Five 8s is the new five 9s.

The new Spotify app icon is dystopian.

Love this. Unfreezing founder energy is the real multiplier. Those connections compound over years.

If you work at Microsoft, and you're a tech person or innovator, consider the other possibilities out there. --> seattleflow.org/startupday

If you work at Microsoft, May 7 is a big day. I worked there for 7 years. Built Startup Day for people sitting where you are now. Stay or go? Found or join? 16 founders sharing what actually worked. Startup isn't for everyone. Is it for you? May 15. Seattle. Prices go up Friday. Link below.

I worked for 2 years in Benefits/HRTech, and 5 years in HealthTech. My superpower was to be an idiot in understanding insurance, benefits, and healthcare. h/t @morningbrew.bsky.social

UNBREAKING: PRDs are not dead. It has a new shape, but still is a PRD.

If you take the blip from the pandemic, Seattle has had the lowest # of investment deals in a decade (since 2016 Q4). The situation is worse than it appears because the total number of deals in the US has grown 40% since 2016. I have several theories, but I want to hear what you think is going on.

Software engineers, PMs, designers, and CS / ML / MBA students: We're doing a Startup Fair @ Startup Day 2026. Builders from Clarify, Yoodli, Clearly AI, Predictable Machines, and more will talk product, tech, and their roles. No recruiters. May 15. Free 👉 seattleflow.org/fair

The Startup Day 2026 speaker lineup is live. 16 founders. 30+ startups built between them. Over $1B raised. Products used by billions. Seattle, May 15. Here's who's on stage. 👇

I don’t think there’s ever been a time that so clearly separates people with a growth mindset vs. fixed mindset.

The current conversations about AI remind me of when we first controlled fire, 400,000 years ago. “Do we really understand fire?” “Will fire take our jobs?” “Can fire be trusted? What if it burns us?” “What if fire is just hype?”

In 2010/2011, I printed a book called the Startup Guide. A directory of vendors and service providers for anyone building a startup in Seattle. Today we're launching the Startup Kit. Same idea, different format. A directory to help founders find the resources they need to build+grow their startups.

6,000+ tech layoffs in Seattle. Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Meta. You don't need permission to start a company. You don't need all the answers either. You need to learn from founders who've done it recently. That's why I'm putting together @seattleflow.org Startup Day!

The only reason Claude Code doesn't cost $2,000/month on the Max plan is Codex.

Even if doctors don't adopt AI, medicine has changed forever already. Patients are more empowered than ever before by using AI to analyze labs and scans, to help them better describe symptoms, by challenging diagnostics, and to think about treatments that are right for them.

AI feels like Vibranium. We are scratching the surface of what this new thing can do.

Having multiple VS Code windows is the new having multiple tabs open.

Shortcut to building a successful business: find a problem where you already know the market is there. Patrick Thompson built Clarify by skipping problem validation and front-loading business model validation instead. Hear Patrick + other founders at seattleflow.org/startupday

Walmart with a P/E of 45 and Microsoft with a P/E of 22 were not on my bingo card for 2026.

I've noticed a new trend on major products: bugs! Lots of bugs. I'm not saying it's LLM coding, but it feels to me that companies are struggling with the new software development lifecycle.

Who else is going to @geekwire.com's Agent of Transformation this afternoon? www.geekwire.com/events/agent...

Most founder advice isn’t wrong. It’s just not yours. Marius Ciocirlan drops some meta-advice on how to avoid bad advice. Come listen and meet Marius at Startup Day 2026. seattleflow.org/startupday

Congrats, Darian!

There is a fine line between hallucination and vision. Ian Wong (Summation CEO, and Opendoor co-founder) got 5 companies to say “yes” before he wrote a single line of code. He's speaking at @seattleflow.org Startup Day 2026 on May 15 in Seattle. seattleflow.org/startupday

Tired: Netflix and chill Wired: Claude Code and chill

Sorry to break it to you, but you are either an innovator or a founder, not both. Figure out soon so you can find people to complement your skills. www.calbucci.com/2026-03-19-i...

Have I mentioned recently that I hate Slack as a community tool?

Today is peak Claude Code for me. Three different projects, each with multiple agents doing their thing.

Claude really needs a family plan. I'd be happy to pay for the four of us. Right now, I can't share a project with my wife or children.

AI/LLM sentiment based on different social networks: X/Twitter: 90% love it, 10% hate it LinkedIn: 80% love it, 20% hate it Threads: 50% love it, 50% hate it Bluesky: 20% love it, 80% hate it Your mileage may vary.

Early-bird tickets for Startup Day 2026 end tonight at midnight. $195 today. $295 tomorrow. 15 founder talks. 1:1 investor meetings. Co-Founder Match. @ericries.bsky.social + Terry Myerson keynotes. Startup Fair. Free copy of Eric's new book. seattleflow.org/startupday

People don't realize how much innovation is a reaction to hate or frustration.

Psyched to see @calbucci.com working on something new for startups. If you'd like to attend, you might want to grab a ticket before prices go up. siliconflorist.com/2026/03/12/c...

[email protected] wrote the book that changed how startups get built. His next one will change how they stay built.

@ericries.bsky.social keynoted Startup Day back in 2011. I guess Seattle founders didn't scare him enough, and he's back for more! Eric is opening Startup Day 2026! The author of The Lean Startup has a new book, Incorruptible. Ticket buyers get a free copy! ☔️🚀 seattleflow.org/startupday

We announced that Terry Myerson will keynote @seattleflow.org Startup Day. Thanks T.A. McCann for making the intro, and Sarah Climaco and @caligirlinpnw.bsky.social for the coordination. It takes a village to bring this to life. I'm glad to have @shaunacausey.bsky.social and Kailin Spencer with me!

I take 0.5 seconds after a homepage of a SaaS startup loads for me to know it was designed by AI.

Terry Myerson left Microsoft after 21 years to build Truveta, now a $515M+ company saving lives with data. He's keynoting Startup Day 2026. Early bird ticket sales end this Friday. seattleflow.org/startupday

It's $100 that you can use towards your Claude Code subscription! That's a lot of tokens! 💰 💰 💰

I'm looking forward to ChatGPT version 7.3 with Ultra-Extreme-Insane-Beyond Thinking mode.

Applications open for the Startup Day 2026 Startup Fair. 10-15 startups, demo tables, 400+ founders and investors in the room. Apply by April 10. startupday.seattleflow.org/startup-fair

There is a time that parents must talk with their teenagers about the dangers of clawdbot.

18 advisors just announced for @seattleflow.org Startup Day 2026's Advisory Room. Investors from Madrona, M12, Graham & Walker, and more. Book 1:1 sessions with the advisor of your choice. seattleflow.org/startupday

Built the Startup Day 2026 Conference website and back-office with Claude Code. Zero hand-written code. 3 weeks. 130 tickets. I wrote an article covering the design, strategy, workflow, deployment, testing, etc. startupday.seattleflow.org/how-we-built...

We are going to see the first tech public company generating $10M in profit per employee before we see the first one-person billion-dollar company.

May 15th. 400 founders. The conference Seattle's been missing. startupday.seattleflow.org @seattleflow.org

Something is happening in Seattle right now. Layoffs + AI + Tech + ☔️ = countless side-projects, ready for the next step -> Founders galore. What's missing is a place where it all connects. We built it. 🧵

The people rejecting AI in their personal and professional lives today have the same attitude as the people rejecting calculators in the 1970s.