- Duration: 25 min
- Platform: meet
- Source: Read.ai 01JC1MAFQ1P2AD48XFTNCPSKPY (https://app.read.ai/analytics/meetings/01JC1MAFQ1P2AD48XFTNCPSKPY)
Transcript
[Michael Houck]: It’s done. I don’t know if that’s true. [Max Palmer]: I hope it’s true. [Michael Houck]: No, I mean, it’s not done in New York. It’s not done in San Francisco. But as far as America as a whole is concerned, last night was the death of it. The left, their only move now is to go towards the center. And these people on the far left have nowhere else to go. And so they can keep having their ideologies But if they put up candidates in the Democratic primaries in 26, they will lose. So for all intents and purposes, you know, like, you know, people will still be talking about it and the common people might still feel it to some degree, but it’s done at the federal level for sure. [Max Palmer]: So who the hell are the Democrats going to put out in 2026? [Michael Houck]: I mean, In the next the next presidential election is way too early to say. So my personal take is that the everything points well right now for Republicans, but there’s this one sort of black swan hanging over everything. That’s what biology talks about, which is that the banks are all insolvent. They have no money. And so if these people who have funded the left’s campaigns for the last know, 10 years, decide to do it, they can sort of pull the plug and pull the trigger there. And the banks go and solve it. And then Trump’s administration is mostly just spent trying to manage a depression. [Max Palmer]: So that’s a possible outcome. So it would go to a billion. [Michael Houck]: What’s that Bitcoin would go to a billion, Bitcoin go to a billion. And the states might break apart in that scenario, because they wouldn’t want to pay for each other’s debt. So it wouldn’t bother you was talking about conference I went to SF a couple months ago. That’s what he said. He’s like, mega is romantic for something that doesn’t exist anymore and can exist anymore. I think there’s you know, I don’t know if there’s 100% truth that if we grow enough, it could offset the which is why the deregulation is so important, but it’s a time bomb otherwise. Um, it’s actually why if Kamala one, I felt like the economy would probably have a better chance of not dealing with that for four years. [Max Palmer]: Now I feel like there’s a higher risk of that happening. Um, is who are, the Republicans going to trot out in 2028? Because Trump can’t run again. [Michael Houck]: Is it just gonna be J.D. Vance? I think it depends. I mean, look, it depends on that for sure. A lot can happen in four years. But I think the biggest battle we have to watch for now is whether Trump sort of continues down the Kushner-Ludnick path of funding, of staffing his administration. Or if he backstabs them and basically used them and their resources for the campaign and decides, no, actually these other donors that we have, the Torrent Project 2025 guys, are actually more aligned to what our base wants. And so that’s what we’re going to do. It’s really up to him which direction he goes. If he chooses the Kushner-Lutnick path, then Vance will probably be the nominee in 28. Unless the black swan hits and the administration gets blamed and they need refreshments, right? If that doesn’t happen, but let’s say that he backstabs them and he goes for the Project 2025 guys, then it’s wide open. Then it could literally be people who aren’t even on the radar anytime soon. It could happen in the last of the election cycle. The funniest thing, the literal funniest thing that I’ve seen is all these people on Twitter who are like, how did Harris get 15 million fewer votes than Biden when we had record turnout? There’s definitely some fraud. And in my mind, I’m like, if you would like to do a forensic accounting of 2020 and 2024, be my guest. I think that would be very illuminating for a lot of these people. I don’t know, man. I think it’s going to be a lot of mental health crises for regular people over the next like 12 months. [Max Palmer]: should invest in one of these mental health startups. Yeah, that’s I mean, look, it’s true. [Michael Houck]: It’s actually true. Yeah. So yeah, I don’t know. [Max Palmer]: Were you just watching news all day yesterday? No. [Michael Houck]: So, um, I am still registered to vote in Pennsylvania. Oh, so I took the train down. And I hung out with my parents and had dinner with them. And then I came back up got back here around midnight, maybe a little earlier. And then after that point, you know, had a nice glass of whiskey and was watching the news. The first time I ever watched Rachel Maddow, it was great. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Awesome. [Max Palmer]: Now I, uh, No, I didn’t do it. I actually tried to stay off fucking Twitter and the news. Like, it’s like, what is this going to do for me? You know, all these people, you know, what I’ve learned is like all these people who are freaking out, like saying, Oh, we’re doomed. No, we’re not like, like, we’re gonna be just fine. Like, you know, it’s like, I mean, yeah. So I just try to stay off and keep living life, because that’s, I think, what you should do. [Michael Houck]: Yeah. And that’s true either way. If Kamala would have won, then it’d be the same thing. [Max Palmer]: Right. You and I would be just fine, and so would pretty much everyone else. There’d be really no huge repercussions for our daily life. [Michael Houck]: Yeah. The meta is the interesting stuff. Total repudiation of mainstream media celebrity culture like none of those celebrity endorsements made a difference Yeah, she should have gone on fucking Rogan Well, I think it was a trap. I think she would have done even worse if she did honestly maybe Yeah, it went to made the