Writing
Weekly links. Occasional blog posts.
Two streams. Blog posts are longer notes from inside founder conversations. Mike & Ned's Links goes out every week — the most interesting things we read, watched, or argued about.
Blog · Substack
Longer notes.
Frameworks and observations from inside founder conversations. Published when there's something worth saying.
advisormike.substack.com
Every Startup Is a Cult. Pick Yours.
You can’t out-pay the incumbents. But you can out-believe them.
Who's Keeping Score?
You’re not getting the most out of your team until the players keep score themselves
Expectations Are Crap. Agreements Are Gold
If you're disappointed in someone, you probably don't have a people problem. You have an expectation you never turned into an agreement.
AI Is Changing the Job of Product Teams
Four big takeaways from Lenny’s Summit on quality, evals, automation, and the teams behind it all.
Be. Do. Have.
A better operating system for staying ambitious without letting achievement define you
Weekly · Substack
Mike & Ned's Links.
A weekly link letter from two former operators. Tools, essays, founder lessons, things we're chewing on.
startupthoughts.substack.com
Oct 29, 2026
This week → The Early Access Playbook v2.0, Permission to Think For Yourself: Inside the Thiel Fellowship’s Early Years, How to effectively integrate AI into an existing company, Who’s keeping score?
Oct 23, 2026
This week → Ben Affleck: ‘I’m Not Going to Pretend Everything Has Always Been Happy and Cheerful and…, What’s going on here, with this human?, Spirit Airlines’ Dwindling Skeleton Crew Gets the Carrier’s Affairs in Order, What would make AI truly social?
Oct 16, 2026
This week → Ken Griffin made a $3 Billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University, Models as Insider Risks in the Super Intelligence Era, The Friday Update Template Every CEO Should Steal, The Diffusion Gap
Sep 29, 2026
This week → You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner, The World is Changing: AI For Creativity, Nick Saban’s Five Enemies of Greatness, Why We're Building Muse
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