Will Batson

We spent $15,000 on billboards targeting one person: the guy controlling all the chemical spend at a saltwater disposal company in Texas. We mapped his commute and bought every billboard between his house and the oil field. When we finally called, he said "I see your billboards everywhere." That landed us our first oil field contract. At the time our entire operation was a $10,000 reactor built from PVC pipes from Home Depot, turning corn sugar into industrial chemicals. People keep trying to throw it away. It still works. That leaking reactor started a multibillion-dollar company. @ycombinator visited our plant in Houston. The original PVC reactor is still on the floor next to the Bioforge.

@Vinny_Daniel0 Today is the day we need this!

As a consolation to AI taking everyone's jobs, I now have a vibe-coded app that shows me what bar patios and restaurants are getting the best sunlight in NYC on a Saturday evening.

“A few months after I moved to Paris, two of my friends from Diadema came to spend some time with me there. They had broken up with their wife and girlfriend and were sad, so I invited them, hoping the visit would help clear their minds. Great. “They soon met other Brazilians, who played for a team like the seventh-division amateur league in the suburbs of Paris — all immigrants without proper papers. “Every night, my two friends came home angry, complaining that they were constantly beaten up. So, I said: “I’ll go over there tomorrow to watch you play.” And I did. “I arrived wearing a ninja hat, half disguised, and watched. The opponents were all dressed up, with their uniforms, equipment, water bottles, and a coach. And my friends’ team was wearing nothing: one in white shorts, another in purple, a third in yellow. The guys were hanging from the goalposts to warm up…. It was a mess. At the end of the match, which they lost, I asked: “Do you want me to train the team?” I’ll never forget the guys’ smiles. They were so genuinely happy and excited, something I had only seen when I was a kid, when we would fly kites in Diadema. I started training the guys every Monday, from 10 to midnight. Sometimes I would train them on Monday and play a Champions League match on Tuesday. I even remember scoring a goal against Barcelona on one of those days. I started loving Mondays. I couldn’t wait to be with those guys. We talked, I listened a lot, and I got to know each one’s stories and struggles. “Some made money playing capoeira, others delivering items on motorbikes or washing dishes. All of them had a hard life, afraid because of their illegal status, with little hope that things would improve, but football brightened up and took the weight off their days. On my first holidays, I went back to Brazil and went to talk to the ultimate crazy woman, my mother: “Mum, can you make stuff for the boys there?” “Say no more! She made travel polo shirts, tracksuits, match uniforms, training uniforms, everything in sizes S, M, L, XL…. I went back to Paris with 21 suitcases. The guys’ dedication grew along with their joy. We started training twice a week, then three times. We got promoted, and at the end of the season, I had a crazy idea. Another one. “I’m going to throw a gala for the team, just like PSG does for us every year.” I rented a castle-like nightclub where Matuidi had thrown his birthday party and started producing ours. “I had already hired a guy who used to film for PSG to film our guys’ matches, too. I asked him to bring all the videos to my house so we could watch them and choose the best goals of the year, the top scorer, the goalkeeper’s best saves. Let’s show them on the big screen! Then I ordered trophies for the winners of each category. Hey, but what about the others? Plaques! We’re going to make little wooden-and-acrylic plaques with each one’s name on them. Everything was perfect. The day before, I called the guys together: “Do you have a white button-up shirt and a basic black coat for tomorrow’s party?” Nobody had one. OK, I will buy you some. I went to the store myself and got some. Then I thought about their girlfriends and wives. I called the group again and gave each one some pocket money so that their SOs could buy a dress if they wanted. The party night arrived. And if I told you it was incredible, one of the most extraordinary emotional moments of my life, as cool as winning the Champions League, would you believe me?” One of my best stories on @TPTFootball theplayerstribune.com/posts/david-lu…

@matt_slotnick More

if the cost of labor dropped 90% overnight such that you could now productively triple headcount, would it make your CRM and HRIS more or less valuable?

@mcuban Is a business getting less value out of the incumbent saas provider when they are using agents on top or more? My guess is for many incumbent saas providers, businesses will get more value and the pricing model will just change but not the net dollar amount.

If true and agents work on top of enterprise software, doesn't this eliminate the need for per seat pricing by the software companies ? The coin of the realm for agents and AI in general is tokens. I don't see how enterprise software reconciles this conflict. Particularly when the agent "shops" for the most cost effective path with in an enterprise. I think the enterprise software companies will be able to charge for creating and managing agents and how they engage for companies that can't. But I don't see how the revenues stay where they are. Thoughts ?

@ryanzip Amazing

We noticed a worrisome quirk in Zipline’s data. We’ve been setting all-time highs week after week: delivering record amounts of animal health, blood, medicines, and vaccines....Except one critical use case that’s been shrinking. 1/n

@asanwal 1000000%

In my next startup, one potentially strange hill I will die on, is no Slack (or teams or whatever) It fosters learned helplessness, creates noise and actually reduces real collaboration

-believe everyone has something to teach, share, inspire, etc -don’t think you are better than anyone -have fun / laugh Repeat

Lesson here

Building more houses solves the majority of society's problems today So building more houses should be priority #1 of any government right now

@joe_zappa *from his time at yahoo said*

@joe_zappa For sure. As my former cfo from yahoo said, profit solves everything!

I'm very befuddled whenever I listen to podcasts with entrepreneurs and they're like "I didn't like the business I grew and ran for 5-10 years." I'm 4 years in, and I love my business. I use my brain for what it's best at. I'd think if I didn't, I would... do something else.

Thinking of Dan Barber’s line on the intro of Chefs Table on Day three. @PossibleEvent @HauptmanMichael

@Cflexman Well deserved!

Not one to overly celebrate a fundraise but taking a moment to pause & reflect on all the hard work that’s been done to get to this point. Grateful to the team, our investors & partners for getting us to this next stage & to keep building the next great F&B Co powered by our AI/ML engine linkedin.com/posts/starday_…

@brady_h @GChase

Babe what’s wrong? You haven’t even touched your creatini.

🇺🇦

With just a few lines, high-speed rail could connect a majority of the country without the hassle and high prices of air travel. Europe has it. Japan has it. China has it. It’s time we do to. 🚅🗺️

@kyleshannon @Replit @ReplitSupport Can you share the text you used? Trying to better understand how simple of language people are using vs how I have been working.

OMG! @Replit I had the idea for this app 15 years ago, and it was built and functional in 15 minutes on my TT Live last night. The Replit autonomous programming agent is remarkable! (Please top off my credits so I can keep doing demos @ailearninglab" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tiktok.com/@ailearninglab) @ReplitSupport

@Basti @Postmates Truly curious. What’s a top issue for you on the repub agenda you are excited about?

When I was the CEO of @Postmates I always played it safe. I was passive - just like DC likes it. I supported both sides, never had too much of an opinion. I am over it. Pick a side, move on. Given the current agenda. I am pro republican and every startup should be.