Alex Kouts

Of course that's your contention. You're a first-time SaaS bear. You just got finished listening to some podcast, Dario on Dwarkesh, probably. Now you think it’s the end of white collar work and seat-based pricing is screwed. You're gonna be convinced of that til tomorrow when you get to “Something Big is Happening”. Then you’ll install ClawdBot on a Mac Mini, vibe code a dashboard on top of a postgres database and say we’re all just a couple ralph loops away from building a Salesforce competitor. That’s gonna last until next week when you discover context graphs, and then you're gonna be talking about how the systems of record will be disintermediated by an agentic layer and reposting OAI marketing graphics. “Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because ultimately the application layer is just ….” The application layer is just business logic on top a CRUD database. You got that from Satya’s appearance on the BG2 pod, December 2024, right? Yeah, I saw that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or...is that your thing? You get into the replies of anyone posting a SaaS ticker. You watch some podcast and then pawn it off as your own idea just to impress some VCs and embarrass some anon who’s long SaaS? See the sad thing about a guy like you is in a couple years you're gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One: don't do that. And two: you dropped thirty grand on Mac Minis and LLM API calls to come to the same conclusion you could’ve got for free by following a handful of VC accounts.

Ghosts in the machine..."something that has human-like features grafted onto an utterly alien substrate." The future is arriving at extreme velocity. Does it mean this generation of AI's value is asymptotic or we're the first species to intentionally join the wait-list for natural selection?

I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year and a failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue. There's a new programmable layer of abstraction to master (in addition to the usual layers below) involving agents, subagents, their prompts, contexts, memory, modes, permissions, tools, plugins, skills, hooks, MCP, LSP, slash commands, workflows, IDE integrations, and a need to build an all-encompassing mental model for strengths and pitfalls of fundamentally stochastic, fallible, unintelligible and changing entities suddenly intermingled with what used to be good old fashioned engineering. Clearly some powerful alien tool was handed around except it comes with no manual and everyone has to figure out how to hold it and operate it, while the resulting magnitude 9 earthquake is rocking the profession. Roll up your sleeves to not fall behind.

After 10 years of building consumer social apps, I've decided to start exploring new areas. Building these products is an unforgiving grind—but I learned a lot along the way. For those embarking on this path, here's everything you need to know: TIME FOR A THREAD 👇

@elonmusk Truly breathtaking. The US government is the greatest opportunity for workflow automation in the history of humanity. We need to get internally hosted legacy tech out and AI/automation tech in asap!

Reducing the federal deficit from $2T to $1T in FY2026 requires cutting an average of ~$4B/day in projected 2026 spending from now to Sept 30. That would still result in a ~$1T deficit, but economic growth should be able to match that number, which would mean no inflation in 2026. Super big deal.

“Hopefulness is not a neutral position. It is adversarial.” Cynicism is cheap…it's the default setting in a turbulent world where the structure of modern media is optimized to present abject horrors every time you open your phone. Optimism is not only contrarian, it’s the only responsible way to live.

On the latest episode of Category Visionaries CEO @akouts shares the origin story of Indigov and ruminates on the unique joys and challenges of building a company in the government technology space. #ceo #thoughtleader #govtech frontlines.io/alex-kouts-ceo…

Incredibly insightful discussion from @bradleytusk and @akouts on the Govtech space and the intersection of technology and citizen engagement! Big thanks to the Firewall podcast team for having us on the show. #ceo #podcast #govtech podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gov…

Congrats to my amazing team at @indigov. This is a testament to all of their tireless work to strengthen democracy!

Indigov helps connect besieged lawmakers and their oft-frustrated constituents tcrn.ch/38izD5y by @cookie

Thank you @tuskventures for your partnership. We could not have done it without you!

@LandRover I was about to grab a range, no chance now. This is horrendous.

The ultimate startup chronicle book I’d love to read is one filled with honest, raw interviews of 50+ founders of _failed_ startups, truthfully describing what lead to their company’s failure. It would likely be painful to read, but you’d learn an insane amount.

I would be 20-40k/year poorer if it weren’t for the negotiating advice received from @ramit @akouts @JordanHarbinger and Chris Voss. I’m eternally grateful. Thank you.

Just announced at Microsoft Build 2019: #ElectionGuard, an end-to-end verifiable elections SDK project that @kiniry, @n1nj4, and I have been leading at @galois and @free_and_fair! npr.org/2019/05/06/720… blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/…

Solve via iteration. Then get paid via repetition.

Karma for nearly 20 years of public good work in elections integrity pays off: a demonstrator open source high-assurance voting system for secure @risc_v platforms, funded by @DARPA, demonstrated at @VotingVillageDC. @defcon @free_and_fair motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…

I read a lot of American history...but nothing did more for my understanding of American exceptionalism than this brilliant documentary. youtube.com/watch?v=tKsBrd…

Capitalism is intrinsic to the human species. startupboy.com/2019/03/05/cap…

Lifecycle of a successful hedge fund: Small, niche strategy. Good returns. Raise tons of money. Have to diversify strategies to scale. Move into strategies you're not experienced in. Poor returns. Convert to family office.