Andy Mewborn

Distribute

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Founder & Customer Support

Taplio

Co-Founder

Outreach

Enterprise Sales

Sales Engineering Lead

Scaled the early success team to 14 people.

Manager - Customer Success

Early Employee.
Specialties: Data Sync, API, Onboarding, Platform Integrations, Partner Ecosystem

Product 

Start-Up Chile

Our team was selected for Generation 11 of Start-Up Chile (the YC of South America). We provided solar energy services and installed solar power systems.

Gridlee - Co-founder & Sales

Progress Chef

Sales Development Representative

Muhuru Bay Community Microgrid Project

Designed 3kW off-grid power system
Modeled renewable energy resources at remote site
Implemented system in Kenya
Tested and installed 11-channel GSM telemetry system

Electrical Engineer

Seattle City Light

Power Systems Engineer

Distribute.so

I use to be young & cool. Now I do b2b SaaS. 

Husband. Dad. Ironman. Pilot. Taco lover. 

Founder of Distribute // Co-founder of Taplio (acq. by Lemlist) // Early @ Outreach.io.

Creator

A community of over 4,000+ B2B professionals growing together on Linkedin.

• "Brand30 absolutely did wonders for my business." -Maritha Koortzen

• "Brand30 changed the trajectory of my life...To say it’s opening doors for me is an understatement" - Amanda Stern

• "Brand30 provided the group accountability and expert advice I needed to more than double my LinkedIn engagement in just one month" 

🚀 Start Building An Audience Of Potential Buyers On LinkedIn In 30 Days👇

• https://www.brand30.io/

8 months ago, we had 0 users. Today, Distribute.so has 15,000+ users. I’ve helped build a $250M company before, but this feels different.

Building a startup is glamorized on social media. But the reality is messy. Here are the 7 ugly truths about building fast in 2025 that nobody talks about:

1. Hitting a wall is normal 
I've been stuck at revenue plateaus multiple times. It feels terrible. But you can get moving again if you don't freeze.

2. You will mess up 
I've hired the wrong people. I've built the wrong features. I've spent money on things I didn't need. It's part of the game.

3. People will copy you 
We just beat 4 competitors for a deal. They are going to look at our product and copy it. Let them. By the time they copy us, we will be onto the next thing.

4. Saying "No" is painful 
To close those 18 killer logos, we had to say "no" to hundreds of other ideas. It hurts to say no to customers. But if you try to please everyone, you please no one.

5. Cash flow is everything 
It doesn't matter how cool your idea is. If you run out of money, you die. We watch every dollar.

6. It takes longer than you think 
People overestimate what they can do in a year. And underestimate what they can do in a decade. We are playing the long game.

7. Just start 
Every successful founder started with nothing. No revenue. No customers. No audience. The only difference is they didn't quit.

I’m documenting the whole ride here. The wins. The losses. And the lessons.

Follow along if you want to see how we get to the next level. Just keep building.

Andrew Mewborn

Click my profile, get a free taco 🌮 (also I automate your follow-ups)

7 ugly truths about building fast in 2025

Everyone told me I was crazy. "You can't sell to Enterprise logos without a massive sales team." "You can't be Product-Led and Sales-Led at the same time."

I disagreed. We have 15,000+ users on our self-serve app. But we also just closed 18 massive killer logos in 3 months.

Here is the 7-step playbook we used to move upmarket without losing our soul:

1. We stayed lean intentionally 
Most founders hire 10 reps the moment they get traction. We didn't. We used our own product to handle the volume.

2. We looked at our own backyard 
We didn't buy cold lists. We looked at our 15,000 free users. We found the ones who were using the product every day. Then we asked them: "Who is your boss?"

3. We sold the Result, not the Method killer 
Buyers don't care how your tech works. They care about the problem disappearing. We showed them exactly how Distribute would solve their problem in week 1.

4. We gave before we asked 
We didn't try to trap them in long contracts immediately. We let them use the product. We let them see the value. Trust is built by giving, not taking.

5. We stopped chasing shortcuts 
We didn't use clever tricks. We just focused on making the product 1% better every day. Word of mouth is the only growth strategy that lasts.

6. We kept the team tiny 
We are doing millions in revenue potential with a team that fits in a minivan. This keeps us profitable. And it keeps us hungry.

7. We worked in public 
I shared the wins and the losses on LinkedIn. This built trust with buyers before we ever spoke to them. They felt like they knew us.

TAKEAWAY: You don't need to follow the Silicon Valley rules. You don't need to raise $100M. You don't need a fancy office. You just need a product that people love. And the guts to do it your way.

