Build. Grow. Repeat.

Why your Growth Strategy Belongs in the Codebase

Your product lives in the codebase. Your growth strategy lives in Notion, in slide decks, or in conversations you had on a walk. What happens when you move it all into the same repo your agents already read? The setup is simpler than it sounds. You open Claude Code in your product's repo and answer prompts out loud through Wispr Flow – the agent writes the markdown for you. Every session after that is dual-purpose: it answers the question in front of you AND patches the underlying doc when something turns out to be wrong. The strategy layer self-updates. This episode walks through bridesmaid.love [http://bridesmaid.love] live – the setup Ben ran with the Pirate Forge cohort last Wednesday. You'll see docs/context/ populate from a founding-interview prompt, a real cookie-consent question turn into a fully-contextualized Linear ticket, and the agent assign next week's work between Ben and Christina from the OKRs alone. Not theory. A real strategy folder, a real Linear board, and three prompts that ship the entire setup in about an hour. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00:00 – Why growth strategy belongs in your codebase 00:00:45 – No context, no help 00:02:31 – Half the company's brain was invisible 00:04:51 – Build and grow in one repo (Bridesmaid + Pirate Forge cohort) 00:06:00 – Live: the founding interview that seeds docs/context/ 00:07:27 – Inside the strategy folder: business, OKRs, bottlenecks 00:08:20 – The knowledge base that writes itself 00:11:41 – Live demo: a question becomes a Linear ticket 00:16:32 – Strategy that lands in this week's Linear cycle 00:19:40 – Who tackles what – the agent assigns the week 00:23:27 – Run the setup this afternoon: three prompts DEEP DIVE LINKS 📖 Full Article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/gro [https://pirateskills.com/insights/gro]... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbUM0c3NtYnh1NlZRVXl3TjBHbnhfaUpPVFkyZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttRDlUWGNBMHE3d2hFeDFPcEhzemVERUJWd3VEcXZJblRrYnRicW1tTXZHNkw5bG13UElyVU5YeHl5Y0cxQTF5OXNDYkRKczl0Xzh1VDU4YzRXTVBrS1hyTzg1TUdJcklmLVc1WkZUYzNVYndRQVNhNA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fpirateskills.com%2Finsights%2Fgrowth-in-code&v=4ik8Qg-cZyU] 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJ [https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJ]... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbERtTFFKRU5JNXNueFFPZlhRZmhKTkFOVUZNQXxBQ3Jtc0tuLXNNWTdrU3RQVTVrRWFJMG5IOGwxQzFpcmZyTUZiZnFKV2gxYVpmcTRnbFNndlFQNjFMT1gwMHFtY0lpbFFEWUxQUkxVQ3RCLThXa3ROUzJ3WlRQYzhXbC1Zc3d3b2h3MHNyUmNGRzQ2cWYtMWFWNA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fshow%2F7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN&v=4ik8Qg-cZyU] 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast]... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHo4bmpzdC1GcEptVy1sbW10a2pfakpSR0lRZ3xBQ3Jtc0trRHZCVXNGcDZ5bkVvOUJHWjl2TEVIYlBKR0Z4aS00ajhydzhBcG1fY0tpcF9iRmtDdnJQZmdmSWVKOTNKVHNQU0dKaWJuTy1HWm1BN1lBX0pTVk9uamZRY0ZQbWloM0FNdk41Y2NQY3FWWHpJLUxZVQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fpodcasts.apple.com%2Fus%2Fpodcast%2Fbuild-grow-repeat%2Fid1870561487&v=4ik8Qg-cZyU]

