Gavin Mercer

Energy Services Director | Crypto holder | Weekend explorer

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@agupta paying a premium specifically for autonomy changes what rentals compete on

[Ankit Gupta @agupta]

signs of PMF w/ Tesla FSD: i booked Turo instead of a 30% cheaper Hertz car so i can have a self driving rental car

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

the second apron numbers are what force the decision, not the player

[APHoops @APH00PS]

There’s always a dollar figure that’s too rich. OKC is pressed up against the second apron as is with Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren.

These are from OKC fans discussing Wallace after Keyonte George got his 5-year, $157.5 million extension.

[Marcos Romano @Marc0sRomano]

Arthritis doesn't only cause crooked fingers...

It quietly ages you, triggering fatigue, poor sleep, and low moods.

Here’s how it’s wearing down your body (and the best way to slow it naturally):

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

a 1500 and a 10,000 in the same meet is a lot of laps for one week

[President of India @rashtrapatibhvn]

I extend my heartiest congratulations to Gulveer Singh on winning the Silver Medal in the Men’s 1500 Metres at the Asian Games 2026. Securing a personal best in the event makes this achievement all the more commendable. Coming after your Silver Medal in the 10,000 Metres, this is another fine performance on the track at these Games. My best wishes for many more laurels in the years ahead.

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

that bend into the home straight was ridiculous

[The Khel India @TheKhelIndia]

THE HISTORIC MEDAL BY VITHYA RAMRAJ 🥉

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@PhilakoneCrypto @PhilakoneCrypto six months left in the candle either way, which cuts against calling the engulf right now

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@CryptoRank_VCs @jeeves_inc @coinfund @cbventures @a16zcrypto @AB_insights corporate cards and stablecoin rails in the same product is a compliance question before it's a payments one

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

an agent with a card and no track record is just a new counterparty, the underwriting still has to happen

[SULTAN @0x_Sultan26]

Worth zooming out on where @agenticscredit sits. The whole sector is racing to give agents spending power right now. Agent corporate cards, agent trading, agent checkout, all shipping in 2026.

Almost all of it solves authorization. Can this agent be allowed to spend. Very little of it solves the harder question underneath. Should this agent be trusted with size in the first place, based on what it has actually done.

Permission and creditworthiness are not the same problem. One asks if the agent is allowed to act. The other asks if it has earned the right to. Agentics is one of the few building for the second.

[Big D 🎯 @Big_D_09]

“We are victims” 🤣🤣🤣

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

The token buyback amounts being unverifiable is the detail I'd want answered first

[Fishy Catfish @CatfishFishy]

https://t.co/gc5AXfUX9s

See my attached post and this post. It's XRP 2.0, but "interop" instead of "bridge currency."

QNT is trying to extract maximum profits for itself by pretending that a centralized (literally entirely ran by one entity), closed-source, permissioned web2 SaaS with a DLT back-end is part of the conversation for becoming an onchain finance standard. No one is going to give monopolistic market power to a start-up vendor. The only thing that can become a global standard is an open network.

If Quant already provides the entirety of its centralized Overledger services itself and is paid behind closed doors directly with fiat, why does the token exist? The transaction is literally complete right there. But, yet, they decided to add the extra unnecessary steps of creating a token, selling it to you, and then...buying it back using unverifiable amounts of fiat money that they are paid behind closed doors from unknown users? The token is literally not needed.

So, what's the reason why the token exists when it simply creates extra, unnecessary steps and it has zero, I repeat, zero functional purpose?

It's not used to pay for gas fees. It's not used to stake as collateral. It's not used to vote in a DAO. It's not bootstrapping a two-sided marketplace. It's not paying networks of 3rd party decentralized nodes over crypto rails. Why does it exist?

Easy. Making money for Quant. Selling the token *must* make more money than the "license fees" from the zero known users. It's the epitome of blockchain & token theater. It's laughable that hordes of hothead QNTards are running around threads engaging in chest-pounding without having an answer to these basic questions. They're not even demanding answers to these basic questions from Quant.

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

40 people showing up is a lot of coordination for one race

[Precious Adeyemi @deyemipresh]

girl, you have amazing friends!

ran my first marathon today, and my friends showed up & showed out for me; online and physically! almost 40 people, rooting for me, screaming my name, sending me encouraging messages. I am so blessed!🥺

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

the debt payment is the thing that doesn't care what your thesis is

[SMB Attorney @SMB_Attorney]

“We’re going to buy businesses and implement AI.”

