Jean-Michel Lemieux

Full time apprentice human. Building at @SpellbookLegal

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

Joined a new AI-native company this week and it’s kind of wild how different it feels already.

The laptop arrived, I logged in, and an agent basically took over from there. It set up my dev env, pulled repos, fixed dependency issues, got permissions approved, pointed me at the backlog, linked the architecture docs, and surfaced the Slack debates I actually needed to read before touching production.

When I needed context on something, I asked the agent and it found the exact thread from months ago explaining why a decision was made, who owned it, the related Linear issues, and the PRs connected to it.

I’ve only been here 3 days but it honestly feels like I’ve worked here for a year because the usual friction and scavenger hunt for context just isn’t there anymore.

We should probably stop calling this “onboarding” and rename it to “mounting” because this feels a lot more like mounting a distributed filesystem called “institutional memory” than slowly getting drip-fed context over 6 months.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@kamilrextin @dessaigne It’s in highlights list now 🤣

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

So many. Today, two different streams one was naming of a new feature as some idea just popped into my head… had it review our previous proposal, gen a press release and new landing page. Had it compare and evaluate proposals. The other was an idea on how to finish this feature I’ve been working on, specifically how to test it as it requires real customer data. Send this via stilla so a coding agent to prototype and I’ll pick both these up tomorrow.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

My best ideas happen during workouts or Sunday morning long bike rides. I used to have to think hard to remember, then jot down a quick reminder and email myself a "don't forget note" then pick it up on Monday morning.

Now I talk to Siri via air pods to email @stillaai with the framework of the idea. The email references a few skills I've built: brainstorm, challenge, narrow, analyze, present options.

While I'm still riding, agents are arguing with the idea, finding flaws, exploring alternatives, building examples, mocking things up, and drafting press releases. I always ask for a polished HTML report to review.

The weird part isn't that AI can write code. That was cute. The weird part is that random thoughts now have a CI/CD pipeline.

Living in the future is still the best feeling of my entire career.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@Deepak_AvairAI @stillaai It's a lot more than writing them down. Ideas die in the gap between having them and doing some reps on them to realize they sucked or you were onto something. You know the saying "1% thinking, and 99% doing". Now the AI can help you with the hard part.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@AdamWhitcroft @stillaai Stilla supports email as a channel. It has a dedicated email and will inject and process.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@proxy_vector @stillaai Well said

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@AdamWhitcroft @stillaai Here’s how you can setup:
- create email with name easy to pronounce in your contacts
- ask Siri to email, subject:, then body
- she will review and you can speak “send”

That works well for me complete hands free

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@siavashg @scottastevenson @stillaai Interesting, try putting your phone into locked mode (simulate being in my bike shirt pocket) and voice to open stilla and transcribe? I wasn’t to get that working. The email flows was more reliable.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@aestheticsguyy

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

There are two types of people in the world. Those who make fun of your NB. And those who borrow yours after trying them on.

[Adil Mania. @adilmania]

New Balance 992 - Steve Jobs Edition.

feels good to walk in the GOAT shoes.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@SnkrsStock Agentic commerce?

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@Ekixkingz1 @SuperSwipe Apparently I stopped showing up and the bots unionized.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@SuperSwipe @Shopify 😢

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@Baconbrix Learned so much from you!

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@scottastevenson Are you sub tweeting me?!

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@siavashg @stillaai tell the truth, stilla is the best trash talker in our channels!

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

One of the underrated side-effects of having so many ex-colleagues go build great companies is that when you use their products, you just invite them into your Slack and keep hanging out.

Way less awkward than running into your ex at a grocery store. @stillaai

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

kinda, what I mean is that contracts are like byte code for agreements. The real collaboration with lawyers should be in a document called "business outcomes and risks" and in plain english. For each deal, we created this template so that we could ensure that the right level of risk was taken, the right balance of sticks/carrots, and accelerated the entire deal flow. putting that process in place is where I spent the time, so that the entire team could go faster.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

Very stoked about my next adventure. I’ve joined Spellbook, but not as CTO.

I’m joining as an Executive IC. It probably means different things to different people. It means I'm here to build and be hands on in every part of the company.

I've invested and been advising and getting to know @scottastevenson and the team for more than a year. At some point it became obvious the most useful thing I could do was stop talking about ideas and go work with the team.

With AI making code cheap to copy, what's going to be hard to copy is the shape of a company. How a team learns, decides, and ships. That's what I want to work on. It's what I've spent the last three decades learning to do.

Why Spellbook? The world has entered into one of the largest investment cycles in decades. Trillions of dollars are being deployed into energy, AI, manufacturing, transportation and the modernization of critical global systems. Despite this, progress still moves at the speed of contracts. Spellbook’s mission is to modernize the $1 trillion transactional legal market so the contract system can keep pace with the global economy.

At the same time, every contract ever signed is becoming searchable, comparable, and weaponizable by counterparties, regulators, and plaintiffs' lawyers. You will be attacked.

We're hiring. Slight bias toward Canada, but remote-friendly for great talent.
DM me.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@CarlCasis

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

People keep saying “welcome back” today after the Spellbook announcement. I keep correcting them. This last 5 years were probably the hardest building years of my career.

Post-Shopify I simply went heads down. Built products. Shipped a new product from nothing, new company, and a boat. Rebuilt my technical instincts from scratch. Learned AI by using it 12 hours a day instead of talking about it on panels.

I wasn't gone, I was in the gym.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

@fnthawar 😆