20+ years of advice and feedback starting, failing, starting again and scaling bootstrapped businesses. Founder and CEO: https://nitter.cf/t.co/8gt7D8RWxw Launch Potato
U.S.A
Joined December 2021
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I started and failed at 4 businesses in my 20s. Today I’m the founder $100M / year bootstrapped business here is what I learned along the way
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Hey @Jason I was the high bidder for Inside.com when the auction ended but haven't heard anything and now the sites changed.
What's going on?
Ok... @inside is up for auction! inside.com
When I was young I felt a high number of employees was a badge of honor.
Overtime realized this was a “polite” way to try to size the revenue of a business.
And the best operators don’t care about size or team.
You care about growth, ebitda, impact.
"How many people work for you?"
For decades that was the polite way of asking how much money you make.
Headcount tracked revenue. 50 employees meant you'd made it. 100 meant you'd really made it.
Well...Anthropic is worth about $377M per employee according to their S1.
Everything is going to flip
Soon a big team won't impress anyone.
Disgusting numbers from a tiny team will.
California votes tomorrow on a 5% tax on billionaires’ net worth.
Before picking a side, look at what high earners there already pay.
Our FinanceBuzz team ran a $1M salary through every state’s tax code:
California: $456,927 (45.7%)
Hawaii: 45.3%
Oregon: 45.0%
Texas, Florida + 7 other no-income-tax states: $353,811 (35.4%)
Same income. A $103K a year difference.
PS Florida is great this time of year! – at Delray Beach, FL
Full @financebuzz data here financebuzz.com/best-states-…
If your business isn’t growing
If your not getting more done
If your team is getting more done
Then it’s a you/business problem.
The momentum we’re seeing right now is not like anything I’ve experienced.
We’re moving at a speed faster than when we did when we were 1/5 the size and revenue.
Creative marketing is the hardest skill to train in performance marketing.
You can teach the ad platform in a month.
You can’t easily teach someone to ship new ideas every week
AI made ideas cheap and fast.
Taste is still expensive.
Be savage on the first episode, so you never have to be on the fiftieth.
We’re piloting a new video podcast.
Before the first cut, our creative lead asked for one thing: brutal feedback. Not just visuals.
Phrasing, tone, how the news gets delivered.
Once you ship daily, feedback becomes a postmortem.
A postmortem fixes one episode. A pilot sets the standard for all of them.
Most teams do the opposite.
Polite on v1, frustrated by v40.
Without question:
The tool is only as good as the operator using it.
We’ve had a few clients leave us over the last few months for one of the many AI media buyer apps out there.
All of them have seen performance go down and several have asked to get a Unicorn back running their ads.
The irony is a lot of businesses are doing this to cut costs, but end up losing significantly more money than they are saving on the retainer.
AI + Expert Human is the answer.
AI traffic to retailers is up 130% this holiday season.
Buying decisions aren't moving that fast.
Our team surveyed 2,000 people with Bank of America:
Check AI before buying: 31%
Check customer reviews: 94%
Trust AI more than reviews: 7%
Gen Z leans on it least. 24%, vs 37% of boomers.
Full data here: financebuzz.com/online-shopp…
![Online Shopping Trends: How Americans Really Shop, Decide, and Save in 2026 [Data Study]](https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/2115100245499506688/D43lGU5i?format=png&name=800x419)
12 people on our leadership team at Launch Potato.
8 have been here 6+ years.
Rich started as Senior Director of Sales. He’s now our CRO.
Diego started as Director of Product. He now runs product.
I’m not sure tenure proves a founder is good.
But people staying when they could go anywhere is the best compliment I get.
PR'd at HYROX Pro Doubles this weekend. 1:13.
Felt great until two first-timers cruised past us at a 5:50/mile pace.
They finished in 56 minutes. I have never felt so slow.
The PR was awesome, but it's more than that.
For a long time, I had two communities.
Work, and family and friends.
This one is next level.
It makes me better in the other two.
A bunch of gladiators slinging it out in the arena, pushing each other to be better than the day before and better than our younger selves
Compare this to sports: you celebrate the championship and take a few weeks off.
In business, you celebrate milestones and show up the next day to do it again.
Social Security announced a 3.6% raise.
About $75 more a month.
Our FinanceBuzz team ran the math on rent.
The average check covers a one-bedroom in just 2 of the 100 biggest U.S. cities.
In Irvine, San Francisco and San Jose, rent is more than the entire check.
$75 doesn’t fix that.
Top 5 States where the median rent consumes the smallest share of that state's average Social Security income
1. West Virginia
Median rent: $643
Average Social Security payment: $1,868
Percentage of Social Security income: 34.4%
2. Iowa
Median rent: $769
Average Social Security payment: $1,989
Percentage of Social Security income: 38.7%
3. Wyoming
Median rent: $783
Average Social Security payment: $2,023
Percentage of Social Security income: 38.7%
4. South Dakota
Median rent: $781
Average Social Security payment: $1,914
Percentage of Social Security income: 40.8%
5. Kansas
Median rent: $861
Average Social Security payment: $2,050
Percentage of Social Security income: 42.0%
Taking social security at 62, 67 or 70? Let’s break it down with these numbers.
62 - $1800/month
67 - $2400/month
70 - $3000/month
The difference between taking the money at 67 instead of 62 means you miss 5 years of $21,600/yr which comes out to $108,000. By waiting until 67, you only get an additional $7,200 per year. Take that $108,000 divided by $7200 and you get 15. This means it’d take 15 years to break even, putting you at age 82.
Let’s say you wait until 70 for the maximum benefit. The same math we worked above comes out to 12. Meaning it would take 12 years to break even, putting you at age 82.
So here’s my question and why I think the answer is so clear and obvious…
Would you rather have money at 62 or 82?
Comment below and let me know!
88% of VC-backed founders get zero at exit. The top 1% take 79%.
Run that math before you raise.
If the round only works with a top 1% outcome, that’s the real risk.
Running a profitable business is an sale you get every year.
13 years in, we’ve never needed a exit to win.
