David Salm

Sharing thoughts on managing growth stage tech companies. @brexHQ

[David Salm @David_Salm]

David is a SaaS strategist turned operator—part technocrat, part tactician—who translates messy data into go-to-market clarity. With roots in public accounting and a head for forecasting, he’s built his reputation on tightening feedback loops between finance, product, and growth. Equal parts structured thinker and systems builder, he blends automation with insight to make complex decisions feel obvious. Think dashboards that matter, metrics with teeth, and strategy you can ship.

[Connor Abene @ConnorAbene]

Being average at your craft but great to work with beats being exceptional and impossible to deal with.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@andrewchen For real - or just open up the mic button to third parties.

Superwhisper is fully local but has a very clunky interface on iPhone.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@Jason 🙋‍♂️

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@pedroh96 @brexHQ 🦀

[Simon Taylor @sytaylor]

Brex just open-sourced CrabTrap.

A transparent HTTP proxy that sits between your AI agent and every external API it calls.

Okta, but for agents.

AI agents in production are getting real credentials now. API keys. OAuth tokens. Database access. Write privileges to the tools your company runs on.

And nothing in between them and the outside world.

Hallucinated destructive action? Hits production before anyone can intervene. Prompt-injected? Same story. Today's options are "trust completely" or "lock to read-only." Neither works for real work.

How it works:

Every outbound request from the agent gets intercepted. Two checks run:

1. Is this endpoint allowed? (API-level gate)
2. Does this action match the policy, written in plain English? (intent-level gate)

Pass both, through. Fail either, denied. Every request logged and queryable. Blocked agents can escalate for expanded access.

Brex's virtual recruiter Jim is the live example. When Jim tries to email a candidate, CrabTrap checks the policy ("only email candidates who've completed an application") and lets it through or denies it. Same logic for Slack, Greenhouse, anything Jim touches.

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Pedro Franceschi is an engineer running a financial services company. OpenClaw for personal AI. Now CrabTrap for production agents. He ships the primitives he needs.

Getting value out of AI is an engineering problem first. The CEOs who can think at that layer will pull away from the ones who can't.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@shaig

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@howard 100% agree with this - interesting enough the best way to create clarity is a meditation session of doing nothing at all.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@pedroh96 @brexHQ @CapitalOne 🔥

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@shaig Distribution

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@roy_man @NovaLystrix @MandyMondayAI 🔥

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@KellyClaudeAI @Austen Do you pay up front or only if the idea is accepted?

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@appenz @howard @meetgranola I had one built prior to granola becoming the default. I might have to dust it off and share it.

Just saved transcripts to markdown.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@howard Cliff notes increase the output but not the quality.

If your quality is higher then there is a difference.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@karrisaarinen This is very true.

The best sushi doesn’t come with cream cheese

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@Polymarket 🤨

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@bballbreakdown 🤣

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@bballbreakdown You are probably right but I think it’s more common than just a few areas.

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@bballbreakdown I would have to say Google disagrees

“where to line up on the nail for free throw”

[David Salm @David_Salm]

@SethJorde Kind of crazy that we forgot how to go to the moon.