Founders Quitting in AI Era Shows Lack of Resilience
Watching three 3 founder CEOs at $200m+ ARR quit their start-ups the past 2 weeks or so. On the one hand, I get it. Growth way down, no M&A options, it was supposed to get easier at that stage. Now for many, it's so much harder than ever. New AI competitors everywhere. No access to capital. Loss of market share. On the other hand, WTF. It's supposed to be hard. If you wanted it handed to you, well, don't be a founder. At least, stay bootstrapped and do whatever you want with it. It's "not worth your time anymore?" So why did 500-1000 join and follow you? Forget about all the capital you raised. So I have empathy. And if you literally cannot do it one more day, if you just have to tap out entirely, that I get. But quitting because it got harder in the Age of AI? No respect. None at all.
Listen First: Buyer‑Centric Sales Beat Product‑Centric Scripts
Most sales processes are built backwards. They are product-centric (inside-out), not buyer-centric (outside-in). And yet, almost every research study shows that top-performing sellers listen more than they talk on the first call. Bottom performers do the opposite. A product-centric sales...
LinkedIn Education and Webinars Drive Warm B
Lara Acosta 's 1-person business is about to cross $200k/mo. 0 outbound. 0 cold emails. Here's the breakdown: 1. Education-focused content on Linkedin (positioning) • 2x specific breakdowns (like this one) • 2x broad education on business tips 2. Lead-magnet...
Write SOPs for AI, Not Your Team
You wrote something important. Your team pasted it into AI and asked what you meant. And that bothers you. Here's why. You're writing for people who don't exist. The ones who sit down, read 20 pages, absorb it, and execute...
Self‑Configuring Backend Lets AI Talk Directly to Customers
openclaw might be an interesting new backend primitive: it's a server that configures itself. instead of wrapping chatgpt to build your product, can your AI just interface with your customers directly?
Bank Is Just a Third‑tier Kids Fintech Partner
The bad news: the “bank” is a third-tier kids fintech app that partners with Evolve Bank & Trust
Upcoming Events for Founders & Investors
Three upcoming events worth checking out for anyone building or investing: 🤖 Lead Your Team With AI - February 24, virtual A practical session on how founders can effectively use AI to lead their teams. Featuring Doug Peete, CPO at https://t.co/Wcl0Ro2nMv 🤝...
Stop Personalizing, Start Targeting with Insightful Outreach
This is why all of your outbound fails… These messages share three fundamental flaws: 1. They use personalization (that’s also stupid) 2. They are selfish (about them not me) 3. They include no insight Everyone at scale LOVES what I...
Google Caps HTML Crawl at 2 MB—Use Validator
🤖 Google has specified in its documentation that its crawl limit for HTML and supported text-based files is 2MB: Check if your HTML content is being cut off, with this free and handy validator by @CharlesMigaud 👇 Take a...
Ohio Bill Declares AI Nonsentient, Emphasizes Human Accountability
Kudos to Ohio for the potential for a bill to declare AI systems nonsentient. Not a big fan of using the term Apartheid in any way in reference to the bill, however as you can't deny rights to non sentient...
Reflecting on the Significance of Today’s Moment
Great post that explores this moment in time...
Founders Can Use 100‑Year Bonds to Preserve Equity
If you're a founder raising debt to grow and keep equity: SMART Google issuing 100 year bond:
Telcos Demand Iris2 Compete with Starlink Pricing
Telcos @orange & @deutschetelekom: We'll only purchase future Iris2 broadband capacity if it's competitive with @Starlink et al. We can't afford to do otherwise. @defis_eu @SES_Satellites @Eutelsat @Hispasat @esa @Starlink #Europeanspaceconf. https://t.co/za6J3f6pSE https://t.co/izhnBnDNQ5
Pulse Slashes Research Time From Hours to Minutes
BIG NEWS: I just launched Pulse. The world's first news reader that cuts research from 2 hours to 5 mins👇
Pulse Cuts Tech Research From Hours to Minutes
BIG NEWS: I just launched Pulse. The world's first news reader that cuts research from 2 hours to 5 mins👇 As a founder, I was drowning in information: • Scrolling Twitter for hours • Checking 20+ sites for tech news...
Teach Humans to Thrive When AI Handles Tech
Everyone's worried about training AI. The real problem? Training humans for a world where AI does all the technical work. What do you even teach them?
Crew‑12 Launch Delayed to Thursday Amid Weather Uncertainty
At the moment the Crew-12 launch is skld for 5:38 am ET Thurs (delayed from Wed.) and has priority on the range, but at pre-launch presser an hour ago NASA sounded as tho Crew-12 ascent corridor wx probably won't be...
