Amin Ariana

Some context from the #Founder perspective. As liberal as Seattle is as a city with policy and politics, it's incredibly conservative from an investment standpoint. One of the reasons you may not hear big "home-run" type pitches or pitches with sizzle, is simply because investors in Seattle don't like those types of pitches and Founders have been ingrained to not present in that manner. They may say they do, but ask any Founder and they'll tell you how they have been told to size down their pitch or talk about MVPs, first customer, first revenue, etc. or how what matters more is what you can do first couple years rather than the home run. Those early metrics are important by the way, but different from the big home run. Do you know who is receptive to homerun pitches? Investors in the Bay, NYC, Miami, Hong Kong. Seattle is not great for early-stage Founders with many prioritizing raising outside the city. We will be raising capital in the fall and as of now, have no plans of reaching out to Seattle-based VCs. I should also add that our company has a blockchain component and sadly Seattle VCs have not embraced crypto or blockchain. Welcome to #Seattle, Kyle Lui! Hopefully, you can help change the narrative! GeekWire

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Stop (over-) engineering your prompts Generative AI is really cool. I use several tools in this category every day for writing suggestions, image generation and more. The tools can do amazing things, especially if given the right prompt. But there's a limit to how much prompt engineering one should do, especially if you're trying to generate text for mainstream consumption. This topic is already a bit of a bandwagon but this topic has been bugging me for about a week so I'm going to write about it. Generative AI relies on a class of machine learning applications broadly described as deep learning. Deep learning boils down to feeding a neural network a ton of content that has been classified into groups and then iterating over the content to allow the network to identify patterns in the content. Basically the network builds up statistical relationships between the words or other elements in the content. So it knows, for example, that if a piece of content is a recipe the word tomato is often followed by the words sauce or paste and very rarely by the word stem. But in a document about farming tomato is often followed by the word seed, starter or stem. The deep learning model has developed an elaborate matrix of statistical relationships between words in different types of content. If you described CHatGPT as an elaborate word guesser you wouldn't be wrong, just over-generalizing. Large language models are trained on billions of documents. So how, you might ask, are the documents classified in order to feed them into the neural network? Did someone categorize the web by hand? Of course not. The developers of the LLM leveraged Natural Language Processing (another deep learning application, btw) and other tools to categorize documents before they got fed into the model. Okay, but, again, what does that have to do with prompt engineering? When you ask an LLM to generate a piece of content, say a blog post about cycling in Northern California, you are specifying a category of content. If you later asked for an "image in Rubinesque style of a man and a woman engaged in flower picking while overhead rages a space battle between starships populated by photorealistic blob-like aliens carrying professional immersion blenders done in the style of pointillism" you have specified many categories. You're essentially asking the LLM to extract elements of the content that it was trained on that match your descriptors and which have mathematical relationships to other adjacent content elements and to include those in your generated image or blog post. And ... prompt engineering? The categories in the content were identified with Natural Language processing. Your prompt should be in natural language, not some over-specified, highly engineered artifical style. Don't over-think it, work with the model, don't try to control it too much. That's it.

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Closet Vikings and (decidedly not) Closet JavaScripters => Runic Code is in public preview! Check it out at: https://lnkd.in/ge6GN7qa What is Runic Code? It's the most awesome and, probably only(?), Viking-infused JavaScript code quiz app. What can you expect? Strengthen for all those JS battles where being able to divine the purpose of code could mean life or death! Err... maybe not death per se, but you'll still be able to amaze interviewers, colleagues, and the non-Viking-JavaScripting public with your legendary code reading skills. More updates are to come, but criticism both positive and negative will be considered in the Viking thing (parliament-ish gathering). My battles to come will include tackling: - each bit of feedback, - separation of concerns (I currently have my fetch inside App.jsx), - seeing if the bug where correct answers do indeed show up as wrong, as seen in the video, are happening, - adding a license and contributions.md to add more solved Codewars katas, - shuffling the multiple choice choices (hehe, had to double that word for clarity), - adding local storage to keep track of past scores, - and anything else that comes to mind! A thousand thank you's to anyone whose read so far and followed all my nonsense! Please do check out the repo at: https://lnkd.in/ghtg9MP5

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Thanks for the insightful pitch strategies. When can I get a slot to pitch to you?

