The future doesn’t ambush people. It announces itself, loudly, repeatedly, through signals most leaders are too busy to catch. If it caught you off guard, that’s not bad luck. That’s a failure of attention.
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
In The AI Era, The Best People Are The Ones Who Can’t Wait To Replace Themselves
Noah Kagan, CEO of AppSumo, just sent a memo to his entire company. He didn’t sugarcoat it. AppSumo had a brutal year, lost teammates, lost revenue, and lost some of the joy. He owned it. Then he said something most CEOs write around in seventeen layers of corporate softener:
Stop Treating AI Like a Tool. It’s a Foundation
Every industry will be transformed by AI. Some will evolve. Others will disappear. New ones will be built from scratch. That’s not a prediction. It’s already in progress. The only question that matters now isn’t whether AI will reshape your business. It’s what position you’ll hold when it does.
The CEO’s Real Job in the AI Era
Most CEOs are playing AI like a defense game. Automate the reports. Trim the headcount. Speed up the support queue. Squeeze a few more points of margin out of the existing business. Check the AI box. Move on.
When Anyone Can Ship an App, the Product Is No Longer the Moat
AI tools like Lovable, Bolt, Vercel, and Replit have done something remarkable: they’ve made software creation nearly frictionless. A founder with an idea and no engineering background can have a working app in twenty minutes. A competitor can replicate your core feature set by Friday afternoon.
The Four Levels of AI Literacy, And Why Most Companies Are Stuck at Level Zero
There’s a conversation happening in boardrooms right now that goes something like this:
“Are we using AI?”
“Yes, absolutely. The team has ChatGPT.”
And everyone nods. Box checked. Initiative launched. Disruption avoided.
The Customer Should Always Have A Seat At The Table
I was in a meeting when I realized what was happening. The team was excited. Animated, even. Talking over each other about tools, models, infrastructure, and new capabilities. Someone kept using the word “cool.”