Greg Isenberg

This is still the best business advice I've ever received:

Think like a farmer.

We think we're internet entrepreneurs but we're really farmers.

Fun fact:

The 1920 USA census tells us that 30% of Americans were farmers in 1920.

Today, under 1% of Americans are farmers with 72% using the internet to perform their jobs.

We've moved from real farmers to internet farmers.


More ways we can learn from farmers:

-Rotate Crops: Adapt and change strategies to prevent stagnation.

-Observe Neighbors: Learn from competitors' successes and failures.

-Prioritize Soil Health: Foundation first; prioritize team well-being.

-Store Surplus: Save profits for unforeseen challenges or downturns.

-Embrace Natural Rhythms: Respect individual work rhythms; avoid burnout.

-Prevent Pests Early: Address small issues before they amplify.

-Forecast and Plan: Analyze trends; anticipate future industry shifts.

-Wear a hat: Protect yourself from the sun

-Wake Up Early: Consistency pays off

-Invest in the Right Tools: The right equipment will 10x your yield

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I’ll tell you a story I haven’t told many people…I'm 18, bank account dwindling, and desperate for a job.

I applied to 100 jobs and got zero offers.

They said I didn’t have enough experience or my French wasn’t good enough. The hopelessness was real.

So, I reached out to internet companies in SF/NYC.

“Hey, would you pay me $2/lead? No risk to you.“

It was 2008, during the great financial crisis. Companies were looking to cut costs, and this was attractive. Mobile/social was just becoming a thing. New apps needed users.

The first few hundred emails were ignored. Finally, one company said yes. I made $100 that month. Not exactly balling out, but it was a start. I bought a pair of cool shoes with it.

Sweetest shoes I ever bought.

Every app needed users, and I knew how to get them. I could scale this. I hired two friends, trained them on the pitch, and paid them $1/lead. The margins were thin, but we started pulling in volume.

One day, I found a goldmine—a venture-backed startup scaling fast. They needed users and had the budget.

I pitched them: “$2/lead? Let's scale to 1,000 leads a week.“ This was Zynga. They had just put out Farmville and were looking to grow users.

They bit. Suddenly, I was making $2,000 a week. I dropped out of college.

We experimented with Facebook ads, forum postings, and influencer marketing. The results were wild. Facebook ads were literally $0.05 per click!

In '08, we built an iPhone app (before the App Store) to ping us every lead we generated. On my 18th birthday, it dinged every few secs.

In 6 months, we were generating over 20,000 leads a month and running a mini lead-gen empire.

I was still living at my parents' house.

But the $$ wasn’t the most interesting part. We were learning skills that would be invaluable—growth hacking, community mgmt, copywriting etc

Fast forward to today, and I've built and sold multiple companies. But it all started with that $2/lead hustle during the worst economic downturn of our generation.

Moral of the story:

When the world goes to hell, look for opportunities. Innovate. Be relentless. Your big break might be just an email away.

I felt pretty hopeless back then. But the cool part about the internet is the lack of gatekeepers.

Not too long ago...

- You had to get press to get customers.
- You needed VCs to build a product.
- You needed a degree to get that job.

There was always a gatekeeper

Not anymore. Tons of people sit on the sidelines. They aren't shipping.

But it's not because they can't. They totally could. Especially with the cost of launching anything being so cheap. They just don't realize the gates have recently become wide open.

It fires me up.

So, stop waiting for permission. The gates are open.

Just walk through.
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Here are 30 realizations that changed my life as an entrepreneur:

1. Startup valuation is literally a made up number.

2. It's impossible to work with people who don’t answer texts within 24h.

3. The internet can be your lottery ticket or your prison sentence.

4. If Abercrombie & Fitch can rebrand (up 285% in 2023), then you can rebrand too.

5. Having an internet audience is still wildly underpriced.

6. Build products that no one asks for but everyone wants.

7. It's actually a good idea to be poor in your 20s and reinvest everything in yourself (learnings, travel, network, figuring out who you are).

8. Google is probably not going to “copy your startup”.

9. Content is your salesperson that works for you 24/7.

10. Look for opportunities that are low status now, but probably high status in a few years.

11. Lifestyle businesses are still massively underrated. You can often turn them into non lifestyle business if you want.

