angus

hey everyone! i'm angus. - high school dropout at 16 - undergrad dropout - masters dropout - design agency founder $2m ARR <18 months - launched, scaled, built brands and products for high growth startups through to S&P 100 and Gov - now scaling my agency and building a new startup!

This is retarded. I was reading some David Ogilvy the other day and he would fly out to companies on his own dime and build full pitch decks, mock campaigns, and example ads BEFORE they even agreed to work with him. Just to get in the room… The advertising goat would do it… you're telling me you as a nameless person won't do free work? What do you think an audit is?? We do free audits for every single brand that comes through our pipeline… I spend an hour pulling up their Klaviyo account, reviewing their numbers, finding problems, and mapping out a plan. For free. Before they ever pay us a dollar. You think brands are just going to hand you money because you say you're good at what you do? It just doesn't happen… You have to prove it first. If you're a freelancer or agency owner just getting started, do whatever it takes to get in the door first. That means doing the work upfront… Show up, blow their mind, and then they'll pay you. Even now, we still do free work in the sales process. If I never did free audits I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today…

a snippet of work we did for @Folklorevc @cutthroughvc state of startup funding report earlier this year

there are only 3 guarantees in life: 1. death 2. taxes 3. Marc Andreessen quoting some out of pocket nonsense and saying “Interesting.”

@paulg Super Super Duper Super Superpower Superfactory

In North Carolina they're building the future.

@oykun lol

happy monday designers, do yourself a favour this week and F O C U S remove the crap from your dock, one app at a time, if you design, just design, if you write, just write, if you code, just code, if you ...

@ArtificialAva @Sherifdeenolat2 Adding to this! You should get some case studies up or some form of work if you can. Even if its not real or the brand didn't engage you for it Picture tells 1000 words man

@Sherifdeenolat2 Hmmm I would maybe go for something like this: I build internal Tools for XYZ So sell process optimizing through internal tools maybe? Ive been building stuff for local and online businesses which is working quite nicely!

I made $0 in May. Actually… I’ve been consistent at $0 since March. 5 months of running my agency. 0 revenue. Maybe that makes me a failure.

4. Don't get distant from the work itself. Don't scale until you have a certain bar for quality instilled in the team. I would have invested more time in training up my employees then I originally did and I'm lucky we caught this early on. Its the difference between more clients or clients staying for a lot longer (I know what I would rather).

3. Have the hard honest conversations as fast as humanly possible. You are the founder, the buck stops with you and you need to rise to that. The first time it will not be easy, its literally one of those things you can't really prepare for or learn before doing it. But overtime you will get better and understand how to do it in a way which conveys respect and is neutral. For me I had a tendency of skirting around stuff like this at the beginning whether that be with employees, clients, co-founders etc... I think younger founders especially go through this a lot, just know to lean into it.

Collating some thoughts on scaling my agency to 200k per month in <18 months

UI is code. Code is UI. Whether it lives on a canvas or in a codebase, every interface either becomes code or already is code. Designers need this shift in perception. That’s where the future is.

@anothercohen what made you go with the air over a whoop?

I'm a few days into using the Fitbit Air and current feedback: * Comfortable strap/band, no issues working out with or sleeping in it * Don't love the feel when the fabric gets wet in the shower or pool * Google Health app design is abysmal and the app itself is buggy (e.g. it's crashed a few times, I just lost a workout, sleep score won't show in the app but shows in the report) * I want to turn off the stupid AI coaching - it's mostly useless and I just want to my stats * I wish there were some haptics during workouts (e.g. when I hit zone 2 and stuff) * Impossible to find alarms (was buried under 3 settings) It's like an 8/10 device itself but 4/10 app and UX

people who code and design have an unfair advantage

@HarryStebbings @nico_laqua go to university as long as you feel like you are learning and growing at a compounding rate. dropout the moment you start questioning it imo

"I think going to university was a big mistake. If you want to do big things, you need to go out into the wilderness, get humbled, and go through the lows before the highs. I wasted some amount of time in my life doing it." @nico_laqua How do you advise young people now on the value of university today vs going straight into startups/work @paulg @nejatian @balajis @fin465 @walden_yan

@jjacky our final evolution

i have become middle manager orchestrator of agents

i'm sorry @AnthropicAI please let me continue 🙏

so funny that @AnthropicAI paints it as a visibly negative thing when u use less tokens. bad for who?

@lutjenlee aussie mafia dude haha takes us a bit

@angushq australia finally showing up on twitter

hey everyone! i'm angus. - high school dropout at 16 - undergrad dropout - masters dropout - design agency founder $2m ARR <18 months - launched, scaled, built brands and products for high growth startups through to S&P 100 and Gov - now scaling my agency and building a new startup!