Jarrod Musano

Deaf founder, operator and investor. Executive Chairman of @convo_us. Building and backing companies that connect people.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@davidsenra We bootstrapped Convo, so no outsider could ever push me to cut my best person. If I were picking a board today, I'd ask one question first: what would you do with my best person in a bad quarter? That answer tells you more than any term sheet.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@jack Impressive work. As a Deaf founder, I can't use a voice-only model as is. Could what Dessa hears, like tone and emotion, come through as captions? And will there be an API? We built a next-gen communication platform at Convo, and I'd love to see if they could work together.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@joshelman We spent two years at Convo figuring out what to build before we rebuilt our platform. That was the hard part. Once you know exactly what you need, agents make the build much faster. They don't make that first call for you.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@karlmehta @JohnTChambers As a startup you can pivot fast when something isn't working. That's strategy, and it should change. What doesn't change is your core values. They keep you in your swim lane and set the boundaries for every pivot.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@VaibhavSisinty Both of them left thanking the team and the people who used what they built. That tells you more about the culture than the timing does. The exits that worried me as a leader were the quiet ones, not the ones where people said thank you on the way out.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@MikeZaccardi From the operator side: buying the tool is the easy part. The gain comes when you train your people to use it well and build their skills so they get more out of their work. Most companies skip that step, so the spend just sits on the cost line.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@dens Appreciate it, Dennis.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

Our platform at Convo was 13 years old, it still worked, and people were happy. But our industry wasn't investing in the next generation, so we built one from scratch: URSA, our next-generation communication platform. Five grueling years. We shut the old one down two months early. Most leaders wait until the numbers force the change. By then you're rebuilding with less time and less trust.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@dens That's the part that stays with people. When I had to do our first layoffs, I met with each person face to face and told them it wasn't their fault. It was the hardest thing I've done as a leader, and the right one. Respect for putting it all on the record, Dennis.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

Two of the smaller payrolls in baseball are playing in the World Series. I know that feeling. We bootstrapped Convo. No big checks, just a team that knew its role, trusted each other and got better every year. Money buys talent. It doesn't buy a team.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

SpaceX just reported $14.6 billion in quarterly revenue, up 161%, and $4.4 billion in net income. It also spent $19.6 billion on capex in that one quarter. That's real growth. With rates staying where they are, the question I'd ask is how much of that build-out gets paid for with cash instead of borrowing.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

In 2009, companies were deciding what Deaf people needed without asking us. We took our cue from FUBU: For Us, By Us.

Still what I look for in a founder. Someone building the thing they needed and couldn't find doesn't need a market study. They are the market.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

Diamonds are the lesson. The big players kept supply locked in vaults to hold prices up, and that pushed buyers toward lab-grown. If they'd let supply flow at a fair price, nobody would have gone looking for an alternative. Choke a market long enough and you pay for the replacement's R&D. Gold should watch that closely.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

Everyone is watching what the Fed does next week. I'd spend less time guessing the decision and more time asking whether your business works if rates stay where they are. In my opinion, plan for higher for longer and treat any cut as a bonus.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@SanDiegoKnight If your system can't tell React from React.js, it can't see judgment, ownership or how someone handles a miss either. For any role that matters, a person on the team should read the resumes. Software can sort. It shouldn't decide.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

A wave of new voice AI dropped this week. Faster, more natural, running right on your phone. Real progress. But every tool that assumes everyone talks and listens leaves people out: Deaf people, people who can't speak, anyone in a loud room. Build the text path in from day one, not as a patch.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@joelsstafford Agreed. If AI does the first draft, juniors should still own the call: review it, defend it, fix it. Reps with a safety net, on purpose.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

@elonmusk @bot Is there any way @grok could save the credit card info for future purchase? I find it annoying have to put in my credit card every time I buy something.

[Jarrod Musano @JarrodMusano]

Even SpaceX is paying more to borrow now. Its long bonds came out at about 6.6% in June. Four months later they trade near 7.9%. In my opinion rates are here to stay and likely go higher. The companies that win the next few years won't be the ones that borrow the most. They'll be the ones that can fund growth without it.