Axiom Alpha

@AnnaZ @JenRobichaux @Luvsatx81 @Marc4AustinD10 Also buses take forever with way too many stops. If you take a bus downtown in rush hour it will take twice as long as driving your car

@JenRobichaux @Luvsatx81 @Marc4AustinD10 Yeah, but the solution is definitely not more buses when they can’t keep the buses free of violent felons.

If I had been given ten minutes to explain the problems with all the zoning and parking policy changes proposed by council this week, I don't think I could have said it any better than Council Member Marc Duchen. Thank you @Marc4AustinD10 for being an eloquent voice of reason.

@SMB_Attorney @reallyoptimized AI models are commodity products now and there are even open source options. Pricing power is limited unless the models are tied into more custom interfaces like Harvey that target specific verticals.

@reallyoptimized Why does it trend to $0? Can you send me a secondary source on this topic?

The million dollar question about AI that everyone is overlooking: Right now, how much would you honestly pay for access to ChatGPT, Claude, etc.? For most business owners, the answers are shockingly high. And it's orders of magnitude more than $20... Guess what comes next?

I also have limited experience (a few tens of overseas hires), but what I see for those roles is generally cost that is 10-25% of the cost for 10-25% of the quality output. It's useful if you are dollar constrained because it basically lets you buy "lite" versions of a position before you have enough cash to afford a 100% person, but it doesn't scale. If you can afford 4 25% people, you are better off hiring a single 100% person and then saving time and headache that would have been necessary to manage 4 people

I might lose some friends on SMB X for saying this but I think the global talent/outsourcing thing is extremely overrated. After multiple attempts, our experience has been that the talent level isn’t anywhere near what we’ve found from US-based employees. At 50% of the cost, even 80% output justifies the expense. Our experience has been 50% of the cost and <50% of the output plus the cost of headaches addressing performance issues. Admittedly a small sample size - we’ve made 4 hires total since inception from a couple different sources but am I the only one who has tried it and been like “this ain’t it”? I remain open minded to being convinced, but at this point our default is back to US-based, on-site for all roles.

@thesamparr I hope this is plus attorney's fees

This is nuts - my buddy joel has had a company called Impossible. its decade plus old - impossible foods comes along - joel owns the impossible trademark - impossible foods sues him for trademark - he spends a TON of his own money defending the case. Like over 5-6 years. Counter sues. - We tell him he's nuts, just give him. - Today he just won Kudos, Joel!

@levelsio I don't often reply, but when I couldn't reply to your last post it made me want to reply... god damn it apparently I am still susceptible to the manipulation tactics that work on 3 year olds

Okay and who of you couldn't reply to this? Please please only if you couldn't okay?

@AIOnramp_AI @shawngorham Which Charlie book is that quote from?

@shawngorham Agreed. Updated landscaping also drives value. Charlie Munger referenced it multiple times times in his books. "spend on trees and you will back triple in revenue."

Commerical Landscaping is a better business than Pest Contol Same recurring revenue Landscape is a much higher ticket per month Landscape has project based opportunities Landscape has repairs (sprinklers) I can keep going... but if I were deciding between pest control and Commerical maintenance, landscape wins... although the multiple is much lower than Pest Control. Why?

@juliogatx Maybe cut back on the $100M+ per year spent on fewer than 3,500 homeless individuals? That's three times more per homeless individual than it would cost to simply house and feed them all freshman dorm room style.

Yikes. This will make budgeting very tight. Unless there's a sales tax explosion and/or police overtime can actually be reduced through new hires, growing cost of delivering a public safety hour will eat more of the general fund budget...so less for parks, libraries, housing.

@mil0theminer It probably works though...

Are you kidding me

@CallahanAutoCo The odds are pretty high if Epstein was laundering money through the lottery. Buy $200 million of tickets with cash from illegal activities to statistically guarantee a win. Then earn $85 million of legitimate income.

What are the odds!?

This was almost certainly Epstein laundering dirty money. If you buy enough lotto tickets, you can statistically guarantee a win. You might spend $200 million on tickets in order to win $85 million, but you converted dirty cash into legitimate income.

@digijordan @grok This is money laundering. Buy $200 of lottery tickets with dirty cash. Win $85 million back in legitimate income.

