Jon Wu

i write words for founders • dad to summer with @maggielove_ • did stuff at @yale @harvardhbs @baincapital @aztecnetwork @asylumventures

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

idk who needs to hear this but stop trying to get into film

just buy a fujifilm camera

it's cute to tote around a vintage nikon. it's not cute to spend $2 or $3 a shot when you're just getting into photography

get a fujifilm. it doesn't matter which one, if you like it you can upgrade later

x100
x-t5
x-t50

target $1,000 for camera + lens. sounds like a lot but that's only 300 shots on a film camera. 10 rolls.

add a few film simulation recipes. start with "Reggie's Portra" (google it). follow the steps. punch it into the camera.

set it to auto and just blast away. you'll see immediately that it's vastly superior to the iPhone camera

fujis are especially good for people photos, the color rendering on skin is magical

your wife will especially appreciate this purchase. this is an approved hobby

good luck

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@13yearoldvc appreciate the candid view

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@kodjima33 She’s an icon

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@maybeltr many such cases

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@hazel0184 appreesh

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

if you're a community-driven business

i.e. your GTM motion depends on people sharing outputs from your product

you need to be PUMPING use-case testimonials from your power users

1. capture e-mails at signup
2. enrich with Clay
3. feed to Claude and categorize by credibility according to a scorecard you determine (most of the time this is just title + company, but it could be e.g. social media followers for some products)
4. AS THE FOUNDER, hand-message the user and request an interview. if your product data shows they are a power user / superfan, this should have an insanely high close rate
5. ask to record the interview, then simply ask about the biggest wins and insights they've had using the product
6. ask for a headshot and permission to publish quotes
7. do 1 of these a week, every week

in a many-to-many business, the user is not learning from you, they are learning *from other users,* so the social proof isn't "logos," it's use-cases.

and a lot more businesses than you'd think are community-driven. AI coding tools, imagegen, even many (most) enterprise pro tools

tl;dr
- who are the legit-ass people using your product
- what amazing things are they doing with it

go forth

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@alecvxyz Congrats on the launch! Framework!

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@babylonlabs_io @aave congrats team!

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@victoriazmei yes accountability is also key!

jobs said marketing is about values

no better way to communicate values than posting what they are all the time

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@packyM lfg

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@quinnslcm this looks sick -- where is this

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@victoriazmei founder led content creates affinity

and we want to buy from people we like

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@Mike_nike7 doesn't have to be the case imo

granola just needs to make its case

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

"AI notepad" is a functional, commodity position which undersells the enduring magic of granola

when i start a new meeting nowadays, i have multiple apps blitzing my screen to record me:

> attio pops up and says "i'll enrich your CRM entries"
> notion and gemini say "you already work here, keep your context here too"

and granola says, "and uh, i'm here too!"

over time, the granola has been reduced to my preferred backup

because--on functional grounds--it *is* nicer to keep my context where it already lives, in my CRM or knowledge management tools!

so by functional benefit, attio is my CRM that happens to record, and granola is my backup.

and i'm happy to pay whatever i pay for granola but no more, because it's cheap context insurance

and that not only erodes the monolithicness of granola's context but its ~grandeur~ as an idea

--

granola at its best is an opinion on *how work should be done in the age of AI*

@lee94josh has convinced me granola should be a dominant cultural brand

because granola is a counterposition to undifferentiated surveillance-maxxing context aggregation

it's an objection to the cold logic that our role on this earth is creating structured inputs for AI agents

instead, granola is a way to stay in touch with our intuition and intelligence. note-taking is thoughtful, reflective, and human--

which is the only way you will actually compete anyway!

every other recorder screams:

"give me what's in your fucking head already so i can fire you and feed your lifeless context into the gaping maw of an all-knowing machine intelligence!!"

so as everyone furiously churns the whitewater of agentic workflows, granola says:

what if meetings were unintrusive? intentional. thoughtful. present.

and what if as a result, you were *more* productive, not less?

--

so "AI notepad" is...fine i guess. sometimes i take notes in granola! that *is* a functional differentiation.

but granola is in competition with far stronger context systems. no matter how good granola's integrations, it doesn't have the right to suggest CRM edits or new documents, or e-mail drafts.

i don't trust it to do so, because it's not attio. it's not notion. it's not gmail.

so granola can compete on functions and be my backup call recorder, or--

it can represent a way of working that makes you happier, more engaged, and ultimately more productive.

[Zach Moskow @zachmoskow]

Spotted on the bus stops of New York City

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

AI psychosis is just model collapse from post-training on synthetic data

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@spenciefy a wonderful thing to read in the morning—thanks for sharing

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@joannejang go long the alternative

kind of how long SaaS is ~short AI

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@JoinPond awesome work -- congrats guys

[Adam Aaronson @aaaronson]

Bro last night was a papal encyclical

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

you don't have to know more than everyone else

you just have to know more than your customer

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The real AI whitepill is: There will always be a market for translating what the 200 IQ people and agents make down to everyone else

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@yitong 1000% agree

AI can be a thought partner and find angles you didn't discover, but it can't express you

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

@hot_town @DanielleBFranz Really stunning

I suspect you have to put in some time editing to get results like this