Dan Powers

Fractional Chief Product Officer - I help you build the damn thing on time and under budget

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

It’s a bug

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@16vchq Hot dog carts.

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@Brennan_Lup Hear me out: hotdog stands

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@16vchq https://t.co/ZkUNvyvPAG

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

10 years leading projects I’ll never understand this

Your project manager from that dev agency has never ran a business

Everyone hates the way the platform looks and you don’t know why

why is everything a big lift? 😞

That deadline for launch missed by a year🤸🏼‍♂️

Endless change orders being billed

It's not a bug says the developer. Yes. Yes it is.

Unclear sprint outcomes

Over-engineering to increase billable hours

80 hours for a checkboxAI because it's trendy.

A simple script would work better. 🤝

PMs who don’t understand the business

Building what the client asked for instead of what customers need

AWS bill higher than your mortgage? 🫠

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@geoffreywoo Hear me out: hot dog stands

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@nikitabier

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

The secret to living is giving. Please donate to help someone I know who doesn’t have anywhere to turn to, is living in a car and is a good person.

https://t.co/dHmG3DwRTi

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

Can we stop with the tiny microphones in videos

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

Business used to be two things. Innovation and marketing. The game has changed.

I come from a special stock of entrepreneur.

A million years ago I was a professional musician. We packaged a product. The almighty music industry churned it out, handpicked the talent, and told the masses to like it or else.

Then [poof] the product was gone. CDs vanished. Streaming arrived. And you realized something uncomfortable. There were a thousand musicians better than the ones on the radio. The whole thing was a marketing ploy.

We're in the same moment in business right now.

AI is shifting the narrative. But it's only removing a layer. Underneath, you can see what was always there.

Opening an in-person business is exponentially harder. The gleam of "personal brands" is looking snake-oily. It's hard to market a brand when all you see is marketing.

We are notification-blind. Emailed out. Spam-texted.

Adwords is expensive. Cold calls are redundant. Social media is a grift.

We are innovation-weary. Not from innovation itself but from the theater of it. The pivots. The reworks. The shiny new features shipped into the void. The personal brand telling you to crush it from a rented Lambo. (Cue champagne pour)

It's the music industry all over again. The packaging is collapsing.

What's left when the packaging collapses is the actual work.

The musician playing a club at 2:30 in the morning to just his parents still believes. Not because he's delusional. Because he knows something the industry forgot.
You are always 1 client away. 1 call away. 1 successful offer away.

The marketing layer is dying. Good. What's left is harder but it's real. The customer who cries at your concert. The student whose parent thanks you ten years later. The phone call that turns into the contract that turns into the next ten years of your business.
Industry loses its product. Marketing eats itself. AI removes a layer.

The entrepreneur persists.

Because underneath all of it, the work was always there.

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@NYCMayor Nice. Last one wiped out my business. We don’t need infrastructure we need more social services and min wage increases. Nice job.

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@JDVance What about at the state level?

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

There’s a better way to work. One way I’ve gotten so many clients is from seeing what works and what doesn’t. Product leadership is all about vision & detail.

https://t.co/AXivzrZLnj

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@bryan_johnson 18 months sober

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@frontierism Psyched

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@elonmusk It already is

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

I installed clawbot and ok I’m hooked. Started about a month ago, full build all skills, automations with Slack. Wow.

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

Every founder I know gets stuck on three lies.

Lie #1:
“If I document the work, the work will behave.”

Lie #2:
“If I get the right tool, this will finally calm down.”

Lie #3:
“If I hire good people, I can step back.”

I would ❤️ if you checked out https://t.co/arHTndEwtM

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

@DavidOndrej1 Agreed. Tools need 1 place.

[Dan Powers @danielpowersjr]

Over the past 23 years, I have had the pleasure of working in many different communities at @realbraveinc

I’ve written a book to guide founders & CEO’s on building a co in 2026.

You can see it here and would love the support: https://t.co/arHTndF4jk