ethan

SaaS & consumer entrepreneur and investor / Podcast host of The Crest

[ethan @mrethansong]

Interesting thought about continuous improvement. I do think there are true instances of disruption but continuous improvements still tends to be underrated.

[Overlap: Business & Tech @Overlap_Tech]

Sequoia's Alfred Lin: Why 1% Compounding Beats a 10x Idea

"I hear founders talk all the time about how they only want 10X ideas because those are the things that move the needle.

And it turns out that just simply compounding 1% every single day moves the needle even more."

@Alfred_Lin talking with @shaneparrish on @farnamstreet's The Knowledge Project

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

If you’ve been following vibe-coded games over the last month (and have tried making one yourself), it should be abundantly obvious that we are very close to someone building a “creation” ecosystem—or App Store—where anyone can be a game developer.

And success of the creators within this future ecosystem will be determined by pure merit of their concepts, not technical execution.

The only gap that needs to be closed for this ecosystem to exist is abstracting away the remaining pieces that are too complicated for the layman: authentication, server networking, and deployment.

Once that is achieved, the only thing left for a creator to do is dream up their concept and click publish.

And suddenly, we will have millions of people making 3D online games with graphics comparable to N64.

[ethan @mrethansong]

When it comes to brand creation, the long and steady route may be the best way to achieve iconic status.

I was listening to the latest episode of @AcquiredFM which covered the history of @ROLEX over the week-end.

It hit me that when it comes to brand building, sometimes the best move is no move at all—resisting the urge to evolve with trends or chase shifting consumer preferences.

Instead, the product itself takes on the stories that have happened throughout its history, and as its owner, you become part of that legacy.

This may not apply to technology where a new entrant could take it all... but in consumer... sometimes, the best choice is to do nothing and let time work its magic.

[ethan @mrethansong]

In these uncertain times, all you can do as an individual and leader is to keep pushing hard in the ways that are under your control.

Say what you have to say. Join all the webinars and groups you need to. Post what you have to post.

And then, get back to work. Don't get distracted by the noise.

[ethan @mrethansong]

@awilkinson Funny thing we worked on this prior to ChatGPT at Frank And Oak where we'd match customers to specific looks and then score incoming products to match their stye and fit...

[ethan @mrethansong]

Congrats! Excited to see the progress at @NumeralTax

[Sam Ross @SpamRoss]

Excited to share that Numeral has raised an $18M Series A led by Benchmark!

We started @NumeralTax two years ago to solve the nightmare that is sales tax for growing ecommerce brands. Simply put – sales tax was the last thing I wanted to think about when scaling my brands.

There is a ton of work left, but it is worth reflecting on how far we’ve come in the last 24 months:

- Grown the team to 38 people 👥
- Raised over $22M+ in funding 💰
- Opened our new office in San Francisco 🌉
- Increased ARR by 3x+ in ‘24 📈
- Trusted by 1,000+ businesses, including many of my favorites like Ridge, Graza, and Immi 💞

And now, with this fundraising, we are announcing that we support SaaS businesses, too! As more and more jurisdictions look to tax software sales, Numeral is ready with all of the integrations you’d expect.

Numeral is the platform for sales tax. From rates to registrations and everything in between – we put sales tax on autopilot for ecommerce and SaaS brands.

Thank you to all of our customers who’ve trusted us thus far and to our amazing team (we’re hiring)!

And a special thank you to the wonderful investors supporting our mission: @benchmark, @chetanp, @ycombinator, @gustaf, @uncorkcap, @susanwliu, @FundersClub, Alex Mittal, @ShaanVP, @lennysan, @moizali, @mrsharma, @ringmybeller, @khency6, Adam Turner, @maariabajwa, and so many others.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Attended the first edition of the Rilla Masters which brought together hundreds of the top contractors in North America - to talk about sales coaching and business growth.

The home services industry has been booming since the pandemic with a significant surge in demand but also innovation.

Private equity's entry into the space has undeniably raised the stakes as well. Quite inspiring to see.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Likely, the best place to build generational wealth in 2025 is...
Not in SaaS
Not in DTC
Not in Agencies
Not even in AI...

