Greg Isenberg is a multi-exit Silicon Valley entrepreneur and owner of Late Checkout product studio. He has:
- Headed Product Strategy at WeWork
- Been an advisor to Reddit
- Founded a startup, Islands, which was sold to WeWork
- Founded 5by, which was sold to StumbleUpon
Guest Author: Greg Isenberg
I’M FEELING SPICY TODAY
I’ll say the quiet parts out loud:
1. Revenue per employee is going through the roof.
What happens when tech companies need 10% or lower of the employees?
Mass layoffs and less hiring.
2. Your big tech company job is at risk.
If we’ve learned anything from the 2021/2022 layoffs is that you probably should have a side hustle if you’re at bigtech
3. Most VCs are soul-searching right now.
What’s the role of VC in 2024 when it’s never been cheaper to build software?
Chasing LLM startups or hardware companies.
4. Most brand social accounts are dead.
Some creators will be created to be C-Suite at large brands.
These deals will be 7-8 figures.
5. All SaaS apps are about get copied.
AI makes that easy. Prices of SaaS products will go down.
6. There’s a bunch of creators on tech X who literally just copy people’s content.
7. Affiliate marketing is in its heyday.
TikTok has become the largest affiliate platform in the world.
8. Cash flow is way more interesting than valuation.
Your stress levels are way lower when you run cash-flowing businesses versus on the VC train
9. Lot of jerks on the internet, but building an audience is worth it.
10. It’s still low status to build an audience.
Only once you hit thousands of likes per post does it move up status.
Keep going.
11.There is no middle class creator.
You are either scrambling to pick up a dollar or follower or flooded with dollars or followers
12. Dividends are about to get way more common for founders.
Raising money and giving a % of future profits makes so much sense
13. If you want to get rich, don’t be a VC-backed founder.
Odds are against you. Be a VC-backed founder if it’s your dream.
14. A bunch of creator-led products are going to burn their brand in an instant.
Some will be pretty high profile.
15. People are waking up to the fact that working for big tech is tough, working at a vc-backed startup and the safest/most desirable place to be is go independent
16. Most ghostwritten tweets have no soul. People aren’t dumb, they recognize that tweet is written by an agency.
Hope you enjoyed these spicy Xmas takes.
Thanks for an incredible 2023 and for following me @gregisenberg
Maybe I overdosed on eggnog, but was feeling spicy.
17. Christmas ugly sweaters are not ugly, they actually look beautiful and make you warm/fuzzy inside
Check out the original tweet here
