The power of whats and hows. If you’re a techie - there’s a good chance you hate sales. I think the funny part is you hate the associations MORE than actually hating sales. But let’s disregard the S-word for a second. Do you like working through complex problems? Do you like getting into the weeds and solving them? Are you naturally curious? ^^^ there isn’t a technical founder that isn’t saying YES to all three. They are must haves. Sales is doing the above with words. You: “NO IT’S NOT...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Don't do this. The technology for conversation bots is getting better and better. Initially tech companies rejected these. WhatsApp used to have water-tight security and be impregnable. Yet even it now has support for bot conversations. So they’re here to stay. Are they useful for founders? Yes! But here’s an example of what not to do: This happens because the person has set up a bot to canvas their existing network of connections for new business and set up chats. There’s nothing wrong with...
8 days ago • 1 min read
play while you can.. Congrats to all of the people who have decided to stay on the newsletter so far. Here’s something cool. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) lets you test subject headers - Growing users for a niche app was favoured better than the words “a quick hack”. I’ll test the language again this week - but have the feeling “quick hack” isn’t favoured language. I’ll let you know next time what happens. Onto today. Part of my business process is just talking to founders. I can do this via...
10 days ago • 1 min read
how to grow a hiking app. I spoke to a founder with a hiking app today. I don’t normally work with pure B2C founders but I just couldn’t help myself with our meet and greet. “Sounds awesome - do you want some ways to get more users?” “Well yeah” The app in all its local glory Here’s what I told him: Do you know who loves nature walks? Older people with more time on their hands. Nearly every suburban area in Melbourne (the area we’re in) has a community learning centre/neighbourhood learning...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Let's flipping go! You're getting this email because you're a previous subscriber of the now obsolete AI versus Marshy. In case you missed it - here's the farewell post. You're now getting the new version of the email - early growth school - which is designed to give early-stage founders clarity around their growth efforts with continuous tips, lessons, direction, and advice on what to focus on. If that sounds terrible and not up your alley - please click this DNW button - it is absolutely...
17 days ago • 1 min read
Hello and welcome to the last edition of AI versus Marshy! It feels weird writing that sentence - but it also feels very right. Let’s rewind to a couple of months and explain why. Have you ever had a niggle that won’t go away? Well a couple of months ago this niggle was in full flight. Here’s the niggle: This current wave of generative AI isn’t good for the planet And once I started digging into it I couldn’t unsee it: Google renegging on their carbon emissions goals - their greenhouse gas...
23 days ago • 2 min read
Hello! And welcome to another belated edition of AI versus Marshy, I needed a week off - and took it! - so enjoy this bumper edition instead. This week we look at: AIs and companies making money - are things going to burst? A deeper-dive on AI’s impact Making the switch - from ChatGPT premium to Perplexity Pro Lots to dig into so let’s make like a mole and delve into it ⛏️ -Marshy AI investment versus profit. Via Business Insider and Fortune 500. I’m not a financial expert and my eyes tend to...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Hello and welcome to another edition of AI versus Marshy! This is the newsletter that goes deep into AI trends, sifts through the hype, and returns an informed POV about how to think about AI and use it today. And sorry to be a bit later this week. I could pad out the usual stuff - sick twin boys, sleeplessness, busy - but that’s literally every week at the moment. The real reason for the delay this week was that I got distracted by one of the functions I’ll cover in one of the pieces below....
3 months ago • 6 min read
Newsletter Hello and welcome to another edition of AI versus Marshy! Another “hullo” to our new subscribers, this is a newsletter about AI, written by a perennial optimist, whose tech and marketing background tells him not to be swept away by hype just yet. But there ARE a hell of a lot of interesting things to look at and this week is no different. This week covers: copy.ai upgrades its platform with Anthropic - with some side-by-side testing and a dash of nope A new, newsletter shoutout to...
3 months ago • 5 min read