impact it was she wouldn’t have won for sure either way, but the people people were saying Like early last night that oh the country didn’t have enough time to get to know her but the longer the country got to know her the worse she slid you know like I Don’t know. She just wasn’t a good candidate and Biden’s laughing all the way to the bank today Yeah Simply anything else interesting But yeah, I don’t know so I think I Don’t know who either party’s gonna put up in 28. I think I think a lot of the people who were in consideration this time, like the Gretchen Whitmers and the Jared Polis and JD Pritzker and all those other people, Gavin Newsom, I think they’re in trouble. I don’t think they’re gonna be the solution for the Dems. Gavin Newsom’s definitely not the fucking solution. Dude, Newsom and Kamala, I knew it when I lived in California. I could just read about them all the time, doing stuff, and it was just like, these people are fucking idiots. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: They’re just dumb. [Michael Houck]: They’re just not. I know. I know. Yeah. I don’t know. But we’ll see. It’s going to be a very interesting couple years. I’m excited for it. Yeah. Let’s see. Okay, so another crazy thing, do you know that? Kamala won New York by a smaller margin than Trump won, Florida The traditional swing state, Florida, New York the Democratic stronghold Smaller margin, that’s crazy What if New York ends up flipping is that possible I mean I think it’s a big and I think it’s a tall task because again, in 28, you lose Trump. You don’t have that charismatic, right? Um, it was, it’s possible though. It depends. It depends what the Dems do. Uh, if they, if they get smart, then it won’t, if they don’t get smart, then it will. Yeah. Um, yeah. [Max Palmer]: So, um, I, today, so that’s good. Oh nice, for who? [Michael Houck]: So Awesomic. [Max Palmer]: Whoa, what’d they end up doing? [Michael Houck]: I think you said like 5, 6k maybe? I know, and it’s only 2k. [Max Palmer]: Yeah, they came back, she like added one of her co-workers to the thread and he was like, yeah we’re only gonna do, we’re gonna start with a tool of the week spot, just to test it out and then hopefully it’ll lead to more. And I was like, okay, well, our tool of the week is usually for like software tools. Why don’t I just give you guys a discount and you try out one future placement? So he said, yes, I sent over an invoice. [Michael Houck]: So, and then he sent it to the finance department. Um, cool. [Max Palmer]: So we heard from bamboo this week. Oh, I followed up with him yesterday. Um, so I’m going to have a reminder set for tomorrow. Um, but yeah, that one needs to close. He, It’s starting to worry me. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Yeah. [Max Palmer]: With all these dumb questions they’re asking. It’s like, what? [Michael Houck]: But they’ve historically asked dumb questions. [Max Palmer]: You said it took like forever with them. Yeah, they have. Yeah. Yeah. And they have the budget, clearly. They’re sponsoring their newsletters. So it should close, I think. But yeah. I’m trying to think of other ones that are imminent and there aren’t really a ton. I sent some more cold emails today. [Michael Houck]: So yeah. OK. OK. Well, now that the election is over, we can start probably next week, I would say, running social media ads again. Yeah. So, um, let’s give it a couple of days. Um, so they can close down their, their campaigns. I’m sure there’s still kind of going on. Uh, but yeah, let’s do that for next week. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Okay. [Michael Houck]: Sounds good. Um, another thing I want to put on your plate, um, we have so many good deals that have come through. We should do a fundraising support email. Um, can you draft that in, the deal flow beehive account and then I’m gonna send you some more to Who I’ve talked to who didn’t come in through the form Okay, when do we want to send that email out It’s Wednesday, I guess we can send it on Monday, okay Yeah, I guess we can send out on Monday. [Max Palmer]: Here, I’ll make a note to I think you sent me directions on how to do that email a while back in Slack. Yeah. [Michael Houck]: You can also go to the the last one in beehive and just I think the template you can just duplicate it. Yeah. [Max Palmer]: Yeah, yeah. Okay. [Michael Houck]: And then the air table side of it, if you don’t have a message for me on it, I can just show you how to do it. It’s pretty simple. Okay, I’ll figure it out tomorrow. Cool. Any thoughts on long form video stuff? [Max Palmer]: actually didn’t get that to that today. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Okay. [Max Palmer]: Yeah, I kind of had a busy day. But I can look into that right after this. [Michael Houck]: Cool. Yeah. I’ll do some to want to try to record one tonight and just kind of make up the script as I go. [Max Palmer]: So would you would you tell the launch house story? [Michael Houck]: I think we need to do the podcast like do that with somebody else on the podcast first for the same reason we don’t write about it in the newsletter like directly we can you know we can take things from it but if I just go in like hey here’s the story or whatever it’s gonna be like it’s gonna come off like try hard you know yeah Do you have like anything in mind, like a subject matter or like [Max Palmer]: a format or? I think I’ve struggled with this. [Michael Houck]: I think that what we need to do and, you know, we can both do this and I’m going to have Ben do it too. We should just spend 30 minutes going through YouTube and picking out some videos on other channels some of them can be startup channels with like topics that do well others can be channels about total other things