Technology
The people, products and decisions shaping technology.
About this list
This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Technology. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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Why “Scalable” Keeps You Broke
For all the talk of enterprise value and multiples, friendly reminder that it’s okay to just make money now. Sell some “unscalable” stuff for way more than it costs. Pocket the difference. Live your life.
$50k/month founder nearly killed his app by spending thousands on UGC 😊
Bro spent thousands on UGC with zero winning format and nearly killed the business. Lino went straight to big fitness influencers before he had any proof of what actually converts. Thousands per video, margins at 5-10%, barely scraping $3-4K in revenue. The fix: he partnered with one big fitness creator for equity instead of chasing deal after deal. Suddenly the content was free, the creator had skin in the game, and AbMaxx took off. From there he cut every other UGC deal, doubled down on Meta ads at 2-2.5X ROAS, then moved the same creatives to TikTok and hit 4-5X ROAS targeting a younger audience.
Personal Brand Vs. Company Brand
Rather than buying things for less than their worth, make your brand so strong that when you buy something, it becomes more valuable by its association to you.
Recursive Self-Improvement and the Future of AI
a16z General Partner Martin Casado sits down with MakerMaker.AI co-founders Dhaval Adjodah and Owen He to unpack recursive self-improvement, or RSI, and separate the increasingly popular term from what it would actually mean for an AI system to improve itself. Dhaval and Owen distinguish true RSI from simply using AI to automate pieces of AI development. Their goal is a closed loop where the system being improved is also doing the improving, across components including models, harnesses, and eventually more of the AI stack. They explain why closing that loop still doesn’t guarantee runaway “takeoff,” and why measuring real progress requires accounting for both capability gains and the resources required to achieve them. They also share what they’re seeing in their own research, including early signs that self-improving systems can increase performance while improving efficiency. And they dig into the practical challenges of proving those gains are real, from variance and reward hacking to the enormous difficulty of distinguishing genuine improvement from noise. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:58 - What actually counts as RSI 05:10 - Capability as a numerator and denominator 06:58 - Closed loop vs takeoff 08:32 - Humans as agents in the system 13:39 - Why most RSI papers don't scale 17:41 - Why they chose inference 24:00 - "It's not a belief, it's happening" 25:42 - The Viceroy of Variance 29:39 - The garden hose company in Wisconsin Resources: Follow Dhaval Adjodah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rand0m Follow Owen He on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-he-b7b064279/ Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Pod
3 times life put me in my place
*$1M Solopreneur MVP guide:* https://clickhubspot.com/rxhh Episode 870: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) tells 3 embarrassing stories. — Show Notes: (0:00) intro (1:15) recent embarrassment (5:20) Lesson: “You Can Make Hell Out of Heaven” (8:15) business embarrassment (12:58) Lesson: “Worship at the Church of Action” (15:35) personal embarrassment (19:55) Lesson: “The Decision Is Upstream of All Action” — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/ Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /
The cyber-fueled cult of Ibrahim Traoré
Fighting to contain an Islamist insurgency, while asserting national pride, is the military leader of Burkina Faso a messiah of the algorithm?
The internet is going to agents
The majority of actions on the internet will be taken by agents. Tibo Sottiaux, Head of ChatGPT & Codex, on what builders aren't pricing in yet, and what happened to Notion's traffic after they shipped an MCP.
The Fastest Way to $10M Is Not the Way to $100M
An early mentor told me “you have to go slow to go fast” To build something tall, you need deep foundations. But you have to build that way from day 1 because it starts with the foundation. It took me forever to get it. Otherwise, you cap out because you never laid it right.
The Moat in Content Is Reality
I think most aspiring “creators” miss one crucial point about content: The messenger is inextricably linked with the message. If you haven’t done shit - no matter how good your educational content may be - you don’t have credibility. If you do hard shit, telling story is easy.
