Ray Li

@lorenzo_pravata pod

Games marketing is broken. After raising over $50M to support and work with hundreds of studios over the last 6 years, I find that the biggest problem is studios’ lack of direct connection with their players. Over the last six years, I’ve watched talented teams struggle because they never had a clear way to reach, learn from, and grow with players over time. Without that connection, everything becomes harder - validation, iteration, community growth, and retention all turn into guesswork. For most of the games industry’s history, platforms have controlled identity, communication, and distribution, which are invaluable to a game’s success. Apple limited how studios could collect and use player contact information outside the App Store, and Steam still doesn’t give studios access to the contact details of players who wishlist or sign up for playtests. Studios are left without a direct relationship with the audience they’re trying to serve. As a result, studios rely on fragmented tools and spreadsheets to manage players across different stages of development and live operations, with no continuity from first contact through long-term engagement. Today, that changes with the launch of FirstLook 1.0. FirstLook is the first Player Relationship Platform built specifically for games. It gives studios everything they need to connect with players across the full lifecycle, including playtests and feedback, community and communications, analytics, rewards, and creator programs, all in one place. We’ve been building under the radar, but FirstLook already powers hundreds of studios, from indies to publishers like Krafton, @ArenaNet, and @Skybound, connecting millions of players with the developers who make the games they love. As part of the launch, we’re introducing a brand new limited time free plan, with access to all our features for up to 500 players. You can set this up now in under 10 minutes. If you want to learn more, book a demo and we guarantee that you will save you time and money and help you grow. Links in comments!

@edenchen Gonna be great!

FULL INTERVIEW | @rayxli From panic attacks to 8-figures: this is the story of @senestudio (your favorite CEO's favorite suit). 0:26 - AI-powered before AI was cool... 4:11 - 2 months left: Kickstarter hail mary 9:54 - From Zuck to NBA players 14:34 - Team, tech, what's next

The Great AppLovin Debate | Ad vs. Ad | @Rayxli, CEO of @senestudio Joins (2.16.26) x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@oliviaakory @grok @varunagg @CJSlattery this was a boss move

@grok @varunagg @CJSlattery Thanks grok 🙏

I don't know who needs to hear this but applovin is a scam. In app ads are the most dogshit of dogshit ad inventory on the internet. Some random ass company did not crack some secret code to somehow make them as good as Meta ads. Nobody is interrupting their candy crush level to buy your creatine suppository. If Hindenburg were still around they'd be borrowing against their kids' college funds to get even more short exposure to Applovin.

@herrmanndigital I appreciate you bro

One thing I've found to be the most impactful for me and my personal growth was to not closely follow what others were doing. I found that I'd start to feel inadequate in my own endeavors and start to ignore my own ideas in favor of what others were doing. Sure, I keep tabs on friend's brands and buy from them but I often see so many founders, operators, media buyers, content creators obsess over a brand or brands to the point they just start to copy them. This isn't me attacking or saying don't do these things, but what I've found work for me (and maybe you) is to instead seep into the culture of the internet more and less on other DTC brands. Listen to podcasts on culture, read marketing books that are less seeped in bidding tactics and instead help expand your mind more. I'm notorious for never listening to ecommerce podcasts, this isn't because I don't like them, I do. But in my limited time I'd rather listen to a podcast like Plain English because it helps me think deeply about the people, culture, and ideas of the markets I work in, not just how other brands are marketing them which is likely how I am to. Sorry Zach not to pile on here haha but felt my response required a bit more context.

@TaylorHoliday What are you measuring here? Are these prospecting campaigns?

Incrementality testing be like... In all seriousness, we need to deepen the conversation about the reality of replication challenges in testing. How you can operationalize varying test results over time as an organization? The "gold standard" of measurement can feel squishier than we would all like the further into it you get. But wrestling with this reality is GOOD and forces marketers to deepen their thinking about the reality of media impact over time. Operationalizing Incrementality will be a core theme of 2026. More to come here.