that have a video that we could like take the format of but about like something that we know about yeah so I think we just like each do that exercise and find some good ideas yeah okay I’m wondering if we could repurpose [Max Palmer]: a deep Or like a Saturday edition into a long form. We could. [Michael Houck]: I mean, we have endless amounts of stuff for that. The key is with that is that whole concept of, um, uh, what is it? Um, the audience like circles, right? So like we have like our core audience, then we have like the casual audience and then we have like the new audience, right? Yeah. People don’t get exposed. Post our topic stuff at all. If we go super deep and we make like the best long form content about, you know, the intricacies of being a startup founder or whatever, if we make like a playlist like that, that’s really going to appeal to the core people, but it’s not going to grow our following. It’s not going to branch out. It’s not going to go super wide. So we have to find that balance between something that’s interesting to the core people while also being accessible enough to attract the new followers. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Yeah. [Max Palmer]: Okay. I’ll look after this. [Michael Houck]: This is like the, the example I think was, um, that I gave was, um, what’s that guy’s name? Noah Kagan. Yeah. He does the interviews with billionaires or whatever. Yeah. With ended up being a crazy good format for him, you know? Yeah. Um, okay. Let’s see what else has been on this week. Oh, yeah, I mentioned it, but the viral examples one this week, I think is one of the best ones yet. It’s really, really easy to digest. The takeaways are really clear. The templates work. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Nice job on it. Thank you. [Michael Houck]: The writers keep telling me that they love that you post this in the channel, by the way. Really? OK. [Max Palmer]: Wow, this is great. Good. Oh, I had a, did you see my email? Uh, ghostwriting? Yes. [Michael Houck]: So with the wombo person, right? Great. Yeah. Okay. Uh, yes. [Max Palmer]: Earlier today, did you respond? I didn’t respond yet, but, um, I know the founders of, um, is it a her or is it he? [Michael Houck]: Yeah. I know the founders of the, of the company. So I’m just going to, he’s like, we actually invested in combo at Launch House. Cool. So I’ll just reach out to him. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Cool. [Michael Houck]: She seemed interested in ghostwriting for her or for like the executives of the company or what was this for him and for the executives potentially? [Max Palmer]: Well, he said he was going to use Megafoam probably for both. And I’m not sure ghostwriting potentially for both, I think. Cool. And he was mainly like curious on if we had like if we could do funny meme content for like one of their web three products yeah we could do it and I was like kind of unsure but yeah we [Michael Houck]: can create it we have we have one guy who’d probably pretty good at that so okay yeah Cool. All right. Uh, and then let’s see. Megaphone is, is moving again. I’m like my, my, my enthusiasm is high because we’re, we’re shipping things. We’re moving quickly. Um, momentum is back after like months of infrastructure crap. So, and, and are we growing? Yeah, we are growing right now. Not at the rate we want to, but enough to make me feel confident that the new things we’re launching will accelerate that further. So yeah, we’re back on the right track. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Good. [Michael Houck]: What else, what else, what else, what else? [Max Palmer]: Do we want to launch Viral? Are all examples Facebook ads to get new subs? [Michael Houck]: Good question. I think the answer is yes. Let me get back to you on that tomorrow. [Max Palmer]: I’ll make a note to figure that out tomorrow. What else? [Michael Houck]: I feel like I’m forgetting something sizable. Oh, yeah, so the we have multiple ghostwriting clients who want us to not only write their newsletters But also grow their newsletters for them now with the cold email stuff. It seems like it’s gonna be a thing So I Jake from venture scaler has like not engaged in a week. So I don’t really know what the status there is But we have like two Maybe three more people who want us to do it for them. I got it. I might be too But yeah people are they’re interested in it So we might might look to expand that. Okay, you just some bigger newsletters and see if they’d want us to Do it for them, too. Okay One of them even has their own leads which is crazy they just want us to manage the campaign Huh. [Max Palmer]: Okay. Yeah. It’s like, yeah, I don’t know. [Michael Houck]: So they have a newsletter. [Max Palmer]: Well, they had a newsletter, they’re restarting it with us. [Michael Houck]: Um, and they want to start growing it and they have this big email list, but the people on the email it’s more of a lead list than an email list. And so they want to warm it up first with the campaigns. So yeah, lots of encouraging signs right now, which are good. Okay, I feel like I’m forgetting something. I’m blanking on it. Podcasts? No, podcast stuff is good. I’ve got to book some more guests this week, but performing well. I was surprised that the Dara episode got our most views on YouTube, since he’s by far the not as well-known founder that we’ve had on. But he’s on track to surpass the Sam Korkos one in the next few days. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Cool. [Michael Houck]: Yeah. Okay, if that other thing comes to me, I’ll let you know, but just let me know on the YouTube stuff and then if you have any questions with the deal flow email, I’ll send you the other deals too so you can have context on them.