Carson Cloud

The worst they could say is no?

this + 50 grok bot agents

In Croatia now. ChatGPT’s voice feature is incredibly clutch. “Everything I say, translate it to Croatian…then listen to them respond in Croatian & translate it to English for me” As close to live-time responses as you can get. No translation barrier. Just a bit of a smile/laugh from every person you use it with.

for years I told people that my goal in this life was peace but every time i experienced peace I found myself seeking more pain it was never peace I wanted it was environments that gave me the space to take on more stress, more agony, more pain so the others around me could experience the safety they call happiness

Money is useless until you put it to use. Its only value is the value in which you assign it. The risk isn’t in losing it, it’s in producing it. Fuel the things that fuel it.

3 questions you should answer before opening your doors: 1. What will make them come in? 2. What will make them stay? 3. What will make it impossible for them to leave?

My new technical co-founder

Coming from a guy that helped a company raise nearly $30 million, Here’s why I think raising capital (in most case scenarios) doesn’t make sense: In order to get investment, You need to market yourself & your company to your ideal investor profile. You need to place calls with those prospective investors. Then you need to sell them on why they should invest in your idea. Marketing -> Sales If you just take that exact same effort, and instead of marketing/selling to prospective investors, just market/sell to your prospective buyers. “I don’t have enough money for marketing” Do you have a cell phone? Start dialing. Apollo + Instantly is $200/mo. LinkedIn is free. Instagram is free. It’s not a money problem, it’s a you’re just a lazy pos problem. Your first 5-10 customers will be the most difficult to acquire…but if you’re unable to acquire 5-10 customers…your idea is probably shit anyways. Investment in 1 idea won’t allow you to pivot as quickly as bootstrapping will.

1st-time founders commonly make the mistake of “here’s my idea, what do you think?” They build the offer/product before asking the people who they are selling to if the problem even exists. Do you solve a problem for them? If yes, great business. If no, bad business.

4 PhDs asked me to build a software for them that analyzed the relationship between crops & solar. 2 of them had PhDs in Computer Science. For context: I maybe graduated high school with a 3.1-3.2 GPA. Never took the ACT. I put “A” for every answer on my SAT. The best they could come up with was a power point presentation. PhDs. These are professors at a college where students on average pay $75k/year. But yeah…stay in school kids.

I’m now at the stage of entrepreneurship where I find SEO thoroughly intriguing.

“Do you think this will work?” You realize Google just gives you the data on what people are looking for…right? F TAM/SAM/SOM just look at Google search volume

The next 2-3 years will be shakeout years for U.S. solar. I’ve seen it start this year. Some of the largest players getting caught in the death spiral* of the industry. (*high volume sales -> poor quality work -> financiers holding funding -> can’t pay contractors -> can’t pay sales) Executives at $1B+ companies handing in their 2 weeks and calling it quits. Founders that have raised over $300 million who once were able to sell their vision to firms, can no longer sell that same vision to themselves. Those that are only in this industry for quick money will cease. Those who have found everlasting purpose, longer-term visions will thrive. There’s no doubt in my mind that hydro, nuclear & solar will battle for the primary source of energy for the US. But there is one thing that is certain, The United States NEEDS more energy. It needs its energy independence. & it definitely won’t get there by burning the industry that is the quickest form of energy to deploy.

this generation of entrepreneurs needs to learn to stfu and just work. lambo before key hire lavish apartment before office space exquisite dinners w/ people who don’t matter before client outings show me where the money flows & I’ll show you where your business goes.

“19 years ago I couldn’t code Today I could code … Great thinking, Great taste, Great understanding of user problems, These are things that matter even more now … It’s no longer “can you build it” It’s now: What do you build? Should you build it? Does it matter?” @bchesky

build for what you believe is to come… not what is already there.