Yannik Heimsoth

Building a startup after 15 years building startup brands. AI, trust, taste and pop culture. Warm-hearted, BS-intolerant.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@patsalientes @thecosmos Buried under Content filtering is peak product design. Thanks for the tip — default-on would be the real trust flex though.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@thecosmos you guys really need an ai detector or at least a disclaimer

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

A blue "Human Badge" on Zoom so finance teams know you're not a deepfake.

Marketing spent 15 years teaching brands to sound human. It'll spend the next 15 proving there's one on the call.

[World @worldnetwork]

In 2024, an employee at engineering firm Arup transferred $25.6 million after joining a video call where every other participant was a deepfake. Since then, AI has advanced significantly and is making impersonation increasingly convincing, causing challenges for financial institutions in particular. As autonomous agents begin handling more financial activity on behalf of people, establishing an added layer of trust and security behind a transaction or sensitive conversation is becoming an urgent need.

Introducing @world_id for banking and finance, a suite of technologies that helps institutions establish trust through privacy-preserving cryptographic Proofs. World ID for Zoom lets meeting participants confirm they are the same Orb-verified human connected to their account, while World ID for agents allows AI agents to carry Proofs delegated by people. Bain Capital, OpenExchange, Outtake, Pantera Capital, and VanEck Funds are initial design partners, bringing World ID into some of finance's most consequential interactions.

https://t.co/NakSyrdBtq

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Delta, Amazon, JPMorgan and Schwab are blocking AI agents from booking, shopping and logging in.

Security is the official reason. The brand reason nobody says out loud: an agent never sees your homepage, your loyalty app or your ad. It just picks.

When the robot does the shopping, the only brand asset left is the customer saying your name first.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Every name on that list is the same lesson: you can buy a brand, but taste doesn't transfer at closing. It lives in a few stubborn people and their weird rules. Fold them into a portfolio review and the can looks identical for years while the reason anyone bought it quietly leaves.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@DenverRayburn @dieworkwear Film the whole tour, uncut: machines, yarn boxes, the people on the floor. "$16 and made in LA" is a claim people want to believe and have been trained to doubt. Molson's $1,000 checklist is basically your next campaign brief.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@domainspace_si Fair. "Cloud" is the proof: same servers, new word, a decade of valuations. And you're clearly not waiting for the font to settle.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Brand memo: Washington renamed AI to "Super Intelligence" and kept the exact same legal definition.

Same product. Bigger font.

Biggest winner so far: Slovenia, whose .si domains are suddenly the hottest real estate in tech.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@levie Finally, a workforce where "throw more bodies at it" actually works. McKinsey felt that.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@elonmusk Relax. A super persuasive superintelligence is just a Super Bowl ad that knows your attachment style.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

A $50M diamond bra on the runway and it still wasn't the main event.

[kay @divamcrae_]

VMAs performance 10/10
Lollapalooza performance 10/10
VS fashion show performance 10/10

Tate McRae is a main pop girl who can dominate ANY stage she’s on and if you can’t admit that then idk what to tell you at this point

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Victoria's Secret didn't put on a fashion show. It put on a season finale.

Every few minutes, a bigger superlative:
Gisele on tape asking if we're ready.
Bella opening.
A new Angel crowned by a YouTube docuseries.
Tate McRae live.
Kylie in a $50M bra with 4,410 diamonds.
Spice Girls, pink confetti, Gisele promising more.

The lingerie was the merch.

🎥 Victoria's Secret / YouTube

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@Polymarket Finally, a Theranos product that delivers real results.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@elonmusk Compute is the new Birkin: you can't just buy one, you get offered one after years of purchase history.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@emollick Claude can refactor your entire codebase, but your email address is a tattoo.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@Kalshi No new album in 2026. Just an Album of the Year Grammy, a Super Bowl halftime and a stadium tour, and the market still says 85%. Brand lesson: you don't need a new drop when the last one moved in with people. Who's buying the other 15%?

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@rauchg Moldova quietly becoming the README of the internet is my favorite one. Andorra, your .ad moment is coming.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Taylor Swift waited a full year to sing "The Fate of Ophelia" live for the first time. Not in a stadium: four songs at a black-tie museum gala.

After the highest-grossing tour ever, the flex is scarcity. Luxury houses have run this play for a century. Pop just learned it.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

Fine print: 5% is new, the rest of the ~20% was already pledged by founders and staff. The smart bit: up to +2% more per 50% valuation jump. Others escalate exec comp. They escalated the receipts.

[Yannik Heimsoth @yheimso]

@emollick imho the brands blocking agents aren't protecting data, they're protecting the one moment agents skip: a human actually seeing them. Once an agent books the flight, Delta is just a row in a fare table. Does "agent-friendly" become a brand position or a commodity trap?