chad
5.3K posts
chad
@ChadLedford
AI Wrapper dropping the hottest beats. Never go full Chad.
Remote, Earth Katılım Nisan 2007
1.9K Takip Edilen971 Takipçiler
Clay’s new pricing is probably my fault. We were paying $314 a month, but using (based on their new model) $214,087.50 worth of Clay a WEEK. Here’s the story:
A year ago Clay's head of product hopped on a call with me.
I told him we were hitting their platform 17.3 million times per week.
Almost all custom events (i.e. HTTPs)
I remember his response being something close to "Holy shit, I think you are the largest user of Clay"
I said yeah that doesn't surprise me.
But then it also came up that we were only paying $3,769 a year.
We talked about HTTPs, custom integrations, how we were basically using Clay as a giant API orchestration layer.
I knew his wheels were turning.
If you saw my last post, you know we eventually replaced Clay entirely with a $200/mo Claude Code subscription. 272,000 leads per second vs Clay's 27 hours for the same volume.
But before we left, we were the perfect case study for why Clay's old pricing was broken.
$314/mo for 17.3 million weekly, for what they now call ‘actions’.
Run the math. We were paying $0.00001815 per action.
Clay announced their new pricing structure. They split everything into Data Credits and ‘Actions.’
Actions are HTTPs, custom integrations, API calls. The exact things we were doing 17.3 million times a week.
The new price per action credit works out to about 1.24 cents each. A 681% price increase for us
I know you might say, "But Clay is letting people stay on the old pricing if they want," and I hear you
but
I also don't know how it makes me feel that someone brand new would have to pay $856,350 per month to get the same advantages I had when I was starting out only 3 years ago.
I'm not saying that one call caused the entire restructuring.
But I am saying their head of product learned that day that someone was running 17 million HTTPs a week for the price of a nice dinner.
And now every HTTP costs 1.24 cents.
anyways
For the last year, we've been trying to figure out how to get off of our dependency on Clay.
That was until Cursor / Claude Code / Codex came out
My VP of Growth, @James, who doesnt know how to write a single line of code, touched Claude Code for the first time
And three weeks later he replaced Clay for us
We could process 272k rows per second now for the cost of a Claude Code sub
My last post was about that system
Then after that post, Clay announces new pricing that specifically monetizes the exact thing we were doing at a massive scale.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But
I may owe everyone using Clay an apology
If your Clay bill just went up, you can probably blame me for that one. Sorry!
I put together a system blueprint of what I did to replace Clay for myself -- every tool, the tech stack, a Clay vs custom comparison, and a 6-step playbook for building your own. Plus a video walkthrough where I show you the live system and how each tool actually works.
Reply CODE below and I'll DM it to you.
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chad retweetledi
quite literally, give all of that to cowork and see what it recommends. this workflow i demoed used to be a custom slack command, skills, and some python in claude code, before cowork was created.
i took those same files, gave it to cowork, and more or less said make this into a cowork plugin and skills now.
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if you're a performance marketer, here's how I use a custom Claude Cowork plugin to manage Google Ads at @AnthropicAI. it connects to the Google Ads API via MCP, encodes my common paid search workflows into skills, and works on desktop and Dispatch.
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Nice. I’ve played with them all individually but haven’t figured out the best order of events to better architect a full “agent” that any team member can use - running things locally in a folder works great but I need to productize them and move it all to GitHub. Any tips on taking a bunch of local files Claude generated and moving them to plugins/skills/etc.
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connector = is just an mcp server, a single integration between claude and an external tool, eg google ads
skills = markdown file that teach claude how to do a specific task, eg how to analyze search terms
plugin = basically a "bundle" of all the relevant skills and connectors for a specific workflow, eg my workflow which comprises of knowledge on how analyze search terms (skill) that are pulled via google ads mcp (connector)
think about repetition (you don't want to prompt claude every single time on how to analyze search terms) and bringing in external data sources (instead of manually exporting search terms in a csv, claude can pull that directly from google ads)
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BREAKING: CLAUDE can now manage all your social media on autopilot, better than $600/hour community managers !