They said you can't sell Enterprise without a suit.

had our quarterly all-hands today

CEO said we're "laser-focused on execution"

CTO said we're "moving fast and breaking things"

CFO said we have "18 months of runway"

VP Sales said we're "building a repeatable sales motion"

i asked "what does any of that mean?"

got pulled into a 1-on-1 about "culture fit"

turns out "what does that mean?" is not a growth mindset question

i'm now "transitioning to focus on other opportunities"

which means i have 2 weeks to find another company where nobody knows what they're talking about

shouldn't be hard

I helped build Outreach to $250M in revenue. I helped over 4,000 people grow on LinkedIn. Now, I have 15,000+ users on my new company, Distribute.so

I have seen the movie before. And I can tell you that the sequel is very different from the original.

Back in 2015, the playbook was simple: Force the sale. Hire an army of BDRs. Buy a massive list of emails. Send thousands of messages a day. It worked then. It doesn't work now.

Here are the 6 things that have changed in the last 10 years:

1. Buyers ignore the noise 
Email open rates have tanked. Sending more messages doesn't work anymore. You have to earn their attention, not demand it.

2. Don't push, attract 
You can't force a sale anymore. You have to create interest through content and brand. Then you capture that interest when they are ready.

3. Small teams are winning 
We closed 18 killer deals with a tiny team. You don't need 50 reps. You need a few seniors who know what they are doing.

4. Reputation is the new advantage 
Features get copied in a week. But they can't copy who you are. Your personal brand is the most efficient sales channel that exists.

5. Easy beats Powerful 
killer software used to be clunky and expensive. Now, the best tools feel like consumer apps. If it feels like work, they won't use it.

6. Speed over Forecasts 
We don't try to predict every dollar. We try to move fast. We launch, we test, we fix. Speed is the only advantage a startup really has.

TAKEAWAY: If you are still running the 2015 playbook, you are working too hard. The game has changed. You can either complain about it, or you can adapt. We chose to adapt. And it's working.

I helped build Outreach.io to $250M in revenue

I just beat 4 competitors to win a killer contract. We didn't have the most features. We didn't have the biggest sales team. But we have 15,000+ users and just closed our 18th killer logo in 3 months.

How did we do it? We realized that the old way of selling software is broken. Most founders try to build everything for everyone. They add buttons, settings, and complex workflows. They think "more features" equals "more value."

They are wrong. In 2025, buyers are overwhelmed. They don't want another tool they have to learn. They want something that just works.

Here is the 7-step playbook we used to win on Simplicity:

1. Go where the big fish swim 
We didn't wait for them to come to us. We found where they were hanging out and showed up.

2. Prove it, don't pitch it 
Our competitors sent 40-page slide decks. We sent a link to the product. If you have to explain how it works, it's too complicated.

3. The "Zero-Training" Standard 
We built Distribute so a 5th grader could use it. If a user needs a certification to use your tool, you have already lost. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

4. Escape the "Feature Trap" 
Customers will ask for a million things. We said "no" to 90% of them. We only built the things that made the core product faster and easier.

5. Sell it yourself 
I didn't hire a VP of Sales to figure this out. I did it myself. Founders should sell until at least $500K ARR because nobody knows the product like you do.

6. Find the "Aha!" instantly 
We found the one specific thing that made users say "wow." Then we made that experience happen in under 60 seconds.

7. Let the product drive the deal 
When the product is simple, the champion can sell it internally for you. They don't need you to fly in for a demo. They just show their boss, and the boss gets it.

TAKEAWAY: Startups are hard. But in 2025, complex startups are impossible. Stop building more. Start building simpler. That is how you win.

I just beat 4 competitors to win a killer contract

intern: "should I add my phone number to my email signature?"

CEO: "absolutely, we're accessible"

intern: "what about my LinkedIn?"

CEO: "yes, we're modern"

intern: "calendar booking link?"

CEO: "of course, we're efficient"

intern: "headshot?"

CEO: "why not, we're human"

intern sends first email

signature is 47 lines long

includes:

• 3 phone numbers
• 4 social media links
• calendar link
• company tagline
• legal disclaimer
• "Sent from my iPhone"
• sustainability notice about not printing emails
• AI-generated motivational quote

the actual email says "sounds good"

we promoted them to Head of Email Excellence

I spent 3 hours on a crap ton of follow-ups at Outreach while we scaled to $250M. Now our 15,000+ Distribute users do better follow-ups in 30 seconds. After closing 18 deals in the past few months, I learned something most founders miss: complexity kills deals, simplicity closes them.

