Tushar Agarwal

I’ve *NEVER* shared this story in public before. This is a story about LOSS, FAILURE and sheer perseverance. I told this story to a few fellow startup founders last night, and it resonated - so I wanted to share on here.

@recap_david PULSE

I built a zero-person AI newsletter business that did $2,000+ in revenue last month. No team. No payroll. No freelancers. Just 4 AI agents running the entire operation (and I spend less than 4 hours a week on it). Here's how the system works: → A CEO agent sets the vision and orchestrates every hire → A Growth Engineer scrapes local news, Reddit, and event venues into a daily JSON database → A Content Director reads that database, curates the best events, and writes every Thursday newsletter in my voice → A Sales Director fields every ad lead, generates ad creative with nano banana, and closes deals over email → All orchestrated through Paperclip AI & powered by Claude Code Spokane Pulse (my local newsletter) now has 6,662 subscribers and a 47.5% open rate, almost double the industry average. Local newsletters are quietly printing money. Naptown Scoop does $320K/year. Wichita Life clears six figures. The model is wide open in almost every city, especially when building it in an AI-native way. If you want the full blueprint and step-by-step walkthrough video, Like, RT, and comment "PULSE" (must be following so I can dm you) I'll send you the exact Paperclip AI company export I use to run Spokane Pulse. You can clone it, swap in your city, and ship.

@shalevhvs AI

Everyone is copying this AI character. And 99% of them are failing. I know because I’m the one behind it. I turned this single character into a viral empire: 👁️400M+ Organic Views 💰$300k Profit (90 Days) 👥5M Followers Everyone is trying to copy the "look" but failing to copy the brain. I'm finally revealing the exact system behind the fame. Want the free guide? 1. Follow me (so I can DM you. 2. Retweet and comment ‘AI’ below I’ll send it over instantly 👇🏼

@kennandavison Icon

Odd @FT hit-piece on @matthewclifford. Sounds like it was conceived (poorly) by an opportunistic bitter rival. Disappointed that the FT decided to publish such a biased piece, full of hearsay and desperate straw-clutching in order to weave a specific narrative. Having known Matt for over 10yrs, I'm sure there's 1000's of people who would attest to his character, integrity and patriotism towards the UK. How the hell is this country going to recover from the wreckage of the past 10yrs, if we are tall-poppy-hatchet-job-ing the individuals with the smarts, gumption and work ethic to turn this sinking ship around? Ridiculous. ft.com/content/6a30c6…

@theneelpopat Congrats on the launch man! This is something the world is crying out for. Excited to see where you take it.

Exciting news to share! I've started a new company and am going to space 🚀 (sort of) Meet popcorn.space — the next-gen telco.

@rohitdotmittal @abhijeetdw This was excellent. Excited to see more of these.

We started a podcast. In Hindi. This is "Episode 1: Founder Ke Paise." @abhijeetdw and I have had lots of long conversations about startups, founders, and building companies. Our conversations were more honest and direct when we talked in Hindi. When we discuss ideas in Hindi, everything becomes easy and effortless. Many of our friends have had the same experience. But we couldn't find anyone in the Bay Area openly discussing ideas in Hindi. So, we decided to start a podcast in Hindi to bring these discussions and conversations to everyone. We plan to discuss anything we find interesting. We also plan to have interesting and accomplished guests. I think they'll share lots of insights that are lost because of the language. Hope you all like it.

@hkanji Wow. Is “whitesplaining” a thing? Because I guess this would be it.

When a marketing guy at a VC firm who believes the British empire was not so bad argues with a South Asian investor at another venture capitalist firm who says the British empire was exploitative. This is what VC twitter has come to.

@levelsio All this exists in London.

Yesterday I realized why people in Europe don't wanna work hard There's nothing nice to buy, just basic shit Just walking in shops in America and there's so much stuff to buy all beautifully designed products in any niche Like you really wanna make more money to buy all this

@Vitality_UK - member for over 5yrs; the one time I actually need to your service: (1) The bill I am sent is completely wrong (2) I have wasted hours trying to get hold of someone on your phone lines, with no success (3) your online portal is broken & I can't log in. Please help

@HarryStebbings I feel seen (except for number 1)

Three of the most common patterns in the most successful founders: 1. Played video games at high level early. 2. Started some kind of entrepreneurial activity, always below 15. 3. Moved frequently in childhood. Forced to assimilate with different people, cultures.