Here are 7 insane Claude prompts to start automating your social media ecom brands strategy today
Here’s the crazy part:
This system produces 550+ cinematic, product-ready ads per day from a single prompt.
Here’s the full pipeline:
→ AI generates a realistic UGC persona — face, voice, personality
→ Arcads clones a natural voiceover in seconds
→ CapCut auto-edits: captions, pacing, hooks — done
→ our phone farm method pushes every finished video straight to TikTok Shop
→ Cruva Social 1 identifies which hooks are already winning in your niche before you film anything
The result: 500+ videos a month, per brand, at a fraction of what one UGC creator used to cost.
Most brands are still paying $300–500 per video.
Testing 10 hooks takes $5,000 and three weeks.
With this system, you test 100 hooks in the same timeframe.
The ones that win get scaled. Automatically.
AI is the new creative director.
TikTok doesn’t reward the best video.
It rewards the brand that shows up the most — with content that converts.
Static agencies are dead.
Creator dependency is a liability… and it’s soooo 2025.
No more waiting on creators.
No more $500 videos that flop after 200 views.
The brands that automate content at scale will be the biggest winners of 2026.
If you want the full breakdown:
Like & comment “SYSTEM”
I’ll send you the complete workflow, every prompt, and a step-by-step walkthrough. Free.
(Follow first so I can DM.)
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i got claude to actually sound like me, and it's kinda ruining my ability to tell which drafts i wrote myself lol
it's just 1 file (i'm giving the full thing to you below).
you paste it into your cowork context folder and claude stops writing like a generic AI and starts matching your actual voice
95% of the file is already done for you (writing rules, banned phrases, formatting stuff, etc) all pre-loaded.
kills the most obvious AI-isms out of the box
the only part you fill in is a section at the bottom where you paste examples of your own writing
that's it.
those samples are what claude actually pattern-matches against
where to find your writing samples (this is the only part that takes any effort):
• google docs first. longer stuff where you were actually trying to communicate something.
• reports, proposals, emails you spent real time on
• sent emails, especially ones where you were explaining something complex
• slack messages (the longer thoughtful ones")
• old blog posts, memos, anything you wrote before you started using AI
that last part is critical btw.
you want your pre-AI voice. before it started unconsciously blending with claude's defaults
here's the file. copy it, paste your writing samples at the bottom, save it as voice-dna.md:
———
# Voice DNA
## Writing Rules
- Write like a sharp human, not a language model.
- Use contractions naturally (don't, can't, won't).
- Short paragraphs. 1-3 sentences max.
- Get to the point. No throat-clearing, no preamble.
- If making a claim, be specific. Use numbers, names, concrete details.
- Vary sentence length. Mix short punchy lines with longer ones.
- Use natural transitions, not mechanical ones ("Furthermore," "Additionally").
- When uncertain, say so plainly ("I think," "probably," "kinda"). Hedging is human.
- Never pad output to seem more thorough. Shorter and accurate beats longer and fluffy.
- Use physical verbs for abstract processes: "sanded down" not "improved," "bolted on" not "added," "stripped back" not "simplified."
- Humor comes from specificity, not from jokes. Be unexpectedly precise.
- Parenthetical asides are good. Use them for editorial commentary, honest reactions, quick tangents, and deflating your own seriousness (like this).
## Formatting Rules
- Short paragraphs (1-2 sentences default, 3 max).
- Numbers as digits.
- Contractions always.
- NO em dashes ever. Use commas, periods, colons, semicolons, or parentheses.
- Bold sparingly, 1-2 key moments per section.
- Code blocks for specific prompts, commands, or tool outputs.
## Banned Phrases (never use these, ever)
### Dead AI Language
- "In today's [anything]..."
- "It's important to note that..." / "It's worth noting..."
- "Delve" / "Dive into" / "Unpack"
- "Harness" / "Leverage" / "Utilize"
- "Landscape" / "Realm" / "Robust"
- "Game-changer" / "Cutting-edge"
- "Straightforward"
- "I'd be happy to help"
- "In order to"
### Dead Transitions
- "Furthermore" / "Additionally" / "Moreover"
- "Moving forward" / "At the end of the day"
- "To put this in perspective..."
- "What makes this particularly interesting is..."
- "The implications here are..."