Uber Kiosks Let Travelers Ride Without a Smartphone
🚨 WOAH: Uber just launched kiosks at LaGuardia Airport. The disruption of taxis is nearly compete. No app. No phone. Walk up, pick a destination, tap to pay, get a paper receipt with your ride details. Powered by Adyen terminals. --- This is the bit...
Detachable Robotic Hand Redefines Dexterity in Tight Spaces
A robotic hand that can detach from its arm, crawl away, pick things up, and then come back to work again. Yes, it looks a bit like Thing from The Addams Family. But the idea behind it is very serious....
FinTech Funding Soars: Over $1 B Raised in February
February FinTech funding off to flying start with over $1bn raised https://t.co/2EDie8Yh7q $1.02bn raised across 29 rounds. Past two-weeks Fintech funding topped $2.3bn.
AI Search Citations Shift: ChatGPT Down, Gemini Up
You can also use @ahrefs Brand Radar to look at specific URLs that have lost SEO visibility - in this case, 2 specific self-promoting listicle URLs - to see the change in AI search citations to the page AIO/ChatGPT/Copilot citations also...
UCP Makes Shopify’s Entire Catalog Instantly Searchable
UCP has been live for like a week and there's already a @Shopify product search engine on it. "…the entire Shopify ecosystem is searchable. As more platforms adopt UCP, their product catalogs will become explorable…" ...I used it to find Hot...
Intuitive Quantum Error Correction: Watrous & Qiskit Series
One of my favorite video series on quantum error correction comes from John Watrous and IBM Qiskit. This series does an excellent job of building intuition for how we protect fragile quantum information, beyond simply presenting the formalism.
AI Adoption Requires Leadership, Not Just Employee Compliance
A corporate position that workers should "just use AI to do stuff" has never been enough. AI use in companies is a leadership problem that involves answering fundamental questions about what people should do with their time, how work is...
Self‑promoting Listicles Lose Rankings, Cutting ChatGPT Citations
Another example of a site that started to lose rankings for many of its self-promoting "best" listicles in mid-January, and the downstream effect on ChatGPT citations for that domain at the same time (via @ahrefs Brand Radar)
AI Tools Remove Data Barriers, Driving Explosive Growth
I now constantly get questions about the SAAS meltdown, role of AI, system of records etc. I don't have an answer to all these. But I do know that we saw an acceleration in our business in Q2, Q3, and...
AI‑First, Word‑of‑Mouth, Personal Brand: SaaS Survival 2026
It's 2026. If you're a SaaS founder, you're probably screwed. Anything you do that works gets copied, CAC is up, LTV is down. Here are the 7 things I see that ARE working - in a world where most things...
Proton Rocket Returns to Pad After Three Years
Proton rocket returned to launch pad this morning in preparation for its first flight in nearly three years on Thursday: https://t.co/DyHPm6OdhH https://t.co/KXqkCYSXcA
Avoid Exclusivity: Protect Your Deal Leverage
Buyers and investors will commonly request exclusivity as part of a transaction process. As a founder, you should be hesitant to grant that request. Exclusivity is a period of time in which a seller is locked into negotiation with just...
Orchestrate Multiple AIs, Don’t Choose Just One
ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude vs Grok vs Perplexity — different tools, different strengths. There’s no single “best AI”, only the right AI for the job: ChatGPT → creative work, coding, problem-solving, versatile workflows Gemini → deep integration with Google...
New Mineral Sunscreen Eliminates Unsightly White Cast
We developed a mineral #sunscreen that reduces white cast - described in https://t.co/2FW3QLelWT @ACSMatLett & featured @UCLAHealthJCCC https://t.co/PegyIICqN0 & @WomensHealthMag https://t.co/7LgQK3JLex #ChallengeInitiative @UCLA https://t.co/lSeguUK4nB
IDEAL's A2A Shift Powers Pan‑European Payment Sovereignty
iDEAL to phase into Wero starting in 2026 Strategic implications: Account-to-account payments (A2A) eliminating card network intermediaries. iDEAL processes 1.5B transactions annually with 100% Dutch consumer reach—now gets pan-European scale. Payment sovereignty meets network effects https://t.co/Qmf2G62B8k
New Tech, Data, AI Roles Shaping the Last Five Years
Job titles that have emerged in Tech, Data and AI the last 5 years: 👇
AI-Driven Monday Metrics Reveal Hidden Growth Patterns
Every Monday I get a deep AI analysis of our metrics across every product area to enjoy with my coffee. Anomalies, growth, trends, recommendations. AI spots patterns human analysts easily miss. I can @ the agent for further questions. AI will soon...
