threadling: unconventional product marketing

Workflows are AI's killer app. In skilled hands, AI-first workflow builders supplant dozens of "point solution" SaaS products... And automate dozens (even hundreds) of repetitive, moderate-skill tasks. If you can document it in an SOP, an AI-first workflow builder can probably automate it. Or cut 50-80% of the time it takes to ship a finished deliverable. Just a few workflows I've seen or am building right now: YouTube > Published Blog Post - Take an entire library of YouTube videos (as links in Google Sheet or Airtable Base) - turn the 10 most viewed into well-polished blog posts - review and refine each one to ensure the tone is on point - publish them in draft on Wordpress or Ghost - DM the content marketing manager in slack that XYZ post is ready for their edits and review Blog > Podcast - Review a library of long form blog posts with more than 5000 organic views - Run each one against a transcript of the author's most well-received public speech or podcast - Produce text of a "speech-friendly" version of the post - Use ElevenLabs to make a podcast version of each one in the author's voice. - Put the audio file in Google Drive - Ping Slack that the podcasts are ready for final touches in Descript Lead Qualification and Follow up: - Enrich every new inbound email address - Check against latest lead-qualification criteria doc (in Notion or Google) - If match for the ideal customer profile: - write summary of why and post in slack - Draft sequence of response emails positioning the company's product through the prospect's point of view - Stage as drafts in the sales rep's Inbox - Create or update the deal in HubSpot Recruiting and hiring: - Filter all applications for XYZ role to determine if they are a basic match for the job requirements - For no match, draft a polite rejection letter and stage in recruiter's inbox - For potential matches, research their web presence and summarize the findings. Include links for good measure. - Check findings against "ideal candidate doc" and score each candidate in Airtable, Google Sheet, or Notion. - Notify recruiter in Slack that "top 30 candidates are ready for your review. - Recruiter selects top 10 from this list, triggers interview invite workflow: Interview invite and prep: - Drafts interview invite emails for top 10 candidates, highlighting their specific experience - On morning of, create a short, detailed brief on the candidate's background, skills, and interests. - Email or Slacks brief to everyone on interview loop Some of these could be a "point solution" SaaS app...or are tasks that college-educated humans regularly spend 1-10 hours on (Every. Single. Time) With AI workflows, it's minutes or seconds. And these are just a tiny sample of "entry-level" workflows in this new crop of AI-first workflow builders.

The Apple/Epic beef is tragic (for both companies). Let's count the ways. 1. AAA games are (finally!!) strategic to Apple's go-to-market Apple wants to iterate on Apple Silicon until gamers can't tell the difference between games running on a Playstation and a MacBook, iPhone Pro, Apple TV, and iPad. It also needs a growing library of compelling, immersive experiences for the Vision Pro. AAA game studios like CD PROJEKT RED are using Epic's Unreal Engine to build the next entries in their popular franchises (The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077). Deep software / hardware support for Epic Games's Unreal Engine would make it cheaper and faster to bring games of that caliber to Apple's entire ecosystem devices... AND offer a path to "spin-offs" specifically designed for the Vision Pro. The Apple/Epic beef makes that level of support unlikely. 2. Apple (finally!) has the beginnings of a compelling value prop to AAA game studios: * Port your titles to Apple Silicon using our DirectX converter * Deliver them across Apple's entire device ecosystem without rewriting a ton of code. But the perception of Apple as a rent-seeking "gatekeeper" hostile to major developers' business models complicates the story. The Apple/Epic beef just reinforces this perception. 3. Epic and Tim Sweeney have a huge vision for immersive gaming and 3D worlds. The Apple Vision is the best hardware to make it so. While the VR / metaverse hype cycle has definitely crashed, immersive gaming and 3D worlds remain highly promising use cases for spatial computers. The Vision Pro has the most powerful hardware and compelling user interface in the category. And Apple has every advantage in hardware and software necessary to keep it that way... Epic's "metaverse" vision would get a huge boost from a positive, mutually-aligned relationship with Apple. What's the opposite of a positive, mutually-aligned relationship with Apple? Beef.