Date: 2026-08-26 Channel: Anyhouck (formerly Hard Calls; legal entity: Founding Journey) Thread: https://ryevalley.slack.com/archives/C07Q8FGH4CU/p1787765695696989 Participants: Michael Houck, Blake Stewart (U08CWJDSTNV), Ben (U07561UQ90S)
Signal
Houck raised doubt about the 2026-08-08 decision to fold Hockey Stick into Hard Calls. His framing:
“Hard Calls as a brand makes less sense for a fast-scaling AI implementation agency. Like I look at Tenex - that’s what Hockey Stick could be. But Hard Calls doesn’t feel like it could be that?”
Blake Stewart’s response:
“Yeah, still kind of feels like different audiences, which could limit the potential of both. Like HS could have its own newsletter about AI tips and tricks… this could lead to all sorts of customers - even enterprise.”
Ben’s response (after drafting and deleting 5 times):
“HC doesn’t seemingly fully encapsulate what Hockey Stick’s capabilities could be (bigger and broader). Being separate likely does make more sense given the scope of what’s possible to automate in general. Maybe [HC] should operate similarly [to Founding Journey] in the sense that no agency offer is necessarily ‘under it’, but a strong founder brand with the different agencies (including Hockey Stick as its own) as separate upsells.”
Status
No explicit decision reversal was made in this thread. All three participants lean toward separating Hockey Stick as its own brand. The 2026-08-08 decision (decisions/2026-08-08-hockey-stick-folded-into-hard-calls.md) should be treated as under review until Michael makes an explicit call.
Implication
If reversed: Hockey Stick would relaunch as a standalone AI implementation agency brand (Tenex-style), independent of Hard Calls. Hard Calls returns to being a pure founder brand/newsletter with agency upsells kept external rather than tiered inside it.