Jonathan Becker

Founder at I build incredible marketing campaigns and invest in wonderful companies at

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

This is the the quote I've been citing a lot recently.

[Kash @KashRamki]

Fun fact about $NUAI:

Powered land today trades at $300k-$500k/acre.

TCDC = 438 acres
New Mexico site = 3,500 acres

That’s $1.2bn to $2bn in land value alone!

NUAI’s market cap today = $0.35bn.

You can bet there’s a ton more value
once this land is developed into a DC. Just ask $IREN.

What do you think $NUAI is worth?

(Hint: it’s not $0.35bn)

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

Dear baby Jesus

I don’t ask for much

Just grant me, in 2026, the calm and the nonchalance of this girl to face the fires of life

That would be enough for me 🔥

[Matt Varughese @mattvaru]

One of the best decisions I ever made at 8020 was hiring an operational business partner (in my case, our COO, Joanie.)

On top of 8020 being more stable + healthy of a business than ever before, it's nice to just have someone you can vent to to "share the load."

I ran the company for 3 years solo at the Partner level and looking back, I honestly don't know how I did that.

Agencies can be extremely difficult businesses that consume you, and doing it solo is not for the faint of heart.

If you run an agency and feel similarly today, consider that for your next hire if you can swing it. It made all the difference for me.

[Kent @KentEkasak]

$IREN — Should I Buy or Should I Sell?

Yes — that green arrow marks the point when I first started my $IREN position at around $10.

Why then?

I’ve been following and trading $IREN since 2024, but back then the company kept diluting shares, so I didn’t see much reward then.

Things changed when they announced a new debt financing structure in mid June 2025, signaling the beginning of “much less dilution.” That’s when I believed the share price would start reflecting the business fundamentals, even though AI-related revenue was still very minimal — more of a promise than reality.

So, I accumulated shares heavily between $10 and $15, and simply waited for business progress to catch up.

During the next 4-5 months, the stock dropped 20–30% three times, and every time, I bought the dip. My average cost is now ~$15.

Out of the 20–30 stocks I’ve bought and sold in the past 12 months, $IREN is the only one I haven’t sold a single share of.

.

Before the Microsoft deal, I still considered $IREN a very high-risk investment. Despite its strong operational record in Bitcoin mining and a huge power development pipeline, it was uncertain whether they could make it to the “big leagues” — building CSPs for hyperscalers.

Then this week came the breakthrough — signing a $9.6 billion deal with Microsoft and Dell.

For me, this first deal wasn’t about maximizing profit, because $IREN had never built an AI data center of this scale before. Instead, it was about earning a “VISA” to enter much larger opportunities — strategically gaining credibility and access to the AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Even though $IREN share price is now in the $70s, I believe the risk is actually much lower than when it was trading in the $30–60 range. In terms of risk-adjusted reward, I think $IREN is a much better deal today than last week.

.

In "$IREN 2.0" era, I plan to accumulate more.

Why?

Next year, if they deliver their CSPs promise on time, they’ll operate ~300MW across their British Columbia and Childress sites, which could generate around US$2.5 billion in AI-related revenue.

And that’s just 10% of their total power pipeline, targeted to be energized by 2027.

So, in the best-case scenario, their 3–4 year revenue potential could reach $20–25 billion — a 10x increase.

.

But when will I consider selling?

I don’t have a fixed price target — it depends on how the AI supercycle evolves.

There are estimates that the U.S. will face a power shortage of at least 5GW next year, with demand currently outstripping supply by at least 3:1. If this continues for the next 2–3 years, IREN will likely sell out its entire 3GW power capacity.

Even if they achieve only 50% of that target, generating around $10 billion in revenue in the next 2-3 years, and even assuming a 50% increase in share count to ~400 million shares, the upside is still significant.

Depending on market multiples — currently, many new cloud and infrastructure companies trade at around 15-20x price-to-sales — but even using a conservatively half of that numbers, or 7–10x, that implies a market cap of $70 - $100 billion, or a stock price between $175–$250.

If they achieve 100%, the potential could double.

So as long as power demand outstrips supply and the AI cycle continues, I’ll hold and add more — subject to the company’s execution and delivery of what they’ve promised.

Don’t set a roof on a rocket that’s built to reach the moon. 🚀

[Jonathan Becker @jzbecker]

Proud of the Thrive Digital team for winning Meta's Reels Campaign of the Year award. Hundreds of thousands of campaigns are run annually across Meta, so we're excited to see our team's work, and its impact on our client, recognized as best in class!

https://t.co/HGQ9ijFx7c

[Kash @KashRamki]

Wrapping up a successful two day road trip across West Texas. The energy was palpable. Maximum ingenuity and perseverance on full display.

