Notes

Blink and you'll miss it.

Reading Tim Urban's AI Revolution essay from 2015 is uncanny.

I just started playing with Gemini CLI (Google's answer to Claude Code) and I'm blown away by what I'm able to do with the AI-in-terminal paradigm.

What made me finally decide to try it out? I watched this talk about general agents. 14:32 onwards provides a great mental model, but the full video is worth a watch.

Key takeaway: general AI agents have arrived, and they're not just for coding anymore.

This sure sounds like... Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Not the self-aware, sentient kind, mind you. Rather simply a human level raw intelligence.

Fun fact: Gemini CLI has written a "super significant" amount of its own code.

Robin Sloan's essay says it all: AGI is here (and I feel fine).

Validation is a vanity metric for your ego.

It is the active search for data that confirms your existing beliefs ("white swans"). If you look for people who like your idea, you will find them.

While this might feel nice in the moment, it won't help you in the long run.

True science does not prove hypotheses correct; it fails to prove them wrong.

Karl Popper, the philosopher of science, argued that no amount of observation of white swans can prove that all swans are white. However, the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to disprove it.

Falsification is the rigorous attempt to prove yourself wrong. It is the hunt for the "black swan" that destroys your hypothesis.

As founders with limited runway, we cannot afford false positives.

We must aggressively attack our own roadmaps. If an idea survives your genuine attempt to kill it, only then does it earn the right to be built.

Stop trying to find a marketing task you like and start engineering your growth.

As a builder, Engineering as Marketing is one of my favorite marketing channels. Popularized in the book Traction, these activities include building everything from simple calculators and embeddable widgets to generators and microsites.

When done well, they are backlink magnets and quickly establish trust because you're delivering value so quickly. The trick is to minimize the time to value and introducing the next logical step for the user (typically something included in your paid product offering).

Early on, do this simple process on repeat.

It's the fastest way I've found to go from zero to one.

1. Create a free artifact. This could be an article, landing page, simple tool, or demo video.
2. Share it and see if anyone engages. If they do, go to the next step. If not, figure out why and fix it, then repeat this step.
3. Once you have a consistent or repeatable flow of people engaging with your artifact, create an MVP with an offer. The offer must have a price and a promise that you can realistically deliver on in a reasonable amount of time.
4. Share your MVP and talk with potential customers to see if they buy your offer. If they don't, figure out why and fix it, then try again. If they do buy, deliver on the offer's promise so they don't churn.

That's it.

Everything else is a distraction.

The key is to actually fix the root causes of potential customers' blocking reasons.

Don't push your product down their throat or continually bombard them with marketing. They'll get burned out and you'll have to start all over again.

Build with understanding to create something truly sustainable.

Win by out-helping your competition.

You don't have to be the loudest person in the room. You just have to be the most generous.

If you've already built an MVP, use it as a discovery tool.

It can help learn who target market is and what they actually want.

Here's a fun acronym to help you remember:

MVP

as

Discovery

MaD.

How to do this?

Promote your product in places you wouldn't normally promote it. You may discover people you wouldn't have originally thought to target. Or people who use it in an unexpected way.

Especially early on, it's hard to know how we should be spending our time.

What actually is progress?

What is worth spending time on?

What should I be busy with and working on?

These are totally valid questions to be asking. After all, nobody wants to waste their time.

But how do we measure progress?

Eventually you’ll want to measure things in revenue and profit, but early on the best metric I’ve found is traction.

This isn’t the time it takes to execute a plan, rather it’s a metric you can measure that tracks the rate of monetizable value you can capture. A key activity that makes people buy from you.

In the case of a SaaS company, traction can be measured in the number of new sign ups per week. If you don't have any traffic yet, your metric could be number of visitors per week. Your traction metric will change over time as you move "down-funnel" (visitors -> sign ups -> paid customers).

Or for a coaching business, that could be the number of client sessions booked per week or something else that measures achieved client milestones/outcomes - what is chosen depends on what is being sold/monetized.

The key thing is that this metric is measured per unit of time (per week, per month, etc.). Early on, a weekly cadence is a good place to start. As your volume increases, you can move to a more frequent metric (per day).

Even though they feel good, avoid cumulative vanity metrics like total number of page visits, likes on a post, total number of newsletter subscribers, etc. as these don’t really tell you much of anything actionable.

