Alex MacCaw
@maccaw
Followers
38K
Following
28K
Media
779
Statuses
16K
π¨π»βπ¨ Building @reflectnotes π° Investing https://t.co/nO82gNNGOk π€ Founded @clearbit Tea, Earl Grey, hot. π
Joined March 2007
This is pretty mind-blowing: a podcast that is entirely generated by artificial intelligence where Joe Rogan interviews Steve Jobs.
327
1K
8K
The "SF is not that bad" narrative that is getting peddled just blows my mind. Go walk around the place - it's nuts.
117
114
2K
It's fascinating what's happening on the Midjourney Discord forums. Here's some highlights:.
51
377
2K
One shock to me in moving to New Zealand is there is no Amazon. My mind hadn't even considered that a possibility.
77
46
2K
What I'd love is an E-Ink phone that can play Spotify, order an Uber, display basic Google Maps, but it's completely and utterly dull to use.
78
41
1K
Two weeks ago we released Reflect on Apple's App Store - itβs been a disaster. Initially, we used TestFlight to distribute our iOS app, which worked well and allowed us to quickly iterate and ship updates. However, there was a cap on the number of users we could have.
121
117
1K
Advice for SAAS founders:. 1. Make sure you are a survivor. SAAS compounds, but it takes ages. The winners are the survivors. The simplest way is to be cash-flow positive. 2. Have fun. It will take a decade to get anywhere. You have to enjoy the ride.
12
228
1K
Bootstrapping in 2021:. 1. Setup LLC with Stripe Atlas, bank with Mercury.2. Loan the company $50 - $100k.3. Offer annual-only subscriptions for 4 months (for cashflow).4. Once > $100k in annual rev, move to monthly plans and sell mrr on .5. Profitable!.
26
63
1K
Be warned, there's a nasty Google 2 factor auth attack going around.
66
2K
918
Do you feel lost? . Try creating. Could be code, companies, art, people. Creation brings meaning because it's what we were made to do.
20
124
978
I'm excited to announce Clearbit is joining HubSpot.
HubSpot announced acquisition of Clearbit this morning. Imagine opening your CRM box and having it full already? Yup.
138
21
981
Everyone I talked to who's received lasik eye-surgery has said it was the best thing they have ever purchased. But there are so many people walking around with glasses because of FUD about the procedure. If you're eligible, just get it. In your early twenties if possible.
169
32
860
The fact that the two richest people in the world are also the two that produced some of the most value is capitalism at its finest.
17
55
869
I've been living in Puerto Rico the last month and have eliminated meetings to just focus on the things I love:. - 9am πΏ.- 9:30am: π¨π»βπ» Coding.- 3pm: ππ» Kitesurfing.- 6pm: π Sunset beer.- 8pm: π₯ Dinner with friends. Life is good.
25
14
857
Excited to launch !. Our goal with this handbook is to set a new standard for great managementβand to help as many people as possible to get there.
23
109
852
How much does it cost to create a SAAS startup? . I have spent $45,000 so far building @reflectnotes. Here's the breakdown:.
44
72
831
The best reason for maxing out all your Apple laptop specs is for running Whisper. These days I rarely type anything. I just narrate it.
39
22
844
kneeling cat knight, portrait, finely detailed armor, intricate design, silver, silk, cinematic lighting, 4k, --ar 9:16 --beta --upbeta
16
93
775
Last week, Clearbit closed more revenue in a single day than in our entire first year.
20
8
778
WorkGPT now has OpenAI's new function invocation feature baked into it. This is huge. While chaining together APIs was possible before (see AutoGPT), it was slow, expensive, and error prone. Here I demonstrate how to give GPT-4 an array of different APIs, some dynamically built
18
100
760
If you're ever criticized for making something new, remember someone told the founder of Dropbox that it could be trivially built with FTP.
19
416
704
π app stack:. - @vercel hosting.- Next.js / TypeScript: framework.- @tailwindcss: CSS Framework.- @shadcn: UX framework.- @neondatabase: Serverless Postgres.- @inngest: Messaging queue.- @resendlabs: Transactional email.- @stripe: Payments / Incorporation.
27
59
690
For all the hype AI is getting, I don't think it's enough. It's tough to put into words how much GPT-4 has changed my life. I use it every-day as a coding assistant, personal professor, and a google replacement. And this is the worst it'll ever be.
45
37
655
The journey from founder to CEO goes from working in Sublime to this:
27
42
650
Caught myself saying: "Let me know how I can be helpful". You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
14
11
614
β‘οΈ Some news β‘οΈ. @apv_tweets and I are launching a $5m rolling fund to invest in incredible companies. π a thread:.
37
26
558
I'm fortunate to have found something I love as much as programming.
19
4
595
It's happening! SQLite in the browser. Next will be server sync.
20
59
575
Your manager can make or break your experience at a company; it's crucial to get it right. This is the first part in our series on how we do management at Clearbit.
6
78
582
One of the best messages my parents conveyed to me was: "as long as you're happy, we're happy". It's a simple message, but it made me realize my life was under my control; I didn't have to live up to anyone else's expectations.
3
56
505
Linear just released a talk about how they build their syncing engine. I have a genuine appreciation for how Linear has built this. We have had to build something similar for our note taking application. It is very tricky to do and I wish there was more.