12. Avoid dependency on anything. Social apps, VCs etc. Freedom is two words: self-sustaining.

13. Taking a break doesn’t mean you’re lazy, burn out is real.

14. Whatever you do, don't be mid-curve.

15. The only things that should change your mood are things that will change your life.

16. Copycats are a nuisance, not killers. They are usually mosquitoes, not sharks.

17. Good design can’t fix a poor product. But good design can multiply a product that’s working.

18. People follow a journey, not a social account.

19. If you’re doing stuff you hate, you aren’t rich.

20. Don't create a startup without a “why now“.

21. Strangers don’t want to hear about you. They want to talk about themselves or better themselves.

22. The best negotiators talk 10% of the time, and listen 90%.

23. Good things happen when you add value to people’s lives through content & community.

24. You could learn a lot about someone by their likes on X/Twitter.

25. First find the niche, then learn from the community, then the startup idea will come to you.

26. On hiring: if it isn’t a hell yeah, it’s a hell no. Never compromise for fit.

27. Startups never go according to plan. There is no real plan for startups, only a direction.

28. The best businesses are the ones that look like a movement. It needs to be an identity, not a product.

29. Your identity is never your company ever. Your company is your business.

30. Change scenery 2-3x per day to be extra creative.

What are some realizations you've had as an entrepreneur, creator, maker, etc?

Btw, recently, i went to Japan (for the first time) and I had some MORE realizations as a founder. You can check them out here for free. Enjoy. https://lnkd.in/eJZ4rQKZ

A big mistake I made in my 20s was not starting a product design agency.

I was living in Silicon Valley. And over there, it's all about big VC raises, big exits. So basically, starting a service business was the anti-cool.

After I sold my last company when I was 24. I had an idea to start a product design agency and studio called “Islands“.

Why the name Islands? Because we'd help different clients, kinda like their own islands.

But, after asking for feedback from 2 billionaires/Silicon Valley legends, they persuaded me to turn Islands into a social networking product.

“You're good a community and social products, build a product. You can always start an agency later“

I nodded.

But, deep down, I always loved the product design agency business. I love working on multiple projects, I love seeing others succeed and helping them get there.

When COVID hit in 2020, I knew that I couldn't wait any longer to start that concept of Islands.

I called it Late Checkout, a product design agency and studio for companies who want to supercharge their communities.

Lesson learned #1: Better late than never

Lesson learned #2: trust your intuition, it's right more than you think

Apple JUST quietly announced something that’s a lot BIGGER than it looks: "the Mini Apps Partner Program"

Apple is admitting that the future of software is embedded, lightweight, vertical mini-apps distributed inside bigger app

For founders who want to make $$ building apps:

1. Apple just legitimized the “superapp” model for the West.

China has WeChat mini-programs. India has PhonePe Switch. The West has… nothing. Apple just opened the door. You can now run HTML/JS mini-apps inside a native host and earn 85% on qualifying purchases. That’s Apple-sanctioned platform piggybacking.

2. Distribution arbitrage becomes real again.

You don’t need to convince users to download your app. Just partner with a host app and drop in a mini-app. This is a cheat code for early traction. Think: travel apps hosting niche tools, fitness apps hosting mini workouts, marketplaces hosting micro-utilities.

3. Apple is creating a new economy layer: “embedded SaaS.”

Imagine: CRM mini-apps inside vertical tools. Math solver mini-apps inside education apps. Calendar mini-apps inside productivity apps. The TAM for tools that don’t need standalone installs just went vertical.

4. Developers get an 85% revenue share.

This is Apple basically saying: “We want this ecosystem to grow, and we’re willing to cut our take rate.” When Apple lowers its cut, I pay attention because they see a platform shift coming.

5. AI makes this 10× more important.

LLM-powered micro-apps (calculators, planners, agents, coaches, niche utilities) are tiny by design. They’re perfect mini-apps. Apple just created infrastructure for AI-native micro utilities to live inside bigger apps with built-in commerce.

6. Host apps become new “distribution landlords.”

If you own an app with traffic, you become a platform. You can host mini-apps, take a cut, and build a developer ecosystem around you.

It’s a new monetization model for existing apps with audiences.