With something measurable to focus on, it'll be much clearer what you need to be focusing on every day.

There's a lot of people these days saying to "build in public."

This is just another way of saying self-promotion.

While this seems like good advice on the surface, it can be a trap.

If your goal is to build an audience, then building in public is a solid strategy.

However, not all business models rely on having an audience.

To be clear, an audience is not a customer list. A customer is someone who pays you money directly. There are some people who will never become your customers, but will follow your journey as part of your audience. Perhaps to learn from you, or purely for entertainment.

This can be misleading and lead to a false sense of validation.

Unless you plan on monetizing through ads or sponsorships, then you don't need an audience.

If your model is charging users directly, then an audience isn't the goal.

Paying customers are.

Building in public doesn't directly generate customers.

Sure, it can be a byproduct of having an audience (because you have a leveraged way to market to them), but it is not the cause. Plenty of people have massive audiences, but no monetization strategy whatsoever.

If you don't want to be the center of attention, then you don't have to be. There are plenty of other marketing strategies you can use to find your customers.

So before you start building in public, make sure that your strategy aligns with your business model (and your personality).

Fascinating conversation with Bret Taylor and Ravi Gupta at Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent 2025.

"Don't let something you're good at become who you are." - Ravi Gupta

Via YouTube

Don't let talking become a substitute for doing.

Research shows that you're better off keeping your goals to yourself (or a couple close friends) if you actually want to accomplish them.

If you share before finishing them, your brain is tricked into getting the psychological satisfaction of hitting the goal without having accomplished it.

During a startup event I went to early on in my journey, one of the founder panelists was asked to give his advice for new founders. He said, "stop attending events like this." He explained that it took him years of working, head down, before his startup became a success.

I've been extremely selective about which events I attend ever since.

The current moment we're in reminds me of the early days of the web.

From Bluesky to Mastadon to Ghost's latest social initiative, the social media landscape is being disrupted.

The Twitter/X fiasco has only accelerated what was already cooking.

What I find so cool about Bluesky in particular is that it's powered by an open technology called atproto (atmosphere protocol). Kinda like how websites are powered by http (hypertext transfer protocol) under the hood and not owned by any one big corporation.

Another interesting initiative is Free Our Feeds, launched in January. It's mission is to free social media from billionaire control (more context from The Verge). Their goal is to develop a social ecosystem built on top of Bluesky’s atproto.

I can only see good things coming from this.

While I'm still figuring out how to balance my own notes with what I post on social media, chances are I'll keep the juicy bits here just for my true fans.

LLM's can now make images that adhere to the prompt very well.

No more bare nachos indeed.

Via One Useful Thing.

A developer made this site for endlessly scrolling Wikipedia articles. Pretty neat!

https://www.wikitok.io/

Great achievements start with small steps. Take that first step now, no matter how tiny. Each step teaches you something new and creates momentum. Action beats waiting for the ‘perfect moment’. It’s immediately applicable and avoids unnecessary complexity.

Via Dense Discovery

How do potential customers find quiet startups?

While we as quiet founders do not actively seek attention, the reality is that without some level of visibility, building a sustainable business is nearly impossible.

Ouch.

So what do we do?

Instead of chasing broad attention, quiet founders should seek strategic visibility.

This means showing up in the right place at the right time so your target audience can find you.

Here's what strategic visibility could look like in practice:

• Speaking at an event
• Being interviewed on a podcast
• Writing a guest blog post
• Collaborating with another brand on a co-hosted webinar or bundled service
• Sponsoring a relevant newsletter
• Hosting a Q&A on a relevant platform (e.g. Reddit AMA, dedicated Slack group, etc.)

But how do you find these right places?

It starts with deeply understanding your ideal customer. Where do they hang out online and offline? What do they read, watch, and listen to?

One of the best ways to do this is through informal conversations with existing customers of similar businesses to yours. Don't pitch them, just seek to understand where they are and what they're already doing.

Your mission is to learn.

This will help you identify where your audience already exists.

It's much easier to stand in front of an existing crowd than to build your own from scratch.

While the eventual goal is to have your own audience, in the beginning, everyone starts without one. It needs to be built up, one person at a time.

