Matt McDonagh

Stop Dreaming, Start Achieving. Meet Orion, Your AI Life Copilot. Setting goals is easy. Achieving them is hard. Bridge the gap with AI that intelligently maps your path, breaking big objectives into daily habits and tasks. Make consistent action rewarding with game-like features as you check off tasks and watch your goals become reality. I built Orion because we all need a smarter way to turn...

Release AGI

In the age of AI I believe creativity and problem solving are going to be areas humans still compete quite well on. What I see happening is a massive acceleration in all phases: 1) creation 2) evolution 3) distribution AI is accelerating 0 to 1 pace and allowing us to "remix" ideas. The surface area of what's possible is growing so fast we will never explore all of it (even with AI). What a...

Sebastian is there a system prompt or way to give Strawberry my "big missions" so it knows what I building toward? Great idea btw I look forward to trying this.

Whenever I hit a growth air pocket in my substacks I: 1) reach out to my top readers and ask for suggested article topics, anyone who responds THEN I ask for their help spreading the word while I work on getting their article published 2) DM your network on X / LNKD and ask for their feedback, if they are interested in helping, send your 2 best pieces and ask for feedback... 3) Network with...

Look forward to other people's tricks / tips -- even anti-patterns to avoid!

Great advice across the board. Did you use pro hunters ever?

Use Oura. Love it. Seeing the influence your sleep and activities has on your well-being is great feedback. You can create positive feedback loops with tools like this.

I think VCs are going to use indie vibe coded successes as radar screens to "enter markets" for different tools / systems / solutions. The VCs typically have much, MUCH better distribution... so a copycat VC with decent speed but great distribution will beat the indie builders -- I fear. - Ex-Wall St Investment Banker, now Builder

What's the problem? What other solution(s) have been solved? How is my solution different? Bonus: WHO is my solution different and better for? Always use an instructions.md or AI-Instructions file to dictate house style, give your AI assistant some ground rules, etc...

Gemini Flash 2.0 has been amazing for us. Massive context, high precision, doesn't speak robotically, uber cheap.

Marketing. Distribution determines winners and losers. The product is obvious vital... but if you don't have water flowing through your property everybody dies.

I've been using gemini 2.5 and it's incredible really has contextual understanding of the entire codebase + using md files to layer instructions atop the dev process has really helped maintain cohesion and "house style" aka list of pet peeves I never want to see!!!

My best advice in general, when things are going sideways: communicate, then build a conversation. Say what's happening, then keep that flow of information moving as you engage w/your investors, partners, employees to work together to triage and address the situation. Going quiet is always the wrong move. Taking a few moments to think through the comms strategy is CORRECT but clamming up for...

What heals us can hurt us :/ Some days I enjoy having to wear ALL the hats. Other days, I wish I could "dig in" to engineering or GTM 100%... hard to do as a solo act. Time blocking, list utilization and eisenhower matrices are our friend!