Here's why the best salespeople are deleting tools, not adding them:

1// YOUR BUYERS DON’T WANT YOUR 55-SLIDE DECK

They want one page with what you discussed, the ROI, and next steps.

We tracked 10,000+ deals.

Average time on slide decks? 47 seconds.

Average time on simple deal pages? 8 minutes.


2// YOUR CHAMPION CAN’T SELL INTERNALLY WITH MEETING NOTES

They need a business case, ROI calculator, and executive summary.

Not a transcript.

When we switched from sending 27 attachments to one link, deal velocity increased MUCHO.


3// EVERY TOOL YOU ADD CREATES ANOTHER PLACE TO LOSE

The average rep uses 10+ tools for follow-ups.

Fathom for notes. Loom for demos. Google Docs for emails. Canva for slides.

The winners? They use one tool that does it all.


4// SIMPLICITY SPREADS FASTER THAN FEATURES

When we made Distribute dead simple, word-of-mouth exploded.

No training needed. No change management.

Just send your follow-up in 30 seconds and move on.


TAKEAWAY:

I watched Outreach grow because it simplified prospecting.

Now I'm watching Distribute grow because it simplifies follow-ups.

The pattern is clear.

Simplicity isn't just a feature.

It's a moat.

We beat 4 competitors  with 90% fewer features

prospect: "tell me about your product"

me: "what if I told you that you could save 20 hours per week?"

prospect: "how?"

me: "great question. let me share my screen. can you see this?"

prospect: "yes"

me: "perfect. so imagine your current workflow..."

**proceeds to spend 40 minutes describing their own job back to them**

me: "...and that's where we come in"

prospect: "what does your product actually do?"

me: "I'm going to send over some case studies and let's reconnect next week"

booked the follow-up

still haven't answered what we do

this is sales

investors rejected our pitch deck last month

they said our projections were "unrealistic"

we were forecasting $100M ARR by year 2 with zero marketing spend

i asked "don't you believe in product-led growth?"

they said "you have 3 customers"

so i updated the deck

changed "customers" to "enterprise partners"

changed "3" to "a curated selection of design partners"

changed "$47 MRR" to "high-intent early revenue signals"

we raised $8M Series A last week

words matter more than numbers

Last week I asked 4,000+ sellers how long they spend on follow-ups. 73% said 2-3 hours. That's 750 hours per year writing emails nobody reads. I helped build Outreach to $250M, and even we were wasting time on follow-ups.

Here's the math that'll make you sick:

Let's say you close 20 deals per year. Each deal takes 5 calls. Each call needs a 3-hour follow-up. That's 300 hours. Or 37.5 work days. You're spending 2 months per year on admin work.

**screams at sky***

While you write follow-ups, your competitors are on their next call.

Here's what actually works in 2025:

1// Stop crafting. Start automating.

AI can write better follow-ups than you.
It remembers everything. Never forgets the ROI discussion.
Includes the right case studies.
Our 15,000 users proved this.

2// Stop sending files. Send experiences.

PDFs get lost.
Attachments get ignored.
But a personalized page? That gets shared with the CFO.
We see 3x higher engagement on deal pages vs traditional follow-ups.

3// Stop hoping. Start tracking.

You need to know when the CFO views pricing. When legal downloads the contract. When your deal goes cold.

Email can't tell you this. 

The sellers crushing quota aren't working harder.

They're working different.

They turned 3-hour follow-ups into 30 seconds.

And their buyers actually engage.

Holy sh*t, right?

You waste 37.5 days per year on follow-ups

I helped scale Outreach to $250M. Then I started my own company and made every mistake I swore I never would. Here are the 6 dumbest things I did building Distribute to 15,000 users:

1// I spent 3 months building features nobody asked for

We had a roadmap. It was beautiful. Customers wanted something else entirely. I should have talked to 50 more people before writing a single line of code.


2// I chased logos instead of problems

Early on, I got excited when big names showed interest. I bent the product to fit them. They churned anyway. The customers who stayed were the ones whose problem we actually solved.


3// I wrote follow-up copy like a robot

I'm embarrassed to show you our early emails. Corporate garbage. The moment I started writing like a human, reply rates doubled.


4// I ignored my own LinkedIn audience for 6 months

I had built a following. I knew how to create content. But I thought "real companies" needed paid ads and SDR teams. Wrong. My posts still drive more pipeline than anything else.


5// I hired before I had a repeatable process

Brought on help too early. They failed. It wasn't their fault. I didn't have a playbook to hand them yet.


6// I thought the product would sell itself

It doesn't. Nothing does. Even great products need someone to explain why they matter.