7. This unlocks a wave of second-order opportunities.

- Agencies helping apps become mini-app hosts
- Mini-app dev shops
- “Shopify for mini-apps” toolkits
- Mini-app marketplaces
- Analytics for mini-app performance
- Discovery engines for mini-apps
- For more startup ideas/trends... sign up to https://ideabrowser.com

TLDR;

Apple just turned every high-traffic app into a potential superapp and every indie developer into a potential platform partner.

The App Store is becoming modular, composable, and layered. The next decade of consumer apps will look less like standalone products and more like ecosystems stitched together with mini-apps.

This is quietly one of the biggest distribution unlocks in years.

dear founders,

build like the clock’s running out. the window is open but it won’t stay. for the first time in history, you have free distribution from social platforms and infinite leverage from AI tools. you can reach millions without permission.

the internet is handing out unfair advantages to anyone bold enough to use them so...

ship before you understand it. clarity comes from commits. half your roadmap is ego, delete it. launch "ugly". talk to users every day. build what you wish existed. best ideas are the most obvious painful. go niche. no, go superniche. vertical is your moat.

clarity comes from commits. half your roadmap might be ego, delete it. make ugly things until they work. share prototypes that break.

kill what doesn’t grow. use AI as leverage, not decoration. test ten things before breakfast. delete your roadmap. double down on what works. design for clarity, not cleverness. brand before code. write daily. post your lessons.

find your first hundred users manually. distribution is the new product. attention is the new funding. taste is the new code. build small cults. scale later. automate boring things. keep the human parts human. study why things spread. study why things die.

pricing is positioning. aesthetics are trust. make people feel something. ignore haters. build in weird corners of the internet. break things publicly. pivot loudly. consistency compounds. only raise VC if you dream of going IPO one day. otherwise, cash-flow is your BFF.

your network is distribution. your story is marketing. your design is psychology. ship like it’s day one. iterate like you’re behind. stay obsessed. learn faster. think longer. risk embarrassment. make noise. build the thing that keeps you up at night. money follows obsession. stay in motion. stay loud. stay building. distribution is an art form now.

AI makes it easy to make things; the hard part is making things that matter. build like the world’s ending in a year but your idea has to outlive it

we’re living in a window of maximum leverage and minimum permission

im rooting for you.

best,

greg isenberg

just another founder rooting for you

note: find startup ideas at ideabrowser.com to get your creative juices flowing

HOW TO BUILD MOBILE APPS WITH AI IN 2026

1. Use Claude Code, Rork, Vibecode app etc to get the first mobile MVP live the same day the idea forms. Need an idea? Go to Ideabrowser.com/join

2. Use Claude Code to tighten logic, handle edge cases, and make behavior predictable

3. Design the core interaction so it fits inside a 10-second screen recording from day one (this is key and is the new "lean startup")

4. Study top short-form videos in your category and write down the first 3 seconds of each

5. Build demos around the hook rather than the feature list (mindset shift)

6. Record simple demos straight from the simulator or device and post them as is

7. Treat short-form video as a live feedback channel (v important)

8. Test multiple hooks for the same app before touching the code

9. Watch where people pause, replay, or comment “wait what” to see what matters (in analytics)

10. Screenshot comments that explain the product clearly and reuse that language

11. Paste comments into Claude Code and ask it to cluster feedback into concrete product changes

12. Ship the smallest change that makes the demo clearer

13. Use Claude Code to push those changes fast and re-record the demo the same day (can be founder led or find someone or ai avatar)

14. Repeat this loop daily until the app explains itself without narration

15. Let the demo become the distribution engine. This is your north star.

16. Add a paywall once curiosity appears to test willingness to pay

17. Add a one-question or short quiz in onboarding to create investment early

18. Use quiz answers to personalize the first output so it feels made for the user

19. Show the result immediately after onboarding to reinforce that the input mattered

20. Surface one clear “this is why this matters” insight right after first use

21. Save the first output so users feel ownership and return to it

22. Ask for one small follow-up action after value appears to deepen commitment

23. Turn common onboarding answers into new demo angles for content

24. Highlight progress or change over time with a simple before-and-after view

25. Trigger reengagement when the output meaningfully changes

26. Let users export or share their result in a way that preserves context (and that helps drive virality)

27. Continuously improve onboarding copy with Claude Code based on what converts

28. Lock in the hook when people start explaining the app to each other

29. Increase posting volume after the format proves consistent. Keep experimenting

30. Shape the product around what performs on video

31. TLDR: Ship → demo → observe reactions → tighten the loop → charge → repeat until momentum compounds

32. PMF incoming (hopefully). Take dividends, reinvest in new apps (buy or build) or raise VC if you fancy that.

33. You just built a mobile app with AI.

We’re about to see the largest boom in micro-companies in history.