By practicing strategic visibility, you'll solve your early discovery problem and grow an audience at the same time - all while staying true to your values.

So, how are you strategically making your startup visible?

Your marketing tech stack is either a cake or a salad.

It's made up of all the software tools that help you run your business.

Cake stacks are all-in-one, integrated solutions like Ghost, Kajabi, or Squarespace.

These tools offer a convenient package for website building, email marketing, analytics, and more. Think of it like a pre-made cake: easy and satisfying, but with limited customization.

Salad stacks are best-of-breed, modular solutions that use different tools for each specific task. This could include WordPress or Webflow for your website, Kit or Mailchimp for email, and Kajabi or Thinkific for courses - each tool best in its class.

Like a salad, you can pick and choose the best ingredients for your specific needs and taste.

But what makes a tech stack tasty?

It's about how user-friendly and intuitive the tools are.

How easy is it to publish a new blog post? Send a newsletter? Or update a product offering?

If you're going to be fighting a tool constantly, that's no fun (like eating food you don't like).

And, more importantly, nutritious?

Your chosen stack should actively be helping you achieve your marketing goals: generating leads, driving conversions, and boosting engagement.

Results matter more than tech.

And let's not forget spoilage.

Like real food, tech stacks can go bad.

Tools become outdated, integrations and plugins break, and new marketing challenges emerge.

Not only that, but costs rise, vendors change, and new tech makes tools obsolete.

Regardless of what you choose to start, expect to be updating your tools every few years.

Preventing tech rot takes ongoing effort.

(And is something that gets forgotten by those who instruct AI to just "make an app")

This is where a skilled chef can help.

The challenge lies in the sheer abundance of tools available and the fact that some tools can be used for different purposes.

For example, just because WordPress can host courses or sell physical products doesn't mean it should. You may be better off using Kajabi or Shopify instead, depending on your needs.

A marketing technology consultant (the chef) can help you select the right tools, integrate them seamlessly, and ensure your chosen stack stays healthy and delicious as your business grows.

After all, every business is unique.

Which would you rather eat?

Choosing between a cake and a salad often depends on your business's stage and your marketing goals.

A cake can be a good starting point if you have a new businesses with simpler requirements.

But as you grow and your needs evolve, you may find yourself craving the flexibility and power of a salad.

So what's your biggest tech stack challenge? Hit reply and let me know!

Social media is everywhere.

It can be hard to remember that other marketing channels even exist.

Whenever people ask me for alternatives to social media, I always point them to the book Traction. This article by Zapier summarizes the 19 channels nicely.

As an example, for the Quiet Startup, my primary marketing focus is on content marketing (my articles and notes) and SEO.

What I like about these channels is that they're high leverage and evergreen. This means I write something once and it keeps working for years.

Additional channels I'll be exploring include viral marketing (word of mouth), community building, and engineering as marketing.

So while social media gets all the attention (and consumes yours), there are plenty of other channels where you can market your business!

So much of what we read, see, and hear on the internet is superficial.

It serves little to no lasting purpose, other than to, perhaps, entertain us for a few moments.

While there are certainly times where it's wonderful to just zone out, we must be mindful of when those times are and how frequently we do so.

The first step is understanding your information diet so you can consume consciously.

Be mindful of what you put into your body, or in this case, your mind.

When writing articles, I often want to link to other articles.

This is nothing new.

However, if the article doesn't exist yet, this poses a problem: I don't want to forget to link to the article, but I have no live article to link to (yet).

My solution is to create stub articles as placeholders. Their intent is to remind me to write the full article in the future.

This idea was inspired by Wikipedia's stubs, which they define as:

A stub is an article that, although lacking the breadth of coverage expected from an encyclopedia, provides some useful information and is capable of expansion.

With each stub article, I will attempt to still provide "some useful information", even if it's not my fully fleshed out idea.

As my article writing process intentionally takes time (I lean into Steven Johnson's "slow hunch"), I don't want my lack of an available link (and the time it takes to write a whole new article) to slow down my process even further.

After all, done is better than perfect.

If I find myself linking many other articles and pages to the stub, that's strong signal that I need to finish the article!

This is a note.

It's a short form piece of content that lets me quickly jot down ideas as I have them.

They are designed to supplement my longer form articles, though many will become more fully developed articles themselves.

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