TAKEAWAY:

Building a startup is just a series of mistakes.

The winners aren't the ones who avoid them.

They're the ones who make them faster and don't repeat them.

I'm still making mistakes every week.

But at least they're new ones.

I made every mistake I swore I never would

spent all morning analyzing our competitors

Competitor A: raised $50M, has 200 employees, beautiful website
Competitor B: raised $30M, has enterprise clients, won industry awards
Competitor C: bootstrapped to $10M ARR, profitable, amazing product

Us: 1 founders, $a couple mil raised, website built on Webflow template, LinkedIn is our entire marketing strategy

but here's the thing...

we respond to customer emails in under 5 minutes

our competitors take 3 business days

we shipped 12 features last month

they shipped a new font

we're not better funded

we're not better positioned

we're just more desperate

and in B2B SaaS, desperation scales

posted "what if we just... listened to customers?" on LinkedIn

38,000 impressions

427 comments saying "this is so true"

16 VCs sent connection requests

got invited to speak at a SaaS conference

my talk is titled "Revolutionary Customer-Centric Strategies for Modern B2B"

it's a 45-minute presentation on literally just talking to people who pay you

they're paying me $5k to speak

i'm writing a book about it called "The Listening Framework"

it's 280 pages explaining how to have conversations

pre-orders are through the roof

disruption is just common sense with better marketing

We just won a deal against 4 established competitors. They had 10X the funding, bigger brands, and fancier demos. But we won all 4 times. After helping 4,000+ people grow on LinkedIn and scaling Outreach to $250M, I knew exactly why: buyers don't want more tools, they want less work.

Here's how we beat everyone:

Competitor 1: 55 features, 3-hour onboarding
Us: 3 features that actually matter, 5-minute setup

Competitor 2: "AI-powered intelligence platform"
Us: "Your follow-up in 30 seconds"

Competitor 3: 47-page implementation guide
Us: Chrome extension. Click. Done.

Competitor 4: $500/month per user
Us: $49/month. Everything included.

**drops mic**

Here's what I learned closing our first big deals:

1// FEATURES ARE A TAX ON YOUR BUYERS

Every feature needs explaining.
Every option needs deciding.
Every setting needs configuring.
We do one thing perfect instead of 50 things okay.

2// COMPLEXITY IS WHERE DEALS GO TO DIE

The moment a buyer says "let me check with IT," you lost.
The moment they need training, you lost.
Make it so simple they can start now.

3// YOUR CHAMPION NEEDS TO LOOK SMART

They don't win by showing a complex tool.
They win by solving a problem fast.
Give them a quick win, not a science project.

We have 15,000+ users not because we're the best.

But because we're the simplest.

And in 2025, simple beats everything.

Every. Single. Time. YALL.

Step by step ↓

Let me tell you what's really going on…

When a prospect says "we don't have budget"…

They're not broke.

They just spent $47 on DoorDash last night. They've got budget for a new CRM. Budget for that conference in Miami.

What they DON'T have?

A reason to fight for YOUR deal.

See… right now, they're sitting in some internal meeting. Your proposal is open on their screen. And their CFO asks:

"Why do we need this?"

And your prospect?

They freeze.

They fumble.

They can't remember what you said. Can't articulate the ROI. Can't justify the spend.

So the deal dies. Not because of "budget." Because you made THEM do the selling.

That's on you.

Here's the fix:

Send them a Deal Summary BEFORE they go dark.

One page. One link. Everything they need to sell this deal internally:

→ The bleeding-neck problem you're solving 
→ The cost of doing NOTHING (this is the killer) 
→ Exactly what you're proposing 
→ What happens next

You do the selling. They just forward the link.

Takes 2 minutes. Saves you from chasing ghosts for 3 weeks.

💬 Comment "TACO"

I'll send you the exact Deal Summary template I use to close deals without begging for follow-ups.

💬 Comment "TACO"

Year 1: "we're pre-product-market fit, iterating rapidly"
Translation: nobody wants this

Year 2: "we're finding early signals of PMF"
Translation: 2 customers didn't churn

Year 3: "we've achieved strong product-market fit"
Translation: we stopped pivoting because we're tired

Year 4: "we're scaling past PMF into market domination"
Translation: we hired a VP of Sales who convinced us we're doing great

Year 5: "we're exploring strategic alternatives"
Translation: acquisition talks because we never actually found PMF

Year 6: got acquired for $8M by a company that will shut us down in 9 months

called it a "successful exit"

changed LinkedIn title to "Founder & CEO (Exited)"

already working on the next one

customer: "can you add dark mode?"
us: "it's on the roadmap"

customer: "can you fix this bug?"
us: "it's on the roadmap"

customer: "can you add SSO?"
us: "it's on the roadmap"

customer: "can we see the roadmap?"
us: "that's on the roadmap"

our roadmap is a Google Doc titled "stuff_we_might_do_idk.doc"

it hasn't been updated since 2023

we closed $2M ARR this year

turns out "it's on the roadmap" is enterprise software for "leave me alone"

Sellers

What’s more dangerous for sales teams: bad managers or bad AI tools?

