iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

What's actually working on Substack? "Perspective," says CEO Chris Best... "If you want to know some facts, you can ask Claude" More in today's access.show

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Here's the bar for a great mission statement, according to 'AI Coachella' prof Anjney Midha: Would you feel good if, on your grave, it said "He figured this out?" 🪦 More in today's access.show

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

'AI Coachella' prof Anjney Midha's biggest regret in his life as a founder: "I wasn't [pivoting] fast enough, because I felt like I'd committed something to my investors and team that I had to hold constant, artificially." "No iteration, no progress" More in today's access.show

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

What Lukas Petersson has done with Andon Market is one of the only "stunts" I've liked this year... A retail store run exclusively by AI. The perfect intersection of *showing our beliefs* , some genuine controversy, and what only they can do as an AI evals company. More in today's access.show

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

if you're only ever talking about your product, why would anyone believe you? why would they like you? to break thru with founder-led comms, you need to share opinions and ideas that are larger than yourself. more at end of today's access.show ep

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

ok this was a treat. we had The Audacity showrunner Jonathan Glatzer on the show to talk about his new *Succession for tech* its tagline: "tech changed the world... but so did the bubonic plague" 🤪

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

"We regretted that we didn't block Forbes from putting us on 30 under 30," says Poke's CEO 🤣 "Avoid being on that list at all costs."

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

So... Poke had a billionaire user who agreed to pay $136k/mo for the service during its price haggling onboarding 🤣

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Is Granola killing their moat by opening up? "The traditional SaaS wisdom is not gonna fly in the future," says cofounder Sam Stephenson "The tools get more useful when you can use them with each other. If we don't play ball, we're not relevant."

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

The real reason CEOs push AI meeting notes: More context for agents doing the work in the future 😅

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Does Granola's new icon look like a butthole, or merely butthole-adjacent? Co-founder Sam Stephenson weighs in:

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

thanks to Mercury's CEO for keeping my "points guy" ego in check..... i'm working on being less annoying 🙃

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The "bicycle for the mind" is no longer real, says Starboy's Dan Kuntz. Now, tech is more of a "fleshlight for the mind." 🤣

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

"There's an epidemic of hardware startups in SF shipping vaporware" says Dan Kuntz, creator of Starboy. "We waited to announce the preorder until I could take actual pictures of it with my iPhone... those perform better than renders anyway"

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Is Google outsourcing our brains?! People said this years ago about Search and Maps — and that turned out to be a bit overblown 😅 Will AI be any different? "The challenge for society to figure out is not to replace thinking, but to use it for harder tasks" says Head of Search Liz Reid

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

"Before AI slop, there was human slop, and we've got plenty of it..." says Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. "What the platform is good at [for the last 20 years] is pulling the great content out. We've been fighting manipulation for our entire existence!"

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

The best storytelling hack? Just *say it out loud* 🙃 This forces you to put yourself in the audience's shoes, and helps ensure you don't sound like an informercial.

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

"The hard part of my job isn't getting computers to do things. It's getting *people* to do things." -Sublime's Sari Azout

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

i appreciate the storytelling meme but tbh it's just the new content marketing 🙃 the real lever (that i try to practice) is feeling confident it's going to achieve all of your startup goals *long-term*, from recruiting to product strategy & selling investors on USP.

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

How do you build a moat as an AI wrapper? Assume the big guys will come after you, says Harvey's Winston Weinberg. How would you defend it? Even if it means giving up ground to other startups, planning for disruption is the best long-term plan.

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Harvey's Winston Weinberg does interviews in Google Docs to weed out the "good talkers." Goated.

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Reposted by Ellis Hamburger

Alex Heath @alexeheath.com · 16/09/2025

I’m launching Sources, a new publication about the tech industry’s inside conversation, and Access, a tech interview podcast with my friend @hamburger.bsky.social. The first issue of Sources drops tomorrow, featuring an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, which airs in full on Access this Thursday.

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Andy Allen @andy.works · 16/07/2025

Don't miss this Decoder episode with @hamburger.bsky.social There are few people who can clearly see an industry from both inside and outside at the same time. Ellis is that with tech & culture. www.theverge.com/decoder-pod...

theverge.com

Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on the AI startup frenzy: ‘Everyone’s pivoting, then pivoting again’

Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on what AI founders aren’t saying publicly.

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Reposted by Ellis Hamburger

Alex Heath @alexeheath.com · 10/07/2025

I’m guest hosting the Decoder podcast for the next couple of months, starting with this chat with the one and only @hamburger.bsky.social www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

theverge.com

Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on the AI startup frenzy: ‘Everyone’s pivoting, then pivoting again’

Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on what AI founders aren’t saying publicly.

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Reposted by Ellis Hamburger

alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

crunch is a thing men do because planning requires them to be honest with themselves about themselves

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

not chain of thought... 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑 excited to share a new manifesto with maisa → maisa.ai/about-us/

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Baby’s first office (Little Tokyo, LA)

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

a brilliant exercise in transparency from Nothing not just a entertaining concept, but a genius way to frame all the hidden costs that go into a phone best in class trust-building on display here www.youtube.com/watch?v=bny2...

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I don't appreciate these kinds of jokes

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

As sweet as falling in first love

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

me: closes bluetooth headphones case Tim apple: for your convenience, I have opened Apple Music for u 🙃

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

New Raycast Focus is annoying the shit out of me. (But I just wrote a whole manifesto in 60 mins) Wow thank you @raycast.com 🤣🙌

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

in the same way that once all social apps got a news feed and then stories, all social apps will have a video feed too as always, what matters most is the network (not the features)

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Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

it is unbelievable how useless this is

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Reposted by Ellis Hamburger

👁️ @nathanjurgenson.com · 15/01/2025

Watch Duty isnt good bc its filing gaps created by "platform decay", its good bc it doesnt have a business model that incentivizes it to be bad

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Reposted by Ellis Hamburger

jonathan friedman @jonathanfriedman.com · 12/12/2024

Curious to see what @jsngr.bsky.social and co are building w mainfra.me Lots of AI junk out there, this (w help of @hamburger.bsky.social) doesn’t seem like that…

Ellis Hamburger @hamburger.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

“The "wrapper" around the AI is often the difference between a delightful experience and a great demo that is disappointing to actually use.”

every.to

How to Build a Truly Useful AI Product

Generative AI breaks the old startup playbook

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