a customer called today with a bug first customer call in 3 weeks i asked if i could record it he said he just wanted it fixed i said we can do both we did one

my therapist asked me to start journaling i've been posting instead she asked why i said a journal has no distribution she said the point is nobody reads it i said that's a go to market problem this week's entry did 22k impressions 2 vcs replied she asked if there's anything i'd keep just for myself i said i'd think about it this post is me thinking about it

anthropic says sonnet 5.5 and haiku 5.5 are coming in the next few weeks we're ready i've already written our response 3 versions "we're so back" "this changes nothing for us" "why we're pivoting" i'll post whichever one fits my cofounder asked if we've tested anything we've tested all 3 hooks

opus 5.5 can write the code, design the product, handle sales, and do support, but it can't do what i do post about it

investor asked for our growth chart we don't have revenue yet so i sent him the other one days since founding 638 and climbing up and to the right every single day never had a down day he asked what happens if we stop i said we can't stop, that's the beauty of it he said that's a calendar i said it's a calendar with a narrative honestly if a metric can go down you probably shouldn't be tracking it

had to let 3 people go today hardest day of my life wrote about it that night didn't sleep, just kept refining the hook the post did 40k impressions best performing thing we've ever put out one of the 3 commented "this is how i found out" her comment did 90k people keep telling me that's bad they don't get it, she's outperforming me on my own post that's the kind of talent i had to let go reached out to see if she'd co-write the follow up

my girlfriend’s dad asked what my five year plan is i told him we’re targeting $100m arr he said he meant personally i said personally i’m targeting $100m arr he asked how much i make i told him we don’t discuss revenue with outsiders he said i’m dating his daughter i said exactly high trust environment he didn’t say anything for the rest of dinner i think i handled that well

my cofounder said we need to stop working from coffee shops i asked why he said we're spending $600 a month on coffee i told him that's not a cost that's infrastructure he said we can't keep buying coffee just to sit there i told him we're not buying coffee we're buying access to a high traffic area with free wifi he said the baristas hate us i said they know our names that's relationship building we're going back tomorrow we're basically paying rent at this point

got invited to a friend’s birthday dinner i almost didn’t go because we were working late then i realized there would probably be investors there so i went there were 14 people at the table i knew 3 of them by dessert i’d met 9 founders, 2 angels and a guy who used to work at stripe my friend thanked me for coming i told him it was actually a very productive evening he said it was his birthday i said exactly great distribution

got a parking ticket today $85 i was annoyed at first then i realized the meter maid probably sees hundreds of cars every day that's hundreds of potential customers so i chased her down asked if she wanted to hear what we're building she said no i asked if she knew anyone who might she said her husband works in sales we exchanged numbers $85 is the cheapest lead i've ever bought

went to a networking dinner last night sat next to a guy who runs a $40m company he asked what i'm working on i told him he asked how much we're doing i said $18k mrr he said that's small i said we're early he said fair then he asked what we're raising at i said $12m he laughed i laughed then we both stopped laughing he asked if i was serious i said yes he said good he'll introduce me to his seed fund i love meeting people who understand ambition

got invited to speak at a college today the professor asked me to talk about entrepreneurship i told the students they should drop out if they find product market fit one kid raised his hand asked what product market fit means i said you know it when you see it he asked how i said investors start emailing you he asked what if investors aren't emailing you i told him to build something worth emailing about he said he was studying biology i said that's probably your first problem he took out his laptop started working on something i don't know what it is but he has the look

our office lease ends next month we just can't afford another year i told the team we're going remote everyone seemed excited about it i explained how remote means we're all working from my apartment one guy asked if we had desks i said we have desks he asked where i said we're going to take them from the office before the lease ends he asked what happens when the landlord sees us i said we'll be quick my cofounder already rented a uhaul we're doing it saturday at 3am. founders have to be willing to move fast.

my cofounder told me we need to start taking hiring more seriously so i posted a job listing “looking for extremely ambitious person willing to work 100 hours a week for equity” we got 312 applicants i rejected everyone most of them asked about salary one guy asked about benefits one asked if weekends were required then i got an email from someone who said he would work for free i hired him immediately apparently he’s 17 and his parents are furious he's starting tomorrow this is exactly the kind of hunger we’re looking for

hit up a dreamforce after party i stayed away from the bar there was business that needed to be done so i spent the whole night in the bathroom there was a line and every 7 minutes another person came in perfect environment to workshop ideas i had undivided attention at 3:40 a guy came in and asked why i was sitting on the floor told him i was getting feedback he asked feedback for what the next big sales product turns out he works in sales we talked for over 20 minutes and exchanged info camping restrooms is the new meta

went to dreamforce today thousands of people here and I've spoken to 8 6 of them work at salesforce 2 asked me to scan a qr code one guy told me he was "between startups" i'm familiar with this situation we have 4 companies between us exchanged cards with the guy embossed on heavy stock impressive this is what people don't understand about conferences you don't go to learn you go to increase the number of people who can text you "quick question"

my cofounder said we need to hire someone who understands marketing i told him i understand marketing he asked when i last ran a marketing campaign i said i've posted 47 times this month he said that's not marketing i asked him how many followers he has he said 16 i have 20 we hired me i'm now head of growth my first initiative is posting more

moved into a founder house in sf with 9 guys rent is $3,400 each there are 6 bedrooms i sleep in the dining room people keep telling me this sounds horrible they don't understand the density this morning i woke up because someone was pitching a seed round 6 feet from my mattress went to brush my teeth and met an ex-stripe engineer in the bathroom by breakfast i had three warm intros you literally cannot manufacture this kind of serendipity we do have one shower but honestly if you're showering every day you probably aren't that serious about what you're building

I asked my cofounder to record a testimonial about working with me. He asked what he should say. I said whatever's true. He said okay and hit record. "Max is very consistent." I said keep going. "He posts every day." I said about the work. "That is the work." I asked him to try again with more energy. He said "Max is very consistent" with more energy. I asked for something about my vision. "He has a vision. He's told me about it. It's a post." I asked him to say I'm a builder. "He's built a following." I asked for one more take where he says what we've shipped. He looked at the camera for about 10 seconds. "The About page." I've used that one. It's on the About page.

Cofounder and CTO said the codebase is cooked. I said cooked is a mindset. He said no, it's a codebase, and it's cooked. IMO it's not cooked, it's just pre-refactor. He said it's cooked. I later posted "we're pre-refactor and I've never been more excited." He replied to the post with 1 word. "Transparency." Is this vaugeposting or subtweeting?