A) Bad managers – morale killer
B) Bad AI – data chaos
C) Both – one demotivates, the other misleads
D) Neither – blame the process, not the tools

P.S. - My AI handles 90% of my sales process now—prospecting, follow-ups, closing. Set it up in 90 seconds: https://lnkd.in/eNYQ3DeQ

What’s more dangerous for sales teams: bad managers or bad AI tools?

Sellers

What’s the biggest shift in sales since 2020?

A) Buyers research more than sellers
B) Remote selling is the new normal
C) Champions have more power than AEs
D) Product-led growth changed everything

P.S. - Turns out I've been following up like an IDIOT for 5 years. This 90-second quiz showed me my actual follow-up style (and how to fix it): www.distribute.so/quiz

Sellers

Would you take feedback from an AI “sales coach”?

A) Yes – No bias, just data
B) Maybe – Only if it knows context
C) No – You can’t coach without empathy
D) I already do — ChatGPT’s my therapist

P.S. - My AI handles 90% of my sales process now—prospecting, follow-ups, closing. Set it up in 90 seconds: www.distribute.so/quiz

Persona

Working with the Growth team to help humanize the internet at scale. Building our B2B SaaS community. 

Excited to work with startups and support their journey.

Community and Growth

E-Dublin

Back in 2007 I decided to move to Ireland. At the time there was nothing about Ireland written in Portuguese, so I decided to start blogging about it and sharing my experiences. I called it Edublin.

Early in 2008 I launched Edublin's mailing list that reached 3K members within 6 months. The biggest newspaper in Brazil at the time (Folha de Sao Paulo) wrote a piece about my community. People started to organize meet-ups in Brazil while I was already living in Ireland. I couldn't believe it was happening.  

Fast forward to today, Edublin has grown as a business, generating over 50K qualified leads annually, reaching millions of people every month with our content in multiple formats and platforms (podcast, short-videos, long-videos, articles, IRL events, you name it!).

The dedication to our craft has been awarded multiple times, and I'm honoured to have built a diverse and inclusive team.

We had the privilege of working with the best brands in the world, including KLM, Uber, Samsung, Chilli Beans, as well as the major Educational institutions in Ireland such as Trinity College, Dublin City University, Griffith College and many others.

Some of our numbers:
+ Half-million monthly visits in our website;
+ 50 million views and 400K subs on our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/edublinTV)
+ Half-million fans on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/edublinblog)
+ 165K followers on our Instagram (www.instagram.com/e_dublin)

Some of our awards:
* Top 5 Irish YouTube channel 2017*
* Winner of Best International Exchange & Experience Blogs 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017 *
* Winner - Outstanding Website - Web Awards 2013 * 
* Semi-Finalist - Best Daily Publication - Web Awards Ireland 2013 *
* Shortlisted - Most Useful Website in Ireland - Web Awards 2013 *
* Winner of the Best International Exchange & Experience Blogs 2010 *
* Finalist at Awards.ie - Category Best PopCulture Blog 2010 * 

If you'd like to chat about a partnership, please reach out on ads@edublin.com.br

Co-Founder, Community builder

Bossanova Investimentos

Investor

Wix.com

• Leading the Community team (Community Managers) 
• Create the vision and global strategy for the Communities
• Evangelizing for the Community internally
• Ensure alignment of our vision, and lead the execution and delivery of our strategy through programs, clear goals and KPIs
• Provide guidance to Community Managers and work directly with the leadership teams across multiple verticals and BUs (Product Managers, Product Marketing Managers, Heads of BUs, Country Managers)
• Leveraging data and reports to communicate and advocate for Communities internally and with product teams

Head of Community

VMware

Leading global supportability programs
Program management
2x speaker at VMworld (2019, 2020) - largest virtualization-specific event with over 70K participants.

Head of Support Community

Dropbox

Leading our community operations globally under the Customer Experience team. Driving scaled engagement and support to over 500 million Dropbox users.