@christianbowens Congrats @christianbowens - truly inspiring journey 🙌🏽

I started Paddle when I was 18, because the world made it difficult to sell software online. Churn. Metrics. Invoicing. Payments. Currencies. Chargebacks. Taxes in 100+ countries. You can’t build something beautiful or innovative if you have to spend all your time becoming an expert in these difficult, but necessary, functions. So we made it easy by doing all of these for our customers with no work on their part (aside from plugging Paddle in). It’s been amazing. Today we fuel the growth of more than 4,000 companies, who do billions in annual revenue. I’ve never been prouder. “Then why did you leave?!” I get it’s fun to read doom and gloom into a founder “leaving” (especially when the UK notice website makes things look dramatic), but unfortunately for online gossip, the simplest explanation is often reality. Last year I realized something: I took Paddle from my bedroom to a company worth over a billion – which means it wasn’t just me anymore. We assembled a team that I’d put up against anyone. We got very good at a lot and the things we were struggling with I could certainly figure out. But why do that when we’d hired some of the best in the world? My job is, and always will be, putting the folks who are best in the right positions. As I took a step back, I realized my day to day was optimally spent on product and direction, not on the day to day of ops, finance, legal, et al. Put more simply: Paddle was ready to run without me, which – not to toot my own horn – is what success looks like when you’re building a company that scales. So over the last year, I’ve started transitioning out slowly, because there was over a decade of knowledge we needed to make sure was passed on to all of Paddle’s teams. Jimmy stepped up as CEO almost exactly a year ago, and we finally reached that point. It was time to step completely out of day to day operations. That was two weeks ago. Now, I meet with the team multiple times per week, I’m in the board meetings, and help with any issues that come up (including anything from all of you – I’m still here to help!). As for what’s next, I’ve already got something new in the works. Nothing to share publicly quite yet, but follow me @christianbowens for an update soon. 💪

After a decade of building Paddle, two weeks ago I was officially terminated. Was there a coup? Do I have some illness? Not exactly. Here’s why rumors of my death are (mostly) greatly exaggerated 👇

@dougall As a junior investment banker, I used to have nightmares that I was trapped in Excel and someone was trying to delete me.

Founder=powerpoint-creating monkey. VC=powerpoint-reading monkey. Locked in a forever monkey dance choreographed by Bill Gates.

@t_blom I repact that you did this, knowing full well it’s true and knowing full well you’ll be flamed for it.

I tend to hear one of two rationales from solo founders: I cannot convince any of my smart, determined friends or former colleagues to join me on this endeavor. I am so superior to all my friends and former colleagues that teaming up with them would only slow me down. Neither reflect particularly well on you.

@Alicebentinck @join_ef @matthewclifford Huge congrats @Alicebentinck. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again), EF was the single most transformational thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’ll be eternally grateful for you guys taking a chance on me and the life skills I learn in such a short space of time.

I'm becoming CEO of @join_ef and @matthewclifford will lead our work on EF's AI thesis full-time. We've worked closely together for a decade on almost every aspect of the business. Our role titles will change, but our working relationship won’t.🧵

@millsustwo Google photos does all of these things and more! Been using for years and very happy with it.

I mean wtf. Apple is jokes rich, but can’t even add a simple bit of AI to photos app? All I want is to say ‘show me other photos of this person in my library’ It’s that simple! 🤦🏼‍♂️ but no! Nothing!

@millsustwo @plantpopssnacks Yes! They’re the best. I’ve been eating these since I was a kid in India. Glad @nushy_d brought this over to the UK 🙌🏽

I’ve been eating so many @plantpopssnacks recently. My go to moisty in the mouth. Don’t hold back. Buy them and bond with them. plantpopssnacks.com

@HarryStebbings Hands down @matthewclifford . No question. Despite how busy and in-demand he is, will always go out of his way to help and give advice, 9yrs after he invested. STILL get a happy birthday message on WhatsApp every year without fail.

I do not want any VCs to respond to this. Founders only, which investor provided the single best founder experience for you that either invested or did not invest, as an angel or VC, in Europe? Who was it? What made the experience good?

I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: the UK startup community has no idea how lucky it is to have Dom going to bat for them behind the scenes. Superb work.

"There are, according to 20-odd top tier European VCs, just two accelerators really worth getting into: Entrepreneur First and Y Combinator" Nice piece in @Siftedeu on why @join_ef is the top choice for exceptional talent sifted.eu/articles/accel…

@jellymalin It’s *still* the best.

@iamtoosh I used to love this place! Haven't been for years.

Where shall I book for a really good Sunday roast in North London? (For my American boyfriend, who has never had a Sunday roast) #AskTwitter