21
22
508
GitHub Co-Pilot is the best thing that has happened to programming in the last decade.
25
23
499
Do you find Zoom calls draining? . Hide self view. The brain uses a tremendous amount of energy looking at itself. Right click on your video to do so.
18
26
482
When picking startup ideas, my advice is to first pick an audience, and then to build something they want. You'll spend a lot of time with your customers - it's much more fun building things for people you like hanging out with.
10
60
485
I come back from a month sailing and I swear Github's Copilot has vastly improved its accuracy. Now writing 50% of my code.
24
18
476
aerial view of a giant fish tank shaped like a tower in the middle of new york city, 8k octane render, photorealistic --ar 9:20
4
44
463
Aside from two bags, I have sold all my possessions. I feel free.
35
9
479
I regret using Firebase at Reflect. All sorts of syncing and performance issues.
65
14
474
Why did none of my friends tell me programming a text editor was one of the hardest things in the world?.
37
9
466
This is the best text to speech I've heard - bravo! . We are officially at indistinguishable from a human levels.
26
77
470
I can count on one hand the number of friends still left in San Francisco. Clearbit's entire leadership team has also left. I'm sure there will be an influx of new talent but this is a massive shift.
32
12
448
The Great CEO Within is published today! This is the most tactical guide to building and scaling a company I've read.
16
60
426
Tomorrow I set sail across the Atlantic. South Africa to Grenada. Wish me luck!.
38
1
425
milkyway in a glass bottle, 4K, unreal engine, octane render --ar 9:16
3
31
394
We are here to stay!.
We're officially profitable! π₯³. Last year, we set a goal to become profitable by the end of 2023 β a milestone we have now successfully reached. What does this mean for Reflect? It means we're here for the long haul!. Many startups rely on venture financing, pushing them into a
53
2
416
Cursor is the best product I've used in a while - it's an AI enabled editor. I just asked it to write a README for a project I've been working on - analyzed the code-base and worked first time.
26
20
401
I've just got Starlink setup on the boat and I'm getting 150mbs down. Just insane. Got to be one of the best things I've ever bought.
28
10
398
π company stack:. - @stripe Atlas - LLC/c-corp incorp.- @CustomerIO - marketing.- @segment - analytics.- @PilotHQ or @puzzlefin - bookkeeping.- @heyequals - reporting.- @AngelList - fundraising / cap table.- @missiveapp - shared inbox.- @openai - ChatGPT +.- @super_ - Wiki.
35
28
401
It's been a rollercoaster of a week at Reflect, but we just hit this milestone which I think is worth celebrating. Sharing this with all you in the hope that it might spark your own entrepreneurial dreams.
27
5
398
I've found one of the best reasons to start a company is that you get to surround yourself with fantastic people who are constantly giving you feedback, helping you to become a better person.
6
34
377
Clearbit just bought ChatGPT+ for the entire company, and then had someone from OpenAI visit our offsite to demonstrate different use-cases. We then broke into sessions and experimented with automating different company processes. Probably a good policy for any company tbh.
21
31
384
This is fantastic. Chat with any library - just give it a GitHub repo.
4
44
353
Reflect is raising capital, but not from VCs. Why? Venture capital often kills companies like ours. Thereβs a better way: introducing Reflectβs community round.
18
31
349
Iβm looking for a TypeScript/Next.js contractor to work hand in hand with me on my next project. This will be a lot of fun. π.
26
46
338
robert de niro as mario bros, weta workshop, beautiful cinematic lighting, volumetric
5
21
323
People really over complicate companies with OKRs, 1:1s, status updates, roadmaps, blah blah blah. We donβt do any of that at Reflect. We have one all hands a week and a WhatsApp channel. Thatβs it. And yet we ship lots, have >4k customers, and growing faster than ever.
23
12
333
Calling your parents is one of the best ways of using the time on your commute.
8
11
331
One of the best parts of starting a company today is the modern startup stack. These products automate so much of what was hard about company-building. Here's what we use at @reflectnotes:.
7
17
329
Midjourney's new beta is also great at faces. full-body-and-face-portrait. grim dirt headdress mask veil shaman slim woman. face paint, ash, possessed. druid, elk-horn headdress, branches-veil, feminine, obscured eyes. Sony Alpha Ξ±7, ISO1900
6
25
310
AI is moving so fast you have to plan for where the puck is going, not what is available now. Imminent releases are:.- Multimodal (i.e. parse images).- Great open-source models (LLama 2 today!).- GPT-4 embeddings. Questions you should be asking yourself:. - What new products.
15
19
316
Hands-down favorite new app: . It aggregates messaging across iMessage, Twitter DM, Whatsapp, and FB Messenger in a beautiful UI. And it does it in a secure way and respects E2E encryption.
126
14
308
I find that founders, even rich ones, tend to jump to raising institutional capital far too quickly. Often they are looking for validation. I can tell you that getting validation from your customers feels way better than from a random VC.
17
23
314
robert de niro as gimli, insanely detailed and intricate, photo realistic, maximum texture,
3
10
304
AI is the next platform. A platform needs an app-store. We engineers currently have a slim chance of creating this app-store layer before some large corporation does it. We must seize this chance. It is very important that we don't repeat the same mistakes again and have another.
22
34
315