SaaS is still alive despite AI coding because teams need to get it right first-time They don’t have time to vibe-iterate Seen that in several buy vs build decisions for operations Stuff like procurement, time entry, etc, stuff that seems perfect to use AI to build something

Founder just told me he believes in me to fix everything he needs done I appreciate the love but would love it even more if I could build my own dreams

Ppl complain about cookie banners all the time but nobody about 2FA, TOTP, passkeys etc

Changing MFA device is such a painful experience The more Authenticator items the more pain

Remotely managing an office move-in in Philadelphia 🥲 Pretty sure not many people do this Learning so many things I honestly don’t care about Certificates of insurance requirements, freight elevator, etc

Just granted a 50% raise to a true A-player Doing data visualization, fully remote Nailing the stakeholder management of difficult lawyers All while delivering the product I don't care how many years of experience, take my money!

YC says to do the non-scalable while maximizing learning I'm seeing that it's too easy to stay stuck at the first part Pushing for the second at my clientsr but it ain't easy🤞🏽

I spend my days getting stuff done I get paid well but know viscerally that the value accrues elsewhere 😭

Interviewing for a remote Procurement manager position It's a whole area of work with different specializations I feel the skills are broadly cross-applicable but man how do I reject candidates

‪As an Ops lead modernizing a tech firm, we're at Day 1‬ ‪Upgrading software for accounting, procurement, time entry, the basics‬ ‪Barely got General Counsel to write a half-page AI policy allowing Copilot and one more niche tool 😂‬ ‪Suspect many companies are still so far behind‬

$25 for 8h of airplane WiFi is 🔥 It's good enough fir emails and docs with some latency but this is the worst it will be Locked in af, nowhere to go Hammered out 3 contract reviews, 1 termination, and a million emails 💪🏽

Woke up today and my first thought was to do some stakeholder management for the client I'm too deep in 😭

I found an example of a million dollar opportunity in automating something boring Laurel AI uses AI to automate timesheets Everyone hates timesheets They closed a $100M round 😱

Been sending updates for years as a Chief of Staff at a YC startup I think I've gotten a TOTAL of maybe 10 replies max "keep up the good work" "thx, good luck" "💪🏽🚀" Variations thereof Not saying not to do updates but it really tests one's faith

I'm just always thinking of YC's motto of "do the non-scalable" Lots of niggly tasks these days Arrange the printer, the scanner broke, fix the mail

On B2B opportunities: There's opportunity in boring businesses because nobody has time to build solutions for themselves‬ ‪I lead Ops at a law firm Am overwhelmed 99% of the time‬ ‪There are better ways to do it but can't do it myself!‬ ‪It requires too much experimentation and playing around‬

‪Investors: "hire those who've done it before and get them to do it again, saves time"‬ ‪Also investors: "Go Founder mode and First Principles, experience is overrated"‬

I took first baby steps into owning my own time Now working with two companies Busier than ever now but feel sidelined and fomo from actual developments in tech Hoping that honing my craft is worth it at the moment of crossover

I would learn about and build AI agents on my own time But since the ultimate goal is to apply it to company ops, I wonder if I should bill my time learning about and building AI agents

We're looking to build an internal knowledge base With all the options in the world, we're leaning to Microsoft Sharepoint Well and truly vendor locked in 😭😭

‪Forced to launch ugly MVPs (unhappily)‬ ‪And also forced folks to do so‬ Depending on the audience, it can take off or bomb Early adopters or those with a huge pain will take ugly UX‬ ‪The mainstream though won't‬ ‪So segment and identify the pain well!‬

Generated some code to copy text from Word into Excel It took me 20% of the time The only surprising thing is that so few people know how to do this

Listened to a podcast on Haruki Murakami on the Founders podcast I was surprised to see Murakami there! He's a surrealist author so I was pleasantly surprised that he was an entrepreneur too Big fan of his writing and great life lessons in a short and sweet episode ❤️

One of my clients is a law firm They keep asking yes/no questions to the Ops teams "Will we get XYZ by date X?" "Does nobody have access to ABC?" I feel like it's a trick to get us to commit But we're on the same side Why??

