Mark McDermott

☘️ Almost St Patrick’s Day, so time again to share The Muppets’ peerless version of Danny Boy… The Swedish Chef, Beaker and Animal a.k.a. The Leprechaun Bothers… 🤓☘️ #stpatricksday #stpatricksday2026 #themuppets

The top performers of the next decade don't look like the top performers of the last one. Two profiles win. The extreme expert, one engineer doing the work of an entire team alone, with 10 to 100 agents running underneath them. Irreplaceable because of depth. And the extreme generalist, a first-principles thinker who can cover almost any role in the company. The founder profile. The person who just gets things done. The distribution is shifting fast

@moneyfetishist Exceptional!

if one more person sends me a LinkedIn DM offering "AI solutions for your portfolio companies" I am going to find out where they live I am so unbelievably tired of this let me paint the picture for you. there is a person. he is probably 26. he has a ring light. he has a MacBook. he registered an LLC 4 months ago Delaware ofc. (but even in Cali you would pay the same taxes, because for having to pay taxes you would need to make money). his LinkedIn banner says "helping PE-backed companies unlock value through AI-powered transformation" in a font that screams Canva Pro free trial. his profile picture is him crossing his arms in a blazer looking slightly to the left like he is about to deliver a TED talk about operational excellence to an audience of absolutely nobody he has 47 posts about AI agents. he has a Loom video where he explains what private equity firms need. from his apartment. into a camera. to me. he is explaining MY industry to ME from a bedroom that has an IKEA desk and a motivational poster on the wall that probably says "hustle" or "execute" or some other word that lost all meaning in 2019 and then he sends me a DM "hi I help PE firms implement AI across their portfolio companies, would love to explore how we can add value to your fund" fck you fck you and fck your DM and fck your Loom video and fck your Calendly link and fck your "explore synergies" and fck your banner image and fck your crossed arms and fck your blazer that you bought for this photo specifically who do you think you are talking to. who do I look like to you. do I look like your mate's dad who runs a tile shop and you walked in and said "hey have you considered a website" and he said "oh my nephew mentioned that" and you charged him $1,500 for a Wix site with stock photos. is that what you think is happening here. you think you are going to walk into the operating infrastructure of a PE fund with a Loom video and a Google Doc titled "AI Transformation Roadmap" and I am going to say "oh wow I never thought about AI, tell me more young visionary" I have been doing this longer than your LLC has existed. I have done financial engineering that would make your head spin. I have restructured companies while you were watching YouTube videos about how to start an agency. and you are going to explain operational efficiency to me. from a ring light. in a bedroom and the pitch. the actual pitch. "AI for portcos." that is not a value proposition. that is not even a sentence. that is two abbreviations and a preposition. you are selling me a category. that is like calling a restaurant and saying "food for hungry" and expecting a reservation where? doing what? which process? what is the input? what is the output? what does it cost now what does it cost after? have you done this before? where? for whom? show me the receipts. show me one single measurable outcome that happened in the real world and not in a hypothetical case study you wrote yourself on a Google Doc with a Notion template nothing. there is nothing. because you do not have a product. you have a positioning statement and a prayer and I know exactly where this came from. some guru. some course. some Twitter thread. somebody told you PE firms are a "capital rich market" and that the way to access capital rich markets is to position yourself as a solutions provider to their portfolio companies. and your brain went "PE firms have money, I will sell to PE firms" without once asking yourself what you would actually sell. the entire strategy is: find rich people and ask them what they need. that is not a business. that is panhandling with a LinkedIn Premium account "capital rich market" fck off. you know what else is a