Lucas Rollo

Ideas & questions about product, growth, and AI.

Ex-Moveworks (acq. ServiceNow). Kleiner Perkins Fellow.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

I’m going to work on solving this "workout tracking + ongoing plan management sucks" problem.

A few reasons why:

1. The big problem that I really want consumer health tech to solve is: give people premium health plans based on their unique data. I think there is a small slice here that I contribute to.

2. I would really like to explore consumer product for a # of reasons (prev an enterprise software PM) . I think this is a great opportunity to learn what it's like and build expertise.

3. I have no idea how to post on social media, build in public, how to sell, how to position. I think it’s important and desperately want to learn.

4. I talked to some folks & this is a pain point for them as well. If nothing else, I’d like to make going to the gym more enjoyable for me & my friends.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

I hate the operational overhead of trying to get fit.

Planning workouts. Tracking sets. Remembering what I lifted last Tuesday.

Deciding whether to go heavier this week. Adjusting on the fly when my shoulder's acting up.

It's a lot to hold in your head when all you really want is to do is workout & see progress.

If this sounds like you too, reach out. I'm working on a solution for you.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@smm_aryan @X Yeah. I’m incredibly curious why it doesn’t exist.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

If @X added a "collection" of posts (similar to YouTube playlists), I think it could improve growth of the platform.

Imagine.

You create a 100-post long series over your build in public journey for an app you're working on. Or maybe you create a 20-post series on key product launches in the industry.

People are interested in the story or the series. Content of the same DNA.

Today, that content can be lost at the bottom of our linear profiles. But with "collections" they would be more regularly surfaced & engaged with.

As a result: Creators experience more growth & @X grows their position as a place where creators want to be.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@buildanythingso I will be building!

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@Ife_Ody @_heyrico I need that prompt then

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

I went to stay with my Uncle (in his mid-50s) for a wedding this past weekend.

He has never heard of ChatGPT.

I started to explain what kind of things it could do for him. He couldn’t believe it & at the same time he didn't seem particularly interested in adopting it.

It’s really sobering coming from Silicon Valley & social media, where all you hear about is AI.

We are still early in the game.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@coryalthoff Not building a company. However, I am very interested in crafting products, product strategy, & growth so thats what I write about.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@JacobCounsell I'm building a fitness app with 1 screen & 1 click. It takes away all the reasons your 45min workouts end up lasting >1hr & helps you train smart.

Im building this (1) to solve a problem (2) learn consumer product (3) explore the frontier of AI & design.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@realthomasgu Work backwards from the coolest press release you can imagine.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

A lot of people on X say freemium/free trials/ free usage doesn’t work. You should only use “hard paywalls”

Anthropic & OpenAI both do free. Yeah they’re both backed by a lot of $ but they also provide A TON of value.

If your product doesn’t have enough value to convert a free user to paid then what makes you think your hard paywall has enough value to keep them retained?

Also, you can’t just look at the conversion % without looking at the total volume. If 50k users is converting at 2%, that’s still 1000 paying users.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@zarazhangrui A vast majority of the world does not build software. Within the small group that does, there is an understanding that maintaining the software is harder than building it.

I think AI twitter makes the buy vs build decision seem closer than it actually is for most people.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

I totally agree with this. AI could hold an insane amount of info about a person & use it to answer specific questions well.

The real problem to solve here is getting all of the companies, job boards, and application systems to adopt this solution. It's hard but possible.

This is what I was going for with my personal portfolio in hopes that I could (1) stop tailoring my resume (2) save time in intro calls

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@darekgusto @cursor_ai Haha. I appreciate that! Let me know if I can ever help with anything.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@darekgusto @cursor_ai I just learned that X (basically) throws away the old version? Even for a basic edit like changing a tag.

That is so crazy 😂

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

Yeah, totally agree.

I've been trying to find more people to interview about lifting. Reddit & X DMs aren't really working & I exhausted most of my personal network.

I realized the best way to go about it is to ask the people I see at the gym. Really uncomfortable & not really scalable long-term. However, it's where my ICP definitely is & they can't leave me on read 😂

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

Everyone should do more things that don't scale.

I've been thinking about this because of @cursor_ai 's founder DMs being circulated after their acquisition. All he was doing was hustling, reaching out to anyone he could and having real conversations with real customers.

Three reasons the unscalable way wins:
1. It's how you break through barriers. Like landing your first 10 users one conversation at a time.

2. It's the only way to actually learn. You have to do the thing; explore all of the edges & failure modes yourself.

3. It's how you build trust & stand out. Everyone rushes to automate & scale. The personal touch is rare now & rare is what people remember.

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@darekgusto @cursor_ai Oh I didn’t know that. If you can’t tell I’m quite new here 🤣

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@darekgusto @cursor_ai Wow. The more you know. Feels a bit jarring from a platform where the core product is about posting.
Surely there is a better solution?

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

@HeyYoGB I don’t even know where to start with TikTok content. What’s the first step?

[Lucas Rollo @RolloLucas]

Exactly. Im noticing this in my own work right now. I'm trying to find people that lift weights to give me feedback.

However, scrapping Reddit & X isn't really doing any good. Even just trying to find people to reply on the internet is low leverage.

I just need to have actual conversations with people in the gym. Human to human.