My First SaaS Project Just Hit $11K/Month
Vadim is 19 years old and, before this year, had never shipped an app in his life. In March, he quit his marketing job to build apps… 5 months later, he hit $10K/month with over 20K users. His process has been 100% building with AI and posting content on IG shamelessly. This video is proof that you do NOT need to be technical or have a clever growth hack to build an app business that makes real money. *Get HubSpot's free CRM, the one that updates itself:* https://clickhubspot.com/qy9n Say hi to Vadim: https://x.com/VadimStrizheus Check out Vugola: https://www.vugolaai.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs Chapters: 0:00 - Zero to $10K in 5 months 0:56 - What’s your story? 1:22 - What’s the app? 2:10 - Know your customers! 2:52 - Founder background 3:27 - Finding the app idea 4:13 - How he built it 5:05 - Building the MVP 5:23 - Tech stack and tools 5:51 - Zero to $1K MRR 6:45 - Hitting $10K per month 9:02 - Time vs money with content 9:55 - App demo 10:46 - Final advice 11:45 - Reflections: anyone can be a builder! This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Why every company now needs to think and operate like a lab team | Josh Woodward (VP Google Labs)
Josh Woodward is the head of Google Labs, the Gemini app, and AI Studio. He has spent over 17 years at Google and oversees its longest-running and largest labs team, whose products include NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook), Project Genie, and Flow. His job is to find, experiment with, and scale new AI products, and he has built one of the most distinctive product cultures in the industry for generating ideas, running experiments, and, even more importantly, knowing when to quit. *In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:* 1. Why every company now needs to think and operate like a labs team 2. Where the best ideas really come from 3. The “almost possible” framework 4. How to recognize genuine product-market fit early 5. When to kill an idea 6. What skills are rising in value in the AI era 7. Why roles are not actually blurring into one universal builder role 8. How to set up your internal labs team *Brought to you by:* WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny DX—Engineering intelligence for the AI era: https://getdx.com/?utm_source=lenny&utm_medium=sponsorship&utm_campaign=q42026 *Episode transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-every-company-now-needs-to-think *Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:* https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0 *Highlights:* https://lennyspodcast.com/mostreplayedmoments *Where to find Josh Woodward:* • X: https://x.com/joshwoodward • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwoodward *Where to find Lenny:* • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Introduction (02:53) Why every company now needs to think like a labs team (05:43) Where great ideas come from (07:43) The “almost possible” framework (11:52) Finding product-market fit (16:09) Falling in
AI Loops Actually Aren't The Future
OpenAI's Tibo Sottiaux on what everyone's getting wrong about AI loops.
Former Intel CEO: Why This is the Best Time to Build Hardware
a16z's Raghu Raghuram and Guido Appenzeller sit down with Playground Global General Partner and former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to discuss the next wave of semiconductor innovation and the physical constraints shaping the AI buildout. Drawing on his experience designing Intel's 386 and 486 processors, Pat explains how AI could transform chip design, but also why faster design alone won't solve the industry's biggest problems. They examine the bottlenecks in manufacturing, memory bandwidth, advanced packaging, and power, and why today's explosion of specialized AI chips may eventually consolidate around a smaller number of architectures. They also discuss the potential for new memory technologies, the shift from copper to optical networking, and why energy capacity could become a major constraint on AI growth. Finally, they revisit Pat's VMware years to ask what virtualization might look like when infrastructure is built for agents rather than humans. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:00 - From tech school to Intel at 18 05:44 - The 486 and the birth of modern EDA 07:23 - How AI changes chip design 09:18 - Why silicon still takes nine months 14:49 - Will 100 AI chips converge to a few? 22:08 - Why HBM is a hideous memory 25:15 - How tall can chips get? 42:49 - Energy capacity equals economic capacity 48:42 - A VMware for agents Resources: Follow Pat Gelsinger on X: https://x.com/PGelsinger Follow Raghu Raghuram on X: https://x.com/RaghuRaghuram Follow Guido Appenzeller: https://x.com/appenz Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is f
8 GitHub Repos To Go Viral and Make Money
In this solo episode, I walk through eight GitHub repos and AI skills that I test at night and on weekends. The list covers launch videos, social research, local voice and dubbing, editable decks, agent teams, lead-magnet tools, idea stress-testing, and design guidance. For each one, I explain what it does, how I'd set it up, and one concrete way to use it to make money or run a business more easily. Most are free to download, and you pay for the model you run them with. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:25 – Brag: Launch Videos From a Link 04:50 – Agent Reach for Customer Research 07:46 – Voice Studio: Local AI Voice and Dubbing 10:41 – PPT Master: Editable Decks From Notes 12:59 – OpenRig: Coding Agents as a Team 14:57 – Free Tools Skill by Corey Haynes 17:25 – Grill Me Skill by Matt Pocock 19:31 – Impeccable: Design Guidance for Agents 23:03 – My Top Picks: Brag and Agent Reach 24:07 – Closing Thoughts GitHub Repo Links: Brag: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brag Agent Reach: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/agent-reach Voice Studio: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/voice-studio PPT Master: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ppt-master OpenRig: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/openrig Free Tool: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/marketing-skills Grill Me Skill: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/grill-me Impeccable Skill: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/impeccable Key Points • Most of these tools are free to download, and the main cost is the model you run them with. • Work I do for someone up front, like a launch video or a design fix, starts a conversation in place of a cold email. • Posts on Reddit, X, and YouTube show tasks people still do by hand, and a small tool can fix them. • Translated onboarding videos make a recurring monthly service for other companies. • Grill Me logs my assumptions so I check them with a real customer before I build. • Ten clients at $1,000 a month is $10,000 a month, and that cash flow funds the move from services to technology. Numbered Section Sum