- Built Dropbox Super User program (Ambassadors program) from ground up (strategy and implementation, including exclusive content, onboarding, meet ups). Over 100K contributions generated by ambassadors;
- Increased product engineering & end users engagement by over 400% resulting in bug fixes, closing feedback loop and building transparency & trust with users;
- Driving 6-digit savings in ticket and call deflection through scaled support;
- Product Management of our community platform;

Global Head of Community

Nomadez

Co-Founder, Owner

Zynga

• Drove millions in savings through scaled support, task automation, and improved workflows
being awarded for team efficiency (Delta Awards) granted to only 3 employees globally;
• Led the Social Media and Community teams globally (team strategy, 1:1s, performance improvement, and individual OKRs);
• Responsible for agent (internal) and moderator (vendor) forecasting based on game launches, training and performance management across 5 languages; 
• Negotiated and influenced cross-functional teams to ensure resourcing for key project deliverables;

Community Operations Manager

Part of the first batch of hires in the EMEA operation, working in scrappy environment trying to build bridges, processes and establishing a footprint in EMEA.

• Managing local team (1:1s, individual OKRs and team goals);
• Building gap and relationship between local team and key teams in headquarters (San Francisco); 
• Vendor management in Central America and Asia (agent forecasting, quality, training); 
• Analysis of top ticket drivers for automation and process improvement opportunities;

Support Team Lead

Strategem iLabs

• Responsible for digital campaigns of key brands such as Nokia and Danone (Cow & Gate);
• Pay-per-click, heuristic web audit, benchmarking, presenting campaigns and results to clients;
• Charity social media management for Connect Ethiopia;

Digital Account Executive

MRM WorldWide (McCann Group)

Responsible for bringing offline campaigns into the digital world back when YouTube was yet to be acquired by Google and Instagram didn't even exist. 

• Digital campaign planning for blue-chip companies such as Intel and Mastercard;
• Kickoff and setup of the Digital Division at MRM/McCann Erickson;

Digital Innovation and Strategic Planner

Positive, engaging and seasoned doer with an entrepreneurial spirit. A visual storyteller who strongly believes we should always create exceptional experiences every day.

I wear multiple hats. I lead online communities's strategy for companies programs globally for the last 12+ years and have been awarded as the Community Professional of the Year 2020 at the CMX Awards - one of the most prestigious companies in the communities industry. 

What are my not-so-secret superpowers?
Idea generation, visual storytelling, growth hacking, event planning, building a brand of my own, lead generation, demand generation, proactive problem solving, fearless networking and cold calling, and fostering collaboration.

Where can you find me?
Behind cameras capturing a beautiful scene or in front of it sharing some thoughts; running events, playing drums OR https://ed.community

Casual, but not meaningless. I trust my guts, and I back it up with data.



Specialties
Online communities; Ambassador programs; Online support, scaled support; community platform tender; management of international communities, global communities; community strategy, community operations, social support, social media strategy, XFN; product ideation; lead generation; demand generation; campaign creation and execution; digital marketing; social marketing; social selling; product management; project management; Software-as-a-Service SaaS; Lean Six Sigma Green Belt; ScrumMaster; Vendor management; Partner Management; Outsourcing management;

Ed Giansante

2025 is the best year of my life (yet).

Helen and I both came from stories that didn’t work out.

Bad starts, divorces, and that feeling that, approaching 40, the idea of “true love” or a “perfect family” might not be for us anymore.

The truth is that we weren’t aligned with God, so we couldn’t be aligned with each other.

And in 2025 God opened doors, dreams taking shape, and blessings arriving at the exact right time.

When we put it all together, it’s impossible to ignore how God takes care of every detail:

• I started serving on the church worship team
• I joined the #Legendários event in Brazil
• We had our mini wedding in Belo Horizonte to honor Helen’s father
• We celebrated our (perfect!) wedding in São Paulo
• We got pregnant
• We went to Disney and Universal in LA
• We saw Bruno Mars in Las Vegas
• We bought a new car
• We moved homes
• We had three baby showers: Uberlândia, Belo Horizonte, and São Paulo

None of this would have happened without a heart transformed and obedient to God.

The biggest lesson of the year was simple and deep: trust God’s timing (kairos).

Our timing (chronos) is rushed, anxious, and limited.

“I, the Lord, will make it happen at the right time.”
Isaiah 60:22

Trust His timing.

Head of Community, AI enthusiast, Book Author (ex-Dropbox, Wix, Zynga)

No alternative text description for this image

Eventbrite just got acquired for $500M.

Meanwhile, a 6-person team is quietly eating their lunch.