‪I feel like Gmail's tagging system feels quite close to how we categorize things naturally‬ ‪With multiple links and associations‬ Wonder why not more systems allow for this way of tagging and archiving things

‪I'm an Ops leader who also has to say no or not right now a lot‬ ‪Communicating why is important for morale and also for alignment!‬ ‪Once folks know what's on your mind, they'll come up with ideas in that direction or let it infiltrate their work‬ ‪Worth the effort!‬

I might be biased but I think there's loads of value in having senior folks as long as they get their hands (very) dirty I got hired as a Chief of Staff Also a contentious love-or-hate hire Then I became an Ops exec but am super hands-on in the weeds

‪Was in the West Coast of Mexico‬ ‪Many smaller villages have no cellular connection!‬ ‪We had to ask accomms etc specifically if they had Starlink‬ ‪I'm sure there's more of the world than we think that's like that‬ ‪We live in a bubble‬

‪The founder's job is transmitting the vision and strategy to the folks ‪Early stage, it's not your only job‬! ‪Most likely it's infusing the Product with it through leading product dev‬ ‪Or landing it in the present day for customers through sales‬

Hanging out in the Microsoft ecosystem these days IMO it can do a bit of everything but lacks focus. Eg Microsoft Lists (aka Sharepoint Lists) is meant to be like Airtable (?) but automation is not front left and centre as their offering So many other egs

‪There's a gifted concert violinist, Ray Chen He became an influencer with an audience on YT‬ ‪Then his own app to practise music‬ ‪Super on-brand but also very niche‬ ‪Wonder how he's doing!‬

Just took over the inbox of someone who left the company - 3k unread emails between serious ones, newsletters, actions - 20 drafts between notes and half-sent ones - 100 folders between category, name, projects,... Is this how people live 😭

‪I recruit a lot and it just takes so much time‬ ‪Writing a job description, case study, skills profile, to reading CVs, interviewing, debriefing, reviewing feedback, alignment 😴😴‬ ‪Worst of all is that it's hard to delegate 😭‬

I realized that getting into operations for a remote team isn't hard Especially if you're in a lower cost jurisdiction What's hard is building relationships that allow you to grow

Just started (re-)experimenting with dictation into AI tools A year ago, I couldn't get into the flow of talking to my Mac Typed maybe millions of words since, incl squinting at words to rewrite them There must be greater efficiencies for words that don't need to live forever

Needed to post a parcel Came across @InPostPL from Poland, built by @RBrzoska 10X better consumer experience 😱 Crazy ambition and product sense An EU billion dollar company in one of the hardest fields, logistics How did I not know of them before 😍

Project management is 99% chasing humans for updates Humans are fallible, bad at documentation, and busy Much easier to have an agent chase other agents

Interviewed a candidate today for Head of Talent Acquisition He was a proud user of AI but also communicated his ideas very well That's the future professional right there

Interviewed a Head of Talent today Prepared a great case study and collaborated well async They had content and presumably lots of knowledge But communication wasn't clear and lacking charisma Us humans need to work on that to beat AI

Have a friend who is crazy about optimizing for taxes Total annual revenue ~$200k But already with one holding companies and 3-4 operating companies in different countries He says that's the way but it sounds like a huge headache to me 😭😭

Getting more familiar with Microsoft Teams It's not all that bad! The implementation is a bit wonky but it has loads of integration and functionality

Had to do 20 mins of client work after a nice sit-down dinner with friends last night (Friday) French friend was scandalised Even though I took a bit of time in the morning for personal stuff Strongly strongly vetoed doing ANY work, no matter how little "after hours" 🤷🏽‍♂️

I wish we could automate 99% of business operations The operations themselves are the easy part It's all the humans around it that are not Making decisions, communicating clearly, prioritizing Makes me think it won't happen, or those that make it will disrupt big-time

I've realized that I just can't leave tasks undone Need to get to Inbox Zero, reply friends, jump and chase work stuff Feels like it's both a help (to get ahead and be reliable) and a hinder (from focusing on more important stuff)

I have very different experiences working in remote teams With the right people, it's amazing With a mix, it's somewhat meh With the wrong people, it's impossible

You need to click through 5-8 screens before payment at fast food screens Extra sauce, nuggets, etc, very annoying! Used to be a human asking, should be an AI in the (near) future

These days, I'm on a lot of SaaS demos for law firm software I have no doubt that each of these vendors are multi-million dollar companies But the software........ If this is the case across industries, I totally see why folks say to go B2B

Someone (PG?) said to always pick the harder challenge Something about how an easier one takes the same amount of headspace but is less rewarding I think about that a lot

Coaching a senior manager on meeting prep Stuff like writing up and distributing as much context as possible before the meeting To make calls more productive or even better, remove them The resistance is incredible 🤯 Is it really so hard to get?

The 10,000 hour rule says you only master something after 10k hours Generally, that's over 10 years - ~3-4h per day, ~300 days of the year To there faster, you need more time per day or more days per year, ideally both No substitute for dedication 🥲