Robotics will Reward the Boring and Dangerous We are about to witness the steady flow of robotics into our everyday lives. This presents a huge opportunity for founders interested in solving boring or dangerous problems. 1. It’s already here. Self driving car services like Waymo and food delivery robots like Serve were the first mainstream products. Plus over 19k humanoid robots have already been sold this year. The wave is coming. 2. Use cases. Robotics can help humans across literally millions of use cases from the boring to the outright dangerous, from emptying the dishwasher to fixing underwater communication cables. 3. Intelligence commoditized. If commercial and open source models can offer roughly similar performance, that makes physical AI a huge opportunity for new founders - you get the superintelligence part for free!

This is unacceptable behavior. I have moved my @Starlink subscription to standby mode until this stuff stops. I love the service but I can’t be a part of this.

Thank you, NYC 🗽 We will be back soon!

Investors: have you ever fought a founder to keep your pro rata? I've seen this play out many times. I'm still waiting to hear from anyone who thought it was worth it.

If you want a tool, I don’t need you to justify why you need it. But I will have high expectations for your output. If you don’t hit the goals, there might be consequences. Listen to the full episode of The Startup Help Desk anywhere you get your podcasts.

AI makes it easier to move quickly, but that does not mean you can trust the output. Deliberately over-invest in testing and QA. Coincidentally, this is also the path to building a fully automated pipeline.

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with the @lightsprintai team since the very beginning.

Thank you to everyone who came out for @ycombinator alumni feedback night in New York yesterday. It was a great time and there were some big ideas. More NYC events to come!

Self-serve will not save you from having to talk to your customers.

Big thanks to @greybaker and the @ycombinator team for hosting startups from @imperialcollege London last week. Complete with the obligatory @Waymo ride!

Don’t build based on your hypothesis and assumptions alone. I usually suggest 200 potential customer conversations to confirm you’re building something people want.

Another great @GBxGlobal Gala in the books. Thanks to @MarkCharkin and the entire team for making it happen!

The golden age of gaming may just be upon us. Cross platform, multiplayer, and the most fun games of the last 20 years.

Stop Discounting to Close Sales In the early days Founders love to discount their product in the hopes of a quick sale. It rarely works. 1. Lower Price Suspicion. It’s counterintuitive but you actually make buyers more suspicious with a low price, especially if you’re quick to discount. 2. Find the Real Problem. While a lower price might be nice, the customer really wants a solution to their problem, so focus on what’s making them hesitant versus price cuts. 3. Solve it Again. These kinds of objections tend to be shared across customers, so you'll be able to use this solution many times to close future customers.

We originally met the Phare Labs team 3 years ago, through our @imperialcollege grant program. Building hardware isn’t easy, so it’s great to see them growing fast and now launching globally. Congratulations to Daniel and the whole team. linkedin.com/posts/danielemc…

A founder asked us: “We’re spending more on AI tools, but I’m not seeing a rise in productivity. The team says they are must-have tools in the current market, but shouldn’t we see some obvious gains?” It doesn’t matter if it’s an AI tool or not; you’re still spending money on it, and your team needs to keep hitting goals. And if they aren’t, then you have the right to ask hard questions about whether they need to keep those tools. Listen to the full episode of The Startup Help Desk anywhere you get your podcasts.

Agents working concurrently are a big opportunity for most startups. Don’t create one agent to replace a team’s job; try to run several, all working together with shared goals.

Another Cuil reunion! This was my first job in Silicon Valley. Even though it didn’t work out, the team was filled with great people and a lot of talent. Special thanks to Bruce for bringing us all together again!