Crew-12 Launch Delayed To
The Crew-12 launch is being delayed a day due to weather. Now Feb 12 at 5:38 am ET. https://t.co/dE9diCzJMG
Everyone's a Developer Thanks to Autonomous Agent Swarms
🚨 @AnthropicAI just released their 2026 Agentic Coding Trends Verdict → Everyone has become a developer. We moved from single assistants to autonomous agent swarms. They now form teams, work days on full systems, and let non-techies ship full apps 💥 18-page report in...
AI Hype Fades: Embedded Intelligence Outpaces Empty Promises
Today's Operator Links: https://t.co/4GH6Pi68dj 1️⃣ Software's First Act Is Over - @MarcJBrooker 2️⃣ Embedded Intelligence Beats Frontier Models - @om 3️⃣ AI Fatigue Is Real and Nobody Talks About It - @siddhant_K_code 4️⃣ The AI Bubble I Live In (And You Probably Don't) - @joozio 5️⃣...
Japan Airlines Adds LEO Satellite Wi‑Fi to 787‑9 Fleet
Japan Airlines plans to bring LEO satellite-powered inflight connectivity to both existing and new Boeing 787-9s, as part of a broader plan to refresh the twinjets’ interiors. https://t.co/44fW9OnTt7
Align Content to Buyer Journey to Drive Pipeline
If your content is getting views without an increase in pipeline for your B2B SaaS, then the reason is simple: You’re not matching what buyers need at each stage of their journey. Here’s what happens: - Snackable LinkedIn posts spark...
AI Agents Let One Operator Replace Entire Growth Team
Jacob Bank runs Relay.app (growing 300%+ YoY) with a few employees and hundreds of AI agents. Most SaaS teams think Product-Led Growth requires: – a full growth squad – endless experiments – complex tooling – months of setup That used...
Bootstrapped $28M ARR with 33‑person Org Chart
$28M ARR with 33 people… $0 in funding. This is the org chart that made it possible: https://t.co/wYZX8rJB2v
NVO Vows Aggressive Patent Enforcement; Danes Cheer Newfound Spine
$NVO exec: "Anybody who is infringing our patents should be very, very much on notice that we take that seriously, and that we will enforce our patents.…If anybody out there thinks we will not, this should be a wake-up...
Computational Biology: Beyond Coding to Data Detective Work
🧵 So You Want to Be a Computational Biologist? 1/ Bioinformatics is more than just coding. It’s data analysis, modeling, pipelines, and detective work. Here’s what you must know. 👇 https://t.co/oJxsWkBYzP
Crew‑12 Launch Set for Feb 12 After Weather Delay
From NASA: NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier 5:38 a.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 12, for launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Mission teams completed a weather review on Monday and elected to waive off a Wednesday, Feb. 11, launch opportunity due...
Three Simple Tricks to Instantly Raise Your Prices
3 dumbfoundingly simple ways to raise your prices: (no hostage negotiation skills required) 1. Switch to giving 3 higher price options Make your new entry level option → your current premium option :) 2. Switch to outcomes instead of quantities Increase site conversion 10% is better...
First‑party Fraud Needs Memory, Not More Blocks
First-party fraud passes every check. The data lines up; the customer's real. The problem is intent, and intent is difficult to quantify. First-party fraud is hard to detect because it's hard to define. A PSP sees risk. A merchant sees a refund. A...
Email Deliverability Scripts Actually Deliver Results
Proof that email deliverability scripts actually work 📬 Most teams are skeptical because deliverability feels opaque and hard to measure. That’s fair. https://t.co/gLOQFzDZJa
Make Machine Identity a First-Class Concern
Doubleplus good snapshot of where we are and what we need to do... KeyFlux | Trust Infrastructure https://t.co/BagFR3amVx "What Actually Works Treat machine identity as a first-class problem. Not an afterthought bolted onto service accounts." https://t.co/qc8L7FI6bh
Cut Unresolved Decisions, Not Output, to Accelerate Growth
You’re sitting in the meeting. Marketing is running campaigns. Sales is working deals. Product has a roadmap. Everyone is busy. And yet, growth is stalled. No one is slacking. Nothing is obviously broken. So the pressure builds. We need to...
StarRocks Delivers DWH‑Level Joins on Lakehouse Natively
Today, I dig into the details of StarRocks and how it is gaining traction in the real-time database world. DWH-like joins and fast retrieval from a #Lakehouse-native data architecture, without additional data engineering work to persist and ingest data. https://www.ssp.sh/blog/starrocks-lakehouse-native-joins/