MnemoVi

Jon Yongfook - It begins.

Published 2026-07-31Signed

He starts a video series he's been putting off for over a year — no script, "stream of consciousness."

The trigger: Google referral traffic is declining. Cause is unconfirmed, but he suspects AI chat and Google's own AI Overviews cannibalizing search clicks.

His honest reaction: no micro-insights, just macro fear. He's explicit that running a "successful indie startup" doesn't insulate him — "I'm terrified."

Personal angle: he used no AI until January this year, and now Claude does ~90-95% of his coding, which unsettles someone who spent 25 years learning to code and shipping SaaS products.

The counterweight: SaaS is never set-and-forget. Five to six years in, he's seen down months before, so this isn't unprecedented — and he himself uses Google search less and less, so the referral drop is directionally expected.

The self-critical core (the real point): he refuses to pin it all on AI. Brutally honest audit of the last two years — the product hasn't meaningfully improved (they hit a "satisfactory" feature level with no customer pull for more), marketing has been the same blog posts and minor site tweaks, no crises, remote team, lots of travel, "a very chill relaxing company." Meanwhile competitors appeared, unmet demands emerged, and their content/shtick has gone stale after five or six years. Conclusion: the decline is at least as much their own under-investment as it is AI.

The plan for the rest of the year: more video content, tune the YouTube recipe, show up on LinkedIn (strategy admittedly undecided), and reboot the newsletter — once one of their biggest assets, written like clockwork. Hard constraint: no AI-written content — everything "analog," a human speaking to camera or writing by hand.

Closing: it's late but not too late to turn the ship around; expect more of these "insufferable talking head videos" on X.

Source

Duration: 11:16
Saved to library: 30 July 2026
Uploader: Jon Yongfook
Posted at source: 28 July 2026
Language: English — detected
Original: https://x.com/yongfook/status/2081974308046512561?s=20

Key moments

2:16: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig…
3:26: So the whole idea of a SaaS just being a set and forget enterprise where you kind of build your product and then you do a bit of marketing and then…
6:13: It's kind of like everyone's happy we're happy so we just kind of we kind of kept it at that you know at that sort of like at that level for the…
9:32: I don't know what we're really planning to do on LinkedIn, but we'll be there reboot the newsletter because that was actually I think that was like…