Here's what most people missed about Luma's rise (and what it means for you):

News dropped yesterday: Bending Spoons (the Italian tech giant) is buying Eventbrite for $500M all-cash.

Eventbrite raised over $300M, went public, and now they're selling at an 82% premium because the stock was tanking.

The company acquiring them bought Evernote in 2022, laid off most of the US team, and "ruined the product" according to users.

While Eventbrite was busy being a "real company," Luma did something different:

The team:
- 6 full-time people (3 engineers, 3 designers)
- Raised only $3M in seed funding (2020)
- Zero sales team
- Zero marketing team
- Grown to millions of users purely through word of mouth

How they work:
- Only 2 recurring meetings per week (15 minutes each)
- Remote-first, async communication
- No Slack, no corporate BS
- Founders work 99% of days because they love what they're building (according to Victor)

What Lu.ma didn't do:
- They didn't raise $100M Series B 
- They didn't hire a VP of Sales 
- They didn't build "enterprise features" nobody asked for 
- They didn't spend on ads 
- They didn't do partnerships or live demos

Instead, this is what they did:
Ship a product so good that millions of people chose it organically.

Lu.ma now dominates tech events in the Bay Area and NYC.

Companies that switched from Eventbrite to Lu.ma: Alo, the NBA, Stripe.

The lesson here is about focus and craft over scale and hype.

Eventbrite (founded 2006, raised $300M+, went public): Selling for $500M in distress
Lu.ma (founded 2020, raised $3M, 6 people): Quietly dominating the space

Now with Bending Spoons taking over Eventbrite, we're about to see what happens when a cost-cutting conglomerate tries to "optimize" a struggling platform.

I predict that more event organizers will quietly move to Lu.ma.

The best products don't need to yell. They just need to work.

Are you a Lumaer or Eventbritee?

Would love to hear from you.

Ed ❤️

Follow me for more stories on startups, community building, and products that actually matter.

AI image generated to represent Eventbrite's acquisition

Organizei um brunch em um spa para 10 executivos c-level de empresas enterprise no Brasil ontem em São Paulo.

O que tornou isso especial:

O formato foi simples → conversas intimistas durante o café da manhã, seguidas de massagens para ajudar todo mundo a relaxar antes do dia começar.

Sem PowerPoints. Sem pitches. Apenas diálogos abertos.

Encontros matinais são diferentes. As pessoas estão mais afiadas, mais presentes, e a energia é simplesmente melhor. Adicione um espaço lindo e a chance de realmente relaxar depois, e você cria algo memorável.

Essa galera lidera empresas que processam milhões, com times gigantes e operações super complexas que envolvem compliance e sistemas anti-fraude robustos. 

Foi incrível receber vocês Tatiana, Eduardo, Davi Miyake, Danielle, Daniel, Marcele, Claudia! (e sentimos tua falta Fagner e Pedro)

Essas conversas me lembraram por que eu amo construir comunidades e como gosto de conversar com pessoas aqui no Brasil. 

São executivos de nível mundial.

Aprendi muito com cada um e quero encontrar mais executivos para encontros assim muito em breve.

Quem eu deveria convidar pro próximo?

Ed ❤️ (ou Edu!)

The 3 major announcements in the last 48 hours:

1. Bezos is back as co-CEO. 
The man couldn't stay retired for one full news cycle.

Project Prometheus came out of stealth yesterday. $6.2 billion. 

Bezos wants millions of people living in space. Meanwhile I just want AI to stop hallucinating and using em-dashes. Living my own reality in AI.

2. Lovable went from $1.8B to $6B in 5 months

They hit $200M ARR.

Every engineer on HackerNews is currently updating their resume while insisting this "can't possibly scale."

Meanwhile, some founder who failed intro to CS just shipped three products before lunch.

Cursor's at $29.3 billion. So apparently the secret to a ten-figure valuation is convincing people they don't need to learn the thing you spent years mastering.

The vibe code life is real.

3. 45% of investors now list "AI bubble" as their top concern.

Google's CEO said no company is immune if it bursts. Goldman Sachs CEO basically said "yeah, most of this money's gone."

You know it's bad when even the people making money off the bubble are like "this seems unsustainable."

But the money's still flowing. For now.

But the gap between "raised $50M" and "has actual customers" is getting impossible to ignore.

If your pitch is "it's like ChatGPT but for [niche industry]," you're already late.

The companies that survive will be the ones that can answer "who's paying for this and why".

Are we in a bubble or witnessing the biggest shift in human history?

Probably both. Which is honestly the most 2025 thing possible.

Drop your take below 👇

Ed

P.S. Building something real? Let's chat - DM me!

