Ryan Graff

@Emarky Got an example to share?

Most people ask AI: "write me an ad." That's the slow way. Document your actual process first. The steps you follow without thinking. Then give AI the steps, not the task. Night and day difference.

@DukeOtty @homegymcoop For just $2500 you can never go to Planet Fitness again.

@homegymcoop Gotta prove revenues before their Shark Tank appearance

This guy is training in the home gym of the future. Incredibly compact with insane amounts of versatility.

@Seanfrank Only if people are brands @ShaanVP's Five Tweet Tuesday gets an open every single time. The rest have fallen off, including prolific, insightful people like Prof G. and others.

Are there any brands where you open EVERY email?

@thesamparr 1) Lots of investors — and there are tons out there — don't have any special insight into who will win in AI. 2) The winner take all AI companies are likely already past the angel stage. 3) If you are/believe the above, then Media and DTC seem like relatively AI-proof segments

I’ve seen a few media companies and dtc brands raising funding right now. I’m not an active angel…but I can’t imagine doing a non-ai company seed investment at the moment. God bless those companies. What’s the market like for non-ai startups?

@dharmesh Yes. Same reason you gotta learn math in school ... we have calculators, but it's kinda nice (and beneficial!) to know how to think and solve problems.

Could not agree more. Coding is about more than syntax -- it's about thinking and communicating.

@ReubenR80027912 Pretty sure GCC isn't going all in on "regime change," which is a big, unpredictable endeavor. They want to go back to the status quo of the last 30 years, in which they get rich AF while worrying only occasionally about a shitty neighbor.

IF the straits stay closed & IF that sends LNG & oil prices up >30% for over 2 weeks then 2 things will happen: 1. The GCC will have every incentive to ensure regime change happens b/c they can never let this happen again 2. The USN will just escort energy fleets daily

@ElijahSchaffer @nytimes Next time you wanna fake a reporter reaching out to you, here's a believable text: I'm working on a piece about XYZ for the NYT. I'd like your perspective. Can we get some time to chat? No one writes five-paragraph SMS messages, dingus.

@Jayyanginspires Similar trick: At a picnic no one takes a whole apple. But if you slice it up, people walk by and take a handful of slices and you're soon out of apples. More appealing, easier handle, less messy? ... idk, but feels similar to this.

I love lil psychology nuggets like this

@STLChrisH Ha ... I painted our house Anew Grey and hate it. But it looks great on your warehouse!

I can barely pick a shirt and pants that match. But i think this exterior refresh on our new home for STL operation is pretty sweet.

@dharmesh I like it. I've heard of teams doing Sales Sprints, where literally everyone — from admins to the c-suite — are dialing. You're thing's different, but the spirit is the same. Can't wait to hear what you learn.

This might be the SCARIEST and/or CRAZIEST thing I've done in years. But, here we go... Even before PLG (Product Led Growth) there is usually Founder Led Growth. I've long believed that *everyone* in an early-stage startup should be selling the product and helping customers get value. Even if you've never done sales. *Especially* if you've never done sales. But, there's no reason to limit this to just the early days of a startup. So, in the spirit of curiosity, learning and love, I'm trying something new. I'm going to jump back into "early-stage" mode and help sell HubSpot. Not just sell the vision of HubSpot (which I do all the time), but sell the actual product/platform that we provide to customers. HubSpot is 20 years old and has 280,000+ customers. Why would I do this? Simple, because: I LOVE HUBSPOT! And, I want to share my love with as many other founders and founding teams as I can. Also because I'm competitive and love a challenge. I'm going to track it all and see how many customers I can attract to HubSpot Free or Starter edition. I've got a ton of ideas I want to try that I think will help drive sign-ups. As part of this effort, I'll be creating a series of "founder to founder" videos. Some ideas I have: 1) A "speed-run" of signing up for HubSpot and getting your first contact in there and starting to use it. 2) A demo/screencast of how I *personally* use HubSpot for @AgentDotAi (a @HubSpot Next project). It has 2.5M users and is growing. So, it's a *real* startup with real data. I get to also then show-off how we're using HubSpot with AgentAI to automate some things (like monitoring for VIP signups). 3) WTF is an ACP (Agentic Customer Platform) and does a startup really need one? 4) Why can't I juse vibe code my own CRM? 5) Why wouldn't I just use one of the super-cool AI-native CRM products? Or...any questions that you folks have. Phew! I'm nervous...but excited. If you're already a HubSpot customer, THANK YOU! If not, then give me a chance to convince you. :) Visit: GOHUBSPOT .ai And in the meantime, please reply with your comments, questions and pushbacks for upcoming videos. Off to the races! Thanks for your support.