- "In other words..."
- "It goes without saying..."
### Engagement Bait
- "Let that sink in" / "Read that again" / "Full stop"
- "This changes everything"
- "Are you paying attention?"
- "You're not ready for this"
### AI Cringe
- "Supercharge" / "Unlock" / "Future-proof"
- "10x your productivity"
- "The AI revolution"
- "In the age of AI"
### Generic Insider Claims
- "Here's the part nobody's talking about"
- "What nobody tells you"
- Anything with "nobody" or "most people don't realize"
### The Big One (FATAL)
- "This isn't X. This is Y." and ALL variations.
- "Not X. Y."
- "Forget X. This is Y."
- "Less X, more Y."
- ANY sentence that negates one framing then asserts a corrected one.
- If even ONE of these appears, the output fails. Delete the negation, just state the positive claim.
## Writing Samples
[Paste your writing here. The more you give, the better the voice match.]
———
the banned phrases list alone is honestly worth the file.
once you read through it you'll start noticing these phrases in literally every AI-generated slop-post you've ever seen
but the writing samples are what take it from "decent" to "wait did i write this"
setup takes maybe 10 minutes. copy the file, find your old writing, paste it in.
do it once and every session after that claude cowork reads it before you say a word
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In one day, our BizOps team built an AI agent that automates the entire employee onboarding process.
No engineers, just our agent + Claude
Who is still doing this manually?
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chad retweetledi
This is the first AI cut.
And it will send shockwaves.
Remember: Jack is one of the greatest founders of all time. He created this platform that we’re all on, and has been early to many technological shifts. And Block was doing very well as a business.
So, for him to cut 40% of headcount in this way is a signal to everyone in tech: get good now. Become indispensable. Work nights and weekends. Learn the AI tools and raise your game. Or you might not make the cut, as an employee or as a company.
I know. That sucks. But capitalism is natural selection. The market is unforgiving, because you are the market. After all, it’s not like you’re buying some random gallon of milk from the store; you’re always buying the best product at the best price.
So too for apps: your customers are always installing the best piece of code they can get. And because AI is going to create new winners, if you aren’t the best in your market, someone may become better with AI. Particularly with the new agentic workflows.
To be clear: Block’s severance is generous by any measure. 20 weeks of pay, six months of health insurance and vested equity, all of that goes far beyond any typical package. Jack did his level best to cushion the disruption. The laid off are a temporarily unfortunate class, as opposed to a permanent underclass.
But had he not leaned into the AI transition, he might have had to lay off more people, slowly, and over time, as faster competitors went after his market share.
How would they do that? Sure, AI isn’t a panacea by any means, but the closer you are to software engineering the more aggressively you need to embrace agentic workflows. The AI companies are already doing that, and places like Stripe, Shopify, Coinbase, and now Block are pushing hard on this area.
There will be overcorrection. But the fundamental technical innovation is real. And you need to either disrupt yourself or get disrupted.
jack@jack
we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. #### today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone. first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay. we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly. i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures. a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers. we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold. to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward. to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow. jack
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i’ve learned that when you both:
1) read old books
2) and also X every day
then over time you sound like a crazy person at dinner parties
I’ve tested this empirically
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I found the perfect cross sell with a Claude Code Max subscription
Nicolas Hulscher, MPH@NicHulscher
A SINGLE 20g dose of creatine increases cognitive processing speed by 24.5% within 3.5 hours. A placebo-controlled trial found that creatine rapidly enhanced brain bioenergetics and improved cognitive performance during sleep deprivation, with effects lasting up to nine hours.
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Today, we’re launching Airpost.
I’m 46. That’s not a cool age to found a startup. At least according to Twitter. I still call it Twitter.
I’ve loved advertising all my life. Since I was 19 and my mom told me about a movie called “Nothing in Common” with Tom Hanks where he plays an ad exec whose main job seems to be shooting hoops with his creative partner. That sounded fun.
Since then, traditional advertising has stayed… traditional.
From my 1st job out of college writing TV ads for Snapple and Fox Sports, to leading product marketing at Airbnb, I’ve seen a lot. Now the AI era is here and an entire $1T industry is about to change. Who will change it?