AI Founder Mode for the Rest of Us

Paul Graham named founder mode. Brian Chesky added AI to it. Jack Dorsey laid off 4,000 people to get there. All three are catching up to where small-but-mighty teams already operate. AI Founder Mode isn't a new playbook for big companies. It's the long walk back to where two-person teams already are. We never built the middle layer — so "stay in the details, intelligence at the center, founder close to the work" isn't a restructuring for us. It's our default state. The mechanic: a four-step founder loop. Do the task once — you guiding an agent through it. Run /skill-creator in the same session. Hand the next run to a human or another agent. When they hit friction, they apply the feedback and update the skill itself, right there. The skill gets sharper every run. No SOP wikis no one reads. The shift that goes with it: company knowledge migrates out of Notion and into the codebase — because the team members who actually run the work, the agents, live there. The skill is the new onboarding. The agent is the new hire that doesn't need three months and a salary to contribute. Small isn't a phase you grow out of. It's the strategy. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00:00 – AI Founder Mode for the Rest of Us 00:00:25 – Why Paul Graham's Founder Mode hit different in 2024 00:04:38 – Three founders, one direction (and Dorsey's 4,000 layoffs) 00:06:50 – Why SOPs go stale (and what to do instead) 00:07:42 – The video upload trap: "only I can do this" 00:09:14 – The four-step founder loop in Claude Code 00:12:17 – The codebase is the knowledge base, not Notion 00:13:33 – If you won't move to Claude Code, this isn't for you 00:15:06 – Give your team (humans and agents) full access 00:16:21 – Three roles at Pirate Skills: Ben, Christina, ChristAIna 00:18:11 – Your Monday morning: 10 tasks, one skill, one loop DEEP DIVE LINKS 📖 Full Article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/ai-founder-mode [https://pirateskills.com/insights/ai-founder-mode] 📑 Source material: • Paul Graham — Founder Mode (Sept 2024): https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html [https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html] • Brian Chesky — Invest Like the Best EP 470 (May 5, 2026): https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ODjrzaczFgI5I0nVtkuzb [https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ODjrzaczFgI5I0nVtkuzb] • Jack Dorsey — From Hierarchy to Intelligence (Mar 31, 2026): https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence [https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence] 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN [https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN] 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487] 🗓️ All upcoming events (free): https://pirateskills.com/events [https://pirateskills.com/events] 💬 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/]

The Pirate Launch Kit for Your Next Agentic SaaS

What if 80% of every weekend hackathon was already built before you sat down? Every new agentic SaaS project starts at the same wall: auth, database, payments, deploy, AI streaming, env-var roulette. By the time the magic interaction is in reach, the weekend is over. The Pirate Launch Kit is a skill that scaffolds that whole 80% from an empty folder to a deployed, working agentic app shell — landing page, login, streaming chat — on your own URL, before you write a single line of product code. The bigger shift behind it: SaaS itself is changing shape. PowerPoint gave humans tools. Google Slides put those tools in the cloud. Gamma and Claude Design crossed the line — the human is no longer the worker, the human is the supervisor. The new shape of SaaS is a UI built around an agent that does the work. The Kit is opinionated about that shape and ships with the primitives it needs. The video walks the four layers — Frontend, Backend, Agent, Builder — tool by tool, with the why behind every pick. Then a full live demo in VS Code: empty folder, install the skill, answer one question, and watch a private GitHub repo, a Vercel project, env vars, password gate, AI Gateway, and a streaming chat agent appear on a live URL — in minutes, not a weekend. This is not theory. The Kit is being built in public. Send feedback after you try it. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00:00 – The 80% scaffolding tax 00:00:33 – Demo preview: empty folder to deployed agentic app 00:02:30 – Bridesmaid hackathon + the Forge pattern 00:05:00 – The new shape of SaaS (PowerPoint → Gamma → Claude Design) 00:08:50 – Layer 1: Frontend (Next.js, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, AI Elements, Playwright) 00:13:43 – Layer 2: Backend (Vercel, Clerk, Neon + Drizzle, Stripe, Resend, PostHog) 00:18:50 – Layer 3: Agent (Vercel AI SDK, AI Gateway, Workflow SDK, Chat SDK) 00:22:55 – Layer 4: Builder (Claude Code, Vercel plugin, MCP servers, CLIs) 00:28:55 – Live demo: empty folder to live agentic app 00:42:45 – Phase 2 preview + how to send feedback DEEP DIVE LINKS 📖 Full Article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/pirate-launch-kit [https://pirateskills.com/insights/pirate-launch-kit] 🧪 Vibe Coding Cologne — Wed May 6th: free monthly meetup (offline + Zoom): https://pirateskills.com/events/vibe-coding-cologne/2026-05-06 [https://pirateskills.com/events/vibe-coding-cologne/2026-05-06] ⚓ Pirate Lab — Wed May 13th: free Zoom session, this week's deeper dive on what we shipped: https://pirateskills.com/pirate/lab/2026-05-13 [https://pirateskills.com/pirate/lab/2026-05-13] 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN [https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN] 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487] 🗓️ All upcoming events: https://pirateskills.com/events [https://pirateskills.com/events] 💬 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/]