@denk_tweets The cold outreach guidance is great. And the LInkedIn methodology that I could've paid $8k for is gold. Thanks!

I spent last week at a mastermind in Costa Rica with 8 other startup founders. I have pages and pages of notes, but here were my top 10 takeaways: 1/ AI skepticism is no longer a valid position 2/ your AI tools are only as good as your data 3/ you've been doing cold outreach wrong this whole time 4/ novices optimize prompts, experts optimize systems read the rest (with more context) in my latest newsletter: mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/mastermind-v5

@denk_tweets @ShaanVP That's a great take. So true.

I don’t think enough founders talk about founder-market fit.. I told @ShaanVP a story about this which I don’t think I’ve ever told publicly before between 2017 and 2020, crypto was the biggest thing ever. I didn't own any bitcoin, I had zero connections in the space.. but I still wanted to be a crypto founder… so I found an open-source 3D model of a cold storage wallet. then found someone in China who could make them and I shipped 1,000 of them to nyc I sold a total of 3 and still have 997 sitting in my parent's basement (if you want one, hmu) compare that to @beehiiv: I was the second employee at Morning Brew (who became the poster child of the newsletter ecosystem). I built the referral program and helped scale the newsletter to 4M readers. I'd seen what success looks like from the inside. @beehiiv was born out of that. I had years of experience and credibility in the exact space I was building in. that’s founder-market fit.

Barack Obama reached a deal that prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Trump ripped up that deal. Now we are at war with Iran to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon.

Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly-not skilled!

@franklinleonard Meh ... this is more "This is what happens when someone wants to sound virtuous on the way to getting very rich."

This is what happens when someone isn't very smart but thinks they are because their father was rich.

@brentbrookler @dharmesh That did occur to me. And I even looked at your profile to try to suss it out. Then decided, "fuck it, being a know-it-all is fun. Just post it."

@rcgraff @dharmesh I forgot to put that in the sarcastic font but thank you

Friendly advice for my startup founder friends: When coming up with your positioning, solve for your customers and your market -- not for investors and media. Example: I see a ton of startups that are positioning themselves as "AI-first" products. But when every startup is calling itself AI-first, nobody is really getting much value from that label. Think back on when we had the smart phone come out. Back then, a bunch of companies said they were "mobile first". Most of them failed to take off, because it was unclear what value being "mobile first" was creating for their customers. So, when describing who you are and what you do, frame it from the perspective of your customers. How does what you do translate into value for them? Let's say you were building a back-office system that reviewed every vendor contract a company signs looking out for deviations from company policy. It runs quietly in the background until it needs to raise an alert. You could approach this in two ways: 1) We have an AI-first vendor contract review product. We use the most advanced AI models to read through every contract...blah...blah...blah. 2) We have the smartest vendor contract review system you'll *never* see. It uses AI to dissect every document, watch your back and protect your business. See the difference? Help your customers understand what you do for them. If you get that right, you'll have addressed investors too. Trust me, investors don't know what "AI-first" really means either. I say that as an indie investor that's invested in 150+ startups. These are fun and exciting times to be building. Best wishes!

@dharmesh Anyone here who needs help with their positioning ... this is all I do. Happy to help. DMs are open.

@dharmesh As someone who does positioning & messaging all day every day ... Get straight to the value you provide using everyday language. For example: Automatically review and flag contracts that deviate from policy. Why? Customer (not provider) focused. Jargon free. Obvious value.

@brentbrookler @dharmesh As someone who does positioning and messaging all day every day ... no. Say what you do. Not how you do it. From the example above Yes: Find and flag contracts that don't match policy automatically. No: Agentic-first contract review.

@dharmesh How about ‘agentic first’? Is that better?

@jasminewsun I think about this all the time ... A whole generation thinks Trump, Noem, Vance, Kash, etc. are normal, grown-up, professional leaders.

if you’re 21 now, Trump has been president or running for president since you were 10. this obviously had gargantuan consequences for Gen Z's views on democracy, virtue, success & basically everything else Trump shaped a whole generation's personal character, and we still don't talk about it enough