BIG UPDATE
$1.5M in pipeline. AI native agencies. Y-Combinator...
$1.5M sitting in the pipeline. And honestly I’m not in a rush to close it.
That probably sounds insane. A founder with $1.5M in potential new ARR saying “yeah, let’s not push too hard on closing.” But hear me out because I think the thing that gets us to $10M is not what most people would guess.
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I had a conversation with my team this month that was uncomfortable. The kind of uncomfortable that means you’re probably saying something true.
I told them very transparently that my main concern right now is understanding what I’m actually paying for. Not in a threatening way in a genuinely curious way.
What tasks are being done day-to-day, and does the presence of each person on this team how we currently have it still make sense given what we’re learning about agentic workflows over the last 30 days?
I went deep, really deep into what’s possible right now with AI-native automation. And I had breakthrough after breakthrough. Things I genuinely thought required a human? They don’t. Not anymore.
Not if you build the right flows. Not if you have the right data. Not if you have the specific knowledge that drives real results.
So I told my team something that I think is the most important framing for anyone working at Earleads (or honestly, anywhere) right now you have th3ree things that matter.
Taste. Agency. And the specific knowledge you’ve built about our industry. That’s what makes you irreplaceable when LLMs can do everything else.
If your day is filled with tasks that an agenting workflow could handle? That’s a problem. Not because you’re bad at your job because we’re wasting your potential on the wrong things.
And that’s how i want my team to think about their time. Stop spend it on operations that can be handled by agents that goes the extra mile every day, for every task, 24/7.
And rather invest that extra time into building more of these, and going deeper in our craft because now it economically makes sense to do so.
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This is why I’m not obsessing over closing that $1.5M pipeline right now.
Could we push harder? Sure. Could we probably close 80% of those deals if everyone dropped what they were doing and focused on moving them forward? I think so, yeah.
Every asset we build, every case study, every piece of collateral it all helps nudge deals along.
But I don’t think that’s the best use of our energy.
What I think gets us to $10M faster is what we’re doing right now: rebuilding our unit economics from the ground up, understanding exactly where scale actually comes from, and building every agenting flow we possibly can.
Most of the deals in that pipeline will eventually close over the next 60 to 90 days anyway. The foundation we’re building underneath is what compounds.
It’s counterintuitive. Most agency founders would look at a fat pipeline and go all-in on sales. I’m going all-in on the machine that makes sales irrelevant at some point.
(Might be wrong about this. But it feels right in a way I’ve learned to trust.)
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Now the thing that made my entire month.
Aaron, a partner at YC mentioned that they’re currently investing in AI-native agencies. And I actually wrote about this back in 2023. The thesis. The direction. The exact thing we’ve been building toward.
I’m not going to pretend I played it cool. I didn’t. I had a full moment.
Not because I need external validation to keep going. I’ve been doing this regardless. But because when someone at that level articulates a thesis that mirrors what you’ve been living and breathing and losing sleep over... it hits different.
It’s fuel. Pure high-octane fuel.
I’m taking it as confirmation, not as an ego boost (even if i did like the pat on the back). Now i just want to accelerate. I feel every cell in my body screaming for it.
And that’s exactly what I’m doing.
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Here’s where it gets interesting and where I’m going to be deliberately vague for a minute.
I have a thesis about what AI-native agencies need to actually be VC-bankable. Not just “interesting” or “innovative” actually investable, and scalable.
And I don’t think we’re there yet. We’re missing a few things. I also have a very clear plan for how to get there.
But this is one of those situations where the alpha is too specific and too valuable to share openly right now. I know that’s annoying to read in a newsletter that’s supposed to be transparent.
Trust me, it’s annoying to write too. But some things need to be executed before they’re explained.
What I can tell you in the next 30 to 45 days, I’m going to connect a few dots. And when I do, I’ll walk you through the whole thing backwards. The reasoning, the moves, the why. It’ll make sense then.
For now just know that I’m more excited than I’ve been in months. Every single day right now is genuinely fun. The kind of fun where you wake up and the first thought is “on what did i fell asleep last night i have so many more things to do”
That’s rare. I’m not taking it for granted.
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So here’s where my head is:
1- The pipeline will move slowly but surely.
2- The agenting flows are getting built.
3- The team knows what matters (taste, agency, specific knowledge everything else gets automated).
4- And there’s a bigger play forming that I’m not ready to talk about yet but am very ready to execute on.
Foundation is compounding. Speed is increasing. Direction is clearer than it’s ever been.
More soon 👊
O.
PS: I realize I just told you “I have amazing alpha but I can’t share it yet” which is the founder equivalent of “I have a girlfriend but she goes to another school.” I promise it’s real. 30 to 45 days. Hold me to it.