Adrian Chen

Founder @ Marlo

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

@WWangshengli @grok @grok 执行指令

[Tips Excel @gudanglifehack]

BREAKING: CLAUDE can now run your entire social media on autopilot mode like a $600/hour social media manager for free.

Here are 7 CLAUDE prompts that you should try:

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

2026 festival season loading…

Coachella, Skyline, Okeechobee, ARC, Lollapalooza, Movement, SXSW, M3F… and more.

All of them now have live chatrooms.

See who’s going.
Talk before you arrive.
Find your people nearby.
https://t.co/3ix9iVcjab
#EDCLV2026 #burningman

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

@aiww 艺术家确实应该在最前线见证注定要发生的。👍

[KK.aWSB @KKaWSB]

20 年前，
YouTube 几乎没有用户。
全站，只有 40 个视频。

创始人坐在一间杂乱的房间里，
服务器嗡嗡作响，
页面冷清得可怕。

不是 40 万。
不是 4 万。
是 40 个。
他们不是在庆祝上线，
而是在怀疑：
是不是根本没人需要这个东西。
那时候没有创作者经济。
没有推荐算法。
没有“全民拍视频”。

把视频传到网上，
又慢又麻烦，
还没人看。

但他们看到的不是“现��没人用”，
而是另一件事：
只要上传足够简单，
人迟早会说话。
后来发生的事你都知道了。

世界开始用视频记录一切：
日常、愤怒、知识、真相、谎言。
YouTube 不再缺内容，
它变成了内容本身。
回头看，
40 个视频不是失败信号。

那是世界还没赶到现场。

[Chris Pisarski @chrispisarski]

This is what YC taught us about how to get your first paying users:

1) founders MUST do sales: You can't outsource early sales or hire a sales team immediately. You need to do it personally to understand the customer's problem because the product will initially be bad, only a founder's passion can sell a work-in-progress.

2) Manually recruit customers and do things that don't scale. Brex founders signed up their first 10 customers from their YC batch.

3) Simple cold emails: Use plain text, no fancy formatting/HTML, and keep it very short (max 6-8 sentences). Include social proof, avoid jargon and have a clear call to action for a demo or call.

4) Work Backwards from Your Goal: If you need 2 customers, you can’t just reach out to 10 people. You likely need to send 500 emails to get 250 opens, 20 replies, 10 demos, and finally 2 customers.

5) Most people will ignore you and that is fine. Outbound sales is a numbers game designed to sift through the majority to find the specific "early adopters" who are willing to take a risk on a new product.

6) Start with the Easiest Targets: Do not try to sell to big enterprise companies with bureaucracy initially. Sell to startups (short decision lines), people in your network, or previous colleagues. Pick the "low-hanging fruit."

7) Fire Bad Leads Quickly: If a prospect is dragging you along for multiple calls without committing, or if they don't have the budget, let them go immediately. Focus your limited time only on those likely to close.

8 ) Charge Immediately (No Free Trials): For B2B, if they don't pay, they aren't a customer. Avoid free trials and instead, offer a money-back guarantee or a monthly opt-out clause. Pricing validates that you are solving a real problem. almost every single company in YC gets real revenue. It's very hard, but avoid the temptation to give away your product for "feedback."

9) Track Data in a CRM: Do not guess if sales are working. Use data providers like CrustData or Apollo to get leads and to track your conversion rates at every stage. If you have 0 customers, data will tell you if the problem is the email subject line (open rate) or your pitch (demo-to-close rate).

10) Don't Forget Manual Onboarding: Closing the deal isn't the end. You need to manually onboard early customers to ensure they actually use the product. If you skip this, early churn will be high because early products are hard to figure out.

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

People don’t meet by chance.
They meet the way water converges —
when two currents, shaped by their own journeys, finally flow into each other.

[Hiten Shah @hnshah]

Marketing is the new bottleneck.

[Dan @Betraydan]

This is really dope!

[Mark Vassilevskiy @MarkKnd]

Should I put "investor" in the bio now?

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

@jjuulliiaallii @AforeVC [email protected]

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

Good day, I did what I could!

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

IG will be for shopping, TikTok for entertainment, Twitter for conversation — but none of them get people to show up.
That’s where Marlo comes in.

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

@ericbahn True — SF might be quiet, but that’s where Marlo comes in.
We turn “nothing to do” into “who’s down to go?” 😎

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

@SarahChieng Hey Sarah! Just DM’d you.

[Sarah Fong @MilksandMatcha]

Looking to angel invest in a few more startups this year

If you’re building something exciting and think I could be helpful, reach out — DMs open :)

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

奶奶生日快乐❤️

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

Learned: Let your body, energy, time, partners, users, investors, the market — and the future — all follow your intuition.
Find it. Trust it. Stay with it.

[Adrian Chen @apc0714]

20 years ago, investors funded ideas. 10 years ago, they funded products. Today, they fund systems.
and layers it with the evolution of what founders must contribute — from knowledge, to effort, to sacrifice.