iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Great article! Reminds me of all the plumber websites and vans with questionable design choices.. does it matter? Yes and no. Depends on the customer. Many can view it as a positive sign of a humble, affordable, and honest plumber. Others want someone who appears more professional.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I can't fail if I don't quit; I won't quit, so I won't fail. I would live in my car if I had to. Hell, I'd live in a shelter if I had to! I'd work from a library. As long as I have my MacBook, then my startup will be alive.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

My first startup was invoicing/scheduling software for residential contractors. We had power users and customers that were ecstatic about our product, but marketing was an uphill battle -- contractors rarely share info about software with other small contractors. Bad network effects in that market.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Great article, I love the beginning talking about founder arrogance. This has haunted me: is arrogance a pre-requisite to be a founder? I think so. Independent thought is needed, which is arrogance of it's own kind. It's hard to help early founders :) Humility + independent thought is needed.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

As a founder, my bias is believing startups still have these advantages. But if I'm wrong, and my above points are incorrect, and your thinking here is more accurate, then this could be catastrophic for our company. I'd love to hear your response to my above thoughts. I'll re-read the article

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Sorry, let me clarify my response 1. The differentiation is prompts + agent workflows, not LLM API access 2. Sora seems better than imagegen, despite Google's data advantage. Cursor is no doubt better than co-pilot, despite Github's data 3. Founders work harder than employees, and can move faster

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Got it. Seems like the best way to lower risk right now, is to focus more on the engineering to make the AI product better. We've been debating this internally for the last month. Luckily, I think we've figured out our GTM and positioning. You have helped more than you know, thank you!

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

LLM costs are extraordinarily cheap compared to time + labor costs for the equivalent amount of work. Example: To read Wealth of Nations, then write a new book with equal length, the cost is: 4o-mini: ~$587.25 o1-preview: ~$58,725 o1-mini: ~$11,745 gpt-4o: ~$2,936.25 Claude 3.5 Sonnet: ~$14,094

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

@asmartbear.com It appears you're saying deep tech risk > market risk? This is relevant, and has been haunting me. Have the rules changed? Is tech risk > than marketing risk. Worried to make same twice: having my 2nd startup be overly focused on engineering rather than market risks feels risky.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Scary thought if true: "It means the usual startup strategies might not work, so you need to think deeply and have a different point of view about how you’re going to win." 1. Deep tech is prompts + agents 2. Sora > Google Imagen, Cursor > Copilot 3. Founder's obsession > Employee's Thoughts?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Very Relevant! I've seen a wave of despair in the SEO community after Google's latest core ranking updates. Many company's depend so deeply on Google, with the introduction of LLMs into the game, they're holding substantial risk in this area.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Should growth metrics be the north star? Signups, WAU, DAU, web traffic, revenue, etc. My baseline assumption is that all these need to grow, otherwise we're on a sinking ship. Questions I'm always asking: 1) Does the market need us? 2) Will they pay us? 3) How can we prove this?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

As a founder, we need: 1. People who tell us our ideas are stupid and wrong. 2. Courage to entertain that they might be right. Even if they're wrong, being forced to articulate "why" is invaluable.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

How does reading & writing (journaling) play into this process of understanding and selecting the most important things? Also if a founder is focused on the wrong thing, what is the mechanism to realize it? Lack of revenue and growth?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

The more I read, the more impressed I am! Love this phrase: "proactively introspective". Thanks for sharing your thoughts over the years. I have a lot of reading your articles ahead of me. My goal is to read 10 mins every morning.

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Reposted by Kody Kendall

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 03/12/2024

People say “that’s your baggage” like it’s a bad thing. It can be, when it’s limiting or leads to incorrect believes. But it’s also who you are, uniquely. Here’s how I’ve navigated my baggage:

longform.asmartbear.com

Scars

Our emotional baggage and experience make us unique, but also serve as blinders.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

@builditn0w.bsky.social is there a way to get deeper analytics such as post views, top posts, etc.?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

"That's why we have to think about it proactively, all the time." Thank you, I needed to hear this. I've been critiqued for over-thinking, and it's true. I spend lots of time thinking. It comes from fear of focusing on the wrong thing. But, I'm more decisive and confident after thinking.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Why ChatGPT caused me to move to San Francisco from Utah, to pursue my AI startup. kodykendall.com/i-moved-to-s...

kodykendall.com

Kody's Blog

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Cool! Another one I've used is KeyMine.io. I'll check out f5bot

keymine.io

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

@asmartbear.com , this article is a goldmine, thank you.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Appreciate the deep, profound thought. Which idea stands out the most, that was previously counterintuitive to you?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Because if your project is successful, then it will need to be touched eventually.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Is this a pain point for businesses? Are they desperately saying: I want to accept crypto payments through my website, but there’s not a tool to do so?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

1. Easier to understand what it does faster.

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Mixmax has been great! Super easy, no complaints. Used for templated emails for customer support, and marketing drip sequences

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Proud to launch LlamaPress on Blue Sky instead of X! A chat bot to build pages in minutes, not hours! Open source and built on Rails: github.com/llamapressai... Sadly, we didn’t get into YC. But we’re still going! Here’s a demo video from when we applied: youtu.be/8Vp5-VKf8zc?... #buildinpublic

youtu.be

LLamaPress AI, Y Combinator F24 Demo

YouTube video by Kody Kendall

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Congrats! Followed. How does this follow count compare to your other social media accounts?

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Kody Kendall @kodykendall.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Mixmax is very affordable, simple, and integrates with Gmail. Your goal should be to try and keep users coming back to your app, and driving them to your apps “aha” moment, where they receive value.

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