The Panel

Jason Cohen, founder of WP Engine and author of Hidden Multipliers, shares his approach to writing and startup thinking. He debates whether distribution is really a moat, explores what makes companies like Basecamp and Lemon Squeezy durable, and explains his funnel idea that the quality of who enters the top matters most. Conversational, strategic, and full of practical frameworks.

Founders unpack revenue whiplash and the daily sales mood swings that shape decisions. They debate doubling down versus making scary directional changes and the value of marinating on big ideas. Practical distribution tactics come up: SEO, Reddit hand-to-hand fixes, ads, and building YouTube as a system. They also cover social proof, review tactics, and using AI plus network sleuthing to pursue deals.

Conversations about finding and defining the ideal customer profile and why ambition often beats demographics. Practical debates on when to go broad versus vertical and how jobs-to-be-done guide positioning. Tips on content strategy: clipping, automated posting, and using video to reach audiences. A big thread on AI tooling, productization, pricing power, and how ambition shapes lifetime value.

Henry Poydar, founder of Steady and builder of coordination intelligence for teams, joins to talk AI agents as teammates. They explore agentic automation, shifting planning cycles, and how to make agents visible and accountable within team workflows. The conversation also covers scaling agent work across small teams and large companies, plus the marketing and cultural shifts around AI.

Founders gripe about painful analytics pricing and why they ripped out expensive tools. They debate which AI company will win the race and whether Mythos lives up to the hype. Conversation on AI-driven productivity, burnout and the risks of automated copycats. They question if long-term vision still matters or if rapid building is the new playbook.

Ryan Hefner, product builder and founder of Launch Weeks who builds in public, talks about how we pick daily drivers for shoes, IDEs, AI models and news. Short takes explore mobile-first coding, remote-controlling Claude, why we stick to familiar tools, using AI to plan trips, and preferred voice transcription workflows.

Ben Curtis, co-founder of Honeybadger and podcaster behind Founder Quest, talks about using AI across engineering, sales, and product. He explains AI-powered debugging, model selection, and replacing traditional CRMs with Claude. They also explore AI-driven design, automated monitoring agents, and how LLM recommendations reshape product discovery.

Roundtable business updates and how founders price and market new features. Marketing tactics for existing customers and onboarding that actually converts. Deep dives on whether autonomous AI companies like Polsia and Delve are real or hype. New tooling announcements, model choices, and practical agent workarounds for recurring tasks.

They debate opportunity costs in a maker’s life and choices about hiring versus doing it yourself. They explore AI agents automating marketing, CRM experiments, and building custom internal tools versus using SaaS. They discuss how AI could reshape distribution, agent-friendly APIs, and the future of company-specific assistants.

A co-founder retreat sparks candid talk about alignment, communication and who owns strategy in a 50/50 partnership. The conversation pivots to prototype-first product choices like video and how to include teammates. They unpack the “Mexican standoff” as AI reshapes roles, plus practical ideas for safely adopting agents and redesigning small teams.