If you’re in the event space, or just curious how AI changes the way people connect, I’d love to hear from you.

/🧵

Feather helps exhibitors get more out of events by using AI conversations with attendees to set up meetings with qualified buyers, providing exhibitors real ROI and attendees a stress-free, done-for-you experience.

As I approach the end of my consulting contract, I won't be seeking another. I won't be pursuing another job. I won't be answering recruiter emails. I'm building Feather.

During this time I've always keept a foot in the door of "normal" employment. But there comes a time when you have to realize it's not just about spreading your surface area, it's about bringing it to the right place.

So I'm stepping through the door, and I'm closing it behind me.

I'm a big fan of two-way doors. I like keeping options open and exploring all possibilities, because I think the better part of success is surface area. The more places you show up, the better chance for opportunities to find you.

Over the past year, we've pivoted hard—from consumer social to B2B event tech—but the core mission has remained the same: we connect people.

After signing our first customer we knew it was possible. After signing the second, we knew it was real.

🧵 A few weeks ago marked the halfway point in my MBA. I started at Rady with a goal to bring Feather back. I told myself before I graduated that I'd find a technical co-founder and get one customer. Less than a quarter in, I had done both.

We're launching the second version of our event app. There's a short conversation attendees have with a chatbot to build custom schedules.

We added native STT and TTS for accessibility. We found people using it voice-first gave answers 3–5x as long.

Design for accessibility is design for humans.

And like most things around accessibility, makes things much better for the rest of us to use anyway.

WCAG means
-I can navigate your website by keyboard when my other hand is full of cheeto dust
-I can see your website outside in bright sun
-I can watch your video on the trolley without earbuds

Caro throwing shade at other biographers for not doing enough research is my absolute favorite part of his works. Like my man just verbally suckered punched Doris Kearns Goodwin as though she's not the preeminent presisidential biographer of the 21st century. What's more, he's right.

A market bubble is not a product bubble is not a tech bubble.

Heads down and keep building.

And yes I know there are a thousand workarounds to do this but I need it to be easy enough that Dan in corporate sales can contribute without a whole tutorial session.

We need Git for group project documents. Halfway through an MBA and the amount of nonsense I go through trying to collate changes from multiple people across multiple doc versions is infuriating.

Do you organize conferences/trade shows/networking events?

Do you sponsor these?

I'd love to ask some questions about your experience with this.

About to take off to NYC for a conference with our first customer!

The original palette we had was basically this shifted 10 degrees for every color. We can make this happen, if either of us ever gets time to get some graphic design going

I don't love grindset culture, but since I personally have an unhealthy relationship with work, I find few things as invigorating as sitting down and getting a good 12 hours with a problem to really break through barriers.

Last week I was let go from Intuit at the end of tax season.
Next week Feather releases our app to a limited beta.
This week I get to convert 40 hours directly into additional product dev work.

Never been happier to receive bad news.
#startup #buildinpublic #whenlifegivesyoulemons

Subaru is leaving so much money on the table by not offering a $300 upgrade to their cup holders to fit Nalgenes.

The target audience is nearly a perfect overlap.

I'm not saying it was a great product, but it was a great product for me.

Look, it was a messy piece of shit, but I loved it. Putting chat and email and documents and an algorithm-driven discovery feed all in one place was a cool idea at the time. And to this day no one had replicated in a mainstream product the watch-someone-type-live in chat.

Remember Google Wave?

I was promised trade wars would involve lightsabers

The best pieces of tech are the ones the founder just said "fine, if no one's going to fix this, I'll do it myself." It's a different vibe—more tenacity that the get-rich founders with billion dollar valuation stars in their eyes, and more worldly level-headesness than the I-have-an-idea guys.

Every late Sunday night working on your startup is another night wishing you could get up to it in the morning.

The "real" job is at its most interesting season of the year, but it's never been less enticing.

I have so many halfway started home automation projects that I got too busy to complete because relatively simple tasks that are obvious customer wants involve breaking out an IDE. It's not that I can't do it, but the whole point of home automation is so I *don't* have to think about it.

Your regular reminder Delft’s market square was a surface parking lot as recently as 2004.

A razor-thin coalition (19-18 votes) initiated a six-month pilot to help merchants realize cars don’t spend money, people do.

Years later, no one remembers the controversy or regrets the decision. *Sound on*

If you have to ask if you're a thought leader

. . . you're probably more of a thought leader than the people who have to tell.

a porcupine is standing on a pile of gravel next to some logs ALT: a porcupine is standing on a pile of gravel next to some logs

My primary form in this partnership

Honestly, it's not like, particularly interesting or particularly clever, but it's clean, well-made, without too many bells and whistles. I'd pay 5x what they're charging me for it a month without blinking.

This is a prime example of your perfect boring product idea.