Dave Kelly

Attracted to complex problems... Cofounder & CTO @SensCy, Former Cyber Command & Intel, USMC Vet, Poker Player, Stock Trader, EV=Expected Value

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

How To Build a Great Team
—a thread
(1) Articulate the mission:
express where you are taking them and why it matters.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

This is an important read.

[Zeb Evans @DJ_CURFEW]

Today we reduced headcount by 22%. The business is the strongest it's ever been. So I think it's important to be direct about what I'm seeing and why.

First, I made this decision and I own it. I did it because the way to operate at the highest level of productivity is changing, and to win the future, ClickUp needs to change with it.

Second, this wasn't about cutting costs. Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay. We'll be introducing million-dollar salary bands. If you create outsized impact using AI, you'll be paid outside of traditional bands.

Most importantly, I have the deepest gratitude for those affected. We're doing this from a position of strength specifically so we can take care of people properly. Everyone affected receives a package aimed at honoring their contributions and easing the transition.

I only see two options: wait for this to play out gradually in the market or be honest about what I'm seeing and act proactively.

THE 100X ORGANIZATION
The primary change is that we're restructuring around what I call 100x org. The goal is 100x output. The roles required to build at the highest level are fundamentally different than they were a year ago.

Incremental improvements to existing systems won't get us there. We need new ones. That means creating enough disruption to rebuild rather than iterate on what's already broken.

The common narrative is that AI makes everyone more productive. It doesn't. Many of the workflows of today, if left unchanged, create bottlenecks in AI systems.

These roles will evolve. But waiting for that to happen naturally means falling behind now.

The 100x org is actually heavily dependent on people - infinitely more than today. This is only possible with 10x people that have embraced and adopted new ways of working.

THE BUILDERS, AGENT MANAGERS, AND FRONT-LINERS

— THE BUILDERS: 10X ENGINEERS
I don't think most companies have internalized what's actually happening with AI in engineering. The common narrative is that AI makes all engineers more productive. That may be true in isolation, but at an organization level - that is the farthest thing from reality.

Here's what we've validated recently at ClickUp: the great engineers, the ones who can orchestrate, architect, and review, are becoming 100x engineers. They're not writing code. They're directing agents that write code. The skill is judgment.

AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, and everyone else using AI slows these engineers down.
Think about it - the bottlenecks are (1) orchestration - telling AI what to do, and (2) reviewing - what AI did. Everything is leapfrogged and no longer needed.
So who do you want orchestrating and reviewing code?

And how do you want your best engineers to spend their time?

If your best engineers are spending time reviewing other people's code, then this is inherently an inefficient bottleneck. These engineers can review their agent's code much faster than reviewing human code.

The new world is about enabling your 10x engineers to become 100x.

The wrong strategy is to push every engineer to use infinite tokens. Companies doing this are celebrating 500% more pull requests. But customer outcomes don't match the volume of code being generated.

I call this the great reckoning of AI coding, and every company will face this soon if not already.

More code is just another bottleneck to the best engineers, and ultimately to your company's impact as well.

— THE BUILDERS: 10X PRODUCT MANAGERS
Product management and design roles are merging.

Designers that have customer focus, become more like product managers.

And product managers that have intuition for UX become more like designers.

The bottleneck of user research is gone. It takes us just one mention of an agent to kickoff research and analyze results.

The bottleneck of product <> design iteration is also gone. The product builder iterates on their own, along with agents and skills that ensure alignment with quality and strategy.

Also controversial today - I believe that the wrong strategy is to have your PMs shipping code - that just introduces another bottleneck that the best engineers will waste their time on.

To be clear, PMs should be coding but they should do this in a playground to iterate, validate, and scope. That code should not go to production.

Everything outside of managing systems, orchestrating AI, and reviewing output becomes a bottleneck.
That's why the other roles that are critical along with these are the systems managers (to reduce bottlenecks) along with a bottleneck you can't replace - customer meeting time.

— THE SYSTEM MANAGERS
Ironically, the people that automate their jobs with AI will always have a job. They become owners of the AI systems - agent managers. We have many examples of these people at ClickUp.

The underlying systems in which we operate are absolutely critical to get right. I think most companies are delusional to think they can iterate on existing systems and compete in this new world.

You must create enough disruption so that old systems are deprecated entirely. If there's any definition for 'AI native' that's what it is.

— THE FRONT-LINERS
In a world that will become saturated with AI communication, the human touch will matter more than anything to customers.

This is a bottleneck that you shouldn't replace - even when agents are high enough quality to do video meetings.

One-on-one meeting time with customers is something that shouldn't be automated. The systems around the meetings should be - so that front-liners spend nearly 100% of their time with customers.

REWARDING 100X IMPACT
In a world where companies are able to do so much more with less, where does that excess money go?
In our case, much of the savings in this new operating model will flow directly back to those that enabled it.