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This is a cool project, and another example of the emerging "replace stateful storage with S3" trend. I do wonder at what point someone will package this sort of thing up into a FUSE filesystem to make it generally usable across existing services. Or maybe every service has unique enough needs that it's better to handle it custom each time. https://lnkd.in/etcVBfVf

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Starting a company is one of the boldest moves anyone can make, and after a decade of working with early-stage founders from Google to Sequoia, I’ve learned the hardest part is often taking that first leap. It’s terrifying to share your idea and face the question, “Is this worth working on?” But that initial feedback is what transforms uncertainty into action, and every great company began with someone brave enough to ask for it. That’s why I’ve teamed up with Afore Capital (the folks who originally popularized the "pre-Seed" category) to launch a Rapid-Fire Idea Pitch Session—a chance for tech builders to get quick, actionable feedback and build the confidence to move forward or pivot. If you’re tinkering on an idea, waiting for the right moment to share it—this is it. Apply here: https://lu.ma/3bt43xi5

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Take it from me, there’s no better way to learn excellent and practical ways to overhaul your experimentation efficacy! Erin makes critical thinking fun and highly accessible in this workshop, June 11:

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I cancelled our team's subscriptions to Github Copilot & ChatGPT after 10 days with Cursor 🌟 What Sets Cursor Apart Seamless Onboarding: The transition was remarkably smooth, reminiscent of Chrome's early days. Cursor's team clearly understands that muscle memory can be a significant barrier to adoption, and they've crafted an onboarding experience that makes the switch a delight. LLM Flexibility: The ability to switch between different Large Language Models, bring your own, or use the default Claude 3.5 Sonnet is a game-changer. This flexibility proves to be a massive advantage, freeing users from being tied to a single AI model. Multi-file Editing with Composer: This highly anticipated feature delivers 80% of the time, and when it works, it's phenomenal. It explains code changes, shows inline diffs, and allows for selective application of changes. My favorite one - https://lnkd.in/g4aYJbJQ. Contextual Awareness: The ability to @mention files, folders, and invoke web searches has transformed how I approach parallel feature development. It's like having a hyper-aware coding companion. Intelligent Auto-complete The tab auto-complete function is surprisingly powerful, working seamlessly across lines and files. It often feels like it's reading my mind, significantly speeding up coding sessions. Smart Inline Editing Cursor's understanding of the existing codebase shines in its inline code editing capabilities. It's prevented me from creating redundant utility functions by suggesting existing, similar functions—a huge time-saver. 💡 Pro Tip: Embrace smaller, more frequent code iterations. Commit changes often; you never know when you might need to start over on a change set. 🔧 Areas for Improvement Composer occasionally has UI glitches, taking over the entire window or hiding its title bar. Familiarizing yourself with keyboard shortcuts can help navigate these issues. Sometimes there's a disconnect between Composer's suggestions and what it displays. 🤔 Is Cursor Worth the Hype? For me and my team, it's a resounding yes. We're transitioning to Cursor as our primary development environment. I've noticed a significant reduction in my use of standalone AI consoles like Claude or ChatGPT, as Cursor integrates these capabilities seamlessly into the coding workflow. 🔮 Looking Ahead This shift to Cursor is part of our broader strategy to embrace AI-native development practices. I'm excited to share more insights in future posts about how we're leveraging AI to enhance our development processes. I'm curious to hear from other developers: What are your favorite Cursor features or hacks? How has it impacted your workflow? #DeveloperProductivity

