Just shipped my first design product using @claudeai code and I’m blown away. It pulls context directly from your brand design system, so everything stays perfectly on-brand and print-ready. Edits are effortless. Hard to imagine going back to Canva. #claudedesign

First @HamptonFounders retreat in the books! @thesamparr you’ve created an incredible community of genuine, kind and accomplished founders. I left with a new crew of founder besties but also some real revenue opportunities. Perfect balance of impact. Can’t wait till next time!

Latest podcast appearance in the books! Gave my advice to early employees at startups: quickly build trust with the founders, cross pollination across teams, becoming a product expert and asking more questions than you answer. Full episode coming soon! #startups

One of the most popular spots at #NVIDIAGTC convention was their “Build-A-Claw” tent, where attendees could try out @nvidia #NemoClaw, a new open-source software for creating AI agents based on the popular #OpenClaw. Definitely going to try this out. build.nvidia.com/nemoclaw

Awesome example of strong leadership and wanting to take care of early employees. Would love to see more later stage startups do this.

Most people have no idea what it actually takes to be a founder. They talk about vision, grit, or passion. Those words are props. What you really sign up for is a life where every decision feels like it costs something real. You will spend years being misunderstood. By your team, your family, even the people you hire to help you. You will fail in public and still need to keep the energy up in private. Every founder lives with the weight of knowing that you can do everything right and still get crushed by luck, timing, or somebody else’s mistake. Founders aren’t braver than anyone else. They just get used to uncertainty, then stop waiting for clarity. Most of your wins won’t feel like wins at all. The first revenue will be too small. The first team will outgrow you or leave. The first product that feels right will barely matter to the market. You will doubt yourself in private, sometimes every week. The founders who last figure out how to keep moving while the ground shifts underneath them. Most outsiders want the founder badge but none of the scars. They want the upside, not the drag. The hardest part is sticking around after every plan gets blown up and you have to rebuild with less optimism and more scar tissue. What makes it work isn’t relentless hustle or some mythical trait. It’s learning to make peace with constant discomfort, and then making decisions anyway. If you need constant reassurance, you’ll give up before the real work begins. If you want everyone to like you, you’ll never make the calls that matter. If you can’t handle months where nothing feels certain, this life will eat you alive. But if you can hold your own in chaos, get better at being wrong, and still want to show up and try again, you just might have a shot at building something that matters. That’s what it actually takes. And nobody cares until you make it work.

Had an amazing time at the @HarlemCapital Winners Circle Dinner last week. The room was full of standout late-stage founders. It was such an honor to attend & learn from all of them. @havandmar in Chelsea was the perfect backdrop. And, yes, Chef Marcus Samuelsson made a cameo!

Got to jam with the queen @chathri on a little walk and talk yesterday (my girl doing big thangs by the way!). Told her my plans for the upcoming year and how my goal was to be a founder. She asked: “what about all the health you have built?! how are you going to keep it and work 18 hour days?” My response: “is it better to work 18 hours days at 50% or 9 hours at 100%?”

“The next generation of founders will build the Connection Economy, technology that helps people feel seen, supported, and part of something larger. Systems where reflection, care, and reciprocity compound into belonging.” — @BrianWian medium.com/p/the-connection-…