capital rich market? the Vatican. go send the Pope a DM about AI transformation for his diocese and see what happens. capital rich does not mean capital available to you. capital rich means they have money. it does not mean they are going to give it to a person whose entire qualification is owning a ring light and having watched every Y Combinator video on YouTube I am deadass when I say this. if you sent me a pitch deck proving there is a positive ROI on flying out investors and operators to Miami and doing drugs and hookers with them for a weekend, that is a better value proposition than "we help PE firms implement AI." the Miami pitch has a defined activity, a target audience, a measurable outcome, and a cost I can evaluate. you are being outperformed by a hypothetical cocaine and escort service because at least that service knows what it is selling and does not ask the client to define the deliverable on a discovery call and the way they talk in these videos. like they are letting you in on something. like they cracked a code. "most PE firms are not leveraging AI effectively." are they not. thank you for this breakthrough insight you assembled from 3 LinkedIn posts and a Patrick Boyle video. please continue explaining my industry to me from your IKEA desk while I sit here surrounded by the actual businesses you claim to understand better than the people who run them and then the email. the fcking email "hi [first name], I noticed that [firm name] has an impressive portfolio of companies. we specialize in helping PE-backed businesses leverage AI to drive operational efficiencies and unlock value. would you be open to a quick 15-minute call to explore synergies?" you generated this with the same AI you claim to be an expert in. I can smell the prompt from here. "write a cold email to a PE operating partner about AI services." you did not change a single word. you are using AI to sell AI and the quality of the output is the strongest possible argument against ever hiring you for anything you are your own worst case study. you are a walking objection to your own service. every email you send is proof that you should not be trusted with a client's operations because you cannot even operate your own outreach without it looking like it was assembled by a bot having a stroke and the follow-up. always a follow-up. "just bumping this to the top of your inbox" it was never in my inbox. it was in the filtered spam folder next to the 14 other people this week who sent the exact same message because you all bought the same course from the same guru who told you PE is a "capital rich market" and none of you have spent 30 seconds thinking about what you would actually do once you got the meeting you are begging for you want me to get on a discovery call so I can explain my portfolio companies to you. you want me to do your diligence, your scoping, your research, your solution design. for free. on a call you initiated. to sell me something you have not defined yet. you are asking me to be your unpaid intern while you pretend to be my vendor that is not a business. that is an internship. and I am not your supervisor. and I am not your uncle who runs a shop. and I am not your friend's dad who needs help with computers. I am a person who does this professionally and you are wasting my time at a rate that I can actually calculate and it is higher than whatever you were planning to charge me do you know what gets a meeting? "we reduced claims processing time by 62% at a $40M workers comp TPA, here is the case study." that gets forwarded to the operating partner within an hour "AI for portcos" gets deleted in the time it takes my thumb to swipe left and I feel absolutely nothing because you clearly felt nothing when you sent it stop. stop recording videos in your bedroom explaining my industry to me. stop DMing me. stop emailing me. stop asking me to explore synergies. stop calling yourself a founder when your company is a Notion workspace and an LLC filing. stop targeting "capital rich markets" when you have nothing to sell. stop it figure out what a specific company in a specific industry specifically needs. build a case study. document the outcome. come back with that and I will respond within 24 hours because I am genuinely desperate for vendors who actually know what they are doing until then go fck yourself, respectfully, and take your ring light with you

