between Dasani, Evian, and the tap in your kitchen? Brand. Nothing else. “Having a product” is no longer the most challenging part of selling software. Everything...
By Adam Robinson
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Master AI Search: Strategies to Outrank Google Results
In 15 minutes, Michael King is joining SparkToro Office Hours to present what to do *DIFFERENTLY* to appear in AI tools vs. classic Google results. You should probably be there. I threw in a few samples from his deck as...
By Rand Fishkin
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Stop Overusing ‘Pivot’: Distinguish Real Evidence‑Driven Shifts
Startup people reach for the word “pivot” when they want a decision to sound intentional. I’ve seen teams use it for everything from a careful course correction to quietly walking away from a plan that stopped holding up. Same word....
By Hiten Shah
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Launch Now, Iterate Later: Perfection Isn’t Required
Stop waiting for your startup’s product to be perfect because it never will be and that's okay so launch, get feedback, improve.
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Jan 14, 2026
AI Must Boost Revenue or It Doesn’t Count
If your AI feature, your AI product, your AI team, your AI copilot didn’t materially boost revenue … 👎 It doesn’t count Try again
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Leadership Fails when You Suppress It, Not Talent
There are no leaders on my team." That's not an observation. It's a confession. What you're really saying is one of two things: 1. I'm not creating the conditions for leadership to emerge 2. I don't have a method for...
By Lincoln Murphy
Social•Jan 14, 2026
More Data, More Noise: Focus on Strategic Insights
The AI insight problem that nobody's talking about 😳 We added AI to our customer research process. Suddenly, everything is labeled an "insight" 🤯 🫣 🫠 Customer mentioned pricing twice? Insight. Someone used the word "integration" in feedback? Insight. Pattern...
By Anna Furmanov
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Chat UI Isn’t Dead; Task Agents Need New Interfaces
"The UI is dead. Everything will be chat." This is the most dangerous myth in AI right now. I was talking about this with Lucas Puente , Slack 's VP of Research – and what we landed on changes how...
By Amos Joseph
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Craft Over AI: Mangomint’s High‑Touch Growth Model
Lately I’ve been thinking about how craft is the antidote to ubiquitous AI slop. Quality still matters, and it might even matter more than before when it’s easy to make something mid and hard to make something special. I’ve found...
By Kyle Poyar
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Attribution Pressure Fuels Budget Cuts and Rising CAC
The "Attribution Death Spiral" is claiming victims. We used Wynter to survey 50 B2B mid-market marketing leaders. 58% are under extreme or high pressure to show pipeline results. Most can't prove what's working. Actual quotes: "Bad attribution data makes it...
By Peep Laja
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Begin with a Single, High‑impact, Easy‑to‑deploy AI Agent
"My CEO says we need to do AI, but my CFO won't give my budget. What do you we do?" with @kylecnorton "The answer: start with one AI Agent that solves a high ranking problem ... that is easy to deploy."...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Opening the Crib Broke Her Sense of Safety
What seemed like an INNOCENT change of opening our daughter’s crib turned out to be our WORST decision of the last 6 months… When we got back from our summer trip, we thought it would be fun to open up our...
By Noah Kagan
Social•Jan 14, 2026
All 320 Podcast Transcripts Open for AI Exploration
Here are the full transcripts from all 320 of my podcast episodes. It's been super fun for me to play with AI to extract insights from this data. Now you can to. My only ask is that if you do something cool...
By Lenny Rachitsky
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Measuring AI Investment ROI Becomes Essential for All Companies
Fired up* to work w/ @rfradin @jlarrison @aktwits @arampell @a16z on the Board of @Larridin. We used Larridin at Gainsight to measure the ROI of our AI investments & this is a problem every company will need to tackle. *Russ promised to...
By Nick Mehta
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Soft‑skill Platforms Can Generate Six‑figure Profits
People underestimate how profitable “soft skills” businesses can be. Live on @acquiredotcom: A 15-year social skills training platform built on live, coach-led practice. > $561K TTM revenue > $275K TTM profit > 4,400 active members Full listing: https://t.co/woKnEzxZXN https://t.co/Ejax6k1Lqx
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Close the Intent‑Action Gap with Decision‑Focused Pages
After a while, you realize pipeline is not created by volume alone. You also think about it as something you can either catch or miss. Most buying journeys do not announce themselves. They show up in small, uneven bursts. A...
By devbasu
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Testing Daily Signals to Boost Operator Decision Speed
For 11 years, I’ve sent a weekly newsletter. Five hundred seventy-two issues built around links people consistently tell me they actually read. That cadence works. I’m keeping it. But frequency isn’t the same thing as usefulness. A lot of operator...
By Hiten Shah
Social•Jan 13, 2026
ARR Numbers Mislead when Definitions Are Vague
Most ARR disclosures are technically correct — and still wildly misleading. After reviewing hundreds of public tech company ARR definitions and calculations, one thing became clear: 👉 The problem isn’t the ARR number 👉 It’s how companies define, calculate, and...