What is in the video

TranscriptFramesBoth

0:00: Well, here I am singing for my supper.
0:07: No, it's not like that. I thought I'd try doing a video. It's something that I've been
0:13: meaning to sort of get going really. In the last year plus I've been meaning to sort of
0:22: do more video updates, make more video content. The hardest part of that is just sort of like
0:28: getting it going. So here's attempt number one at getting things going. I'm not going to
0:38: script these. These are just sort of me inflicting my stream of consciousness onto all of you.
0:48: So where can we start? I mean the most obvious place to start is just talking about what I
0:53: posted about a couple of days ago which is Google referral traffic on the decline due to what we
1:03: don't know. We're just sort of speculating. But some of it is probably due to the rise of or the
1:11: increase in usage of AI chat which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google search and Google's own AI
1:22: AI overviews which you know do the same thing. What do I have to say about that?
1:30: Well, I don't really have any sort of like micro insights. All I think about currently is just the macro
1:39: impact of this which is terrifying. It's really quite scary just to feel and see how fast things are changing.
1:56: So if you think that I'm sitting here you know with a some would say successful indie startup and I'm not worried because I'm all set.
2:11: Nope. I'm just like the rest of you. I'm terrified.
2:16: Things are changing so fast and changing so much that it's hard to predict where things are going to go.
2:23: I myself you know never used any AI until January this year when I started to use Clawed a bit.
2:34: Now Clawed is responsible for you know 90% of the coding that I do or 95%.
2:41: I still do a little bit by hand here and there.
2:43: But yeah that's scary for me because I spent 25 years learning to code and building so many SaaS products and now all of that has changed.
2:57: And yeah it's just kind of it's just kind of I'm just feeling the existential pressure just like the rest of just like everyone else.
3:11: But also I do want to say that okay so part of part of running a SaaS is things going up and down all the time.
3:26: So the whole idea of a SaaS just being a set and forget enterprise where you kind of build your product and then you do a bit of marketing and then you get some customers and it just stays like that forever or it grows forever.
3:42: It just doesn't happen right.
3:44: So there's always going to be there's always going to be kind of like ups and downs along the way.
3:51: I've seen I've seen I've seen some downs before.
3:55: It's not like this is the first time where we've seen a down month.
3:59: So that does give me some comfort to know you know I've been doing this now.
4:08: I've been running this business for five six years.
4:13: Jesus that's a long time.
4:16: But yeah I've seen I've seen the ups and downs.
4:20: So I know that part of it is sort of like to be expected with with this kind of business any business really.
4:28: But I'm also seeing you know the macro trend of like I myself use Google search less and less.
4:36: So yeah it makes sense that my Google search referrals are decreasing.
4:43: So how do you replace that done.
4:46: I mean there's no quick answer to it.
4:48: It's you know it's but it is a question of like looking at other channels now looking at LinkedIn and maybe tick tock and rebooting the newsletter YouTube which we've already started to do a little bit on.
5:06: So yeah what's my point point is yes I'm scared.
5:13: That's point a point B is we've seen ups and downs before so maybe it's not all bad.
5:21: And point C you know if I really want to be honest with myself.
5:27: Like brutally honest.
5:34: If I think about the last couple of years and I ask myself like have we really have we like massively improved the product over the last two years.
5:46: Not really.
5:47: We kind of reached a satisfactory point like a satisfactory level of kind of features.
5:55: And we don't particularly have any you know we don't have any customers who are like hey can you add this can you add that we don't have any.
6:04: There's no strong sort of pull factor you know that would result in us building new features.
6:13: It's kind of like everyone's happy we're happy so we just kind of we kind of kept it at that you know at that sort of like at that level for the last couple of years.
6:25: So have we massively improved the product.
6:28: Not really.
6:29: Have we have we been like doing the most amazing marketing over the last couple of years.
6:34: Not really.
6:36: So you know we've just been kind of doing the same thing we always have which is a bit of blog content a bit of you know a few improvements to the marketing site here and there.
6:48: So maybe everything is just partly or majority downstream of that.
6:56: You know it's not all the eyes fault.
6:58: Maybe it's also our fault for not for basically just being just chilling for the last couple of years.
7:04: I've had a great work life balance the last couple of years.
7:08: I've I've my whole team is remote.
7:12: I've traveled a lot.
7:13: I didn't really have to do much work.
7:17: We don't really have any sort of crises anymore.
7:20: You know like server problems or whatever all that stuff.
7:25: We we've long said goodbye to all of those sorts of things and we've just been able to run like a very chill relaxing company.
7:33: Can we expect those conditions to continue forever.
7:39: No because the world is changing around us.
7:42: There's like new competitors.
7:44: There's new there's new demands that are not being met.
7:50: There's you know there's just like our content and our stick in general is just getting a bit stale.
7:58: People have seen it for like five six years now.
8:01: So if I look really objectively I have to also you know think about that side of things in terms of yeah we've it's not like we've been killing it either.
8:12: Right.
8:13: We've got to we've got to do some new stuff.
8:15: We've got to build some we've got to improve the product.
8:18: We've got to we've got to try out new forms of marketing.
8:29: We've got to stay relevant.
8:30: You know that's I think that's that's equally to blame for the sort of like decline.
8:41: It's it's not just the fact that AI is destroying Google or a is destroying your company's visibility within Google.
8:52: It's also the fact that you know we're not working hard enough to maintain that visibility.
8:59: So that's something I need to fix and yeah that means over the course of you know the the rest of the year I'm going to be starting.
9:11: I'm going to be trying out some new forms of marketing more video content probably.
9:16: We're already on YouTube but we still need to tweak that recipe a little bit more video content YouTube.
9:25: Probably I'll start chilling on LinkedIn somehow not really sure in terms of strategy.
9:32: I don't know what we're really planning to do on LinkedIn, but we'll be there reboot the newsletter because that was actually I think that was like a really one of our biggest assets in the first couple of years was really important to us.
9:48: And I used to write that newsletter like clockwork.
9:51: I'm going to start doing that again.
9:54: No AI no AI written nonsense.
9:58: All of this stuff is going to be analog analog as in like a human being speaking to the camera or a human being writing content with fingers and everything.
10:11: And yeah that's all that we can do really we can just reflect and be sort of you know be honest with ourselves and be like yeah we we could have been doing a lot more.
10:28: So it's a little bit late now but there's still time we can turn the ship around and we can you know start doing what we should have been doing the last couple of years like branching out our marketing into all these other channels that are that are out there waiting for us to waiting for us to exploit.
10:52: No I mean not exploit waiting for us to utilize.
10:59: So yeah I'm not sure how to end these videos but that's the plan and get used to seeing a few more of these like insufferable talking head videos from me now and again on X.
11:14: Thank you for listening.

