David Gerhart

Co-Founder @ Metronome Labs | Partner @ Inbound Pursuit | Tweets about AI and Growth Marketing | Golf enthusiast | Philly sports optimist | @penn_state alum

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

I spent the last 3 years running growth at a $30M venture-backed music startup.

Seed to Series A. 0 to 1,600 subscribers. $0 to $4M+ ARR.

The team stayed lean the whole way. But when Claude Code became a thing, we reached a new level of output. AI started doing the work of the 5 people we never had to hire.

The unlock wasn't one magic tool. It was treating AI as headcount: every repetitive workflow from reporting, ad copy, analytics, to influencer outreach got automated or died. People only did what only people can do.

Here's what surprised me: the growth playbook we ran is needed MORE outside of tech. The property manager, the roofing company, the financial advisory firm down the street? Nobody's looking at their workflows.

Here's what these businesses need👇

A Fractional Head of AI. You might have fractional CMOs, fractional CFOs, but no one is there from the jump on how to turn a company into an AI forward company. Someone to plug into the business, finding the 2–3 workflows worth automating, ignoring the 90% that's hype, and building when it's worth building. This knowledge is critical, and only comes from real operators who have done it before (likely without AI).

This account is three things: how we run our own agency on AI, real client wins with real numbers, and the thinking behind the company.

My partner @ChrisMcFalls7 posts the builder's view, what he’s delivering for clients and why. You should def follow us both.

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@stevehunsaker1 Beaut of a pup there Steve

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@unboxedking There’s nothing I love more than proximity mogging a distance maxer

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@stevehunsaker1 It is very good

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@gaetano_nyc Agree and shouldn’t be unpopular. We aim for 24 hours for any reasonable question. If unreasonable, we’ll still reply within that time and say “looking into it”.

Half the battle is just simply showing up

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

I run an AI services company. So obviously I'd tell you the market is flooded with unqualified AI consultants. Discount my opinion if you want.

But here's a tell you can verify yourself in 90 seconds, no trust in me required: look at what they did before 2026.

Not their AI work... their pre-AI work. Because AI implementation is a two-layer skill.

The top layer is tools, and tbh the tools have gotten easy.

The foundational layer is understanding how businesses actually run, how work flows through teams, where data lives, why processes exist, and what happens organizationally when you change them.

That layer takes reps, and it can only be built inside real companies.

If someone's entire professional history in their niche starts in 2026, they have the top layer only (if that!). Which means your business becomes their foundational-layer education. You'll pay tuition for their learning curve, and worse, you won't know which mistakes were tuition until later.

My co-founder's foundation: years rebuilding sales, data, and finance operations inside a major collectibles auction house (so major it was on Netflix).

Mine: three years scaling a consumer-tech startup's revenue from zero to $4M+ ARR. Pre-seed to series A. An idea to a $35 million dollar valuation.

We made the expensive mistakes on our own watch, before anyone paid us to avoid them.

LinkedIn and X are free. Before you hire an "AI guy", please take the 90 seconds to prove this to yourself.

If the story starts in 2026, unfortunately you're simply just paying someone's tuition.

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@RobPerry_ Good to see you on here Rob. Sometimes the algorithm works! Small world 😂

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@ashvinmelwani My chief of staff agent has an email with my company and has view access to GA4. Can basically ask him anything. Super simple, $8/month for the seat in the Google Workspace I think.

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@mattepstein Build

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@gaetano_nyc Many such cases

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

Very few business owners or execs should be figuring out AI for their business themselves.

AI is moving too fast to learn on the side. You'll spend a weeks testing tools and prompting Claude/ChatGPT at 11pm while your competitor hired someone whose whole job is finding what's worth automating.

You run the business. Let someone else make it AI-forward.

One HOA management company stopped trying to figure it out and handed it to us. Their director of accounting got two weeks a month back within 23 days of us starting our work.

The owner built the business. He didn't have to become an AI expert. That's our job.

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@lowfatbatman @DrewVento I can see this opinion holding up, I’d say personal preference on the difference between the two but I won’t argue it

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@BrianFOConnor Hey Brian, think we’re a great fit here. Happy to hop on and get introduced. Partner is ex-Deloitte also with a finance background! I’m an ex CMO and ex-PwC.

We partnered together to run the agency, great one two punch of skill sets for this.

Can I shoot you a DM?

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@AlfieJCarter AGENTS

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@AlfieJCarter CLAUDE

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@sam_allsopp_ Sent you a DM 👍

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@jspujji UGC

[David Gerhart @davidjgerhart]

@borjafat Skill