But in the trades.

There has been a significant growing trend of private equity firms investing in skilled-trade businesses, particularly plumbing, heating, and air conditioning companies.

Since 2022, nearly 800 such companies have been acquired, transforming the home services industry.

I love under the radar transformations that are reshaping not just industries but also our lives as consumers.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Excited about this one

[Acquired Podcast @AcquiredFM]

In your podcast player now!

[ethan @mrethansong]

great take

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

Once you make 8 figures, you shouldn’t waste the rest of your life trying to get incrementally higher—like doing a b2b saas startup.

Instead, you should be thinking of ways to piss off millions of people on the internet each day by launching controversial app concepts, for pure love of the game.

[NickMowbray @NMowbray23]

Management is about dealing with daily complexity - leadership is about creating simplicity.

NZ needs to simplify its core Gov framework first - make it simple and streamlined.

Then we can focus on being the best country in the world in those core areas.

Everything else flows from there.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Big fan of perplexity and how they are carving out their own path.

[ethan @mrethansong]

From $1 a day to $2B in revenue with no outside funding is crazy. I learnt about @NMowbray23 's story in a recent episode of @myfirstmilpod and it's well worth the listen especially if you are building a physical goods company.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Seeking a driven Prompt Engineer to join the agentic revolution!

Curiosity and fast learner are by far the most important criteria.

Otherwise...
- Experience in developing GenAI and LLM applications.
- Experience interacting with GPT-4o or other foundational models (Claude, Gemini, LLama, etc.)
- Understanding of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning concepts.
- Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages for AI model interaction.
- Any education in Comp Sci, ML, Data Science is nice to have but not required.

I don't care if you've played with prompt engineering at a company or on your own—what matters is the time committed.

Flexibility on full-time or contract. Remote but based in Canada.

Hit me up in DM if you are serious.

[Perplexity @perplexity_ai]

Perplexity Deep Research surpasses leading models in performance—scoring 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark.

[ethan @mrethansong]

I remember when companies used to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research papers from Gartner or Forrester...

Never again

[Perplexity @perplexity_ai]

Introducing Deep Research on Perplexity.

Deep Research lets you generate in-depth research reports on any topic.

Available to everyone for free—up to 5 queries per day for non-subscribers and 500 queries per day for Pro users.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Great resource if you're ever looking for standard legal docs like privacy policies, service agreements, etc. https://t.co/5pgZq8XsSk

[ethan @mrethansong]

New colorways of Norda 001 and 002 are dropping tomorrow! Don't sleep on this one.

[ethan @mrethansong]

And to follow-up on my previous post...

Verticalized agents = AI solving a specific business problem

It's ultimately the answer as to why AI will disrupt every industry.

Whether it's crypto or AI, new technologies begin by sparking widespread optimism—almost like magic.

But they change the world when they start solving real, often unsexy, business problems. Like Uber did with hailing taxis.

Business owners or companies rarely need new technology. They need concrete immediate solutions to their actual problems.

For customer X in vertical Y...

Are you helping them to save money or make money?

Are you speaking directly to their specific needs?

How fast can you demonstrate tangible benefits?

Does your solution neatly integrate in their workflow?

Don't be afraid to embarrassed by how narrow your answers are.

[ethan @mrethansong]

Love this. Absolutely in agreement that ultimately it's not about the technology but the job to be done.

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

"Verticalized agents" is a bit of a meme among startups right now—but rightly so: Over the last year, we indexed too far into AI being a Swiss army knife—jack of all trades and master of none.

You simply cannot go wrong building something obsessively focused around a problem. And this is not simply because you will deliver value more precisely—but because the world is still behind in realizing what AI can do and your marketing message needs to spoonfed them: "DM and pitch creators on TikTok", "create HTML animations with speech", etc.

AI or not, my rule of thumb has always been that Version 1.0 of any product should be so verticalized that:
1) when a target user lands on the page, their only reaction is "Well, shit. This was made for me. I better sign up."
2) when you tell your friends & family what you're working on, it is so narrowly focused that you feel embarrassed