0:00: A man with graying hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark gray t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and the subtitle "Well, here I am, singing for my supper."
0:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting device visible to his left; on-screen text reads "I thought I tried doing a video."
0:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "In the last year plus, I've been meaning to sort of do more video updates,".
0:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "So here's attempt number one at getting things going." is displayed at the bottom.
0:40: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, stands in front of a textured concrete wall with a lighting rig visible to his left; on-screen text reads "These are just sort of me inflicting."
0:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles reading "I mean, the most obvious place to start" at the bottom.
1:00: A man with graying hair and a beard looks slightly to his right while holding a pen, standing in front of a textured gray wall with a lighting equipment visible on the left; white text at the bottom reads "Due to what we don't know, we're just speculating, but some of it is probably due to the rise".
1:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "of the increase in usage of AI chat, which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google."
1:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is speaking while gesturing with his right hand; on-screen text reads "of the increase in usage of AI chat, which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google."
1:30: A man with styled gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark t-shirt, holds a small black object in his right hand while looking slightly upward. To his left stands a white lighting fixture with the brand name "SNOHAI" visible on its side, against a textured gray wall.
1:40: A man with styled hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and on-screen text reading "is just the macro impact of this which is terrifying."
1:50: A man with styled gray and black hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left, and the subtitle text reads "It's really quite scary just to feel and see how fast things are changing."
2:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking while gesturing with his right hand, positioned in front of a textured concrete wall with a lighting equipment stand visible to the left.
2:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle text "startup, and I'm not worried because I'm all set."
2:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks slightly upward while speaking against a textured concrete wall; to his left is a lighting fixture with the brand name "SOMA" visible on its side, and white text at the bottom reads: "that it's hard to predict where things are going to go."
2:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible on the left side of the frame. On-screen text reads: "January this year when I started to use Claude a bit. Now, Claude is responsible for 90%."
2:40: A man with styled hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured gray wall, with a lighting device visible to his left and subtitles reading "of the coding I do or 95%. I still do a little bit by hand here and there. But yeah, that's".
2:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and on-screen text reads "scary for me because I spent 25 years learning to code and building so many SaaS products."
3:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall; to his left is a lighting equipment stand with visible text on it, and subtitles read "It's just kind of...".
3:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard looks at the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and on-screen text reading "I'm just feeling the existential pressure just like the rest of just like everyone else."
3:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking with his hand near his chest against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to the left and the subtitle "Okay, so part of" displayed at the bottom.
3:30: A man with styled gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly forward with his mouth slightly open. To his left stands a black lighting fixture mounted on a stand against a textured concrete wall.
3:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, gestures with his right hand while speaking; text at the bottom reads "and then you get some customers and it just stays like that forever or it grows forever."
3:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "So there's always going to be kind of like ups and downs along the way."
4:00: A man with graying hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks down with his eyes closed while holding a small object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
4:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "running this business for five, six years."
4:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "But yeah, and I've seen the ups and downs."
4:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks off to his right while holding a small object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured gray wall.
4:40: A man with gray hair and a beard, eyes closed, is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with the text "So yeah, it makes sense that my Google search referrals" displayed at the bottom.
4:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "It's, you know, it's,".
5:00: A man with graying hair and a beard stares forward, wearing a dark gray t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with the text "rebooting the newsletter" displayed at the bottom of the frame.
5:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking with his eyes closed and mouth slightly open, positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "So yeah, what's my point point is yes, I'm scared."
5:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his right hand while speaking against a textured gray wall; on-screen text reads "We've seen ups and downs before so maybe it's not all bad and".
5:30: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, looks slightly off-camera while speaking, with on-screen text reading "brutally honest. If I think about the last couple of years, and I ask myself, have we" visible below him against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand to his left.