It takes tremendous courage and sacrifice to put your reputation on the line to raise millions of dollar, move out to the middle of the desert and try to strike it big. Yet people are moving out here in droves, living in trailers, warehouses and other forms of makeshift housing. In many cases, they were doing this several years ago, before AI/HPC became a thing. Tremendous respect for those thought leaders / renegades! It’s all paying off.

A couple of quick observations on my $IREN SW1 site drive-by, where I had the opportunity to travel the perimeter of SW1 and assess progress:

1) main utility substation upgrades just by the site were in full swing. Crews were on site working on the expansion.

2) plenty of preparatory earth works underway and while we arrived on what I think was a slower day, I got the sense there was a lot of planning underway, as well.

3) security for the site was excellent!

All this leads me to believe that management and site crews are progressing really well towards energization in April 2026. In my experience, this level of activity and planning suggests there is a lot more than just interconnection work taking place.

My speculation (NFA):

1) The next few announcements will pack a real punch. DC build scale and timelines perhaps?

2) Use cases: Given the scale of the site, I suspect it will all be HPC. No BTC.

3) Customer announcements: I wouldn’t hold my breathe for one, only because they have been quiet about that in the past. That said, SW1 is different. At this moment in time, when SW1 has never been more attractive, it is in the best interest of a single large counterparty to swoop in and lock down the whole site for a build-to-suit project with the industry leading team. All this to say, in the current environment where every HPC player is announcing large scale deals, I would not rule out a contract announcement entirely. And there was that very casual mention of AWS(!) on Dan’s last interview.

Lastly, while I am excited about the future of IREN, I often have to contain my excitement and remind myself that value creation takes time. People who think long term, like the IREN mgmt team, will move quick only when needed, but will otherwise move in a steadfast and methodical way. The stock price, on the other hand) has investors feeling euphoric and it is best to forget stock price and focus on cash flow. The spigot will open only as value is delivered. That said, the rerating is warranted, whether now or later.

Buy. Hold. Prosper. (NFA)

[Rajiv Khaneja @rajivkhaneja]

The Perfect Storm: An Investing Lesson

Part 1: Seeing the Opportunity

In early 2020, as COVID-19 lockdowns were reshaping our world, I noticed something that others seemed to miss. While the market was in panic mode, I saw a perfect storm brewing for UPS—not a disaster, but an extraordinary opportunity.

Three crucial factors caught my attention:
First, oil prices had plummeted to unprecedented levels, even going negative briefly. For a company like UPS, where fuel represents a significant operating cost, this was a massive tailwind that would boost their margins considerably.

Second, with millions suddenly confined to their homes, e-commerce was the only shopping option for many. Every necessity, whim, and distraction would arrive in those familiar brown trucks. Demand for package delivery would skyrocket overnight.

Third—and this was my edge—I realized that approximately one-third of all air freight typically travels in the cargo holds of passenger planes. With global air travel grinding to a halt and planes grounded worldwide, a massive amount of shipping capacity had suddenly vanished from the market.

The equation was irresistible: diminished capacity + increased demand + lower input costs = a potential windfall for UPS.

[☔🔥☔ @kirbywinfield]

a little local fame for kate 😍

[blue @bluewmist]

I'm 37. Instead of regretting that I can't wake up age 18 again, I pretend to myself that I'm 90 and I've woken up age 37 again, and that I get to magically, wonderfully have the next 50 years again.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

150 year old wisteria in Japan

📸godive2000

[Jonathan Becker @jzbecker]

@awilkinson 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

Great entrepreneurs aren't born, they are forged in the fire of Mount Doom.

Like a diamond, we are slowly crushed.

By overwhelming people problems.
Incentives misalignments.
Terrible business models.
Toxic employees.

This happens for decades, until one day, we reach our final form.

Our spidey sense becomes finely tuned and our mistakes become less disastrous.

But if you become even remotely complacent, you're in for a treat.

Every time you take a breath and think "ah, I've arrived!" reality will punch you in the face.

Your business will get disrupted.
The person you trusted to do a critical job will let you down.
You'll miss something in a contract that costs you millions.
Get sued by a patent troll.

This is why they pay us the big bucks.

After all, as my friend @jzbecker put it:

"Entrepreneurship is the art of getting fucked over, then getting back on the horse, over and over again, forever."

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

One of our small Shopify agencies just had a last minute cancellation on a big project and has an exceptional team sitting idle.

The same folks who did the original AeroPress website redesign when we bought it—super talented and have worked with a ton of great D2C brands.

Anyone have a cool project for them? Email [email protected] and she'll connect you :-)

[Nick Gray @nickgraynews]

Jamie is 22. She just moved to New York City.

She’s going on a date tonight. It is her first date of the season.

I want you to imagine what it is like to be in your 20s and new to Manhattan.

You live in a tiny apartment that you share with your best friend.

