A.I.
What Ableton taught us about AI and the future of coding
In 2001, Ableton turned bedroom producers into festival headliners. Now vibe coding is doing the same for software. The parallels run deeper than you'd think.
Creative Business
Lessons from starting things that worked, flopped, and taught more than any MBA. The messy reality of building creative ventures - decisions, mindsets, and the bits nobody warns you about.
I've started things that worked, things that flopped, and things that taught me more than any MBA could. These pieces are about the messy reality of building creative ventures - the decisions, the mindsets, and the bits nobody warns you about.
Start Here
The essential reads on creative business
Best of...
Making it in America: What international founders & creatives actually need to know
The cultural paradoxes, identity costs, and hidden rules nobody explains
Best of...
The Creative Technologist comeback
How a misunderstood role from the digital agency era is becoming essential for the AI age
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Best of...
7 ways to improve a conference speaking proposal
I’ve just finished evaluating proposals for SXSW 2025. Here are 7 things that separate the standouts from the rest.
Best of...
5 Founder Types
Which one are you?
How-To Guides
Practical playbooks for building your business
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
How-To Guides
What I've learned from evaluating 1000+ SXSW proposals
Every year, I find myself deep in proposal evaluation mode. Fortune 100 CEOs, ambitious VPs, indie strategists, even actors and
Future Of Work
An antidote to AI tinnitus
Sam Altman says agency and adaptability will be extremely valuable. But what does cultivating them actually look like?
Creative Business
Lemon automation: How Chick-fil-A processes 20% of America's lemons... and what it means for your career
The unexpected career insights hidden in a chicken restaurant's remarkable lemon-squeezing operation
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Creative Business
Two ways to define 'Good Enough'
Ever found yourself endlessly tweaking a project, chasing that elusive perfection? Yeah, me too. But here's a thought.
Battle Scars
Hard-won lessons from entrepreneurial endeavours
Building something creative?
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All Posts
Everything on creative business and entrepreneurship
Creative Business
Two ways to define 'Good Enough'
Ever found yourself endlessly tweaking a project, chasing that elusive perfection? Yeah, me too. But here's a thought.
Best of...
7 ways to improve a conference speaking proposal
I’ve just finished evaluating proposals for SXSW 2025. Here are 7 things that separate the standouts from the rest.
How-To Guides
How the creator of 'Peaky Blinders' uses one word to unlock new worlds
Picture this: A working-class kid from Birmingham, youngest of 7, no silver spoon in sight. Fast forward, and he'
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
Two essentials for building distributed teams
Jeff Bezos once said to bet on things that won't change. Here's one: talent is everywhere.
Future Of Work
Tyler Cowen's two questions to unearth hidden talent
How do you find talent with a spark? Can you predict who’s going to be most creative, energetic, curious, or successful? Here are two unusual questions the economist Tyler Cowen asks to figure it out…
Creative Business
Goodbye Google Slides. Hello, Figma
Death by Powerpoint? Perhaps ‘Death of Powerpoint’ is more apt. Because Figma just launched a slide design tool, and it’
Creative Business
The Player-Commentator
Ever pretended to play like Messi, Ronaldo or Rapinoe?
How about the people who tell you what’s going on
Best of...
5 Founder Types
Which one are you?
Best of...
Carl Cox's timeless creative career advice
Two simple tips for a successful long-term career, courtesy of a one-of-a-kind artist & entertainer
Independent Paths
The wallet, the CV, and me
A simple but effective method to design any kind of creative career.
Startups
"Tell me when..."
Our latest co-creation venture is building a professional development platform for doctors. It’s been a fascinating ride. To help
Future Of Work
8 questions to get better at hiring
How to get better at hiring? A few simple questions can go a long way…
Hiring is one of the
Creative Business
Steve Albini's letter to Nirvana (No business lessons required)
The legendary producer who died this week wrote one of the best professional letters ever. You'll see why without me explaining it.
Creative Business
(De)Risky Business
A few years ago I went to an event featuring a talk by William Reeve. He’s co-founded no less
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
Deep in the hole at SXSW
“Even now, no one’s willing to talk about failure”.
I heard this from a few people at SXSW this
Future Of Work
Future Jobs: The Fractional Company Historian
Disney has it. So does Levi’s. IBM definitely do. Stripe probably will soon. Even Theranos has one (albeit an
How-To Guides
How to use Figma for building online courses
Over the last few months I’ve been using Figma as the design engine for building our new online course.
Portfolio Career
Full Stackers
I've long believed in the value of cultivating "Lowercase Skills" - being a an uppercase Strategist