5:40: A man with graying hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "really massively improved the product over the last two years? Not really. We kind of".
5:50: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his left hand while speaking, against a textured gray wall background, with white text overlay reading "reached a satisfactory point, a satisfactory level of features. And we don't particularly".
6:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, holds a small black and silver device in his left hand while his right hand is near his chest; he stands against a textured concrete wall with a dark curtain to the left.
6:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "We don't have any-- there's no strong pull factor that would."
6:20: A man with styled hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "So we just kind of kept it at that level for the last couple".
6:30: A man with graying hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks off to his right while holding an object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
6:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and subtitles reading "So we've just been kind of doing the same thing we always have,".
6:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks slightly downward while speaking, with the text "to the marketing site here and there." visible at the bottom of the frame.
7:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "not for basically just chilling for the last couple of years."
7:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "I've had a great work life balance the last couple of years." appears at the bottom.
7:20: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "don't really have any sort of crises anymore, like server problems or whatever."
7:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle "like a very chill, relaxing company."
7:40: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "No, because the world is changing around us." appears at the bottom.
7:50: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle "There's new demands that are not being met." displayed at the bottom.
8:00: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "six years now. So if I look really objectively, I have to also think about that side of things" at the bottom.
8:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, looks slightly to his right while speaking, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left against a textured gray wall, and subtitles at the bottom reading "in terms of, yeah, it's not like we've been killing it either. We've got to do some new stuff,"
8:20: A man with graying hair and a beard speaks while wearing a dark shirt, positioned in front of a textured gray wall; to his left is a lighting equipment stand, and white subtitles at the bottom read "marketed it. We've got to improve the product, we've got to try out new forms of marketing."
8:30: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly at the camera while holding an object in his right hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
8:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles displaying his words.
8:50: A man with graying hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark shirt, against a textured gray wall; to his left is a lighting device, and white text overlays the bottom of the frame.
9:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks toward the camera while holding a small object in his right hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
9:10: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks with his eyes closed against a textured concrete wall, while on-screen text reads "be starting, I'm going to be trying out some new forms of marketing."
9:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, gestures with his hands while speaking against a textured gray wall; on-screen text reads "We're already on YouTube, but we still need to tweak that recipe a little bit."
9:30: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks while gesturing with his hands against a textured concrete wall; on-screen text reads "In terms of strategy, I don't know what we're really playing to do on LinkedIn, but we'll".
9:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his right index finger raised while speaking, with on-screen text reading "Reboot the newsletter because that was actually, I think that was like a really, one of our".
9:50: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking with his eyes closed and one hand raised, against a textured concrete wall background, with the text "write that newsletter like Clockwork." displayed at the bottom.
10:00: A man with graying hair and a beard points his finger while speaking, positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting device visible to his left and on-screen text reading "Analog, analog as in like a human being speaking to the camera or a human being."
10:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark shirt, against a textured concrete wall; on the left, a lighting rig is partially visible, with subtitles reading "writing content with fingers and everything. And yeah, that's all that we can do."
10:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles reading "really. We can just reflect and be sort of, you know, be honest with ourselves and" at the bottom.
10:30: A man with gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark t-shirt, holds a small black object in one hand and a silver device with a black antenna in the other, standing against a textured gray wall.
10:40: A man with styled gray and black hair and a light beard looks downward, wearing a dark shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and on-screen text reading "been doing the last couple of years, like branching out our marketing into all these other channels."
10:50: A man with styled hair and a gray shirt is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles at the bottom reading "that are out there waiting for us to exploit. No, I mean, not exploit, waiting for us to utilize."
11:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, holds a small black object in his right hand while looking directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall. A lighting rig with the brand name "SOMFY" is visible to his left.
11:10: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, holds a small object near his mouth while speaking, with the text "insufferable talking head videos from me" displayed at the bottom of the frame.