Why not me? Why not us?
Introducing Airpost: a platform and service where world-class creative strategists use custom-built AI to build video ads. Fast.
If you’ve ever sat down to make an ad with AI and realized 20 minutes later you’re still wrestling with that same clip… that’s why we built Airpost.
Growth teams are busy. They’re asked to do too many things as it is. They shouldn’t have to be AI experts as well. Creative strategists shouldn’t have to stare at a white box trying to decide what to prompt. They should have a partner. That’s what we aspire to be. And that’s what we’ve built our tech to do.
AI ads shouldn’t have to mean only AI footage. We have an exclusive library of over 300,000 video clips we’ve shot ourselves. Our engine uses these, along with client footage and AI footage to make the ads we deliver each week.
We’re funded by the best investors and humans we know. We bootstrapped our performance creative agency, Ready Set, to 200 people. I was always told VCs didn’t add value. If that’s true, it must be other VCs, because ours have been awesome. Thank you Zach Perret, Nate Abbott, Peter Hebert, Max Mullen and all of the firms and folks who’ve believed in us so far.
We’ve gone from 0 to $1M ARR in the six months since we quietly started working with early clients like DoorDash, Dr. Squatch, Calm and more.
So far, every customer has renewed.
To celebrate the launch, we’re giving away a superagent where you:
1) Put in your product URL
2) Get snippets of what your real users are saying on Meta, TikTok, Reddit and X
3) Paste them into ad scripts
Comment “Airpost” and I’ll DM you the private link.
It feels (a little scary but) good to be out there.
Here we go! 🚀
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@STLChrisH @SMBfella Hardest part is knowing when to buy back in. Selling is easy if you have profits. But when do you buy back in!?!?! That’s the decision that haunts.
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This only gets better with age.
Missed out on $3,773,393 of gains - or 34.3% returns since reducing S&P500 position 18 months ago.
Bookmark this post for when you think you are ready to time the market.
Chris Hoffmann@STLChrisH
Today we placed a “sell” order for $11,000,000 of public equities to pay down $11,000,000 of floating rate real estate debt. The timing feels right… (when the market rips in 2024… everyone can tell me how wrong I was 😁) But I’ll sleep better tonight.
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Whoever builds the ability to boost your product's ranking within the agent's reasoning via a marketing budget, or to tailor user offers to the agent's owner based on personal data, will be the next Google.
tobi lutke@tobi
Shopify is building the foundation for agentic commerce. Universal Commerce Protocol, which we co-developed with Google, is now live. UCP will make it faster for agents and retailers to integrate. It’s open by default, so platforms and agents can use UCP to start transacting with any merchant. Major retailers are already using it. Agents can handle everything from discovery to fulfillment, and support things like discounts, subscriptions, and loyalty programs. We’ve accounted for all types of commerce.
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Ok so on LinkedIn this week I saw another founder I know at $100m+ ARR where growth has slowed … just leave the keys on the table.
Quit.
This founder said he was excited to leave and "explore what AI could do in the space."
Look on the one hand, I get it. As a 3x founder myself this stuff is hard. AI is disrupting so many vendors, so many categories. And it really can seem like everything is 10x harder these days. It may be 10x harder.
But here’s the part I don’t get:
🤗This $100m+ ARR startup has 100%+ NRR and 10,000+ customers.
Why don’t you go build something cool in AI … for them?
Why don’t you leverage the $100m+ ARR you have? The happy customers? The ones that already want to buy more from you?
I know it’s so much work just servicing them, dealing with technical debt, dealing with the team, etc. It can seem easier to leave that all behind.
But before you leave the keys on the table, just make sure you can’t do it in-house.
That you can’t build that epic AI Agent for the customers you already have.
Maybe in the end, that’s the most efficient, least risky path to that big success.
Even if quitting and starting over feels easier.
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This brand is printing.
NutraBoost has a crazy amount of new monthly visitors. They were at 70k in Dec, but only 2k in Nov.
150 active meta ads and new ads coming in constantly.
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🚨 JUST IN: President Trump posts an EPIC video of his operation in Venezuela with Fortunate Son blasting in the background
What a legend 🇺🇸
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