Insights on brand marketing + operations.
Practical thinking on building businesses systematically. Written by people who automate their own marketing and operations before recommending systems to others.
Say the Number: What Founders Really Pay Themselves
Founders share their financial models with strangers in every pitch meeting. What we pay ourselves stays in the room. Twenty years and three companies in, I'm starting a series on the numbers we never say out loud, starting with the hardest one: what to pay yourself in year one.
Eleven Weeks In: The Marketing Philosophy We Keep Circling Back To
Read one at a time, each post was its own idea. Read together, they kept landing on the same few beliefs. A recap of what we've been writing about marketing this summer, and the philosophy underneath it.
Nine Weeks In: What Changed in AI This Summer
Read one week at a time, each post was a snapshot. Read together, they tell a different story. A recap of what actually shifted in AI from mid-May to mid-July, and the five things worth doing about it.
A Framework for Growing Off-Script
Growth rarely follows the plan you set out with. The best teams don't fight the detour, they build for it. A framework for staying agile when the road doesn't match the map.
The Last Six Percent
Optimizing Marketing Funnels. The Pause Is Doing More Work Than the Data
The data doesn't decide for you. This week: using AI to analyze funnels from more than one angle — then giving the decision room to sit before acting on it.
A look at AI imagery, one year apart.
A year ago, AI-generated images were captivating from a distance and revealing up close, the hands always gave it away. We put the same test to today's tools. Here's what changed, and what still gives it away.
The Week AI Stopped Feeling Free
A fintech worker spent $81,267 on AI in a week. It is the whole week in miniature. Here is what the cost reckoning, ChatGPT ads, and AI customer service mean for your business.
When to Respond, And When to Lead
The founders building something that lasts are not the fastest responders. They are the ones who know when to pause. In a world optimized for speed, the ability to pause before you move is your competitive edge.
AI's Real Bill Came Due This Week. It Went Beyond Jobs.
Everyone spent the week bracing for AI to take their jobs. The data pointed somewhere quieter and more expensive: your power bill, how people get their information, and the skills gap opening up around you. Here is what actually mattered, in plain language.
The AI Ad Breakdown
ChatGPT opened a self-serve ad platform, no agency required, no minimum spend. Here's what's different about advertising in a conversational AI context, and why early movers have an edge.
The AI Floor Moved Last Week. Here’s What Operators Should Know.
AI Prompt: True Cost of Goods → Honest Retail Pricing
I'm working on updated pricing for one of our companies and thought this prompt might be helpful for you too, if you sell products. It delivers a data-driven pricing for your products.
AI's Best Customer Right Now Is AI Itself
Three stories from one week show an AI economy increasingly built to spend on itself, while the rest of us get the demo and the bill.
A plain-English guide to AI visibility
AI search doesn't reward volume. It rewards clarity, content that is specific, credible, and echoed by multiple sources. Every significant shift in technology creates opportunity for those paying attention. This one is no different. We think it quietly changes the rules for both brand and performance marketing. That's worth being ready for.
OpenAI Is Going Public. Here Is What That Means for Your Business.
Three AI stories this week that matter for business owners. OpenAI filed confidential IPO paperwork targeting a one trillion dollar valuation, while still running at a loss. A Gartner study found that 80 percent of companies that adopted AI cut staff without seeing better returns, because they skipped the implementation work. And Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic all made competing pricing moves in the same week, creating a real window for buyers.
The Meeting That Writes Your Marketing This Month
The strategy usually exists. The problem is the distance between that conversation and the content that needs to happen every month. Here's a system that closes the gap.
Claude for Small Business, AI Search, and the Talent War Behind the Tools
Anthropic launched Claude for Small Business. HubSpot rolled out a tool for measuring AI search visibility. Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic. Three moves that look unrelated, with one thread underneath them: AI is settling into the operating layer of business and that means it needs a plan, not just a subscription.
The audit, in motion
Phase 0 earned its place. It has also become a default. As AI changes the pace of building, the audit and the work no longer need to happen in sequence and the operational frameworks underneath them hold up better when they don't.
AI Can Write Your Marketing. It Can't Tell You If It's Good.
Dieter Rams cut through the noise with ten principles for good design. Here's what happens when you apply the same standard to your marketing.