Cameron Hardesty

@artlevy @HillValleyForum @dkrajendra 👀

Deal making Hill & Valley lobby 2026 reminiscent of 1980’s Wall Street

The early founder years are one of the most stressful phases of life. Most are really not talking about it. - Some friends are climbing the corporate ladder and taking crazy vacations. - Someone just bought their first home - Someone already feels “settled” And you’re still trying to turn an idea into a company. At the same time: - Your bank account keeps shrinking - Investors keep saying “too early” - users never seem to care and retain on your product - People around you don’t fully get what you’re building - your mom ask when you will get a real job - Nights are full of overthinking - The runway clock keeps ticking - Time feels like it’s moving too fast yet progress is slow And the hardest part? - You smile to your friends and family - You say “things are going well.” - At 2 AM you wonder if this will ever work. But remember: - You’re not behind, you are on a different path - You’re doing something incredibly hard If you’re in this phase, be impatient for actions, patient with results and don’t give up. Building something from zero takes time. Anyone else feeling this lately? ✋

I sell flowers and these are the kinds of texts I now send to my COO Flowers a SaaS nerd could never

@beffjezos @babyak it you

All the smartest people you know are in a generational lock-in season right now

@0xleegenz The next great generation, baby!

Milennials (noun): A legendary tribe of 30-40 years old who look 25 but feel 65 who fueled by iced coffee, nostalgia, and mild panic

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

We’ve been doing this in the wedding floral industry for a few years, but only recently have truly accelerated with AI tools. The biggest opportunity in our industry is to own the entire transaction with the end consumer. It’s a much more complex business than a SaaS but TAM is much bigger and in a time where engineering costs are headed to zero, the complexity of a perishable supply chain and scaled local fulfillment is a real moat.

"The opportunity is no longer to sell software into industries in order to marginally improve them, but to win those industries and capture their economics." When inputs (like code) becomes abundant, they lose their value and power shifts to scarce assets or "the High Ground"

As I was saying...

@dagecky @garrytan Uh, who cares?

@cameronhardesty @garrytan It’s also the fact that it is making a pretty close image but it’s not actually the product you made which can be fine but technically it won’t produce an enhanced image of your content just an enhanced image of similar content

It's happening everywhere: roadmaps that stretch out for 2 years are getting done in a matter of months. This is the new normal. Software is going to get so much better from here. Except Apple. I think their software is still going to be mediocre.

@dagecky @garrytan Do you know how much it would cost to produce the ~10K SKUs this will create for us the old school way? Not sure if you’ve ever done ecommerce but one photoshoot on a budget costs $10-15K for about 50 sellable SKU images. $50 to produce 10K sellable images = insane unlock

@cameronhardesty @garrytan A fleet of agents for this is hilarious

@jordihays @dkrajendra @tbpn Thank you!!

@dkrajendra @cameronhardesty @tbpn Trading card incoming!! Excited for the whole family ❤️

my friend @cameronhardesty is delivering her third child and her husband turned @tbpn on so she stays locked in

@dkrajendra @tbpn 😂😂😂 it hasn’t accelerated labor yet unfortunately

Love this take. Most of the traits you're describing can be developed through playing a sport competitively from a young age through college, especially a team sport. No better training grounds for developing a tolerance for extreme discomfort + EQ + willpower and will to succeed.

I might get some pushback for this, but I honestly think a lot of parents, especially in places like Silicon Valley and especially many Asian parents, are training their kids for the wrong world. I see kids at the age of 7-8 packed with after-school math, more reading, more test prep, with the goal to make them “smarter.” But from my perspective, living deep in the AI world every single day, I’m pretty sure raw intelligence is about to become a commodity. Very soon, AI is going to do math better than the best mathematician, it’ll diagnose better than top doctors around the world, it’ll draft contracts better than elite lawyers, and it’ll learn faster than any PhD, instantly, endlessly, and without any fatigue. All of that knowledge will live right in your pocket. So think about it… if we’re raising kids to win by being “the smartest in the room,” we’re really training them for something that’s already being replaced. In my opinion, this is a waste of time, $, and effort. What I focus on with my kids is very different. I care about willpower. I care about passion. I care about loving something enough to stick with it, especially when it feels hard. And as a Dad, my job is to support that, whatever it is, and teach them to never give up. I could be totally wrong though… But when I look at where AI is headed, I don’t think the future belongs to the kid who memorized the most formulas or did the most math problems, etc. In the future, I think the winners are going to be kids who 1/ can push through frustration 2/ can stay curious 3/ can keep going deeper into their passions than others 4/ can use AI tools to build cool things 5/ has the will power to never give up In this day and age, school doesn’t really teach this and I don’t think after-school classes teach that either. I don’t think any of this can really be taught at school tbh, it’s something that is developed inside the home through the environment we as parents cultivate. In a world where AI will help you build anything, create anything, and learn anything instantly, I don’t think the real edge will be intelligence anymore like the past. The edge will come down to grit, discipline, emotional strength, and to keep going as others quit. AI will be so deeply woven into our kids’ lives whether we like it or not. That part is unavoidable. However, what is avoidable is raising kids who only know how to follow instructions, chase grades, and wait for approval. I always tell my kids, I don’t care what grade you get in a test. I care that you know what you got wrong, why you got it wrong, and what you’re doing to avoid that mistake in the future. Because I firmly believe in the future, the kids who will thrive the most will be the ones who want something badly enough to go after it, who aren’t afraid to fail, and those who know how to leverage AI. Just my two cents. But if we’re serious about the future, I think it’s time parents start training for that world, NOT the one we grew up in.

@TakoTreba @babyak 👆

The highest-paying job in tech will soon be marketing.

It’s more entertaining if you have kids, bc, Paw Patrol

These are the kinds of texts I’ve been getting from my husband for the last few days. Florence is our all-knowing company AI bot in Slack who, among other things, preps briefs for every single sales call on the books, surfaces press-worthy data, and dissects our sales funnel. Now, evidently we have Paw Patrol, a fleet a marketing agents spawned by Botster, @babyak’s first ClawdBot named after our dog.

@sweatystartup Are you kidding? What a weird take. I normally like your stuff, but this is a strange non-consensus stand to make. Being slandered publicly is not the same as being outed as a creepy sexual predator.

Peter Attia is really suffering now. I feel for him. What is happening to him is one of the most brutal things that can happen to you on the planet. I was publically humiliated a few years ago. An extortionist here on X using an anon domain made up stories about how I’m a fraud and was headed for bankruptcy. That I was a scammer. My businesses were underperforming but I wasn’t headed for bankruptcy. The posts got millions of views. People approaching me in public about it. Everyone I know murmuring about the rumors me. It went on for months. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It is wild how people really pile on and kick a man when he is down. My theory is that they feel better personally when bringing people down. They feel righteous and it gives them status among the other folks doing the same thing. Even though many of them live messy lives and have made their own mistakes in the past. Living with their own level of shame. I’m a fan of Attia’s and I wish him the best. He’s had a massive positive influence on my life and my family and anyone who has benefited from my own writing about my health journey. He’ll be back.

@jarrodwatts @babyak

ideal 2026 team: - ideas guy - designer - vibe coder - marketer best if you can do all 4

@brett_finance As someone who is heavy on strategy and very analytical but lacks reps in Excel, this tool has been a game changer for me!

Dang. Claude in Excel is pretty incredible. It's amazing at a few things and clunky at others. I'll do a longer post tomorrow about what I'm finding. For those who haven't tried: - Price: $20/m - Setup: Very Easy - Impact: High This feels like a no-brainer tool for FP&A.