Alex Nicita

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

https://t.co/wEsQUHEd31

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@braveben @thejamescad @owens This is the way

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@jbahrdestefano trillions of tam. look out for rollups

https://t.co/KzlCRUABrL

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@sriramkri True, except most of US GDP is becoming TAM

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@rl_env main priority for every saas ceo right now

best playbook for it so far:
https://t.co/3rg8Fzh3rR

[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.

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@kevinzhang @variational_lvs @mr_plumpkin Epic journey, congrats!

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@MollySOShea @Alfred_Lin

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@sriramkri True, except most of US GDP is becoming TAM

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

multiplayer prompting

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@nunzi46 AI? Definitely leaner
Look at Cognition’s capital efficiency

Hardware? Makes sense

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@endowment_eddie Geez Louise!

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@AlexKolicich A wise man once said nothing at all
- Drake

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@Alfred_Lin

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@sahirjaggi Let’s go!

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@ADoricko Go for a walk and drink some water

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

I read Shoe Dog for the third or fourth time. This episode will make you want to run through walls.

My favorite quotes from the new episode:

1. Somebody may beat me, but they’re going to have to bleed to do it.

2. It was us against the world, and we felt damn sorry for the world.

3. The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us.

4. The roadside was littered with cautious, conservative, prudent entrepreneurs. I wanted to keep my foot pressed hard on the gas pedal.

5. I just didn't want to lose. Losing was death.

6. I was no longer making Nikes; Nikes were making me.

7. The problems never stop.

8. Beating the competition is relatively easy. Beating yourself is a never-ending commitment.

9. Our ads didn’t focus on the product, but on the spirit behind the product.

10. Obsessives were the only ones for the job. The only ones for me.

11. It seems wrong to call it “business.” It seems wrong to throw all those hectic days and sleepless nights, all those magnificent triumphs and desperate struggles, under that bland, generic banner: business. What we were doing felt like so much more.

12. We wanted, as all great businesses do, to create, to contribute, and we dared to say so aloud.

13. You are remembered for the rules you break.

14. You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.

15. Don't settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.

16. The better you get, the bigger the bull’s-eye. It’s not one man’s opinion; it’s a law of nature.

17. Entrepreneurs have always been outgunned, outnumbered.

18. Front runners always work the hardest, and risk the most.

19. No future, no past. All is now.

20. He always went against the grain. Always.

21. Belief is irresistible.

22. I could not bear the thought of losing.

23. The world is without beauty when you lose.

24. We didn't believe in letting tradition slow you down.

25. Someone somewhere once said that business is war without bullets, and I tended to agree.

26. I was fascinated by leadership under extreme conditions.

27. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

28. I've never been a multitasker. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered.

29. I flat-out didn’t want to work for someone else. I wanted to build something that was my own, something I could point to and say: I made that.

30. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop.

31. When you make something, when you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer, or better, and when you do it all crisply and efficiently, smartly, the way everything should be done but so seldom is—you’re participating more fully in the whole grand human drama.

32. I honestly wish I could do it all over again.

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@jeffreyhuber asked 5.5:

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@pzakin Good take

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to help review a future part 2 that researches interesting startups building in this category:

"Traditional operating systems were the n-dimensional machines of their time and that market had many winners. Observing the growth of foundation models as products, it is reasonable to expect the same from the major labs. Anticipating the next cycle of this evolution is perhaps the most interesting open question in business today. The answer must lie in platforms built atop models, businesses wrapping wrappers, and creating newly infinite machines from the ones that today seem limitless."

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

https://t.co/wEsQUHEd31

[Alex Nicita @NicitaAlex]

@endowment_eddie @ani_pai @yrechtman @Andercot Full blog post here: https://t.co/UjRopP4HJD