Mikhael Traverse

Focus and simplicity

[Finn Mallery @fin465]

talked to a bunch of current YC batch founders today

The ones hitting $1m+ ARR (there are several this batch) are just ripping the same outbound playbook every time:

1. build your lead lists using tools like Origami or Clay
2. Run an auto-connect + DM sequencer on LinkedIn
3. aim for 200 connects/week. linkedin is a goldmine
4. when writing Linkedin DMs, send 2-sentences, ideally with a warm thread (shared school, mutual, etc)
5. Post on LinkedIn 5x/wk minimum
6. get good at AEO (yes, you can get results in a few weeks )

Spend 20 hrs/wk doing this properly, and you will start consistently booking demos

[AYi @AYi_AInotes]

说实话，Garry Tan 这篇长帖，是我今年看到的最重要的 AI 文章，没有之一。

大多数人看完估计只会惊叹：“哇，这个读书工具好厉害。”

但他们其实并没看懂，这不仅仅是一个工具，说是一份 AI 时代个人能力的指数级放大说明书更合适一些。

先看那个最震撼的案例：
Book Mirror。

把一本 162 页的书扔进去，40 分钟后，产出 3 万字的深度脑页。

注意，这可不是普通的读书笔记，
而是要把作者的每一个观点，都精准映射到他自己的人生里——

他的家庭历史、YC 工作、治疗笔记、和几百个创始人的对话。

相当于这本书的作者专门花了两天时间，只和他一对一深聊，并且只聊和他最相关的那部分。

比 $300/小时的治疗师高效 50 倍以上，而且这已经远远超越普通 RAG。

普通 RAG 只能检索，

[Khairallah AL-Awady @eng_khairallah1]

🚨 Anthropic's own team just showed how to actually use Claude Code properly.

30 minutes. free. the person who created Claude Code.

watch the workshop. bookmark it.

worth more than every $500 course you almost bought.

you've been using Claude without knowing 40 of its commands.

Then read the guide below.

[Roan @RohOnChain]

This 2 hour Stanford lecture shows exactly how Stanford trains it's engineers to build AI systems. It's more practical than every Claude tutorial & prompting threads you've seen.

Bookmark & give it 2 hours, no matter what. It'll be the most productive thing you do this weekend.

[Sid⚡️ @sidrmsh]

https://t.co/zNRTuxaxJU

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

https://t.co/7l7Jef99QZ

[Curiosity @CuriosityonX]

These boxes are static.

I repeat, these boxes are not moving.

https://t.co/6a777MjZ29

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The real moats in 2025: specific workflows, proprietary data with real switching costs, distribution, and UX that makes AI disappear into the job-to-be-done.

Simultaneously: we are early (only a % are using AI properly) so this is an amazing time to start a startup.

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

https://t.co/dqTuZpyd7w is the Google Maps for customer acquisition. It finds the most optimized routes to reach your customers and turns scattered data into clear next steps.

It's the all-in-one GTM and marketing tool that gives one person the power of an entire sales and marketing team.

[Mike Futia @mikefutia]

Nano Banana + Veo 3 + n8n is legitimately wild 🤯

This automation generates hundreds of UGC videos from a single product photo.

Fully automated inside n8n.

Perfect for DTC brands & creative agencies scaling paid social.

Most brands face the same bottleneck:

You need 50+ creative variations to beat ad fatigue.

But creating scripts, filming, and editing that volume takes weeks and costs thousands.

This n8n system solves it:

→ Drop ONE product image into n8n form
→ Nano Banana creates 20-50 visual variations automatically
→ Each variation flows into Veo 3 for video generation
→ AI generates natural UGC scenarios (unboxings, demos, testimonials)
→ Videos auto-saved to Box for instant access

No scripting.

No filming.

No editing bottlenecks.

What you get:

Dozens of UGC videos from one upload → Costs pennies per video → Full commercial ownership → Perfect for testing angles at scale

Built 100% in n8n.

Want the complete workflow?

