People ask me what AI software I use to send cold DMs.
It’s called NI. Natural Intelligence. I’ve never responded to an AI-written cold message so why the hell would I send one? All NI. All naturale baby.
In the quest to build a massive empire, you’re going to need to do a lot of unscalable things. Not everything can be automated. In the words of Paul Graham, “do things that don’t scale”.
Sending a cold DM by hand isn’t scalable. But you send a few cold DMs every day for 2 years, that’s 1,000+ people. In a relatively short time, you have a huge network of friends and supporters. Now imagine you do that for 10 years and that’s where you see the social media legends with 300,000+ followers who it feels like they know everyone.
Meeting people 1-on-1 isn’t scalable. Sure going to big tech parties is fun but never forget hanging out 1-on-1 builds so much better relationships. I will always prefer individual hangouts over group hangouts—so much deeper conversations. Over enough 1-on-1 hangouts with people, you have a network of people with deep relationships.
Talking to users isn’t scalable. The best founders I've seen talk to their users constantly. Like they become friends with their users. Tyler Denk, founder of newsletter platform Beehiiv, is a great example. Ever since I joined in 2021, we've been messaging around 1x/week about product ideas. They raised $12M, but he's still talking and tweeting with users everyday. Respect.
Remember the wise words of PG:
“A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't. You build something, make it available, and if you've made a better mousetrap, people beat a path to your door as promised. Or they don't, in which case the market must not exist. Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.”
Paul Graham
--
The message: stop trying to use AI for things it's bad at (human relationships).
If you enjoy the writing of a real human, subscribe to my newsletter to 8,000+ internet nerds.
Remember: do things that don't scale (it's worth the extra work)
It’s called NI. Natural Intelligence. I’ve never responded to an AI-written cold message so why the hell would I send one? All NI. All naturale baby.
In the quest to build a massive empire, you’re going to need to do a lot of unscalable things. Not everything can be automated. In the words of Paul Graham, “do things that don’t scale”.
Sending a cold DM by hand isn’t scalable. But you send a few cold DMs every day for 2 years, that’s 1,000+ people. In a relatively short time, you have a huge network of friends and supporters. Now imagine you do that for 10 years and that’s where you see the social media legends with 300,000+ followers who it feels like they know everyone.
Meeting people 1-on-1 isn’t scalable. Sure going to big tech parties is fun but never forget hanging out 1-on-1 builds so much better relationships. I will always prefer individual hangouts over group hangouts—so much deeper conversations. Over enough 1-on-1 hangouts with people, you have a network of people with deep relationships.
Talking to users isn’t scalable. The best founders I've seen talk to their users constantly. Like they become friends with their users. Tyler Denk, founder of newsletter platform Beehiiv, is a great example. Ever since I joined in 2021, we've been messaging around 1x/week about product ideas. They raised $12M, but he's still talking and tweeting with users everyday. Respect.
Remember the wise words of PG:
“A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't. You build something, make it available, and if you've made a better mousetrap, people beat a path to your door as promised. Or they don't, in which case the market must not exist. Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.”
Paul Graham
--
The message: stop trying to use AI for things it's bad at (human relationships).
If you enjoy the writing of a real human, subscribe to my newsletter to 8,000+ internet nerds.
Remember: do things that don't scale (it's worth the extra work)