You walk 30 minutes to work each day and you love every bit of it.

You love the hustle, the bustle, the garbage, and the rats.

You meet new people constantly.

Every single day your world gets bigger.

And your career- your career seems limitless.

Life is good. You’re young. The city is big. And anything is possible.

~~

I left New York City four and a half years ago.

I loved it here. I made it here.

I made it, I really did.

I started my company, I sold my company, and I wrote my book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party in New York.

I couldn’t have done those things anywhere else.

But after 13 years I think I was over it.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I think the city had started to wear on me.

Lugging groceries up 4 flights of stairs. The constant sound of sirens. Garbage bags piled up on the sidewalks.

I left New York City but I was quickly replaced by Jamie and thousands of young people like her.

And so today I’m going to follow her around.

I want to see Manhattan through her eyes. And I want to remember what makes this the best city in America.

~~

We meet up at 8:30AM on the corner of Prince and Mott.

It is Friday morning and I’m going to walk with her to work.

Jamie always dreamed of living in New York.

"I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't thinking about moving here.”

She loves it so much.

We start to walk north.

She’s a morning person and the conversation comes easy.

“This is my first time ever experiencing fall. I grew up in Texas. My friends and I, when the leaves started changing colors here, we were all freaking out. It’s so beautiful! I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

I look up around me and it’s true. The changing leaves are beautiful. I forgot about that.

She works in fashion. So I guess she sees colors better than me.

When you live in New York City for a long time, you can spot the tourists from a mile away with one singular tell-

They’re the ones looking up. They’re looking up at the skyscrapers. Wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

I love the skyscrapers. But I stopped looking up after a few years. And then I missed the leaves.

They are beautiful. And we don’t have these colors in Texas.

~~

We stop at the next corner to visit her bodega.

There’s a guy named Taz who she knows behind the counter and he calls out her name when we walk inside like she’s been coming here for years, not just a few weeks.

“He’s remembered my name since day one!”

Taz makes her a breakfast sandwich that she will eat at her desk.

He plays music as Jamie waits for her order. They dance a beat, and then we keep walking north towards her office.

The air is crisp. It is a pure fall morning.

We pass a matcha place that she loves. And she points out a sushi market that sells plates for half-off after 8PM.

It’s a little neighborhood that has become her own in the few weeks since she landed.

~~

Jamie works in product development for a fashion brand that most women have heard of.

She creates tech packs and manages samples all day.

Tech packs are extremely detailed specification sheets for mass market clothing, like architectural drawings.

“Every piece of commercial clothing that anyone in the world wears comes from a tech pack.”

She points at my shirt.

“Like your shirt, this gray, the color of the threads, the types of buttons, and the pockets. It’s all in the file.”

She shows me a PDF of a tech pack on her phone for a new shirt that she made.

The file is 38 pages long. Every thread and button is meticulously detailed.

She explains the tech pack in detail and I can see that she loves her work.

I could never do this work. But I also wore the same blue t-shirt for a year after I left New York.

Some people love clothes and style and Jamie is one of those people.

And if you love fashion, it is New York or nowhere.

I ask Jamie if she’s happy and if she’s happy that she moved here.

She gets quiet and we walk in silence for a few blocks.

“Little me would be so proud that, like, I did it. I got my dream job. I made it.”

I remember that feeling. Standing in my first Brooklyn apartment after I had lugged home a futon from IKEA.

She’s so proud. I can feel it. Maybe her eyes are cold. Or maybe she’s tearing up now.

We turn left at the top of Union Square and walk through the farmers market to catch the train uptown.

I ride with her for a few stops to Midtown and I take her picture.

She has a bounce to her step as she goes off to work. Maybe it is because she has a date tonight. But that’s a story for another scroll.

~~

New York City attracts ambitious people.

You move here for your career but you get sucked into the sparkle.

You see the city with fresh eyes.

And I guess Jamie’s story isn’t unique. It’s a pattern of people that have probably come to New York City for a hundred years.

New blood. Fresh eyes.

The city renews itself, one dreamer at a time.

Anything is possible. And those leaves never change.

[Jonathan Becker @jzbecker]

I met @kirbywinfield a couple of months at a conference and was blown away by how thoughtful he was. Naturally, when he asked me to do an AMA this week for @ascend_vc, I jumped at the opportunity. Check out our AMA on Paid Acquisition tomorrow at 12 PDT https://t.co/jTaGVRhiHn

[Neal O'Grady @NealOGrady]

I respect this level of absurdity

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.

Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.

To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.

Much appreciated, @US_FDA!

[Rajiv Khaneja @rajivkhaneja]

Activity ≠ Productivity

Being busy doesn’t mean you’re creating value. Just because a startup spends $10M doesn’t make their code worth $10M. Don’t confuse activity with achievement.

Value is about results, not effort or expenditure.