> Comment "BANANA"

> Like this post

And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)

[Yurii Rebryk @rebryk]

I scaled Fluently app from $48K → $5M+ ARR during this year (that’s 100x growth) 🚀

A big part of this came from short-form videos:
In just 200 days we got 1B+ views across TikTok/IG/YT with $0 ad spend!

Here’s my blueprint for hacking UGC growth on social media 👇

[Gagan Biyani 🏛 @gaganbiyani]

The dirty little secret of edtech: the biggest names don’t actually care if you learn anything.

As co-founder of Udemy, it is something I reckon with every day…

Duolingo - edtech’s only decacorn, worth $14B. Brilliant app, addictive product, and great for motivation. But let’s be honest: most users can’t hold a basic conversation in their chosen language. It’s a game, not an education.

Masterclass - it’s called “edutainment” for a reason. Great brand and team. But not useful for serious learning.

Udemy/Coursera opened access to millions, but video courses have a fatal flaw: they only work for the most motivated. 4-10% completion rates! I still get DMs about their positive impact, but still average person doesn’t view them as mainstream solutions to education.

Kajabi/Teachable nailed creator monetization. But many (not all) creators don’t prioritize outcomes — just sales. Too many $5,000 “get rich quick” courses with spammy marketing. There are gems, of course, but still not enough quality for mainstream acceptance.

Then there’s University of Phoenix, the worst offender. It proved you could tap federal student loans, deliver poor outcomes, and keep billions in revenue.

Ironically, the best education models — coding bootcamps like App Academy, BloomTech, General Assembly, Galvanize — actually drove real outcomes. But they didn’t quite reach scale. In large part due to unfair (and immoral, imho) practices by the higher education cartel.

Here’s the thing: everyone in this space starts with good intentions.

I know the teams at Duolingo, Udemy, and others. They care. But the incentives of Edtech 1.0 pushed everyone toward engagement and monetization instead of real learning.

Public investors eventually caught on. Consumer growth stalled, B2B slowed, and valuations dropped. Coursera/Udemy are each ~$700M (!!) in annual revenue, but trade at 1.5-2.5x multiples (!!). It is a hard time in edtech.

We need Edtech 2.0.

The next generation needs to deliver real learning outcomes AND high engagement.

There’s a number of companies trying - of course I believe Maven is one of them.

To build multiple $10B+ companies in education, we need to care deeply about whether people actually learn. American competitiveness is literally reliant on rebuilding our education system.

AI is about to trigger the largest upskilling need in modern history. The opportunity is massive — and this time, we can get it right.

It may not seem like it, but I’m optimistic. Out from the ashes of Edtech 1.0 will rise Edtech 2.0. The new generation is going to deliver value, and make people believe again.

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

Congrats to @ThroxyAI on their $6.2M seed!

Throxy is reinventing outbound sales for hard-to-reach industries like manufacturing, logistics & medical. They provide fully managed outbound sales services, identifying real prospects, crafting outreach that lands in inboxes, and booking high-value meetings.

https://t.co/RoDOpina0F

[Blake Scholl 🛫 @bscholl]

https://t.co/e8t7X5BeiV

[Kranthi @kranthi_gv]

Great course on evals by @sh_reya and @HamelHusain
It teaches both the scientific method and several learnings from working in production with LLMs
The course reader and FAQ are resources I keep going back to in the last few months

[Austen Allred @Austen]

@traskjd https://t.co/7PJzRX7a7Q

[Stefan Spain @sts_3d]

Here’s a quick update on Sentradel, a new company I’m starting with @camrrowe
#robotics #drones

[Easlo @heyeaslo]

The book that inspired my app.

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

Skope is building a billing system for AI companies.

They support every standard type of pricing model (usage, subscription, hybrid, etc) and are the first to natively support outcome-based pricing.

https://t.co/tgXjAXKUl6

Congrats on the launch, @imbensmith & @connorpark24!

[Prompter @PromptLLM]

I taught myself n8n from scratch solely from this prompt.