Dave Birckhead

AI isn’t just changing how work gets done. It’s changing how GTM systems and teams need to operate. Great conversation with Noah Adelstein on: • why leaders must become beginners again • applied AI in GTM thegtmengineer.substack.com/p/from-scaling…

Not long ago, I stepped into uncertainty. I took a sabbatical to go deeper into applied AI: building, experimenting, learning. Today, I’m incredibly excited to share that I’m joining @OpenAI to lead Marketing Technology. Grateful to all who helped me take the leap. Onward.

codex is the best AI coding product and we want to make it easy to try. for the next 30 days, we are giving companies that want to try switching over two months of free codex usage.

The deeper I go into AI, the more convinced I am that we need practices that help us to slow down. Reading Homer and Emily Dickinson aloud with family has reminded me that things like imagination & inner power may matter now more than ever. fullstackgrowth.substack.com/p/the-faster-a…

@mignano @usv @fredwilson too funny! (PS - like the cool shades you’re both wearing)

Launching tomorrow: a conversation with my new partner and @USV cofounder, @fredwilson. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak and a story about when Fred destroyed me on Twitter 10 years ago.

As coding agents have become the standard for developing software, we've transformed Sierra's engineering interview process to be AI-native. We've documented our lessons here, and very curious how others in the industry are navigating sierra.ai/blog/the-ai-na…

hot take :) The biggest and most productive people in the AI era are the folks who are already good at their jobs. AI as a multiplier, not an equalizer/democratizer

Union Square Ventures' @mignano says that when he was at Spotify, @GustavS had a famous saying: "Talk is cheap, so you should talk a lot." "And what he means by that is the cost of getting something wrong is actually way more expensive than the time it takes to talk, align, and earn the right to go invest, spend, or bet on something." "And what I've always loved about @USV is that they have a similar philosophy — they talk a lot. It's a small team, but they spend a lot of time together forming their point of view on the world. And I think that's what's given them the edge."

You learn by doing. There’s no other way.

the 10x engineer is now a 1000x engineer Turns out AI dev skillset is not evenly distributed. The best developers know how to use the tools and direct agents better than the average developer, and the gap is only growing!

@martin121 👀 and nice to see Spotify highlighted as one of the primary innovators adopting Claude Code

Anthropic Enterprise Agent event from today: #livestream-live" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">anthropic.com/events/the-bri… 👀

@bgurley Bill, I just ordered a copy for my son who’s studying AI at USC. Without even reading it, I trust it is chock full of wisdom and good advice. Hope it inspires him as much as reading eBoys did when I was closer to his age.

Today is launch day. 🚀🚀🚀 We find ourselves in a time with much fear/anxiety about careers. I hope this book can be a positive antidote. The permission, motivation, and methodology to do what you truly love. a.co/d/02q0aD2N

Chatbots Are the New Influencers Brands Must Woo nytimes.com/2026/02/17/tec…

@alexisohanian Thanks for supporting this Alexis! We were living in NOVA when our son was born 19 years ago. My wife worked at NCI & I worked for a small tech company at the time. We had zero parental leave!!! Virginia can do so much better for those starting families today!

I've seen first hand how paid leave is good for business, and as a proud UVA grad I'm thrilled to see Virginia moving forward with a new law for 12wks paid family leave. The big vote is expected this week. Virginians, urge your leaders to vote YES! bit.ly/3ZfILiq

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.” –Kurt Vonnegut

This week's podcast is all about ads. Asad Awan, one of the leads behind ads at OpenAI, joins @AndrewMayne to share how we came up with our ad principles and how ads in ChatGPT free and Go tiers expand AI access for all.

This essay by @nytdavidbrooks is a must read today—thanks for everything David and I look forward to what you do next! nytimes.com/2026/01/30/opi… cc: @tom_peters

He is the author of my favorite book, sharing the best life and career advice

@martin121 @TheBubbleBubble this is so bizarre —feels like something is going to break at some point

Aaaand, we’re at three digits 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣! 🪙🩶📈No jinxing here but next target should be $120, given volatility $VXSLV is at 78 & rising sharply, implying a 23% move coming month priced into options skewing upwards. PS shoutout to Jesse over at @TheBubbleBubble for his precious metal Substack predicting it all, before it happened.

After analyzing 20 years of data, McKinsey discovered their hiring process favored “perfect” resumes over what really predicts success: resilience, real-world experience, and the ability to learn. Listen to the full IdeaCast episode here: s.hbr.org/4bJGVO0