Justin Jackson Profile picture
Jul 19, 2021 8 tweets 5 min read Read on X
It's been 15 months since @pmarca & @a16z published "it's time to build."

Question: WTF have they done in support of this thesis?

Marc said we should be "solving the climate crisis by building."

From what I can see, @a16z has only made a few meager investments in climate tech.
Andreessen Horowitz seems to think they can help "build" by launching content sites like future.a16z.com.

How about investing real 💵 to *build* real solutions?

(Also, @a16z has tweeted about "climate change" exactly once).
💯 @sethbannon:

“It’s super frustrating to see people that control hundreds of millions of dollars tweeting about the next e-gaming unicorn that they’re chasing, when you have millions of people who are being forced to migrate all because of a crisis that technology can solve."
Tired: "Software is eating the world."

Wired: "Climate change is destroying the world."
VCs: show me the money (you're investing climate change solutions).

You want to make a dent in the universe? Help us clean this shit up.
For transparency: my company, @TransistorFM, is a small, bootstrapped 3-person company.

Last year we gave $10k to @RainforestUS.

This year, we've contributed nearly $10k to @stripe's carbon removal program (kudos to @patrickc for setting this up!)
Investors like @sacca have been raising the alarm for years.

His new fund @lowercarbon is deploying millions to fight the climate change problem.

We need more VCs like this. 🌱👏

(I wish I had enough $ to become an LP)

lowercarboncapital.com
Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz is (checks notes) investing $515 million in crypto?

🤦‍♂️

$4.5 million in 🌱 vs $515 milion in 🏭

You can do better @a16z: it's time to build!

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More from @mijustin

Sep 5, 2023
I've been brainstorming how I would build a new indie startup if I had to do it again in 2023.

Here are 5 principles I’d use.
1. Build a product that people are already searching for.

It's 1000x easier to target folks already in motion.

The best opportunities are where customers realize they have a need and are doing something about it: searching Google, asking for recommendations, etc.
2. Get in motion by building side projects in public.

Good ideas almost always emerge while you're doing something else.

For example, @adamwathan was livestreaming while building a SaaS product. People started asking him about his CSS. @tailwindcss was born out of that.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 29, 2023
More thoughts on why ChatGPT is not a traditional startup platform.

🧵
Historically, bootstrapped startups have been built on top of open protocols (such as email, the web, and RSS), open platforms (like WordPress), and open-source tools (including Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Vue, and Tailwind CSS).
Indie founders used open protocols and open-source tools to level the playing field and give their ideas a chance to succeed.

MailChimp and ConvertKit, for example, harnessed the email protocol without paying a single cent to Gmail or Microsoft for API access or postage fees.
Read 22 tweets
Feb 1, 2023
If you were building a new web app/SaaS in 2023, what would your tech stack be?

(Rails, @laravelphp? Fancy new JS framework? What database setup would you use? Where would you host it?)
Personally, I'm still on team "full stack web dev" (Laravel, Rails).

Most indie SaaS these days are still being built on mature web frameworks:

@SnapShooterio (Laravel)
@bannerbearHQ (Rails)
@TransistorFM (Rails)
@usefathom (Laravel)
@hostifi_net (Laravel)
@ZipMessage (Rails)
If I was in charge of PR for Rails/Laravel, I'd focus on getting more young people to learn these frameworks.

- Make it easier to get started
- Make it more fun (sample projects)
- Get it into more bootcamps

@taylorotwell and I chatted about this here:

Read 5 tweets
Jan 30, 2023
In my early 20s, I was running a skate shop where I was constantly stressed, working late nights, putting out fires, and leveraging multiple credit cards to keep everything afloat.

Over time, I began evaluating biz opportunities on their likelihood of “giving me a good life.”
So many of us business owners end up being a slave to our companies, and we forget why we started our businesses in the first place: to give us, our families, and our employees a better life!
If you want a business that gives you a better life, think about the market first!

Go after opportunities where:

- buyers are actively looking for solutions
- you have experience + insights
- you’re confident you can capture a significant % of buyer interest
- margins are good
Read 4 tweets
Dec 20, 2022
The willingness of some CEOs to move fast, and make big risky decisions with impunity, boggles my mind.

Is this really the best strategy?

Maybe it’s because Transistor is small, but I’m very much in the “keep the boat steady” camp.
I'm also confused why so many companies are moving to raise prices now.

During a recession, aren't customers trying to reduce expenses?

Why give folks a reason to leave?

Isn't it better to keep your prices the same and attract more customers looking to save money?
So many CEOs feel like they need to "move fast."

But in my experience, slow, steady, thoughtful actions often produce better results.
Read 5 tweets
Dec 18, 2022
Holy crap.

Now on Twitter, you are no longer allowed to share links to other social media platforms.

You are no longer allowed to share your username for other social networks (Mastodon, Instagram, FB, etc).

You are no longer allows to use linktree.

help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p…
Is this the “free speech absolutism” we were promised?

Why stop here Elon? Why not just ban all hyperlinks all together?

Can I still link to my blog? For how much longer?
"Twitter is a platform for free speech."

Also:

"Here is a list of things you can't say on our platform." Twitter's new policy says y...
Read 5 tweets

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