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I’m fortunate that Graphite is doing well. As we grow, I’m focusing on helping teammates transition from individual contributors to leaders. This shift requires moving from asking questions in the audience to fielding answers on the stage. An early Google engineering director once advised me: “Shift your perspective from being in the audience to being on the stage.” In our small team, it’s been okay to ask audience-style questions: • Are we worried about customer response times? • Should we hire faster? Are we hiring too fast? • Is now the right time to create tech leads? • Are our engineering interviews fair enough? • Should we add an on-call rotation? My co-founders and I have been happy to answer these. They’re often polite pleas to adjust priorities. But as we grow, I need leads to elevate their thinking. Imagine being at an all-hands meeting and stepping onto the stage to answer these questions. What would change? First, you’d ask fewer open-ended questions. Instead, you’d align with the company’s strategy and provide answers: • “Customer response times are important. We’re planning to staff up next cycle to improve them.” • “We need more smart, kind people ASAP. Given our runway, hiring now is the right call.” • “We’ll need tech leads eventually, but they don’t address a current problem, so adding that process now would be a distraction.” These answers might not be perfect, but they’re attempts to translate the company’s needs into action. Being on stage doesn’t mean you stop asking deep questions. It means coupling them with proposed alternatives and understanding the tradeoffs involved. Don’t ask, “Are we selling too top-down?” Instead, propose, “I’ve thought about our sales strategies. Given our growth needs, how about running a bottoms-up experiment? We could destaff our integrations project temporarily—we can handle some pain there.” The key shift is founding decisions on “what will keep the startup alive and growing” rather than “what is good craft, what is fair, what is my preference.” The best leads adopt this “on stage” mindset. They stop asking leading questions without solutions. They understand the business’s needs and make conscious tradeoffs to keep the company thriving. Not every individual contributor needs to make this shift. But for those eager to explore leadership, this is the path. -- Shortened for LN -> longer reflection here: https://lnkd.in/evfCv_RZ

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Keep Learning New Things... Indeed, the path to efficiency requires discipline, consistency, and sacrifice. I can't believe that it is already the 3rd week of the Headstarter Fellowship! To be honest, I felt quite lazy throughout this week, with low dopamine levels. However, I'm getting back on track and am ready for the next week of the fellowship. During the previous week, I had the opportunity to work on some exciting projects: - The Pantry App Project: I focused on the Firebase backend, learning how to integrate features such as authentication, analytics, and database CRUD operations. Live: https://lnkd.in/dCGFCiH5 Github: https://lnkd.in/dWpHgc4y Pathway to Tech Event 2: Here's My Key Takeaways: Dennis Crowley: Founder of Foursquare ($150M Revenue) When asked about the ideal tech stack, He emphasized the importance of being "willing to fill in gaps." It's not just about knowing specific technologies but being able to and ready to learn. His experience on failures "People quit on themselves or quit on their startup.", reminding me to stay resilient and never quit Tariq Afaq: First Engineer at AppLovin ($30Bn IPO) Tariq's talk was packed with valuable information. when he mentioned that this field is more than just coding, like being an engineer we can solve problems under pressure and get things back on track He also mentioned that you don't need to be super intelligent to succeed. Instead, focus on creating in-depth products, being quick and responsive, and working hard. Julian Alvarez: Ex-Meta, CEO of Wisdolia ($20K+ MRR) The most energetic speaker at this event! , His thoughts on how startup founders stick to their ideas rather than believing in their team's capabilities become the reason for their failure something exceptional and new for me to learn. His startup Wisdolia— is truly something. It generates flashcards for you from any YouTube video, blog, article, or PDF. I can already see it becoming a vital part of my learning routine! Hamza Ali - CEO of Olostep I was deeply inspired by Hamza Ali's vision for Olostep, which is enabling APIs to interact with the web as humans do. It's truly a brilliant idea that showcases his commitment to shaping the future of tech. 🔗 Here's the link to the recording: https://lnkd.in/dzX6Saaz

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Ever been in a meeting where the CTO starts talking about "complex database work" and you just know—deep down—they're stalling because they really don’t want to do it? Yeah, we’ve all seen it. Instead of tackling a simple feature request, they spin it into some mystical tech problem, drop a line about "focusing on growth, not features," and suddenly your whole idea is on life support. Brilliant deflection. And if you’re using an outsourced tech platform? Welcome to the development queue of death—where good ideas go to die, or get resurrected with a price tag that makes you wonder if you’re paying for an actual resurrection. Even worse, that “innovative feature” you paid through the nose for ends up farmed out to your competitors. Feels good, right? You end up feeling stuck—constrained from growth, forced into clunky workarounds, battling limited resources, and hoping the CTO stops having bad days. But here’s the thing—DIY tools like OpenAI, Claude, Anthropic, and a growing list of others are rewriting the script. The old song and dance of "we can’t because it’s too complex" is getting real tired—if you know where to look. Still hesitating? Keep in mind, while you're sitting there debating, others have already grabbed the tools and moved on. Can you relate? How often have you seen a platform bottleneck your business? In Leadgen, it's practically a rite of passage. Let’s hear your stories—how did you handle it?