Luca Ferrari: The Operating System Behind Bending Spoons
Luca Ferrari is co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, a serial acquirer of AOL, Vimeo and Evernote, Airtable, etc, that buys to hold forever, and whose only real edge is that it operates software companies better than almost anyone else. Bending Spoons got 800,000 job applications last year and hired fewer than 300 people. Luca runs hiring the way a quant runs a portfolio — hundreds of signals tested against future performance — and he's blunt about what the data says. Harvard and Stanford barely predict anything. Interviews are the worst signal in the process unless they're scripted. The best candidates were politically active as teenagers and stopped in their 20s. He hires for slope over experience, which is why a 25-year-old routinely shows up to run a company Bending Spoons just bought, and why he thinks experienced hires from big tech lose motivation and struggle to adapt. He also explains why Bending Spoons has no executive team, why the burden of proof always sits with whoever wants to add complexity, and why he stayed in Milan on purpose. I called three founders whose companies Luca acquired before this interview. All three, unprompted, said the same thing: exceptionally high integrity. His answer about where that comes from is the most honest closing I've had on this show. Chapters: 0:00 – Introduction 1:13 – The Bending Spoons model: buy to hold forever, then rebuild from the ground up 8:07 – 800,000 applicants, fewer than 300 hires: industrializing talent density 13:45 – Hiring like a quant trader: hundreds of signals, scripted interviews 21:45 – Why strategy and talent trump org structure 25:34 – Leader or manager? Head in the clouds, feet on the ground, but never both at once 30:38 – Slope over experience: why 25-year-olds run the companies Bending Spoons buys 41:08 – Radical candor, the 360 that found Brian's bugs, and picking one flaw a year 47:00 – No exec team, no sacred org chart: whoever is CEO should rewrite the system 51:27 – Question everyth
OpenAI has more than 120 ex-YC founders
Typing fast is trending down. Great taste is trending up. Tibo Sottiaux, Head of ChatGPT & Codex, on the skills that matter in hiring now and why OpenAI has more than 120 ex-YC founders.
I Make $13K/Month From This Simple App
Max built a simple iOS app to solve his own problem at the gym. But here’s the thing… before this app, he had never shipped a single line of code in his life. In fact, he was going down the traditional route: college, internships, everything. But he found apps and decided to go all-in. Today, his app makes $14K/month and is growing. This is his app story for anyone looking to get started with apps in 2026. *Get HubSpot's free CRM, the one that updates itself:* https://clickhubspot.com/2b1y Say hi to Max: https://x.com/MaxHirsch13 Check out Maxed AI: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/maxed-ai-smart-fitness-app/id6759180029 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs Chapters: 0:00 - Zero to $14K in 6 months 0:49 - What’s your story? 1:19 - What’s the app? 2:29 - What makes your app different? 3:03 - How to keep track of your customers 3:45 - Founder background 4:49 - Finding the idea 5:32 - Tech stack 6:04 - Growth and marketing 7:38 - What’s working for growing apps right now 8:23 - Building a personal brand 9:15 - App demo 10:14 - Final advice 11:15 - Pat and Gus reflections This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
The AI Work Transformation Isn't Over
OpenAI's Tibo Sottiaux explains why he thinks that AI will keep radically transforming how we work.
Every successful startup starts with this one advantage
*$1M Attention Guide: 15+ ways to get eyeballs on what you're building* https://clickhubspot.com/bvo9 Episode 869: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Angel Studios founder Jeff Harmon ( https://x.com/JeffreyHarmon ) about finding and exploiting glitches. — Show Notes: (0:00) I helped a dentist create one of the greatest marketing campaigns (8:35) How to find the glitch in the system (11:10) Go for your own problems (13:25) Where is the attention going? (16:10) ANGEL (19:15) 19-minute ad experiment (25:30) The genius moment behind Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri (26:55) Poo-Pourri ad (27:25) How to craft a $100M ad (28:55) Use comedians (35:55) Warm up the algorithm (39:35) Super Bowl stunts (41:10) PG-13 content for the masses (44:45) Base hits vs. home runs (45:10) The economics of the movie business (47:05) “I’ve never met a billionaire who doesn’t want to make movies” (49:55) The brutality of Hollywood (54:10) Having a personal vibe coder (1:00:05) Advice to my younger self — Links: • Angel Studios — angel.com • Poo-Pourri — poopourri.com • Squatty Potty — squattypotty.com • Purple — purple.com • A24 — a24films.com — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/ Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/
The only reason why Instagram worked early on
Instagram turns 16 today. Before Instagram, there was Burbn. Systrom named it after his taste for bourbon. It let you check in somewhere, post your plans, earn points for hanging out with friends, and share a photo. He and Mike Krieger cut everything except photos, comments and likes, and rebuilt it in about eight weeks. Instant camera, telegram. Instagram. Source: Tim Ferriss
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