0:00: Well, here I am singing for my supper.
0:00: A man with graying hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark gray t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and the subtitle "Well, here I am, singing for my supper."
0:07: No, it's not like that. I thought I'd try doing a video. It's something that I've been
0:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting device visible to his left; on-screen text reads "I thought I tried doing a video."
0:13: meaning to sort of get going really. In the last year plus I've been meaning to sort of
0:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "In the last year plus, I've been meaning to sort of do more video updates,".
0:22: do more video updates, make more video content. The hardest part of that is just sort of like
0:28: getting it going. So here's attempt number one at getting things going. I'm not going to
0:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "So here's attempt number one at getting things going." is displayed at the bottom.
0:38: script these. These are just sort of me inflicting my stream of consciousness onto all of you.
0:40: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, stands in front of a textured concrete wall with a lighting rig visible to his left; on-screen text reads "These are just sort of me inflicting."
0:48: So where can we start? I mean the most obvious place to start is just talking about what I
0:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles reading "I mean, the most obvious place to start" at the bottom.
0:53: posted about a couple of days ago which is Google referral traffic on the decline due to what we
1:00: A man with graying hair and a beard looks slightly to his right while holding a pen, standing in front of a textured gray wall with a lighting equipment visible on the left; white text at the bottom reads "Due to what we don't know, we're just speculating, but some of it is probably due to the rise".
1:03: don't know. We're just sort of speculating. But some of it is probably due to the rise of or the
1:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "of the increase in usage of AI chat, which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google."
1:11: increase in usage of AI chat which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google search and Google's own AI
1:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is speaking while gesturing with his right hand; on-screen text reads "of the increase in usage of AI chat, which is kind of cannibalizing traffic from Google."
1:22: AI overviews which you know do the same thing. What do I have to say about that?
1:30: Well, I don't really have any sort of like micro insights. All I think about currently is just the macro
1:30: A man with styled gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark t-shirt, holds a small black object in his right hand while looking slightly upward. To his left stands a white lighting fixture with the brand name "SNOHAI" visible on its side, against a textured gray wall.
1:39: impact of this which is terrifying. It's really quite scary just to feel and see how fast things are changing.
1:40: A man with styled hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and on-screen text reading "is just the macro impact of this which is terrifying."
1:50: A man with styled gray and black hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left, and the subtitle text reads "It's really quite scary just to feel and see how fast things are changing."
1:56: So if you think that I'm sitting here you know with a some would say successful indie startup and I'm not worried because I'm all set.
2:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking while gesturing with his right hand, positioned in front of a textured concrete wall with a lighting equipment stand visible to the left.
2:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle text "startup, and I'm not worried because I'm all set."
2:11: Nope. I'm just like the rest of you. I'm terrified.
2:16: Things are changing so fast and changing so much that it's hard to predict where things are going to go.
2:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks slightly upward while speaking against a textured concrete wall; to his left is a lighting fixture with the brand name "SOMA" visible on its side, and white text at the bottom reads: "that it's hard to predict where things are going to go."
2:23: I myself you know never used any AI until January this year when I started to use Clawed a bit.
2:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible on the left side of the frame. On-screen text reads: "January this year when I started to use Claude a bit. Now, Claude is responsible for 90%."
2:34: Now Clawed is responsible for you know 90% of the coding that I do or 95%.
2:40: A man with styled hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured gray wall, with a lighting device visible to his left and subtitles reading "of the coding I do or 95%. I still do a little bit by hand here and there. But yeah, that's".
2:41: I still do a little bit by hand here and there.
2:43: But yeah that's scary for me because I spent 25 years learning to code and building so many SaaS products and now all of that has changed.
2:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and on-screen text reads "scary for me because I spent 25 years learning to code and building so many SaaS products."
2:57: And yeah it's just kind of it's just kind of I'm just feeling the existential pressure just like the rest of just like everyone else.
3:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall; to his left is a lighting equipment stand with visible text on it, and subtitles read "It's just kind of...".
3:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard looks at the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and on-screen text reading "I'm just feeling the existential pressure just like the rest of just like everyone else."
3:11: But also I do want to say that okay so part of part of running a SaaS is things going up and down all the time.
3:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, is speaking with his hand near his chest against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to the left and the subtitle "Okay, so part of" displayed at the bottom.
3:26: So the whole idea of a SaaS just being a set and forget enterprise where you kind of build your product and then you do a bit of marketing and then you get some customers and it just stays like that forever or it grows forever.