1 person to 10-people businesses that generate real cash, serve tiny but passionate communities, and operate with leverage (organic social, AI etc) that used to require mega teams

Once people realize they can earn a meaningful living by building something tiny and strange that fits a community they actually understand, everything shifts like ambition, lifestyle, career arcs, even how people think about “success.”

Some people will build two or three of these.
Some will build twenty.
Some will build one that accidentally becomes big.

You can literally feel the shift happening.

Just an increasing number of people quietly opting out of the traditional paths and choosing to build a life around small companies that actually work.

is genspark ($50M ARR in 6mo) underrated next to chatgpt, claude, gemini, and manus?

i spent 34 minutes testing its “super ai agent” and how it actually works.

1/ you write one prompt and it runs through gpt-5, claude sonnet, gemini 2.5, and mistral large then gives you the best response.

2/ you upload one image and it runs it through nano banana, flux, and bytedance then returns the most realistic version.

3/ you generate a video and genspark routes it through wan 2.2, pika labs, gen-2, and runway ml combining the best clips and motion.

4/ you paste an idea for slides and it uses gpt-5, claude 3 opus, gemini advanced, and genspark’s slide model to create a full deck with visuals and market data.

5/ AI slides and building a fundraising deck with a few prompts (wasn't perfect, but it was a good start for my personal workflow)

what's cool about genspark is it's inexpensive and does it all. kinda like the costco of LLMs.

TLDR; you hand it one prompt + input, and genspark routes sub-tasks across models and tools behind the scenes. it’s orchestration over one ideal model.

perspective shift.

instead of jumping from model to model, llm to llm, genspark shows what the next generation of ai will look like orchestration over obsession.

and for the rest of us using it, the only thing that matters is getting the best outcome.

what other AI app should I review next?

i'll keep doing it if it's helpful for folks.

full episode is in the comment section!

Thanks to genspark for partnering with me on this to create a high quality tutorial

everything is a wrapper.

money is a wrapper for time.
time is a wrapper for energy.
energy is a wrapper for attention.
attention is a wrapper for emotion.
emotion is a wrapper for storytelling.
storytelling is a wrapper for identity.
identity is a wrapper for belonging.
belonging is a wrapper for survival.
products are wrappers for problems.
brands are wrappers for trust.
AI is a wrapper for leverage.

2026 is the GREATEST time to build a startup in 30 years

I’m 36. I’ve sold 3 startups, helped build companies that raised billions, and backed teams from seed to unicorn.

13 MEGA shifts that make this the BEST time to build in a GENERATION:

1. Hardware got smart. Download open-source AI models from HuggingFace to cheap robots and they're suddenly smart. Opens up tons of use-cases.

2. SaaS is imploding. AI can replicate $500K software for pennies. Enterprise software that took 30 engineers now requires 1 and a Claude Code subscription.

3. Outcome-based pricing is eating subscriptions. With AI agents handling work automatically, founders can guarantee results instead of selling features. This creates a massive arbitrage opportunity to steal market share from rigid subscription models.

4. Vibe marketing is the new marketing. AI agents/tools like Lindy, Gemini and Claude Code Using agents to do personalized outreach, ads and content creation it’s getting good. This is like getting on social in 2005.

5. Social is FYP-ified. Distribution no longer requires massive followings, just content that hits. Founders can build audience from zero without ads and then convert them to owned media channels (text/email).

6. Interfaces are vanishing. Conversations are replacing dashboards across industries. This removes training barriers and means customers can use sophisticated products immediately.

7. Companies are obsessed with efficiency and cutting costs right now. Corporate budgets are getting reallocated to AI.

8. 99% of MVPs won't need VC. Low-cost MVPs combined with creator partnerships and AI automation allow bootstrapped scaling. For most software businesses, outside funding is now unnecessary.

