Date: 2026-08-18 Time: 1:00 PM EDT Attendees: Blake Stewart (Megaphone, note creator), Pierce Freeman (pierce-freeman client) Note: Me = Blake Stewart; Them = Pierce Freeman
Summary
First face-to-face content sync with Pierce. Current signal: post impressions 50-150 range, one outlier at ~250. Code not cracked yet on content type or distribution. Key discussion: comments strategy overhaul (hybrid pipeline: automated idea-seeding, hand-written responses, Pierce approves via thumbs up/down), Pierce’s deep background (Stanford AI/Transformers era, high school sports analytics startup, 5 years procurement software, last 5 years serial founder). Pierce’s platform priorities: X primary, followers > impressions > leads. Goals: SF founder/VC community and their followers. Quality of followers matters more than count.
Decisions
- Comments overhaul: Ditch AI-generated comment templates. New model: automated pipeline seeds hot-take opportunities; comments written by hand by Foundingjourney team; Pierce gives thumbs up/down before posting.
- Posting cadence: Ramp to daily posting. 9 posts currently queued (tomorrow, Friday, Mon-Thu next week, Mon-Wed week after). More drafts coming today/tomorrow.
- Platform priority: X first. LinkedIn opportunistic (podcast clip cross-posts only). TikTok possible test but not priority.
- X Spaces: Worth testing with Pierce’s podcast co-host to avoid a dead mic. Potential to attract guests organically.
- Next step for strategy: Full account audit (like one done for another client), then align on goals, hypotheses, iteration plan.
- Pierce’s stated goals: Followers first, impressions second, leads not a current priority.
Action Items
- Blake: Share growth strategy and account audit with Pierce.
- Blake/team: Build hybrid comment pipeline (automated seeding, hand-written responses, Pierce approvals).
- Blake: Send more post drafts to Pierce for approval today or tomorrow.
- Blake: Explore X Spaces with Pierce’s podcast co-host as a growth lever.
- Blake: Bring Blake Emal onto next week’s call.
Notable Excerpts
“[On the SF community] It’s so small among people who are in San Francisco… a lot of people care about the content they post, but they themselves don’t usually have big followings. It’s a power law situation online.”
“[On AI-written comments] That style of writing, I think, wasn’t really resonating… if we can figure out something where your ideas get seeded by something that can simulate my viewpoint and then the actual pen to paper is something that you guys bring to the table, that would be the best possible arrangement.”
“[On AI watermarking] I think hopefully what you do is by virtue of having the watermark, you build up better tooling around it that can operate locally that will flag, like, hey this thing has the watermark of Claude, this part doesn’t - as a way of everyone coming together and being like, okay, here’s the view that Jim actually has here.”
“[On building companies] You kind of have to build on top of contemporary technological waves. Ideally you start building before the technical wave hits, and then the technical wave hits and you can really ride that wave. You can’t be too late. And you also can’t be too early. In both cases, that’s kind of where companies go to die.”
“[On his view of sales] The much better view of sales is a view of companies and partnerships as being additive to people… you want to approach every sales meeting as you actually qualifying them as much as they’re qualifying you, if not more.”
“[On AI research] I think in one more year, maybe two, that generation of Claude or Codex is going to be mainly responsible for generating the next iteration of Claude or Codex… most of my friends that work at the big frontier labs now think that is near an inevitability.”