Adam Ryan 🤝
@AdamRy_n
Building a new LinkedIn one profession at a time | Founder & CEO @WorkweekInc
One year ago, we launched a bold experiment: What if there was a real social network for business leaders? No self-promo. No influencer fluff. Just verified operators helping each other win. Now? 20,000+ verified members. But that’s not what I’m most proud of...
What’s happening with @tbpn is this proving out in real time.
The trend is that objective journalism and opinion are blurring. The unfortunate truth is Shephard Smith and Sean Hannity were seen in the same way by the audience of Fox News, yet, one is a journalist and one is not. Why? Because people want to learn from personalities.
With Substack showing newsletters can spark conversations in a feed I think @nikitabier brings newsletters to the platform. They bought Revue, a newsletter platform, in 2021 and killed it. They have the advantages Substack is trying to build (advertising and network effects),…
Long Twitter. “As a Twitter subscriber, picture getting access to premium features where you can easily read articles from your favorite news outlet or a writer's newsletter from Revue, with a portion of your subscription going to the publishers...” axios.com/twitter-acquir…
Founders: “We grew from $5M to $100M ARR in 8 months!” VC: “What does retention look like?” Founders:
Substack would have been screwed without ads. The TAM was never big enough with subscription rakes to scale. Creating a new horizontal social network is incredibly ambitious. And it’s without a doubt time for a new player. Good move by them, we’ll see how it goes.
Substack is a walking zombie and will be a markdown in every investors portfolio. Here’s why I think they’re screwed and what I would do to change course. 👇🏼
This is why I believe in so much of what we're building with Workweek. Social networks are built for noise.
New favorite quote about credit scores: “It’s just math. Predictive math.” Yes, it’s on a Fintech Takes t-shirt. Yes, you can have one. DM me to order!
If you use Vantage and not just FICO, for the betterment of the American people and the consumer, you should get better pricing. It’s just math. Predictive math.
In 2010 iPhones had their first big upgrade year. I walked around to all the sorority houses on campus and asked if anyone had old unused iPhones. At that time carriers covered most of the cost at purchase, so they weren’t really seen as valuable to most people in the States. I…
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Substack is doing a blue ocean strategy. They’re just straight up giving away the ESP for free to creators and media companies. The idea seems obvious. Flood the market. Get massive distribution. Then figure out how to monetize in a bigger way. It’s very Google-like. Big vision.…
Here's why I like @beehiiv better than Substack, even when I'm about to defend @hamishmckenzie. Hamish is going to start writing for Breaker, a newsletter all about media gossip run by the very fun to read @LachCartwright. That newsletter is built on beehiiv. Hamish is the…
Fintech’s next chapter isn’t happening on stage — it’s happening here. Join us for a Fintech Takes Open House; a live, free session unpacking the biggest shifts in fintech right now. It’s open to everyone (not just Network members). Digital wallet wars! Embedded everything!…
It seems to me that tokenized private stock "investing" is going to create a significant adverse selection problem. The private companies that investors should want to invest in (OpenAI, SpaceX, Stripe, etc.) don't need or want it (see OpenAI's tweet below) and will likely take…
I may know a company building this, but instead of being the next Facebook it’s the next LinkedIn. And it’s doing pretty well.
New social networks are going to appear that will be LLMs creating a cozy web customized for us and our real friends, and their friends and so on There will be a new social network built on mutual trust, all curated by machines of loving grace Personal Cozyweb is inevitable
When looking at Zuck vs Spiegel vs Dorsey. It’s amazing to compare the differences of why Zuck wins. Focus on cash flow. Great M&A. Bets that can have asymmetric outcomes. Eng first. Focus. If he keeps Meta the category winner through this AI era he will guarantee himself on…
In the last month, Meta went from being a laughingstock in AI to being a real contender (in my head at least) Cost them maybe 2% of the company. Stock is up 10% (market up 5%) Feels worth it for an asymmetric bet Never count Zuck out!
Go study what Microsoft did to IBM. This is the same movie, different era.
BREAKING: Apple is considering using AI technology from Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri, sidelining its own in-house models in a potentially blockbuster move aimed at turning around its AI effort. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Big hire at Workweek. We're looking for a Founding UX/UI designer. Ideal person has the pattern recognition and experience in consumer social/gaming. They have fantastic taste, but understand we're designing for outcomes. US based role, ideally Austin. DM me if this is you.
Momentum is everything. In 2022, just six months into Workweek, we lit up Q2 with millions in revenue booked. The business was on fire. In 2023, we built on that and grew 118% year over year in Q2. Another breakout result. But in 2024, the pace slowed. We still grew 55%, but…
We just launched followers in our professional communities. But not the kind you're used to. No public counts. No vanity metrics. No performance theater. Just a real signal. From people you want to learn from. Following someone helps shape your feed into a space that matters…