Hey @grok Did Jeffrey Epstein win an $85 million Powerball jackpot on July 2, 2008?

Those two ideas don't actually conflict. Don't build technology since it will take away jobs AND also take all the profit from investors and have it equally split among the workers. That is his world view. The two ideas are actually necessarily linked because if you take away the profit motive, you remove most innovation (or at least the implementation of new inventions), and that's what Bernie wants to avoid job loss. While I wholeheartedly disagree with that, I can at least appreciate his consistency in fully embracing both sides of the coin (anti innovation and anti capitalism). Many anti-capitalists delude themselves into believing we can continue to innovate without capitalism.

@ChrisJBakke I like how you can just step outside and express plummet 20 stories to the ground floor

You will live in the AI slop apartment. Your clothes washer will be under your kitchen sink. You have no dryer. There's wood paneling on the walls for some reason. You will smile at the candle that is burning 4 inches away from your 24 foot tall curtains. You pay $20,000/mo and can't access the stairs up to your shitty loft bedroom. There is no bathroom. You will be happy.

@data_atx How many meetings to start a food truck?

Libertarian thinktank IFJ has a new report calling out Austin's onerous business fees and regulations Starting a restaurant requires 31 fees totaling $9k, filling out 38 forms, dealing with 15 agencies and doing 24 in-person meetings

A major contributor to why housing is more expensive now: Inflation of expectations

@LukeTurner_CFP If he reinvests into an OZ fund (he could even set up his own) with some of the proceeds that would give him significantly more post-tax net cash

He sold his business for $8 million. And thought he was set for life…He wasn’t! He was 55. Built a home services company over 17 years. Got an offer. Took it. $8M headline number. Deal closed. Wire hit. He though: “If I just live on 5%, that’s $400K a year. I’m good, right?” Not quite. First, reality. After taxes, fees, and adjustments… That $8M became closer to $5.5M–$6M net. That changes everything. Because now: $400K/year = 6.5%–7% withdrawal rate That’s not a retirement plan. This is where most business owners get tripped up. They think in sale price. But you live on: - Net after tax - Investable assets - Withdrawal strategy - Market reality Not the headline number. Here’s what we would help him do: Segmented the proceeds: - $2.5M long-term growth - $2M income-focused allocation - $1M liquidity / short-term runway - Built a guardrails-based spending plan - Start lower - Increase in strong markets - Adjust if needed in downturns - Created a tax-aware withdrawal strategy - Use taxable assets first - Manage bracket exposure - Plan future Roth conversions What an $8M Exit Actually Supports (After tax, properly planned) - $180K/year = conservative - $220K–$280K/year = sustainable with guardrails - $300K+/year = possible, but needs flexibility and risk tolerance The shift He didn’t need to feel “restricted.” He needed to feel in control. Now he knows: - What he can spend - When he can increase lifestyle - What happens if markets drop - And how long it all lasts Selling your business doesn’t make you financially independent. A plan for the proceeds does. At $8M, you’re not ultra-wealthy. But with the right structure? You’re free. Most business owners spend decades building the business. Don’t spend retirement guessing what you can afford. Follow Luke Turner if you own a business and want to get smarter with your money.

@JonsEcon @AustinJustice Who paid for it?

@AustinJustice It’s actually quite nice in person and didn’t cost any taxpayer money. I enjoy it

The pile of cinderblocks at Austin's airport is, supposedly, an "art installation." It cost $1.66 million.

Living in Austin you get to experience all 4 seasons at once. 4pm yesterday: 96 degrees F 7am this morning: 38 degrees F 58 degree swing in 15 hours!

@ClintFiore You must reveal

one person has guessed it correctly

Guess the Industry: $40M Revenue, $30M EBITDA

@delk This is a space I am very interested in but have only dealt with for a few properties I own. What are the top 3-5 specific processes you think would be best automated by LLMs?

I spend a shocking amount of time thinking about land use, zoning, and building code for new Primers. There's an enormous opportunity to compress multi-month local muni processes into hours with LLM's. If you're building this, I'd love to invest and connect you with cities & counties who need you. (Related: unlocking progress in the physical world is a wonderful mission — we need many more founders attacking such problems!)