Guys, with the exception of maybe a handful of people or firms, I’m not sure many people have a better front-row seat to the small and lower-middle-market acquisition ecosystem than we do.

We take 200+ calls every month from prospective buyers, searchers, independent sponsors, family offices and private equity funds.

And that doesn’t include the orders of magnitude more conversations we see through communities, group chats, conferences and the hundreds of transactions that move through our firm.

Based on our own deal volume and what we see in the market, we believe we’re among the most active law firms serving the lower-middle-market M&A ecosystem in the country.

And I can tell you:

“We’re going to buy businesses and implement AI” is EVERYONE’S thesis right now.

Greg’s piece is thought-provoking, and I think his broader point is right: everyone buying or operating a business should be thinking seriously about how AI can be layered into the company to improve productivity, reduce costs and expand margins.

That is absolutely where things are going.

And damn it, it’s a GOOD thesis.

I say “good,” not “great,” because there is a huge assumption buried inside it:

That you actually get to the part where you can focus on growth and AI implementation.

The acquisition lifecycle usually looks something like:

1. Acquire
2. Stabilize
3. Grow
4. Exit

AI implementation is largely part of Step 3... Growth.

But before you get to Step 3, you have to survive Step 2.

And Step 2 is where things get real.

> You inherit employees you didn’t hire.
> Customers you didn’t acquire.
> Vendors you didn’t negotiate with.
> Processes you didn’t design.
> Technology you didn’t choose.
> Financial statements you didn’t prepare.
> A culture you didn’t create.

And often years of institutional knowledge sitting inside the head of a seller who just got wired a life-changing amount of money and is mentally halfway to the beach.

Meanwhile, the debt payment is due every month.

A lot of acquirers get stuck somewhere between Stabilize and Grow for years.

> They fix people problems.
> They replace customers.
> They rebuild accounting.
> They improve working capital.
> They learn the industry.

They deal with equipment breaking, key employees quitting, sellers behaving strangely, unexpected capex and a thousand other things that never appeared in the CIM.

They put out near CONSTANT fires.

They service the debt.

They hold on for dear life.

They may still create seven figures of wealth...

But they never really reach the clean, optimized growth phase they imagined when they built the model.

That’s why I think assuming you can simply acquire a business and quickly increase EBITDA margins by the magnitude Greg is describing will be wishful thinking in most cases.

Not because he’s wrong about the opportunity.

He isn’t.

AI can absolutely improve margins.

It can reduce administrative labor, improve sales processes, accelerate quoting, enhance customer service, automate workflows and create enormous operating leverage.

Everyone should be thinking about how to use it.

But growth requires stability, management bandwidth, good systems, clean data and capital.

AI is a tool.

It is not a substitute for competent operations.

You still have to buy the right company.

At the right price.

With the right capital structure.

You still have to retain the right people.

Protect the customer base.

Understand working capital.

Manage cash.

Navigate the transition.

And actually operate the thing.

So if you’re considering acquiring a lower-middle-market business, do your homework, hire good advisors and go in with your eyes wide open.

Greg is right that AI creates a massive opportunity for business owners and acquirers.

But the hard part is still getting the business into a position where you can actually capture it.

This is hard as FUCK.

And AI didn’t make that part any easier.

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@crappiedoc @DadsSeasonings the Italian blend is the one that actually tastes like the jar was worth opening

[Lummox @Lummox_eth]

xAI built Grok Bot internally because even Grok 4.7 wasn't enough to automate real work

it hits 71% on DeepSWE, yet xAI gave it a persistent computer after terminal performance jumped from 20.3% to 37.6% in one generation

step 1 → stop treating the model as the product

Grok Bot wraps Grok 4.7 inside a browser, filesystem and terminal so the agent can operate software instead of explaining what you should click

step 2 → give that model a machine that doesn't disappear

long-running jobs can continue in the cloud after you close your laptop instead of dying with the chat session

step 3 → don't build one super-agent

xAI split its own Bots across sales, marketing, finance, product, operations and engineering, then let the specialists communicate with each other

step 4 → put a manager above the agents

xAI employees are already using a “Chief of Staff” Bot to coordinate specialist Bots instead of manually routing every task

step 5 → separate thinking from coding

Grok Bot can pull context from Slack + Notion + GitHub, package the task, then hand it to Cursor's cloud agent to actually write the code

