⚡️ Batko

founder @thehourglassAI // ex-CEO @Startmate // coaching on // writing on

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

🌍 Batko OS - the World as a System 🤖
https://t.co/HUMIk6R2RT 👈 available now 🔥

My musings about systems:

👊 practical - inbox, meetings
🪂 high level - luck, work-life
🧠 strategic - brand, goals

++ featuring the best available startup operator right now! 👩‍💻

[Finlay @finlayekins]

We've spent the last year using Claude Code to build an AI-Native company.

Here's the most impactful skills/hooks/practices from our internal stack. Adding one each day 👇:

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

😂 I lol’d

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

⭐️

[Finlay @finlayekins]

We've spent the last year using Claude Code to build an AI-Native company.

Here's the most impactful skills/hooks/practices from our internal stack. Adding one each day 👇:

[Paul Graham @paulg]

The only thing worse than having the CEO knee-deep in building stuff with AI is not having the CEO knee-deep in building stuff with AI.

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

@stevehind @NotionHQ +1

getting AI to write into Notion is a massive token suck

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

The AI builder journey

1/ Know nothing - feel FOMO 👀

2/ Feel the AI magic - first agent build ✨

3/ Build all the agents - I’m invincible 🦸

4/ They all die - WUT 🧐

5/ Orchestrate - busy not productive 🏃‍♂️😵

6/ Let them die 🤷‍♂️

7/ Build a few v good ones ⭐️
or outsource to @thehourglassAI

[Addy Osmani @addyosmani]

https://t.co/0DyFIXJueI

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

Twenty running agents gives you this feeling of massive productivity.

The dashboard is full and everything moves. But that feeling is decoupled from actually shipping good code to main.

You can be maximally busy and barely produce anything.

From the inside it feels identical.

[Addy Osmani @addyosmani]

https://t.co/0DyFIXJueI

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

Favourite message of the week ❤️

🥚 my fave page is /about

[Sahil @sahill_og]

POV: you are using Claude opus 4.8

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

@finlayekins but you get the beauty of great misunderstood agent names

🧟 Flipsidius is born

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

/goal was the ultimate anthropic move to #billmax

[Itamar Golan 🤓 @ItakGol]

Me using Claude Opus 4.7 to center a div.

[GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg]

How to build a vertical AI agent cash-flowing startup:

find painful workflow in a boring industry → talk to 10 people who do that workflow every day → map every step, every tool, every spreadsheet, every phone call →

do the workflow manually first → be the agent before you build the agent → find the edge cases that break everything → document them in obsidian as structured markdown →

set up your agent stack → hermes for the harness → obsidian vault as the knowledge base → composio for authentication across apps → build your first 1-3 skills that solve the core pain →

use claude code or codex to build the product → use agents to set up other agents → use perplexity MCP and context7 for up-to-date docs → let the agent handle the scaffolding while you focus on the workflow logic →

ship the agent to your first 5 customers for free → watch what they actually use it for → they will surprise you → the thing you built for isn't always the thing they need most →

build content around the niche → not "building in public" content → useful content → the tips, the shortcuts, the pain points that only someone who does this workflow would know → become the person for that niche →

charge per outcome not per seat → per lease renewed, per claim processed, per candidate sourced → the ROI conversation takes 10 seconds when it's tied to a result →

set up watchdogs and alerts → your agent emails you when a cron job breaks or a skill fails → the customer should never have to tell you something is broken →

connect to open router → see exact costs per model per task → use GPT 5.5 for tool calls → use open source for lightweight tasks → route the right model to the right job → watch your margins double →

let hermes write to its own memory after every task → the agent compounds → the longer it runs the better it gets → that accumulated memory becomes your moat → a competitor can clone your product but they can't clone 6 months of context →

expand the workflow → you started with one step → add the next → then the next → now you own the entire workflow end to end → you went from a tool to the operating system for that vertical →

stack the agents → one agent is a side project → five agents across five customers is a business → each one runs in its own environment → you check in once a day →

raise only if you need capital not credibility → most agent businesses should never raise → the margins are too good to give away equity → stay lean → stay profitable → repeat

i'm rooting for you

[Anna @annask55]

@finlayekins @batkomichael Self selection bias! Being consistent and hardworking in another domain makes you confident enough to apply for cool and hard jobs

[Pay Roll Manager Here @UsingLyft]

He’s typing in a search bar, quick show him the search option he’s looking for.

Perfect. He typed the next letter that is also the next letter in the option we just showed him so take that option away and show him an option that doesn’t match at all

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

@finlayekins selection bias 🧐🏋️😅👀

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

Meetings - tuesdays

Deepwork - rest of week

- oh the freedom of an empty calendar 🙌

[Finlay @finlayekins]

@batkomichael taught me to book all meetings for one weekday, and keep every other day for deepwork. insane difference.

[Niki Scevak @nikiscevak]

"the moral suspicion of ambition itself"

So beautifully said

[Brycent @brycent]

The best job cut post I’ve ever read.

This should be required reading.

[⚡️ Batko @batkomichael]

middle management redefined

[jacky @jjacky]

i have become middle manager

orchestrator of agents