Babak Azad

@shawngorham Went thru this 2 years ago. A nasty period. Just sent you a DM.

Anxiety has been crushing me the last 45 days

@TrungTPhan We just did a Disney cruise over spring break. Gotta say I believe these numbers. Sure ours was a cruise but there were so so many die-hard adults who were on their 5th or 7th consecutive cruise. Without kids. Disney has some of the passionate fans (customers) I’ve ever seen.

the math ain't mathing

@BuildwithPublic I’ve joined the waitlist. When do you expect agents to go live?

Full template, parameters, and constraints in the docs: public.com/api/docs/templ… DM me if you're building directional strats and want to talk through your setup 🦾

This is huge...shorting equities is now supported on the @public API Open a short position driven by your own code or the MCP

The percent of people pricking themselves is going to be a good bit higher in 12 months. Wild - thinking about who and what people jabbed themselves for 2-3 years ago vs today and in a short while. It’ll be pretty common, not the exception.

Jim Abbott: el hombre que redefinió lo imposible. ​Nacido sin la mano derecha, Abbott no pedía excusas. Su técnica era pura maestría: lanzaba y, en un movimiento fluido y casi irreal, se calzaba el guante para fildear. No era un truco, era genio.

I'm going to make some obvious points. (1) Blowing up all the oil infrastructure in the Middle East is an insane idea, and may well result in a global economic crash and humanitarian crisis unrivaled in the lives of those now living. We're talking about the price of everything everywhere rising, from food to gas, at a moment when inflation was already high. All of that will be laid at the feet of the authors of this war. (2) The antebellum status quo of Feb 27, 2026 was just not that bad, but we're unlikely to return to it. Expect indefinite, long-term, ongoing disruptions to everything out of the Middle East. (3) Also assume tech financing crashes for the indefinite future. The genius plan to get the Gulf states caught in the crossfire has incinerated much of the funding for LPs, for datacenters, and for IPOs. Anyone in tech who supported this war may soon learn the meaning of "force majeure" as funding gets yanked. (4) Many capital allocators will instead be allocating much further down Maslow's hierarchy of needs, towards useful basic things like food and energy. (5) It's fortunate that all those progressives yelled about the "climate crisis." Yes, their reasoning about timelines was wrong, and much of the money was wasted in graft, but the result was right: we all need energy independence from the Middle East, pronto. It's also fortunate that Elon and China autistically took climate seriously. Now they're going to need to ship a billion solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, nuclear power plants, and the like to get everyone off oil, immediately. (6) It's not just an oil and gas problem, of course. It's also a fertilizer problem, and a chemical precursor problem. Maybe some new sources will come online at the new prices, but it takes time to dial stuff up, particularly at this scale, so shortages are almost a certainty. That said, China has actually scaled up coal-to-chemicals[a,c] (C2C), and there's also something more sci-fi called Power-to-X[b] which turns arbitrary power + water + air into hydrocarbons. But all of that will need to get accelerated. I have a background in chemical engineering so may start funding things in this area. (7) Ultimately, this war is going to result in tremendous blame for anyone associated with it. It's a no-win scenario to blow up this much infrastructure for so many people. Simply not worth it for whatever objective they thought they were going to attain. But unless you're actually in a position to stop the madness, the pragmatic thing to do is: scramble to mitigate the fallout to yourself, your business, and your people. [a]: reuters.com/business/energ… [b]: alfalaval.com/industries/ene… [c]: reuters.com/sustainability…

Amazing.

Literally just wrote about this on another platform yesterday. Many companies try to be risk diversified. But often that means not exploiting a channel and opportunities to their fullest. Meta, Google, affiliates - that’s more than enough to $50mm, if not 100mm.

unreal.

This is a pretty impressive and comprehensive look at running a Super Bowl ad. Only a few comments: -He compares the spend relative to a business with a 9-figure ad budget. That's fair and understandable. But if you're an 8-figure biz, I would really question doing this ad. And even relative to a low 9-figure budget, the total cost isn't insignificant. -His analysis on CAC and that the number of customers needs "isn't absurdly large" starts with a CAC floor of $200. Many companies don't have that luxury. And so the numbers do become quite big if your CAC target is $85, for example. -He makes an important point about all the work that goes around the cost of the actual spot - production, other buys, etc. So the $10MM buy really means a commitment of $25MM in total give or take... These are more call-outs that caught my eye. Overall, it's arguably one of the better pieces I've seen (and the most detailed) laying out the economics of a Super Bowl ad.

@herrmanndigital Sending my best to you and your family. Wishing for a speedy recovery.

If you're the praying type, we had to take my son to the ER last night for difficulty breathing. He was admitted and now has to spend a second night here. Not sure when they'll discharge... Pray for him, he's very scared of the hospital and all the "beeps" he hears and pray for my wife who is staying with him while I manage my daughter at home.