step 6 → turn prompts into infrastructure

one Bot can hold up to 50 routines, turning dozens of recurring jobs into repeatable workflows instead of dozens of separate chats

step 7 → remove the prompt completely

schedules, Slack messages, GitHub events and other Bots can trigger the next run automatically

step 8 → reuse the ecosystem instead of rebuilding it

Grok Bot supports MCP servers, plugins and skills, putting Gmail, Calendar, Drive and internal tools inside the same workflow

step 9 → put another AI between the agent and the real world

sensitive actions can pass through a separate reviewer that approves, blocks or escalates them before execution

step 10 → now look at the benchmark that actually matters

Grok 4.6 scored 20.3% on Terminal-Bench

Grok 4.7 reached 37.6%

that's an ~85% relative jump on a benchmark built around agents operating through a terminal

and suddenly the architecture makes sense

71% DeepSWE gives it serious coding ability

37.6% Terminal-Bench pushes it further into real computer work

50 routines per Bot turns that capability into repeatable automation

persistent computers keep the work alive

specialist Bots parallelize it

reviewers put boundaries around it

xAI didn't build another chatbot

they're building the operating system around the model

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

the Greg Maddux comp for a QB is high praise, the control guys always age well

[Roman #OBB @Romancane]

Sotg post central Michigan notes.

Offensive line looked better in gap scheme this week. Lots of nice nuance movement. Really in tune with it.

The one early sack was green on the offensive line for me. You call an iz the opposite way to sell and set the protection. Offensive line goes that way. The back and Mensah failed it together.

Miami two back look is a weapon. Not so much that it’s the two backs. It’s the fact that teams have to declare how they want to defend it. Heavy in the box count leaves easy reads outside. Mensah to Barkate was the example.

Central Michigan game plan was not as intricate as wakes defensively. They tried to do things but it was not quite at the level.

Take for example simulated pressure. Wakes got home and central Michigan did not. They were more obvious. Offensive line didn’t struggle.

Running backs are great in pass pro. That’s been the case for a little bit under Mario. I know the earlier rep I mentioned, but ultimately those guys are willing and able.

Lofton back to back weeks has been solid. In multiple ways.

Mensah is still mr handoff. Everything is a handoff even 50 yards down field. That completion % isn’t a misprint. It’s his dna.

He doesn’t have the howitzer or bazooka some have but it’s like the Greg Maddox of QBs. Surgical.

Defense can take out your running game. It’s a combination of multiple factors. Right now Heatherman seems to be triggering run blitzes from all levels off motions.

He’s got an uncanny sense right now with it. He trusts his guys to cover while he does it.

There’s this combating element from opposing ocs to motion and hit the flats in pass. Can’t cover everything but it’s something to watch.

Miami leads the country in rush defense. They are really working together on all levels to do it. It’s not just front for whipping guys up front to do it.

College football isn’t that simple. Offenses are too complex. Only way to prove it is just look who is around the ball when a tackle is made. You’ll see all positions involved.

The tackle thing is notable not critical. Lot of times it’s from the lighter weight class guys because they are tackling up a few weight classes.

That’s all I got. On to Death Valley

Bang ‼️

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

the multiples look great until you're the one doing the integrations

[Boring_Business @BoringBiz_]

There is incredible alpha today in buying small businesses at 5-6x multiples, using AI to streamline operations and build backend tools that can handle scale, and then layering on a bunch of small tuck-in M&A deals at 3-4x multiples.

Once the company hits scale with proper integration, the goal should be to flip the business to a more sophisticated PE buyer or strategic at 7-8x multiples

The only issue? This opportunity won't lie around forever. Fully expecting a massive rise in micro PE shops over the next 5 years that follow this exact playbook to amass massive fortunes for the founders and LPs

There has never been a better time to start

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

depends if the place charges by the rib or pretends a full slab feeds two

[Make L.A. Great Again 🇺🇸 @lalovestrump]

How much would that be at a restaurant?

Full slab of bbq ribs

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@JoshuaHobin that's a bold amount of sauce for a burger labeled little

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

@BassProShops the fly shop guys in calgary know more about the bow than any app does

[Gavin Mercer @Gavin789Mercer]

the peach trick is the one detail people skip over

[juju @badjujune]

MAKEUP:

makeup is the best way to cover the beard shadow! it’s quite easy to do and was my personal motivation to begin learning how to my makeup. on a freshly shaven face, apply a small amount of peach color corrector (if ur a nerd like me you can mix orange cc with (cont.)