Founder and CEO of Viahart, a consumer products company. Founder and former CEO of Edison, a legal tech company. Doer of many things.
Joined July 2015
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- Likes228K
We just got our first ever customer for our new logistics business.
Why did it take so long?
Chicken and the egg.
There are no good logistics between Vietnam and the USA for less than a container so few people order less than a container from factories, so no good logistics for less than a container develop, because there are no shipments.
As for marketing, we got a few inbounds via Twitter but mainly they were all for full containers.
This customer came via, we think (we'll ask), google or AI.
Big thanks to @Joseph_Paul_V who posted to Reddit for us.
For my Zoomer 'gundo femboys, this is what it's about.
Not exaggerating, not lying, no "hiring a chief of staff for my fake business" just saying we got 1 customer.
Starting a business is embarrassing.
Embrace it and in the long run you will be rich.
Could 1 of my 80,000+ followers be so kind as to post logistics.viahart.com to a relevant subreddit?
It’s just the beginning, but the service is already game-changing in that it:
1. requires no back and forth emails with broker
2. lets you get pricing instantly without email or phone call
3. Has price match guarantee
4. 10% off for late shipments
5. Includes delivery to your door
Thank you 🙏
I bet the average margin on Amazon is negative too.
Probably true on every marketplace actually.
You know how when you log into Instagram and every post is your friends on vacation or sharing promotions?
Same thing happens for business on social media.
People who are losing money don’t talk.
The reality is that ecommerce, even as a seller, is pretty winner take all.
It’s really hard to make money if you’re in 4th place for a search keyword.
And many search keywords have dozens of options.
Ergo most companies are actually losing money.
They’re just not posting about that on social media.
Amazon is the best place to make contribution profit in ecommerce because it’s the biggest channel by far.
It’s also the worst place to make contribution profit because of how they run that business (constant suspensions, price increases, fba is not optional, and ever growing complexity).
Not to be the bearer of bad news but this is unfixable problem.
Elon tried to swap out the district attorney (the person who decides who gets charged) and failed.
And even if the district attorney did get changed, practically all the judges support lenient or no punishment.
So, until someone has the balls to turn into Batman, you need to tolerate people who have committed 9 violent crimes without punishment committing murder.
I used to say Austin is the best place in America to raise a family.
I'm not sure I can say that anymore, even though it has increasingly cheap housing and good jobs.
UPDATE: Alonzo Mabry is dead.
In March, the 62-year-old was using a computer at Austin's Central Library when the man next to him, Daniel Vasquez, stood up, hit him in the head, and stomped on his skull while he lay unconscious. Then Vasquez went back to his computer.
Mabry died in hospice and Vasquez was charged with murder last week.
Before the library, Vasquez had punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth. That was dismissed by prosecutors.
He also punched a mother in the face in front of her 11-year-old son, then punched the woman who tried to stop him. Those were also dismissed.
DA Jose Garza's office sent him to a six-month rehab program instead. He finished in June 2025 and every charge was wiped and he went back to the street.
Not to be the bearer of bad news but this is unfixable problem.
Elon tried to swap out the district attorney (the person who decides who gets charged) and failed.
And even if the district attorney did get changed, practically all the judges support lenient or no punishment.
So, until someone has the balls to turn into Batman, you need to tolerate people who have committed 9 violent crimes without punishment committing murder.
I used to say Austin is the best place in America to raise a family.
I'm not sure I can say that anymore, even though it has increasingly cheap housing and good jobs.
UPDATE: Alonzo Mabry is dead.
In March, the 62-year-old was using a computer at Austin's Central Library when the man next to him, Daniel Vasquez, stood up, hit him in the head, and stomped on his skull while he lay unconscious. Then Vasquez went back to his computer.
Mabry died in hospice and Vasquez was charged with murder last week.
Before the library, Vasquez had punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth. That was dismissed by prosecutors.
He also punched a mother in the face in front of her 11-year-old son, then punched the woman who tried to stop him. Those were also dismissed.
DA Jose Garza's office sent him to a six-month rehab program instead. He finished in June 2025 and every charge was wiped and he went back to the street.
Verbal intelligence makes a quick first impression and it doesn't take long to figure out if someone can do math, but spatial intelligence remains hidden in almost all human interaction.
"I've never seen anything like that in my life before".
Sol didn't show up to the teleconference.
The judge then asked my attorney to call Sol.
My attorney reached Sol.
The judge rescheduled the conference to accommodate Sol to be 1 hour later.
Sol showed up late.
The judge said there was nothing which could be done to stop Sol from filing bankruptcy (for a 3rd time) right before trial.
The judge ruled that we have to file another motion if we want anything to happen with the money that the judge has ordered Sol's clients to pay twice.
Nothing sticks to Sol!
Best lawyer in America.
The court asked defendants to pay $22k almost a year ago.
The Court asked them again, a second time, about a month ago.
Based Sol ignored the Court.
What do we think is going to happen now?
A. Nothing because nothing sticks to Sol
B. Sol files for bankruptcy (3rd time)
C. Judge does something to end litigation in year 9
The 3rd trial is scheduled February 16th and I have a very bad feeling in my gut as I write this...
I suspect that most of these Americans don’t even know how credit cards work.
Interestingly, the number of states which have required a personal finance course for high school graduation has doubled over the past 10 years.
Move in the right direction, yet it seems not to work.
If America is serious about reindustrialization, it needs to make fund allocation contingent on exports.
Why?
It’s because exports don’t lie.
You can sell crap domestically all day when you’re guarded from foreign competition, but to sell on the global market is requires good product and price.
The other reason why this works is because you’re letting markets decide outcomes instead of government officials.
But hey what do I know, I’m just a struggling made in China plastic circle guy.
It's looking like they're not going to post the video for $1000.