@michaelmiraflor Funny you say this. I bought a few Carhartt items in Oregon. We’ve been in Europe a few months, and I’ve had to look this exact thing up. Gotta say the stuff here is pretty awesome, as much as I love my prior purchases. So it’s more clear on why the halo effect is happening.

A fun AI prompt is to ask what the deal is between Carhartt USA and Carhartt WIP. They have almost nothing to do with each other at this point apart from the exclusive licensing arrangement. The latter’s halo effect on the former is palpable, but most people have no idea about how independently they operate from each other and that’s why you get really bad amateur TikToks about why “Carhartt is cool” but it’s really… Carhartt WIP is cool and fashionable and that halo effect makes the generic $20 Carhartt USA beanies feel like a great value. It’s a pretty incredible setup that is almost happening by complete accident at this point even though they share the same logo. An unintentional flywheel that is on autopilot on opposite ends of the consumer spectrum. A top brand history story up there with the Dassler brothers or Nike using a literal waffle iron. Etc.

@soundslikecanoe @iamshackelford been ages dude. i'm excited to see what you and andrew do together.

@babakazad @iamshackelford Thanks Babak! It’s awesome to hear from you.

Our head of performance creative had never run an ad. (keep sending it daniel) Four weeks later, he's outperforming every "specialist" we've hired. That should terrify every media buyer reading this. Here's why your job is disappearing: Meta literally said: "Narratives in your account matter more than audiences" Today, the robots handle the targeting. You need to understand humans. The old model: • Creative strategist • Account manager • Media buyer • Designer • Analyst = 5 people doing what 1 person should be fully capable of owning The new model: One person who understands: → Creative → Numbers → Psychology → Finance → Customer behavior Maybe a designer to support. That's it. Our media buyer now: • Sits with finance updates daily • Adjusts to forecasts in real-time • Understands every P&L impact of the offers they run • Talks to customers I've watched 10-year "experts" get replaced by smart people who learned everything on YouTube in a month. Tl;dr • Stories > settings • Psychology > platform hacks • Business > button clicking

I think I’m with Patrick on this. At least from a couple perspectives. When you say they understand creative and numbers, for ex, does that mean they are literally building (or even guiding creative creatively and strategically) as well as doing the actual analysis themselves? It feels like that. If so in my experience internally and working with clients (brands and some agencies), not sure I’ve seen someone be great at both. I find they are very different personality types, styles of thinking etc (I was clearly in the analytics camp). Now if they are using a toolset (a la AI creative) that’s perhaps possible. But I still think it’s rare. And if they are that talented across domains I’d then wonder how long you can retain them. Vs their understanding just how exceptional (imo) they are and perhaps going elsewhere or starting/partnering in their own thing. I’m sure nothing above is new to you. I know you’re good, thoughtful etc. Just thought I’d add my thoughts. (And Patrick, congrats on the new gig!)

@iamshackelford The problem with this (very attractive) idea is that you’ve now tied your agency’s ability to grow directly to your ability to identify, hire, and retain freakishly uncommon unicorns. I’d even go so far as to say they don’t exist at all.

@Camp4 This is so great. If you replace climbing with cycling and double or so the number of trips, my list is basically the same as yours. Good stuff

Each time I post about my Ideal End State exercise, someone asks about the second item on my list: “Why not 100%?” Aside from the fact that it’s not practical with a family, here’s the reason: People who have zero commitments are miserable. Humans *need* to be on the hook for things—it gives life purpose. People think success means living on easy street—then they arrive and realize it’s empty. There’s one thing that billionaires and broke people have in common: They’re both awake for 16 hours each day—and have to fill that time with meaning. I choose to commit to hard, scary, uncomfortable things—not because I have to, but because it’s where growth and fulfillment live. Choosing your “hard”—and doing it mostly on your terms—is as good as it gets. And here’s the liberating truth: If you’re never going to stop doing hard things, maybe you don’t need a billion to start living your ideal life. 🤔 That epiphany led me to a major life reboot 7 years ago. Maybe defining your Ideal End State is the first step toward the change you need. (See the comments below for the Ideal End State Exercise.)

@ShaanVP rad

first time doing a behind the scenes vlog --- reply with a 1 word review of the video youtu.be/586uuNYwX1s?si…

Imagine if Tour de France would’ve had an afterparty 😂 Images generated by super_bock: instagram.com/super_bock?igs…

It'd be great if Amazon had an "Order Later" option. Ideally, "Deliver Later" (specific date) but I'll take the former. Similar to Schedule Send emails. Often I think about ordering something but if I'm about to travel, I have to remember to place the order vs. just scheduling the order for a day or two before I return.