Dave Greenberger
5K posts

Dave Greenberger
@DaveGreenberger
Tech GTM, frmr @foursquare @yext @hitachi Won a hockey tourn once. #SteelerNation

My conversation with @tobi, founder and CEO of Shopify. Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:49) A problem worth solving (5:58) Building products people love (10:14) Why originality matters (11:47) Conformity in Silicon Valley (15:47) Founder-led companies (18:44) Shopify’s AI transition (23:52) Building with urgency (26:52) AI for small businesses (35:18) Raising the standard of living (41:11) Predicting the future with AI (48:14) Changing perception on talent (55:34) Reading and curiosity



Ken Griffin says he's scaling down in NYC: "What the mayor of New York has made clear to us, is that we need to double down on Miami."

The execution layer gets all the attention. But the design conditions underneath it are the interesting, human part. @tobi and I get into it on the latest Context episode. We talk about my path from politics to @Shopify COO, invisible work, and why T-shaped people are becoming X-shaped. Highlights: 1:09 - A Nonstandard Career Path 5:12 - White House Transition Lessons 8:40 - T-Shaped vs X-Shaped People 10:18 - Fluid Intelligence and Agency 13:31 - Rethinking HR as Talent 15:26 - Flex Wallet and Boomerangs 17:04 - Building Systems and Teams 19:38 - AI-Assisted Small Teams 22:01 - The Social Coefficient 24:52 - Dead vs Alive Companies 27:20 - Incentives and AI Usage 29:49 - Our Relationship with Data 36:29 - Shopify's Position with AI 40:02 - Anthropomorphizing AI

Dr. Jack Kruse just said AirPods are the stupidest thing people willingly wear today. Kruse is a neurosurgeon who says wireless earbuds deliver RF radiation directly into your ear canal, inches from your brain. Danny Jones said he switched to wired earphones because he knew this. Kruse told him that's not much better. "That's not good because you're still getting jump conduction into your ear." He says the science on the dangers of this has existed since 1977. Dr. Robert Becker, a scientist twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, went on 60 Minutes and told the world that all wireless technology has biological effects. He was cancelled for it. "All of this has biologic effects. I don't care what it is." Kruse says non-native EMF—wireless technology, blue light screens, RF microwaves—destroys your dopamine reward pathways and degrades your biology from the inside out. And yet, 280 million Americans wear wireless earbuds. Most of them have never been told what it's doing to the tissue inches from their brain. — Dr. Jack Kruse (@DrJackKruse) on the Danny Jones (@JonesDanny) podcast PS: If interested in more unconventional health content just like this, follow me.








At its best, marketing is a transfer of enthusiasm. When you're truly pumped about what you're doing, when you're truly driven by the vision, when you absolutely must make something that you need and want, your enthusiasm leaves a mark. It's a brand. Not the noun, but the verb. At its worst, marketing is a transfer of everything else. Your worst fears, your biggest insecurities, the charades you play. False enthusiasm on display, empty promises, and sloganeering no one believes. It quickly makes you a liar. Just like you can't not communicate, you can't not market. Everything is marketing. The best, and the worst, is always on display, like it or not. You can't hide from your own presence, however it shows up. Marketing casts, like a shadow casts. Attached to every move. Think about what someone else is doing that you're enthused about. Where did that come from? What transferred it? Of course many things that are great simply work. Nothing more, nothing less. No stories, no excitement, just the snick of a perfect fit. But somewhere down the chain, someone cared enough to make that thing right. And that's a transfer too.