@colindougherty @linear_magazine This is sick

@linear_magazine @rayxli

Our favorite crossover: tropical brutalism meets midcentury cues

I love sandwiches with jam.

@RomanEcom Can you hook me up with a contact?

The Wayflyers / Shopify Capitals of China operate with fix rates regardless of your growth rates. There are 4 to 5 big players. Amazon = 15% Shopify = 15-18% It will never beat a regional / local banks but way better than most options in North America for people who are not banking / have a history with a bank. Highly recommend just working with them vs a Wayflyer

@TheBillRom LET'S GOOOOOO

Haters will says its Ai

@alexmdees AI

1. FREE AI Visibility Scanner To celebrate our launch, we built the first free LLM visibility scanner. Type in your domain. We’ll show you exactly how (and if) you’re being recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. RT + Comment "AI" on the launch vid and i'll send it to you.

Introducing Meridian. 50% of searches are now powered by AI (Think ChatGPT and Gemini) Meridian is the FIRST Visibility Engine to get you ranked #1 by AI. Bold claim? Here's how 👇

@colindougherty LOVE

This pullover is amazing @rayxli , olive you You are incredible

@mepstein311 @drewsanocki Neal is such a good dude, thrilled to hear that

We’ve been waiting for this moment. @drewsanocki and I have been in ecommerce for decades. And over the years, there’s been one name that never left our shortlist of people we admired for both skill and character, and someone we’d feel privileged to work with. That name is Neal Goyal. Today, I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Neal as our SVP of Sales. He’s not your typical quota-chaser. He’s a true brand partner. Someone who’s spent his career earning deep trust across this ecosystem. What truly drew us to Neal isn’t titles or deal counts. It’s values. From day one of PostPilot, Drew and I have built around a single North Star: everything we do is rooted in how we best serve the customer and make brands successful. Neal’s philosophy mirrors ours. He doesn’t just lead sales…he leads value creation for our brand partners. That’s how we roll. That’s all we care about. It was humbling to hear how strongly Neal believes in our platform, performance, and people. And in the culture and roadmap we’ve built to serve thousands of top brands. Because at the end of the day, every hire, every product decision, every growth bet feeds one goal: serving brands better. And with Neal on board, we’re doubling down, yet again, on exactly that.

@RomanEcom Roman, would love an intro man

@rayxli I don't know. Only way to find out is by testing. Maybe the angle needs to be like True Classic where its targeting a woman buying for her man? Maybe the avatar needs to be a bit older? Let me know if you need an intro, I got a bunch of the referral codes

For every $1 we spend on $META we’re spending $0.20 on $APP with 10% higher 1DC ROAS. We’re just being conservative in our scaling. $APP spend is up more than 2x this Q3 vs Q1 2025. Curious to see how Q4 pans out - but even if $0.20 ratio holds and ROAS goes to parity with $META we’re golden and will print profits hopefully.

@TheBillRom Show us the Shopify trophy

1 Million Served

@orenmeetsworld @codyplof What's the benefit of many accounts?

You are right and it’s Already happening, especially regionally - we were running five international and then three domestic in ‘23 on TikTok on one brand. Software this is already the TikTok playbook. Most of these in beauty are run by a regional creator and then some centralized content And I’d say there’s thousands of beauty and cpg “ugc” creators that are really just brand employees being whitelisted and are essentially brand accounts

Prediction. Brands today have on social media account for the most part. It’s run by internal teams and they pay influencers for distribution. We’re gonna see brands having multiple accounts that they pay creators, not influencers, to run for them

@andrewjfaris But yes, excellent point. Biz problems often have roots in personal problems

@andrewjfaris I had to reread "makeup". I was like 💄 issues?

Never underestimate how many of your business problems are actually just human psychology problems. The operator who can't negotiate better payment terms because they're afraid of seeming demanding. The founder who can’t fire anyone because they don’t like being the bad guy. The team that chases every new tactic because focus is monotonous. These are not strategy issues; they’re makeup issues. When I think about the big risks to my own business right now, this is where my mind goes first: in what ways am I making poor decisions because of my own character weaknesses?