Build & Grow Your Way To More MRR

Your SaaS has a ceiling it will hit — and it's already programmed in by two numbers. Back from MicroConf Portland with the slide that reframed everything: Max MRR = New MRR ÷ Churn. Jason Cohen showed Kit's real revenue chart flattening at $150k/month, and underneath the math was the two-sided formula I'd been teaching for years without realizing it. Build · Grow · Repeat is not a tagline — it's the calculator. This episode walks through both halves with the speakers who made them concrete. Defense: Jason Cohen on obsessing about churn, Alex Pham on pricing as a retention lever (C.R.E.A.M.), Anthony Eden on operational excellence as a silent moat. Offense: Gia Laudi's painkiller positioning, Nick Disabato's Pain-Dream-Fix homepage (including a /nickdfy skill I built that rewrote our homepage in his style), Amanda Natividad on publishing for zero clicks, Einar Vollset on the 20% growth-rate cliff that halves your exit multiple. The personal arc underneath: before vibe coding I could only pull Grow levers. Now the Build half is reachable too — and the math says that's where the biggest unlock sits. Live from MicroConf Portland. Bring your own numbers. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00:00 – Back from MicroConf Portland 00:00:48 – Two halves, one ceiling: Jason Cohen's Max MRR formula 00:04:19 – Build · Grow · Repeat: the two halves vibe coding unlocks 00:07:23 – Defense: obsess about churn first 00:10:10 – Alex Pham: pricing as a retention lever (C.R.E.A.M.) 00:12:18 – Anthony Eden: operational excellence as a silent moat 00:13:07 – Offense: Gia Laudi on painkiller positioning 00:14:45 – Nick Disabato's Pain-Dream-Fix (and the /nickdfy skill) 00:16:32 – Amanda Natividad: publishing for zero clicks 00:18:39 – Einar Vollset: growth rate as a valuation lever 00:22:06 – Run the Max MRR calculator on your own business DEEP DIVE LINKS 📖 Full Article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/build-grow-mrr [https://pirateskills.com/insights/build-grow-mrr] 🧪 Forge Preview — Wed Apr 22, 18:00 Berlin: Free live walk-through of Builder Forge + Growth Forge — see which half of the ceiling to push first: https://pirateskills.com/pirate/forge/preview/2026-04-22 [https://pirateskills.com/pirate/forge/preview/2026-04-22] 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN [https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN] 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487] 🗓️ All upcoming events: https://pirateskills.com/events [https://pirateskills.com/events] 💬 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/]

Not Zero-Human, But Augmented-Human

What if the "Zero-Human Company" everyone's hyping is actually a trap? The frustrations behind it are real – managing humans is distracting, most early hires can barely pull their own weight, and getting to traction is often easier with 3 people than 15. But removing all humans strips out the ambition, the taste, the soul. This episode lays out the counter-position: the Augmented-Human Company. A small, focused crew where AI removes what's holding each person back – so they can give the contribution only they can give. Real examples from Papermark, Typefully, Oleve, and Gamma. Plus the thread from Rob Walling's "Start Small, Stay Small" to Karpathy's Iron Man Suit metaphor. Published live from MicroConf Portland – the very community built on intentional smallness. WHO THIS IS FOR * A founder tempted by the "zero human" hype but sensing something's off * A bootstrapper who wants to stay small without scaling back ambitions * A vibe coder building their first product and wondering how far a tiny team can go * Someone who's tried hiring and found it harder than doing it with fewer people IN THIS EPISODE * 00:00:00 – The Zero-Human Trap * 00:00:46 – Why the frustrations behind it are real * 00:02:00 – The brutal trade-off small teams always faced * 00:03:06 – Building alone gets old fast * 00:03:49 – Karpathy's Iron Man Suit metaphor * 00:04:52 – What an Augmented-Human Company actually looks like * 00:06:50 – The intellectual lineage: Walling → Naval → Altman → Shipper * 00:10:04 – Real examples: Papermark, Typefully, Oleve, Gamma * 00:12:54 – The Repeat Layer: Build, Grow, Repeat * 00:14:49 – The new way to build companies DEEP DIVE LINKS * 📖 Full Article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/augmented-human [https://pirateskills.com/insights/augmented-human] * 🧪 Builder Lab – Apr 15: https://pirateskills.com/build/lab/2026-04-15 [https://pirateskills.com/build/lab/2026-04-15] * 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN [https://open.spotify.com/show/7kFl0BJiOYih8yqQTRR9SN] * 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-grow-repeat/id1870561487] * 🗓️ All events: https://pirateskills.com/events [https://pirateskills.com/events] * 💬 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensufiani/]