Rick

Coffee, culture, and art

[Santosh @santoshstack]

Every solo founder knows the temptation to rebuild something that already works.

The code could be cleaner.
The interface could be prettier.
The architecture could be better.

Meanwhile, potential customers are still waiting for you to explain why they should care about the product.

Technical improvements matter, but only when they serve a real business objective.

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

A jungle tequila bar and standup comedy for a work event is crazy lmao this sounds fire

[meg hildreth @MegHildreth]

thanks to @manufact for letting me throw epic parties with the @brex card

to celebrate day one of agntcon + mcpcon, we threw a standup comedy show in a jungle tequila bar last night

and i'm not even biased, it was the best 'corporate' event i've ever been to.

we're just over here building mcp servers & having a great time

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

I fw founders talking to customers more than sitting around tweaking a pitch deck all damn day

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Man really got the full startup experience in one decade

[Tyler Denk 🐝 @denk_tweets]

lots of new people here, so allow me to reintroduce myself:

in 2013, I tried to build a music app and failed miserably

in 2014, I taught myself how to code & launched VentureStorm as a student

in 2015, I drove to hackathons across the country and slept on classroom floors

in 2016, VentureStorm failed. I graduated with $120k of debt and moved into my parents' basement

in 2017, I joined Morning Brew as the second employee

in 2018, Morning Brew surpassed 1M subscribers where I was leading product and growth

in 2020, Morning Brew was acquired for $75M. I left to join YouTube. I started building @beehiiv on nights and weekends

in 2021, 40+ investors rejected us. I finally closed a $2.6M seed round and quit my job at YouTube

in 2022, we spent 6 months grinding before finally hitting $10k MRR. we also tragically lost our cofounder/CTO Andrew Platkin (RIP buddy love you)

in 2023, we raised a $12.5M Series A in just 7 days and scaled the team to 40 people

in 2024, we hit $10M ARR and raised a $33M Series B led by NEA. we also acquired Typedream

in 2025, we laid off a third of the growth team, cut spending by 90%, and shifted the focus of the company

this year, we’re on pace for nearly $50M in revenue. we launched podcasts, webinars, community, and the MCP.

some of our biggest product bets are still ahead of us, scheduled to launch later this quarter :)

It’s full steam ahead, baby, and I can’t wait to see what our users build on @beehiiv next

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

I be looking at those threads like damn did I miss a whole class or something

[Mississippi Blue @mississippibIue]

When I’m scrolling through ACOTAR stan twitter as an English speaker and the translation button isn’t working

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Mr Krabs definitely charging $9 for that nostalgia too

[Eugene Krabs @MinisterKrabs2]

Mountain Dew Code Red now at the Krusty Krab! Argagagagaga

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Small business owners , how y'all keep track of orders coming through DMs and your site at the same time ?

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

@Jackoffical09 Dune got that quiet menacing shit g

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

A lot of folks love the idea of being a founder until it's time to actually do founder shit lmao

[Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki]

Ten years from now some founders will wish they had spent less time researching startup ideas and more time actually trying them.

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

AI agents as your team sounds cool until they all start making shit up at once

[Ajax @ajaxships]

Most startups don’t die from bad product or no market.

They die from co-founder problems: equity fights, mismatched effort, and trust breaking under pressure.

Now people have AI agents as their team, so going solo is finally a realistic alternative.

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Mac and cheese got people ready to defend the kitchen with their life

[Daidouji @DachiDouji]

I AM MAKING FUCKING MAC AND CHEESE HERE

*GUN RACK*

AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

I rather get a meme with zero context than a paragraph explaining why it's funny lmao

[Sundar Vijay @ItsSundarVJ]

Thalaivar’s stand-up comedy moments 😂🔥 Nobody can match his humour, timing, and natural swag! 👑

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Black coffee got you looking like you just remembered something terrible

[The Headless Hudson @GuzzleGuinness]

Trying to stop this video from playing in my head when I drink black coffee

[VibeArena @VibeArena_X]

A business can survive a bad month. It struggles when the owner refuses to learn from the bad month.

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Lmaoo she said it with her whole chest too

[Gina Milan @ginamilan_]

Dr. Oz: “Ma’am, this is fraud.”

Business owner: “I know, sir.”

Oof. 💀😂

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

@HarvardBiz the growth-at-all-costs crowd gotta be sweating rn

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

How y'all be finding the original video before everybody starts using it as a reaction

[Wilson Wilson @euboid]

It only took ~5 years but I finally met my cofounder @helloitsolly!

Almost 5 years ago I started my first company, Senja.

After building it in public for a while, Olly slipped into my DMs and asked if I wanted to build together.

I thought, sure, why not?

3.5 years later and we grew the business to 2K+ customers and $850K ARR before I left to start @ferndeskhq

He's just as ridiculous IRL 🤣

Also ft. @nico_jeannen

[Rick @rickysoreilly]

Howie folded so fast lmaoo you can see the regret hit immediately

[Pulcy @Pulcys]

Howie Mandel turned bright red and started whispering to his daughter to change the topic after Clavicular called him out for asking if his mom is hot 😬

“Uhhh ask a question please, please”