Thomas Smale

'Sent from my iPhone' = please forgive me for my typos

'Sent from AI' = please forgive me for sounding like a robot

"just list your business at the price you want and see what you can get”

bad idea

listing at 20x net income and hoping to get lucky isn’t a great idea - it will alienated serious buyers

congrats - that's huge 💪

no-calls every poicy at work or for clients.

this story gets at the heart of why I love working with founders

running your business, it's yours - you can do it your way - you can break the rules - you can make new rule

i found this thread disturbing:
an 11-year-old is using gpt to do ALL her homework.

a teacher told me she had to change her entire lesson plan because of gpt & other tools.

how do we get the next generation to learn instead of just using ai?

i don't know but kids should at least how to add 24+7.

The biggest merger in history became a $100 billion disaster.

When selling your business, please don’t do this...

Don’t work over the holidays (it will make your business better)

Investors want businesses that work without their founders

A vacation is a great chance to see what works (and what breaks)

The final product? Not great.

But in two hours as a first pass I think pretty impressive to see how far this tech has come & how far it has to go.

#ai #sora #chatgpt

What didn’t work:
- Hands (they can't pick up a remote)
- Text (cue: “quiibi” moments).
- Celebrities/brands (not legal)
- VO is boring (free trial of 11Labs)
- That graph is hilariously terrible

What worked:
- Simple stock clips (office shot, couch shot, etc.)
- Overarching story (dry but there)
- Glitch transitions (I thought were pretty cool)

They used:
- ChatGPT: for brainstorming, scripting, and prompts.
- 11Labs: for voiceovers.
- Sora: for video creation.
- Stock for music (they already failed)

2 hours. 1 challenge: Make a video only using AI.

That’s the challenge I threw at our marketing team yesterday.

(I got too excited playing around with Sora)

Sora trying to pick up a remote 🤣

#chatgpt #sora

Angel investing is a sport in the Bay.

Startup ecosystems grow "middle-out"—starting with seed investors before pre-seed and angel communities develop.

People in the Bay Area love investing in tech—part of why I love San Francisco.

But how do you foster that?

#investing #startups

The best bagel shop in NYC just closed and no one knows why

30+ years of business, and the announcement is just a "we are closed" sign

Might be the most New Yorker way to shut down a business

lets GO

6/ Promote within your communities
Keep being helpful and plug your course (in a non-spammy way and within the rules).
If you've done a good job with #2 you will be fine.
If you skipped #2, this will not work.

5/ Package & price
Set your course up on the platform, add easy to create bonuses
- ie: excel trackers, swipe files, case studies etc.
- price reasonably ($19, $49, $99). Nothing crazy when starting.
Yes, you could sell for $10,000 and only find one person to buy :)

4/ Choose a selling platform
Sign up for a platform to host and sell your guide/course.
Tools like Thrivecart make this easier (Black Friday deal: bfcm2024.thrivecart.com/bfcm/get-ult...)
You can do the same for free but a good tool will significantly improve your results

3/ Create a "how-to guide"
- How to play golf
- How to use AI tools
- How to sing
- How to SEO.
(Almost anything will work)

2/ Join online communities
Find the niche online communities related to that subject (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
- becoming known by answering questions
- build a reputation

1/ Find your expertise
What subject do you know more than 95% of people?
(spoiler alert - likely many things!)
- Think hobbies, skills, work, passion
- IE - golf, ai, singing, salesforce

How to make your first $10,000 online in 6 steps.

I did this in 2009 (and it still works today):

WD40 + duct tape - all you need. Good luck with everything 🙏

A $40 cereal box saved AirBnB. This is the story.

Good luck - can't wait to see it 🔥

me whenever i see old friends #founders

Breaking:

Joe Biden has pardoned the newly announced winners of Forbes 30 Under 30 for all fraud committed in the last 2 years.

Selling your biz alone vs with an advisor

#acquisitions