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If you're running a data or AI-focused startup, connect with Stephan Goupille and his team! When three of the industry's brightest data minds join forces to back your venture, you get more than just funding – you gain invaluable operator expertise. They understand the challenges and opportunities you face because they've been there themselves.

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Large codebases are scary! 😱 When you're starting out contributing to a mammoth codebase like SigNoz with over 300000 lines of code, you have no idea where to even start looking. We took an open issue from Signoz's repository and asked Potpie AI's low level design agent to help us get started. The results were mindblowing 🤯. For a repository with THOUSANDS of files, Potpie was able to : * Pinpoint which exact file needed to be updated * Tell which part of the code needed updating * Suggest next steps like testing 🥧 agents >> Try us out at https://potpie.ai We are open source! Pranay Prateek Ankit Nayan Shivanshu Raj Shrivastava

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Hey folks! Garrett Milster and I have only posted about Sacramento Labs once, so we figured it's time for an update 😊 **What is Sacramento Labs?** We’re a small team focused on launching software products that solve real-world problems. Think of us as a startup lab—constantly testing ideas, learning from feedback, and building tools that matter, and having an impact while doing it. **How do we decide what to build?** We like to build products that: -         Solve real-world problems in mostly ignored industries -         Are small, highly maintainable, and scalable codebases -         Make the world a better place directly, or by donating a percentage of profits to a relevant charity in that space You can learn more about our philosophy at sacramentolabs.com **What you can expect from us** We’ll be posting product ideas that are in various stages of our pipeline: Early Concept, Customer Development, In Progress, Launched, Scaling. We’d love to hear your feedback! **Our latest concept: Self-Hosted Security** Here’s the problem: - Businesses often use third-party URL shorteners to share internal tools, resources, or campaigns, but these services introduce serious risks. Enterprise companies like Google, Microsoft, and Stripe have built their own internal URL shorteners for this reason – but most businesses don’t have the resources to do that. - Phishing attacks are rampant, and links from external services can be spoofed or abused. - Branding and security controls are limited, leaving sensitive information exposed. - You can’t track link activity—who’s clicking what, when, or why. - When employees leave, their shared links still work, leaving potential vulnerabilities. Our proposed solution: Self-Hosted Security. It’s a plug-and-play solution for businesses to host their own branded URL shorteners with: - SSO for secure access tied to your company’s directory. - Link expirations to ensure old links don’t stay active indefinitely. - Audit logs to track activity and improve visibility into link usage. 📢 We need your input! Would this solve a problem for you? What features would make this indispensable? Check out the landing page and share your thoughts: selfhostedsecurity.com Want to chat? Email me at [email protected] 😊 💡 And here’s something we’re passionate about: a percentage of profits from Self-Hosted Security will go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Your feedback not only helps us create better solutions, but also contributes to making a positive impact. Thanks for being part of the journey!

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Exciting news—𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 is here! Maestro AI now seamlessly connects with Linear. 🎉 For product and engineering leaders feeling the weight of scattered information and disconnected workflows, this is for you. Our integration brings together data from Linear, Slack, GitHub, and more into one unified view—illuminating hidden insights and helping you focus on what truly matters. We've listened to your challenges: 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱, 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀, and 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀. With Maestro + Linear, gain clarity into your team's contributions and lead with confidence and precision. See the whole picture and make better decisions with unified reporting. Dive in to see how we're elevating engineering leadership for the AI age. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗴𝗲.

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Great essay by Omar El-Ayat and Nic Poulos. If you are a domain expert founder building vertical software, I highly recommend checking out Euclid Ventures as a first-check/ preseed investor.

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I'm having enlightening convos with folks who deliver infra for others to run. It sounds like "runbooks/wiki docs" are a real problem from a handoff/support perspective. We have an elegant solution, when you deliver runbooks as "click to play/pre-configured" Notebooks, and a command fails, the user gets an `escalation button` that shares a link to the output/metadata into the shared Slack room. It's ideal for bridging the gap when there's a support relationship. 🤓 This sounds like a case study in the making.. anyone else struggling with this?

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