P.S 2: Image is absolutely unrelated to this post. Someone told me folks like personal stories on LinkedIn.

love this initiative and I'd love to offer the same

Make your ask and & I'll connect you 

that's a very community-y community thing
Jeremie Gluckman Richard Millington Catharina Nilsson Regina Walton, MA, JD Sharath Kuruganty Autumn Hankinson Autumn Moss Penaloza David Santana Dasha Shunina Joshua Zerkel, CPO Ben Birkholm Chris Peralta Jen Medeiros Shirine Marzouki K "Piper Wilson" G Tiffany Long and millions of other community friends <3

Let's play a game: make your ask & I'll connect you to the right person in my network 👀

How to play: 

🎯 Comment an ask that you have. A community you want to be part of, a field you're looking to explore, a company you want to learn about, or a job you're looking to get. 

✅ I'll personally respond and tag a relevant person you should meet. 

If you see a comment and want to make a connection, go for it! 

I did this experiment 2 years ago, and was able to make over 300 connections between people in the community. I want to top that number this time around!

Let's try this 👇👇

I just read Paul Graham's thread on startups and fundraising.

One investor told him that startups should sell to bigger companies because they have more money.

his response: Write them off as idiots. Selling to startups is the best thing you can do.

This is what I think people don't get:

Startups have less money, but they decide faster. And growth rate is what matters for you, not the absolute numbers.

If you have a good enough growth rate, the absolute numbers will take care of themselves.

Startups are also smarter, less bureaucratic, and more representative of future trends. You're not just growing faster. You're building better influence on your product.

Focus on newly funded startups that prefer your product. As they grow into future giants, you'll own entire cohorts of companies. That's more valuable than chasing anyone else.

This is exactly how Stripe dominated payments. They got every YC batch to use them. When those startups scaled, Stripe's revenue grew at startup rates automatically.

Now, when should you worry about well-funded competitors?

Only if they can tell you precisely how their extra money will beat you. 

Like if ads are the only way to get users and they can buy every ad spot, then you're in trouble.

But most well-funded companies just burn cash on bureaucracy and bad decisions. 

They're slow. You're not.

The flip side matters too: if you're fundraising, don't raise money unless you can explain exactly how it helps you beat competitors. 

Money without a deployment plan is just dead weight.

Three things that matter:
- Product quality over everything
- Win the fast-moving customers first
- Growth rate over absolute numbers

Nail these and the big companies will come to you later anyway.

Follow me for more startup insights :)

Ed

Heard this one last week:

A founder from our community spent his entire Thanksgiving dinner in the south peninsula trying to convince his girlfriend's parents he wasn't unemployed.

It didn't work.

So at 10 PM, he pulled up his laptop at the dining table and showed them his company's pilot agreement with a Fortune 500 client.

"I just couldn't let them think I was wasting my Stanford degree," he told me.

Here's the thing:

If you're a founder, you know this feeling. The awkward explanations. 

The concerned looks. The "so... when do you get a real job?" questions.

One founder told me his ex-wife's siblings were buying houses and having babies. 

Meanwhile, he and his wife had just made their first $1K in revenue.

"It was a bit painful," he said.

Another had to take calls with his dev team in Poland during Thanksgiving dinner. 

His family kept asking: "You're doing this now? You're not even making money."

The disconnect is real.

When you're building something from scratch, you're speaking a different language than people with traditional careers. 

You celebrate a $1K sale like it's a Series A. You work holidays. You live in basements after living in penthouses.

And explaining it? Nearly impossible.

But here's what I've learned from our community of 19,000+ founders:

The people who truly matter will get it eventually. Or they won't lol. And that's okay :)

Your job isn't to convince everyone at the Thanksgiving table that you're legit.

Your job is to build something so undeniable that the proof shows up in pilot agreements, customer testimonials, and in the lives you're changing.

Build in public. Stay transparent. Let the work speak.

And maybe save the laptop demos for after dessert.

To every founder who spent Thanksgiving defending their choices: 
I see you. Keep building.

Share this with a founder who needs to hear it ❤️

Ed

P.S. If you're a founder, drop a comment with your most awkward Thanksgiving question. Let's make each other feel less alone.

For non-tech folks

What’s the most advanced way you use AI today?

come for the matcha, stay for the people :)

Persona x Matcha?!! 🍵 

SF seed stage & VC backed founders, come join us for good music, good vibes, and really good matcha. 

11/25 👋🏼 

See you there!

Is it Forbes 300 under 30?

I swear I've seen many more than 30 posting here 😅

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