By Ben Murray
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Profit Focus and Strong Team Fuel Founder Happiness
I’ve talked to over 20 founders the past 4 weeks and every one of them is miserable. They want me to be miserable too … but I’m NOT. 11 years in, I’m more excited than ever. Here’s the top 5...
By Adam Robinson
Social•Jan 13, 2026
AI Destroys Per-Seat CRM Pricing, Shifts to Outcomes
The "per seat" business model is officially dead for CRMs. For the last 20 years, the logic of SaaS pricing was simple. You build a database, and you charge companies for every human who logs in to update it. The...
By Wes Bush
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Three Hours Coaching Boosts Sales Attainment Above 100%
The data is clear: teams receiving 3+ hours of coaching per rep per month consistently outperform (thanks Gartner for the analysis). But most teams never get out of reactive mode. “I wish I had more time to coach my reps....
By Mark Roberge
Social•Jan 13, 2026
AI Wins by Replacing, Not Automating, Deterministic Workflows
Most companies claim they are becoming AI first. Almost none understand what that actually requires. The surprising truth: AI does not transform your business by automating existing workflows. It transforms it by replacing deterministic workflows entirely. I explore this with @hala_zeine, Chief Strategy...
By Ronald van Loon
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Deep Product Knowledge Outweighs CEO Polish
For a long while, you probably aren't a great CEO But you know the customers The software The feature gaps The roadmap The competition How to sell it How to market it How to build it So maybe as flawed as you are You are still the best CEO
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Focus on Product-Market Fit, Buyers Come Naturally
“Businesses get bought, not sold.” - A random private equity fund bossman. I sold Robly in 2021, and I didn't go looking for a buyer. Robly was a grind. Only got to $3M ARR. Tiny company in a super-saturated space (didn't have...
By Adam Robinson
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Your Day Job Can Teach 11 Entrepreneurial Lessons
Some of the best founder training happens in your 9 to 5 if you’re curious enough to notice. In episode 815, I share 11 unexpected lessons a day job can teach you about entrepreneurship. Listen here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gfJNG6qV
By Rob Walling
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Customer Research Sells; Product Research Builds
I'm noticing confusion in b2b around customer research - we think we're doing customer research ( ✅ ) but in reality it's usually just product research 🙈 (to improve the product) Product research asks: "How do we improve our features?"...
By Anna Furmanov
Social•Jan 13, 2026
2026: AI Agents Transform Knowledge Work Through Scaffolding
The capability overhang right now in AI is pretty massive. Most of the world still thinks of AI as chatbots that will answer a question on demand but not yet do real work for them. Beyond coding, almost no knowledge work...
By Aaron Levie
Social•Jan 13, 2026
Most B2B AI Features Fail; Winners Do Differently
Hot take: 90% of "AI features" shipping in B2B right now are terrible. The companies winning are doing something completely different. Come to SaaStr AI 2026 May 12-14 and learn what actually works from founders with the receipts. https://t.co/Ff7DKVt1H2
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Great Product Needs Relentless, Years‑long Promotion
Built a great product? Awesome. Now go tell everyone on the internet every day for the next 5 years. You got this.
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Six Key Steps to Close an M&A Deal
What are the basic milestones of a process (M&A or capital raise)? 1. Pre-marketing Complete the marketing materials (information packet and buyer list) and get your house in order. 2. Marketing Reach out to buyers, execute NDAs, and share marketing...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Capture Customer Stories Early to Accelerate Deal Closure
I’ve sat in a lot of deal reviews where someone asks, “Do we have a customer story for this?” The answer is usually yes. But the pause that follows tells the real story. Someone remembers a win from months ago....
By devbasu
Social•Jan 12, 2026
No Excitement, Wrong Product—Learned After $1M Loss
If you don’t see the excitement in people’s eyes, you’re building the wrong product… (spent $1M, wasted 1 year, been there, done that (NEVER AGAIN)) https://t.co/aL0rguGFxJ
By Adam Robinson
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Balancing Agency and Control Drives Enterprise AI Success
My biggest takeaways from Aishwarya Naresh Reganti and Kiriti Badam on building successful enterprise AI products: 1. AI products differ from traditional software in two fundamental ways: they’re non-deterministic, and you need to constantly trade off agency vs. control. Traditional...
By Lenny Rachitsky
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Board Pressure Fuels Unsustainable Product Overreach
The Second Act Stumble Steve had a way of making growth sound inevitable. He’d done it once already—tripled revenue from $7 million to $21 million in 12 short months—and the board wanted another lap around the track. Another 3×. Another...
By Mark Roberge
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Post‑crisis “Diligence” Masks Underlying Process Gaps
I keep seeing the same thing after teams realize something important too late. The impact shows up in how work gets done. Extra checks get added before meetings. People start keeping private notes. Someone is asked to manually watch competitors....
By Hiten Shah
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Refresh Your Messaging Annually to Match Rapid Market Shifts
It's natural to stay in the mindset that things are today like they were last year or 2 years ago. But of course, they're not. The world changes very fast. The amount of new well-funded startups entering a space every...
By Peep Laja