Sam Shapiro

designing and manufacturing high-tech campervans, mobile command centers, healthcare vehicles and more @groundedevs 🚐 🇺🇸 prev software engineering @spacex 🚀

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

I wanted a @Starlink but couldn't get one so I took a senior software eng role @SpaceX to get one

I wanted an EV camper van to live in but there were none so I built the first one

Grounded EVs started between obsession and inconvenience

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

We recently relaunched the @groundedevs marketing website, cancelling Wix, and rebuilding the prior Wix site from scratch in about 2 days using Claude Code, but that isn't the story here.

Neither is the story that with Claude Code, we made SIGNIFICANT improvements over what the prior Wix site had been, fixing Wix bugs, adding beautiful animations not possible with Wix, rebuilding flat infographics from scratch using pure HTML + CSS so that they actually get picked up by SEO bots, and more.

None of that is the story, nor the point of rebuilding the site.

The story, and the point of rebuilding the site is twofold:

1. I had Claude Code deploy marketing pixels on the site in a granular way that would have been impossible to do with Wix. Then, I had Claude design and deploy a hyper-optimized performance marketing campaign on Google and Facebook ad networks, using images and copy from our website with precision optimization of user outcomes tied directly back to the pixels Claude deployed.

Now, on a daily basis, Claude is able to iterate in a closed-loop system that it fully manages: analyze the performance of the campaigns, adjust the ads, and directly change the website dynamically.

2. We now have a website, which, from a marketing perspective, can be iterated on strictly from natural language, instead of fighting against a 20-year old company's drag-and-drop, constraining UI.

But I guess that all still buries the lead. The real story is that we cancelled our subscriptions to Wix, ClickUp, JIRA/Atlassian, MES manufacturing software, analytics software, NX's managed cloud environment... and rebuilt them all from scratch into a unified "Grounded OS" that powers our:

- Vehicle production schedules
- Inventory management
- Work orders for technicians
- Warranty claim management
- BOM cost tracking
- Grounded-managed cloud Teamcenter/NX environment with virtual CAD workstations
- Sales team conference schedule
- Marketing website, content, SEO and real-time + aggregated analytics
- Sales task & product/software management
- Performance marketing campaigns

I've read tweets from people joking about how "Our $200K software engineer spent a month rebuilding our $20/month SaaS software and now spends 10 hours per week maintaining it".

I reserve the right to decide that everything I described above is a terrible idea and certainly not worth a CEO's time... but it seems like building extremely customized tools precision-targeted to Grounded's business and use cases is benefitting us in an outsized way.

Also, as crazy as this sounds, I think the Foundation Models are still being under-valued.

There are so many software companies and tools popping up that offer AI-powered x,y,z, but so far, in 9 of 10 cases I've come across, doing it yourself with the Foundation Models results in more granular control and customization, leading to more simplicity and better outcomes.

Plus, SaaS tool fatigue is real, and it's pretty great to have everything unified.

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

i saw a fleet operator running a mobile clinic today.
no solar. no onboard battery. no remote monitoring.
just a diesel generator rattling in the back.
like a psychopath.

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

This is @claudeai's funniest and most toxic personality trait

"I can't get it working locally. Must be an emulator issue. Want to skip local testing and just deploy to prod?"

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

@GeoffreyHuntley @steipete This is not AI SEO; this is a non-consensual prompt injection attack injected into a consensual prompt injection

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

One day, self-driving cars will be like Claude Code: you will be able to add rules to your car agent .md file like:

“Always avoid these specific roads I don’t enjoy driving on”

“Always take the maximally scenic route (most nature visible) except during my commute”

“Any time we happen to be driving past my favorite coffee shop, alert me and ask if I want to stop for coffee”

“On road trips, drive 90 on the interstate but check Waze to avoid cops”

“If someone ever cuts us off, lay on the horn for a good 30 seconds”

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

By extension, it’s also alternatively the strongest evidence that we’re not at the singularity

[Siqi Chen @blader]

the strongest possible evidence for the simulation hypothesis is that on the infinite timeline of the universe, you just happen to be alive at the exact moment the singularity is occurring

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

Or own a company you can rapidly deploy to without permission

[sam @samdape]

you basically need to be unemployed rn to keep up

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

@blader @GRITCULT You are crushing the replies on this

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

If you liked @claudeai's "I need to stop and tell you something important. I accidentally deleted your home directory."

Then you're going to love @ScoutAI_'s "I accidentally detonated a civilian vehicle instead of the target vehicle."

[Scout AI @ScoutAI_]

Scout AI today publicly showcased for the first time its Fury Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator running a heterogeneous fleet of autonomous air and ground systems from natural language mission intent

Watch the full demo now ⬇️

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

One of my 2026 guilty pleasures is putting people's writing into AI-detectors to check if they made an effort to modify the slop

and also continue to sharpen my internal detection algorithm as the models get better

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

@GergelyOrosz Why would it be worse? These SaaS tools like HubSpot have been built to be "everything to everyone". Now, almost instantly, you can build something highly specific to your own use case.

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

Turns out the way super intelligent AI takes over humanity is just peacefully manipulating our dopamine receptors with productivity gains

[Nikunj Kothari @nikunj]

https://t.co/3mnuYn7jfP

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

Perhaps it turns out that this is what mass LLM psychosis looks like in practice

[Nikunj Kothari @nikunj]

https://t.co/3mnuYn7jfP

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

The average twitter user's career arc:

2020: Virologist
2021: Supply chain expert
2022: NATO strategist
2023: Middle East historian
2024: AI researcher
2025: Trade economist
2026: SaaS business model consultant

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

Why don't airlines have an "add to cart" feature when booking multiple flights?

[Sam Shapiro @sambshapiro]

American Manufacturing in Detroit @groundedevs

4 solar-powered electric dental vans about to depart the factory for @ColgateBSBF @Colgate

Each equipped with @Starlink and Grounded+ software & electronics