We must reward people that create productivity accordingly. This aligns incentives on both sides. Plus, in a world where your best people create 100x impact, you can't afford to lose them.

You should aim to retain these employees for decades. The context they have and their ability to efficiently orchestrate and review will be nearly impossible to replace.

Compensation bands of today should be thrown out the door. We're introducing $1 million cash/year salary bands with a path available to nearly everyone in the company if they produce 100x impact by creating or managing AI systems.

THE FUTURE
Nearly every company will make changes like these. The ones that do it proactively will define what comes next.

The future is not fewer people. It's different work, new roles, and better rewards for those who embrace it. We're already seeing entirely new roles emerge, like Agent Managers, that didn't exist a year ago.

ClickUp is positioning to lead this shift, not just internally, but for our customers too. I've never been more certain about where we're headed.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@businessbarista AI-native

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@realEstateTrent Collectibles, clothes and car parts.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@realEstateTrent Collectibles and clothes.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@nikitabier Isn’t this @Stocktwits … @howardlindzon

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@asaio87 Front end development is being disrupted. Back-end is where the engineering is and still will be.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@ryandepauloo I would lean toward shoving, but with 80 bigs early, I can see folding too. For me it would depend on what information I have on that player.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@BoringBiz_ Start a consulting business. Learn AI to create efficiencies. Only take a book of clients large enough to have the desired lifestyle.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

This is worth your time.

[David Senra @davidsenra]

My conversation with Marc Andreessen (@pmarca), co-founder of @a16z and Netscape.

0:00 Caffeine Heart Scare
0:56 Zero Introspection Mindset
3:24 Psychedelics and Founders
4:54 Motivation Beyond Happiness
7:18 Tech as Progress Engine
10:27 Founders Versus Managers
20:01 HP Intel Founder Legacy
21:32 Why Start the Firm
24:14 Venture Barbell Theory
28:57 JP Morgan Boutique Banking
30:02 Religion Split Wall Street
30:41 Barbell of Banking
31:42 Allen & Company Model
33:16 Planning the VC Firm
33:45 CAA Playbook Lessons
36:49 First Principles vs. Status Quo
39:03 Scaling Venture Capital
40:37 Private Equity and Mad Men
42:52 Valley Shifts to Full Stack
45:59 Meeting Jim Clark
48:53 Founder vs. Manager at SGI
54:20 Recruiting Dinner Story
56:58 Starting the Next Company
57:57 Nintendo Online Gamble
58:33 Building Mosaic Browser
59:45 NSFnet Commercial Ban
1:01:28 Eternal September Shift
1:03:11 Spam and Web Controversy
1:04:49 Mosaic Tech Support Flood
1:07:49 Netscape Business Model
1:09:05 Early Internet Skepticism
1:11:15 Moral Panic Pattern
1:13:08 Bicycle Face Story
1:14:48 Music Panic Examples
1:18:12 Lessons from Jim Clark
1:19:36 Clark Versus Barksdale
1:21:22 Tesla Versus Edison
1:23:00 Edison Digression Setup
1:23:13 AI Forecasting Myths
1:23:43 Edison Phonograph Lesson
1:25:11 Netscape Two Jims
1:29:11 Bottling Innovation
1:31:44 Elon Management Code
1:32:24 IBM Big Gray Cloud
1:37:12 Engineer First Truth
1:38:28 Bottlenecks and Speed
1:42:46 Milli Elon Metric
1:47:20 Starlink Side Project
1:49:10 Closing

Includes paid partnerships.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@howardlindzon Sad but true.

[CTV Power Play @CTV_PowerPlay]

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which he had endorsed in 2017 during his first term.

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder helped broker the deal with Canada to build the bridge.

@VassyKapelos asked him if he was surprised by Trump's change in position. #cdnpoli #ctvpp

More: https://t.co/TKuQ0ifKuZ

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@tannerdripjobs Arrival at paint store is the start time. He’s being sent there to start work. Everyone else is being sent to the job site to start work. Receipt can confirm.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@sciencegirl @grok do you see a cow in this image?

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@elonmusk can you please go out to Skinwalker Ranch? I really need to know what the hell is going on over there.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

This is crazy! Wow!

[Alex Vacca @itsalexvacca]

Facebook once bought a VPN app for $120M and turned it into a surveillance tool that spied on 33M+ users' entire phones for years.

This app helped Zuck buy WhatsApp for a whopping $19B and break Snapchat's encryption.

Thread

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@1MinuteMan @vibrantdad He said his grandparents had a fridge for 50 years. grandparents being the key to the timeline. He never said 50 years ago.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@bored36523786 @Frasier67Blank @vibrantdad $400 in the 1950’s is equivalent to $4,500 today. TV’s in the 1950’s cost between $400 and $1,200. In today’s dollars, that $1,200 TV would cost $13,680.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@Chris_D_Brewer At least one.

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@dankness3 Gold!

[Dave Kelly @EVplusEV]

@dklappin Get that man a WPT card protector.