Mars Men hit $100M and 400k customers in 18 months bootstrapped. L Catterton wrote them a $27.5M check. Who’s behind it? @zachmstuck NEW OPERATORS TITANS ↓ @Seanfrank @mbertulli Dropped out of college Built a top DTC agency Helped HexClad to $150M 7 brands of his own Shut down 5 of them Nearly lost everything Bet it all on socks Then … testosterone 2026, 4 deals in 60 days “I could go back to zero and I would be just fine because I love the game.”

AI OPERATORS LIVES! E001 The weekly AI show for consumer brands w/ @FoldesCraig @BenFlohrOG Is AI shopping a fad? AI marketing playbook. 10% OpEx era? RIP OpenClaw? Full episode ↓ AI Shopping Fad or Future 0:47 GEO Is Already the New SEO 7:43 Anthropics 1-Person Team 9:47 Enter the 10% OpEx Era 14:09 3 Things to Make It Work 17:16 Building Your AI Stack 19:51 How Scale Rolled Out AI 21:14 Notebook LM Explained 25:58 OpenClaw v Claude Cowork 29:44 AI That Acts and Thinks 35:22 Context, Hidden Advantage 38:49 Making Your Brand Brain 41:08 Platform to Start With 44:20 Closing and What’s Next 45:54

Jensen Huang just called out every CEO who’s been firing people “because of AI.” Jim Cramer asked him why companies are laying people off if AI is supposed to make everyone MORE productive. Jensen's answer: "For companies with imagination, you will do more with more. For companies where the leadership is just out of ideas, they have nothing else to do. They have no reason to imagine greater than they are. When they have more capability, they don't do more." Read that again. The man who built the most important tech company on Earth just told you that if your CEO is using AI to cut headcount, it means one thing: They have no imagination. They have no vision for what comes next. They got handed the most powerful tool in human history and their FIRST instinct was to fire people. This is the CEO of NVIDIA. The company whose chips power every AI system on the planet. If anyone on Earth has the right to say "AI replaces workers," it's Jensen Huang. And he said the OPPOSITE. He said every carpenter could become an architect. Every plumber could become an architect. AI elevates capability. It doesn't eliminate it. But here's where it gets really interesting... During the same interview, Jensen revealed something nobody's talking about: He said AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic are seeing their revenues increase by one to two billion dollars a WEEK. And he wishes these companies were public so the world could see what he sees. One to two billion per week. That's a $50 to $100 BILLION annualized run rate. For companies that most people think are burning cash and making nothing. The entire Wall Street narrative that "AI companies aren't profitable" might be completely wrong. Jensen sees their numbers. He sees their compute orders. He sees their growth. And he's saying the revenue is real. So if the money IS real, why are other companies firing people? Because they're not building AI products. They're not creating new revenue streams. They're not using AI to expand into new markets. They're using AI as an EXCUSE to cut costs because they ran out of ideas 3 years ago and need something to tell the board. Jensen's company added $500 billion in new orders in 5 months. He expects $1 trillion in cumulative revenue through 2027 from just two product lines. That number doesn't include the new chips, systems, or partnerships announced this week. And he's not cutting people. He's hiring. Because when you have imagination, more capability means MORE opportunity. Not less headcount. Meanwhile Salesforce cut thousands. Meta cut thousands. Amazon cut thousands. All blaming "AI efficiency." Jensen's response: You're out of imagination. He also said something that stuck with me. Cramer asked if he ever thought he'd build a $10 to $20 trillion company while waiting tables at Denny's. His answer: "I was just trying to make it through the shift." Biggest tip he ever got? Two, three dollars. Now he's building tech that increased computing demand by one million times in two years. He announced OpenClaw, which he says is as big as ChatGPT. And he's got 21 months of new business that isn't even counted in the trillion dollar figure yet. When asked how long he plans to keep working? "I'm hoping to die on the job. And I'm not hoping to die anytime soon." This is a man who believes every single thing he's building. And his message to every CEO using AI to justify layoffs is simple... You're not innovating. You're surrendering. The technology wasn't built to shrink companies. It was built to make them limitless. If your leadership can't see that, the problem isn't AI. It's THEM.

I started a little marketing agency 7 years ago called Homestead, named after the street I grew up on. I had the vision to build something special and looking back now, I think we did exactly that. Today I’m excited to announce that Homestead has been acquired by Verndale (also recently acquired VAAN Group) in an effort to create a DTC growth platform built to support brands across the entire commerce lifecycle. I’m extremely grateful to my business partner @_RileyTrotter for all of the time he’s given this company and all the incredible work that he’s done. Riley took over as CEO a few years ago and Homestead wouldn’t be where we are today without his leadership and pursuit of greatness. I can’t say enough about my other partners @kellybird__ and @jsappington. These two have shown a level of commitment to building this company that is unmatched. Watching them both grow as leaders over the last few years has been nothing short of inspiring. To all our current and past team members, thank you for always giving Homestead and our clients 100% effort. Will forever be grateful to you all for helping us get to where we are today. To all of our clients, thank you for trusting in us to help grow your businesses. This is not an easy task and we have never taken it lightly. As for me, I’m officially stepping out of the agency business, but as most of you know I haven’t been involved in the company for some time as Riley/Kelly/Jacob have been and will continue to lead Homestead for years to come. Expect to see more updates on the brands I’ve been building in weeks to come.

Riviera from above. 🚁