The Next Next: Update #7
New website, big pod queue, gearing up for a series of content/coding experiments.
Hi all,
This week was a test of my psychology, as it was a long weekend w/ a youth hockey tourney and no work at all from Friday-Monday, with the usual intense kid activity grind the rest of the week. I also had my first physical ever where I had (slightly) high blood pressure, just reminding me that I am not a spring chicken any more. If I am going to be successful at building a newco in the next several years, I need to be OK with the fact that this is how some weeks are going to go. To say that’s much different than how I used to work is a huge understatement - used to be nothing but work all the time.
The good news is the further I get into this project, the more excited I am getting about it. The scale and scope of change that AI will bring about seems to be (a bit overblown in the short term but) inevitably profound. This will have far reaching implications on how we work and live, and in my little corner of the world, it will have big implications on how founders at my life stage can take big swings while being fully invested and present at home and taking care of themselves and their loved ones. Exploring the two in parallel (how to build different and how AI can enable it) seems both perfectly timed and also the best founder/market fit I could ever imagine.
In terms of progress, my first pod episode will be recorded tomorrow. I also have several (close to a dozen?) others that have been scheduled in the coming weeks. The initial thought is a one-per-week release cadence, but this may swing up or down depending on how much resource I end up allocating to other initiatives under this umbrella and also how cumbersome the editing/production process turns out to be. I like one a week and will do my best to stick to it. One of the things that gives me so much conviction about this project is there are literally hundreds of people I am excited to bring on the show and learn from and threads I want to pull, and every day I am finding more. I know from past experience that each will build on the one before it, and the snowball will inevitably pick up steam as it heads down the mountain.
I also revamped the website (and switched back to squarespace to do it) to have more turn-key editing ability and to better reflect the evolving messaging and direction of the firm (not all the buttons work or text is accurate yet, don’t judge me). I like that I called out ‘Fogey Founders’ and ‘School of Prompt’ as well, because whether I end up pursuing them or not, it feels more declarative and I am excited about the possibilities with both.
On Fogey Founders, I am starting to study and talk more to comedians and other creators doing character-based skits on places like Tiktok and Instagram Reels to better understand their craft, the steps that go into it, and how I might take on similar to experiment with the Fogey Founders concept. I am also evaluating how AI could help, though interestingly (and not surprisingly) some of the early creators I have talked to are allergic to using those tools, as they view themselves as masters of their craft and want to stay away from the slop. Some examples of creators I am paying attention to are here, here, and here.
It’s a similar theme I have heard from some software engineers who want nothing to do with the AI tools their companies are shoving down their throats. To me, leveraging these tools in smart ways is the future, although to their point, maybe it does more to bring people below the mean closer to the mean and less for people above the mean already. That’s what this recent BCG study found, at least. I can say with certainty if I head down the path of producing these skits myself, I am a below the mean person these tools can help :). Also, for better or worse, it does seem to kind of devalue human creativity, or at least make it less special (I feel some darts heading my way with that one, bring it on if you don’t agree!). I don’t know if that’s right, but it is something to press on.
I listened to these two pods, here and here, from Dan Shipper at Every, and in each he talked about how content and code are intersecting. I find this concept fascinating, as increasingly AI can help bring to life the things you write, and increasingly kicking out apps (in Every’s case) enables them to write better as well (and attract a lot more readers), creating a nice virtuous self-reinforcing cycle. These are the flywheels that really get me excited, and its an area I will be spending a lot more time in for sure as we create own virtuous self-reinforcing flywheel with The Next Next.
Finally, a challenging thing to sort through I am finding is just figuring out what tools to use for what. There are so many tools, so much seeming overlap, and finding your own “stack” and operationalizing it is a constant battle. Like anything else, it seems there is no substute for trial and error and reps, though it will hopefully get easier as the landscape gets more mature and the tool providers consolidate and get more robust and established. I swear, a person to help me figure out my stack and pair program with me while I am learning how to use it would be a huge value-add, in case anyone wants to create that virtual pair programming startup I’ve been dreaming about :)
In terms of asks, here are the latest:
I’d love to be pointed to and/or chat with any Tiktok/Insta creators bringing characters to life for big followings, especially if they have more of a founder/business bent.
I’d love to talk to producers/showrunners/creators/agencies pushing the envelope with AI, either to enable sophisticated creators (or themselves) to create better (example here) or enable below the mean creators like yours truly to create at all (a la what Suno does for songwriting).
I’d love to talk to or be pointed to other “multi-modal content” companies like Every that are bridging the gap between content and code, and using each to feed the other.
I’d love to find a junior hacker to come in and help me attack all this stuff and more, but I am afraid the fruit still isn’t ripe yet for me to have a value prop strong enough to attract them. In due time!
I think that’s all for now. Until next week!
Jason