Why might that be?
I asked them to take a simple video of their operation showing 1) them making the sweaters 2) the machine that makes them and where its from 3) the boxes that hold the cotton they use the make the sweaters
And I offered to pay them $1000
Why wouldn't you show that? @JoshuaSteinman @DenverRayburn @fw_automation
You have a factory. You say it's profitable. You seem to have sold a bunch!
Why wouldn't you just take a simple video?
Some reasons why:
1. It's not an American made machine. Making knit sweaters with machines like that is old technology and it's not US. It's German, Japanese, or Chinese today. Same technology to make socks by the way, nothing new.
2. If the cotton is American (as they imply with their patriotic cotton-picker with an american flag on it), it probably wasn't made into cotton yarn in the USA
3. They're not in operation despite their claim being "Software orchestrated apparel production and fulfillment. Domestic, reliable, built for speed and scale." And why aren't they in operation despite it being "profitable" to make a 100% cotton 2XL knit sweater in high rent, high electricity cost, high labor Los Angeles? Because it's not profitable.
To make a sweater like this is extremely expensive in Los Angeles:
1. Get the materials
2. Pay expensive exposed brick wall rent
3. Pay for electricity
4. Amortize the costs of the machines
5. Pay for people to manage and watch the machines
6. Sew the tags on
7. Finish the sweaters
8. Do quality control
9. Package them
10. Ship them out
It's a lot of work as anyone who has actually done it knows.
They say they have 8 employees on their $6.5 million dollar seed round. Founder formerly worked for Lazard. He's hiring a chief of staff. To pay these people is not cheap. Hard to make money with a $16 sweater on old technology in a high cost location with lots of employees.
When you raise $6.5 million with an actual "manifesto" for "Automated Apparel Manufacturing in America" you're kind of in a bind when your process is old technology and not that automated.
So maybe that's why they can't share the video.
These guys were rapid fire with the replies until I asked them to show a video for $1000. Since, they've gone quiet.
I don't know though.
Just post the video guys! Collect the $1000.
I have nothing more to say about this until I get the video.
People have and will attack me for being a "sinophile", for "making cheap plastic toys", for being against American "reindustrialization".
It's pathetic.
The facts are I have 4 US employees, I buy American made products all the time, I've done manufacturing in the United States myself, and I've done a lot of construction in the US too. I create jobs, help the economy, an educate the next generation. I do this with a team, who I'm proud to work with. I hope they're still proud to work with me despite my tendency to get baited into the occasional Twitter fight...
When the current White House administration came in, I even tried to join it. I reached out to 3 different connected people and provided my resume. They weren't interested.
So, go ahead, attack me.
The truth is American industrial policy is bad.
It's a mix of incompetence and, possibly, corruption.
And the startups serving it, many of them are vaporware.
Not software, not real hardware, but vaporware, stuff that is fake.
Show us the video!
I have nothing more to say here. Thank you.
Does Amazon know that its foreign sellers cheat on import duties, tariffs, and taxes?
Is this email warning them that it may be harder for them to cheat going forward?
Why is Amazon providing Chinese language guides to navigate US customs changes?
We are just 8 minutes away from each other @JeffBezos
If Blue Origin needs to expand, you can rent one of our newly constructed buildings (7800 sqft and 22,500 sqft) for free, 1 year.
HOLD ME TO IT!
You are welcome to visit any time.
Hey @DenverRayburn would hire me as your chief of staff?
I saw that you’re looking for someone.
I know you’re really busy with your PR timeline but if I were your chief of staff I could film the video you can’t post because it blows up your company.
Quick quick before she deletes the rest
You’ll notice that most people who will agree she’s scamming will be anonymous because there is no downside to anonymous.
We’ll see how many white knights come in to save Skylar this time.
Why do you think this post has 25,000 views with only 30 likes, an insane ratio?
It’s the cowardice I told you about.
People absolutely love to see high profile scammers get taken down but they’re too scared to interact with the posts.
@skylarromines is a scammer. I caught her and a little later she deleted her post after calling me a misogynist.
She deleted a video of herself in a room full of typewriters saying that her hobby which iirc she said she spent hours on every week (like her new poetry habit) was to refurbish typewriters.
I knew she was scamming and I’ve learned over the years that people who scam on the little stuff scam the big stuff too.
The funniest part was her fascination with how I knew she was scamming.
She couldn’t figure it out but wanted to know so badly.
I’ll tell you now.
It’s from personality testing.
I’ve done 1000s of personality tests and I know what someone who refurbishes typewriters is like.
It’s not a bubbly people person who loves attention and it’s not someone who is loose with the rules, with lack of attention to detail.
And she forgot to cover up all her tracks and left some dumb replies up, which tells you in part how I knew.
I’ve been on this app too long.
I’ve seen so many of these guys come and go.
The best part is who comes in to defend them.
Are they stupid or also scamming?
To every zoomer who saw me take on those bullshitters.
I know how life works and I can teach you.
You’re not going to like it, but I’m right.
I have no course or other financial motive.
I just want you to win.
My resume is on my website with 84 life lessons you can TikTok.
How does he not get deposed in a coup if he spends all his time in Cameroon?
h/t @kynakwado
This is amazing.
This bridge was fully built 12 years ago. China built an entire city on one side. North Korea closed the other side and, allegedly, executed the official (Kim Jong-Un’s uncle) who approved it with a rocket launcher.
North Korea is now open for business?
One of the things you learn from Twitter is that people are total cowards and will almost never defend their friends.
It’s super rare if it ever happens.
They support you when you’re winning but if there’s the slightest whiff of consequences for them personally they are out.
Another thing you learn from Twitter is that the site is full of scumbags.
There are like 2-3 bad people here for every 1 good person.
The good people more than compensate but you gotta be real careful here for that to be true.