9. Global teams. You don’t need to hire in your own city anymore. Opens up tons of arbitrage opportunities and ways to create products unlike before.

10. Millions of creators want to get paid. If you have the right product, the right network of creators, you can hit scale insanely efficiently. Never before did this exist. Next gen founders are building startups community first, software second.

11. LLM APIs create building blocks weekly. I can’t even keep up with how many new APIs/tools coming out from LLMs weekly. Example: Nano Banana pro comes out, probably 1000 ideas built on top of that can be $5M/year businesses.

12. The long tail of software is now profitable. Niches that capped at $200k ARR can clear $5M with near-zero marginal cost.

13. Services are quietly becoming software. Manual agencies are one agent away from product margins.

We've entered the rarest of windows...

when multiple technological shifts collide at once, creating a brief period where small teams can build things that were previously impossible.

THE FUTURE OF BUILDING STARTUPS IS DIFFERENT.

This unique moment won't last forever. Markets will adapt. Giants will respond.

The window will close.

Happy building, my friends.

2026 is yours.

vibe coding is eating SaaS...this is probably happening more than we think

These 15 techniques pretty much 10x the quality/output of ANYTHING you vibe code with Gemini 3 etc

i think the best city to build a startup from is usually the city you as the founder are the happiest and can lock in the hardest

shopify started in ottawa. supercell from helsinki. spotify from stockholm etc

your output is tied to your environment, your focus, your happiness

two types of people

7 STARTUP IDEAS I’D BUILD USING CLAUDE AGENT SDK/CLAUDE OPUS 4.5:

1. SOC 2 / ISO compliance packet agent for saas

Agent that reads a SaaS company’s policies, infra docs, and tickets, then assembles SOC 2 / ISO audit-ready evidence. I’d connect the SDK to Linear/Jira, Notion, GitHub, and GDrive, load in standard SOC 2 templates, and have it produce checklists, evidence folders, and draft responses for auditors.

2. Nonprofit grant writing agent

Agent that finds relevant grants, drafts tailored applications, and organizes all deadlines for a nonprofit.

I’d plug Claude Agent SDK into a grants database + Google Drive, feed it past successful applications, and have it generate full packets and follow-up tasks for the team.

3. Airbnb host operations agent

Agent that responds to guests, coordinates cleaners, handles pricing tweaks, and generates monthly summaries. I’d wire the SDK into Airbnb’s API (or inbox), Google Calendar, and a cleaner’s scheduling tool, then give it workflows for messaging, scheduling, and simple pricing rules.

Who knows. Maybe this gets acquired by Airbnb.

4. Shopify conversion/creative agent

Agent that reviews a Shopify store, analyzes analytics, and ships specific CRO fixes plus ad creative. I’d hook the SDK into Shopify, Google Analytics, and a simple image/video tool, then have it propose changes, write new copy, tag winning products, and draft UGC-style ad scripts.

5. Real estate deal coordinator agent

Agent that keeps a real estate deal on track: chasing documents, scheduling inspections, reminding clients, and tracking key dates. I’d connect the SDK to email, e-signing, calendar, and a simple deal tracker, then give it a closing checklist so it runs the communication and nudges.

6. YouTube research + script agent for creators

Id love this.

Agent that researches topics, pulls data, builds outlines, and drafts long-form scripts based on a creator’s style. I’d give the SDK access to YouTube, Google, and a library of past scripts, then have it return a ready-to-record outline with hooks, segments, and CTAs.

7. Agency “Brain” and Onboarding Agent

Agent that absorbs an agency’s SOPs, past projects, and Slack history, then answers questions and ramps new hires. I’d load all docs through the SDK, connect it to Slack and Notion, and give teammates a chat interface where they can ask “how do we do X?” and get step-by-step answers plus links.

BONUS IDEA:

Insurance claims prep agent

Agent that helps people prepare insurance claims by collecting photos, receipts, timelines, and forms into a clean packet adjusters love.

I’d probably hook the SDK into email, cloud storage, and a claims-template library, then have it assemble everything automatically and flag missing items.

TLDR;

The Claude SDK acts like a full operating system for agents memory, tools, workflows, everything.

These ideas were just something to get your creative juices flowing.

Happy building.