So many founders who haven't reignited growth say: -- "We're doing the best we can" -- "We're controlling what we can control" -- "We just missed our lowered base plan" Be honest. You are a dinosaur in Age of AI. It is you. You have time. But the window is rapidly shrinking. Stop with the excuses. Grab your top 10-20 folks, move them into a new building, don't let anyone talk to them. Their only job is to build the #1 AI Agent in your space. This may be your only, last, best, chance.

One of the great moments in modern history. THE SWEDISH CHEF RAPPER’S DELIGHT

@businessbarista Claude

I want to start a community dedicated to Claude Code. It’s become the gateway drug to coding and experiencing the power of AI for tons of people. This will be a space for people to share killer use cases, agentic workflows, proven prompts, and connect with other CC obsessives. Comment “Claude” if you want to join.

The UK is a great country with an extraordinary history. Our stagnation is real, but it's fixable and worth fixing. Enjoyed giving this talk at @lfg_uk last week and so encouraged by the optimistic responses I've had from people who are building a brilliant future for Britain 🚀

@HarryStebbings @joelhellermark (Former) friend

@HarryStebbings @chetanp @honam @rabois @jasonlk @bdeeter @ttunguz No doubt this ends well

"Triple, triple, double, double is dead. Going from $1M to $3M to $9M is not interesting. You have to go $1M to $15M to $100M." @chetanp @honam @rabois @jasonlk @bdeeter @ttunguz is triple triple double double dead? Have our growth expectations changed forever?

Recently, I've noticed people making a big deal about how we haven't yet seen massive disruption to job markets and knowledge work from AI, and so they're starting to doubt that it will happen soon. And investors are wondering if they can just sort of ignore it for a while.

@signulll Reflect is good

what software do you use for your personal & work to do list?

@kilkenomics when will tickets go on sale for this November?

@LarsHoldgaard @dgrcode @levelsio @NapierHolland Would you mind making an intro or sharing info? About to go through all of this

@dgrcode @levelsio @NapierHolland It’s fun: I’ve met zero of this! Bought a house with mortgage, bought a car, been through immigration for a non EU, paid taxes … been super easy for me/us. I think it’s connections. We found a good lawyer+intro to banker in Millennium. Super smooth even after 2 years

🇵🇹 Portugal is awesome because of the quality of life, and as an expat you mostly don't have to interact with the government/PT business. But HOLY SHIT when you do. @levelsio, @NapierHolland, and others talk about it, but whatever you imagine, is 10x worse. Sheer incompetence.

@matiii Yes

Trying to do the same for London! If you’re around and want to join the invite list for the next event with other builders and founders, drop me a note or comment if this could be interesting to you!

@michlimlim I asked Claude whether I should invest in an SPV of Claude and Claude said no

Many friends including myself have been offered allocation into OpenAI or Anthropic SPVs this week. Minimum check sizes are $100k-$1M, with fees as high as 16%. From what I understand, folks are creating SPVs on top of SPVs and making management fees on top of them. It’s like a pyramid. It’s clear that people want to participate in the success of AGI, but the opportunity is inaccessible.

🏆 We’re proud to share that ScreenCloud has topped the Technology & Digital category at the Great British Industry Awards 2025! 🏆 A huge thank you to our team, customers, and partners who continue to drive our mission forward!

@charliekirk11 Don’t be silly

If you want to renew your love of America, spend three days in the UK. You will kiss the ground when you get back home.

ScreenCloud turns 10! 🎂 Initially launched as a side hustle at our agency, our tool for pushing content to screens developed into one of the most powerful digital signage tools on the market. Today, ScreenCloud works with 10,000+ organisations worldwide! 🚀

So the 2021 GTM Playbook is Dead. Almost all of us agree about that. But what has replaced it? Or will replace it? It’s still murky. What doesn’t work so well today: - Endless outbound emails - Low energy digital “events” - Break-up emails - 2021 SEO strategies - 2021 mass scale content strategies - Spending all day on LinkedIn - Press and basic PR strategies What works a little but not enough to usually be worth it: - Lots of energy into social media - Lots of energy into your own pod What still works well today, but folks often lack the energy to run: - Highly targeted outbound, that adds real value - High energy IRL field events (connect with prospects and customers live) - Your own big events (see Stripe, Figma, etc) - Weekly webinars - Visiting prospects and customers in person - Aggressive brand awareness - Aggressively doing partnerships - Incredibly high quality video content about industry, not you AI tools are incredible here and evolving so quickly. But while we will all be using a suite of them soon if not already, they don’t solve for many fundamental challenges in 2025. The 2025 GTM Playbook in fact often requires you to get out of the home office more, to work harder, and to spend more human time per prospect, not less. Are we willing to do this?