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
Innovation
Clunky Metal Boxes
In the late 1950s, Sullivan County in Upstate New York had the most hotel rooms
of any county in the
Portfolio Career
“How did you land the gig?”
A simple question that's anything but.
Portfolio Career
Standing on set
After he’d shot his scenes for the day, Alec Baldwin would retreat to the
comforts of his private trailer.
A story a day keeps the clouds away
I struggle with depression sometimes. Admitting this publicly is probably not
good for business. Then again, I’m a human
Mindsets & Growth
Hiring: the voices in-between
I first posted this little riff on LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6803739664575434752/], and
wanted
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
Runway
When going out and doing a new thing, people often talk about ‘runway’. Usually
this term refers to the number
Can't write? Then speak
Jerry Seinfeld says writing is the hardest thing in the world. He’s
exaggerating, but not all that much. Writing
Mindsets & Growth
Going back to the Old Oak
You know those people who like to talk about how many books they’ve read this
year?
It’s ok,
In The Neighborhood
The new success
There used to be a cafe in the Lower East Side called El Rey. It was a tiny
place, with
A trip to Barcelona, and the hint I didn't take
In 2008 I was working at a digital agency in London. A digital agency creates stuff for brands – usually campaigns,
Stage Left
As good as it gets
It’s easy to forget that even Hollywood legends had to start somewhere.
There was once a time when Jack
The Tension
Two types of con game
The first type of con game is part of our lexicon. This confidence game involves
a trickster building up the
Podcast
Under the Current Podcast: #12 - Jonathan Stark
funding the mission, and why marketing can drive us mad
Listen now:
Anchor [https://anchor.fm/underthecurrent/] | Spotify
[https://open.
Podcast
Under the Current Podcast: #10 - Dmitry Koltunov
building communities in startups and hiphop, and the freedom of getting things
wrong
Listen now:
Anchor [https://anchor.fm/underthecurrent/
Mindsets & Growth
Finding your edge
Everyone says you’ve got to find your edge. Seek out your competitive advantage.
Maybe that’s not what’s
Podcast
Under the Current Podcast: #9 - Steve Bodow
writing and producing, working in sprints, and overcoming procrastination
Listen now:
Anchor [https://anchor.fm/underthecurrent/] | Spotify
[https://open.spotify.
Podcast
Under the Current Podcast: #8 - Rob Fitzpatrick
books as product design, reframing marketing, and business partner marriages
Listen now:
Anchor [https://anchor.fm/underthecurrent/] | Spotify
[https://open.
How-To Guides
How to find portfolio/audience fit
You’ve probably heard of Product/Market Fit. It’s widely seen as the holy grail
for just about every