3:30: A man with styled gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly forward with his mouth slightly open. To his left stands a black lighting fixture mounted on a stand against a textured concrete wall.
3:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, gestures with his right hand while speaking; text at the bottom reads "and then you get some customers and it just stays like that forever or it grows forever."
3:42: It just doesn't happen right.
3:44: So there's always going to be there's always going to be kind of like ups and downs along the way.
3:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "So there's always going to be kind of like ups and downs along the way."
3:51: I've seen I've seen I've seen some downs before.
3:55: It's not like this is the first time where we've seen a down month.
3:59: So that does give me some comfort to know you know I've been doing this now.
4:00: A man with graying hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks down with his eyes closed while holding a small object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
4:08: I've been running this business for five six years.
4:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "running this business for five, six years."
4:13: Jesus that's a long time.
4:16: But yeah I've seen I've seen the ups and downs.
4:20: So I know that part of it is sort of like to be expected with with this kind of business any business really.
4:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks directly at the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "But yeah, and I've seen the ups and downs."
4:28: But I'm also seeing you know the macro trend of like I myself use Google search less and less.
4:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, looks off to his right while holding a small object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured gray wall.
4:36: So yeah it makes sense that my Google search referrals are decreasing.
4:40: A man with gray hair and a beard, eyes closed, is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with the text "So yeah, it makes sense that my Google search referrals" displayed at the bottom.
4:43: So how do you replace that done.
4:46: I mean there's no quick answer to it.
4:48: It's you know it's but it is a question of like looking at other channels now looking at LinkedIn and maybe tick tock and rebooting the newsletter YouTube which we've already started to do a little bit on.
4:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "It's, you know, it's,".
5:00: A man with graying hair and a beard stares forward, wearing a dark gray t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with the text "rebooting the newsletter" displayed at the bottom of the frame.
5:06: So yeah what's my point point is yes I'm scared.
5:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking with his eyes closed and mouth slightly open, positioned in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "So yeah, what's my point point is yes, I'm scared."
5:13: That's point a point B is we've seen ups and downs before so maybe it's not all bad.
5:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his right hand while speaking against a textured gray wall; on-screen text reads "We've seen ups and downs before so maybe it's not all bad and".
5:21: And point C you know if I really want to be honest with myself.
5:27: Like brutally honest.
5:30: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, looks slightly off-camera while speaking, with on-screen text reading "brutally honest. If I think about the last couple of years, and I ask myself, have we" visible below him against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand to his left.
5:34: If I think about the last couple of years and I ask myself like have we really have we like massively improved the product over the last two years.
5:40: A man with graying hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark shirt against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "really massively improved the product over the last two years? Not really. We kind of".
5:46: Not really.
5:47: We kind of reached a satisfactory point like a satisfactory level of kind of features.
5:50: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his left hand while speaking, against a textured gray wall background, with white text overlay reading "reached a satisfactory point, a satisfactory level of features. And we don't particularly".
5:55: And we don't particularly have any you know we don't have any customers who are like hey can you add this can you add that we don't have any.
6:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, holds a small black and silver device in his left hand while his right hand is near his chest; he stands against a textured concrete wall with a dark curtain to the left.
6:04: There's no strong sort of pull factor you know that would result in us building new features.
6:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "We don't have any-- there's no strong pull factor that would."
6:13: It's kind of like everyone's happy we're happy so we just kind of we kind of kept it at that you know at that sort of like at that level for the last couple of years.
6:20: A man with styled hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left; on-screen text reads "So we just kind of kept it at that level for the last couple".
6:25: So have we massively improved the product.
6:28: Not really.
6:29: Have we have we been like doing the most amazing marketing over the last couple of years.
6:30: A man with graying hair and a goatee, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks off to his right while holding an object in his hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
6:34: Not really.
6:36: So you know we've just been kind of doing the same thing we always have which is a bit of blog content a bit of you know a few improvements to the marketing site here and there.
6:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and subtitles reading "So we've just been kind of doing the same thing we always have,".
6:48: So maybe everything is just partly or majority downstream of that.
6:50: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks slightly downward while speaking, with the text "to the marketing site here and there." visible at the bottom of the frame.
6:56: You know it's not all the eyes fault.
6:58: Maybe it's also our fault for not for basically just being just chilling for the last couple of years.
7:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks directly to the camera against a textured gray wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles at the bottom reading "not for basically just chilling for the last couple of years."
7:04: I've had a great work life balance the last couple of years.
7:08: I've I've my whole team is remote.
7:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "I've had a great work life balance the last couple of years." appears at the bottom.
7:12: I've traveled a lot.
7:13: I didn't really have to do much work.
7:17: We don't really have any sort of crises anymore.
7:20: You know like server problems or whatever all that stuff.
7:20: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "don't really have any sort of crises anymore, like server problems or whatever."
7:25: We we've long said goodbye to all of those sorts of things and we've just been able to run like a very chill relaxing company.
7:30: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle "like a very chill, relaxing company."
7:33: Can we expect those conditions to continue forever.
7:39: No because the world is changing around us.
7:40: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and the subtitle "No, because the world is changing around us." appears at the bottom.
7:42: There's like new competitors.
7:44: There's new there's new demands that are not being met.
7:50: There's you know there's just like our content and our stick in general is just getting a bit stale.
7:50: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, speaks against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and the subtitle "There's new demands that are not being met." displayed at the bottom.
7:58: People have seen it for like five six years now.
8:00: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles reading "six years now. So if I look really objectively, I have to also think about that side of things" at the bottom.
8:01: So if I look really objectively I have to also you know think about that side of things in terms of yeah we've it's not like we've been killing it either.
8:10: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, looks slightly to his right while speaking, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left against a textured gray wall, and subtitles at the bottom reading "in terms of, yeah, it's not like we've been killing it either. We've got to do some new stuff,"
8:12: Right.
8:13: We've got to we've got to do some new stuff.
8:15: We've got to build some we've got to improve the product.
8:18: We've got to we've got to try out new forms of marketing.
8:20: A man with graying hair and a beard speaks while wearing a dark shirt, positioned in front of a textured gray wall; to his left is a lighting equipment stand, and white subtitles at the bottom read "marketed it. We've got to improve the product, we've got to try out new forms of marketing."
8:29: We've got to stay relevant.
8:30: You know that's I think that's that's equally to blame for the sort of like decline.
8:30: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks directly at the camera while holding an object in his right hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
8:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, is speaking against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles displaying his words.
8:41: It's it's not just the fact that AI is destroying Google or a is destroying your company's visibility within Google.
8:50: A man with graying hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark shirt, against a textured gray wall; to his left is a lighting device, and white text overlays the bottom of the frame.
8:52: It's also the fact that you know we're not working hard enough to maintain that visibility.
8:59: So that's something I need to fix and yeah that means over the course of you know the the rest of the year I'm going to be starting.
9:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, looks toward the camera while holding a small object in his right hand; to his left stands a lighting fixture against a textured concrete wall.
9:10: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks with his eyes closed against a textured concrete wall, while on-screen text reads "be starting, I'm going to be trying out some new forms of marketing."
9:11: I'm going to be trying out some new forms of marketing more video content probably.
9:16: We're already on YouTube but we still need to tweak that recipe a little bit more video content YouTube.
9:20: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, gestures with his hands while speaking against a textured gray wall; on-screen text reads "We're already on YouTube, but we still need to tweak that recipe a little bit."
9:25: Probably I'll start chilling on LinkedIn somehow not really sure in terms of strategy.
9:30: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, speaks while gesturing with his hands against a textured concrete wall; on-screen text reads "In terms of strategy, I don't know what we're really playing to do on LinkedIn, but we'll".
9:32: I don't know what we're really planning to do on LinkedIn, but we'll be there reboot the newsletter because that was actually I think that was like a really one of our biggest assets in the first couple of years was really important to us.
9:40: A man with styled gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, gestures with his right index finger raised while speaking, with on-screen text reading "Reboot the newsletter because that was actually, I think that was like a really, one of our".
9:48: And I used to write that newsletter like clockwork.
9:50: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, is speaking with his eyes closed and one hand raised, against a textured concrete wall background, with the text "write that newsletter like Clockwork." displayed at the bottom.
9:51: I'm going to start doing that again.
9:54: No AI no AI written nonsense.
9:58: All of this stuff is going to be analog analog as in like a human being speaking to the camera or a human being writing content with fingers and everything.
10:00: A man with graying hair and a beard points his finger while speaking, positioned in front of a textured gray wall, with a lighting device visible to his left and on-screen text reading "Analog, analog as in like a human being speaking to the camera or a human being."
10:10: A man with styled gray hair and a beard speaks directly to the camera, wearing a dark shirt, against a textured concrete wall; on the left, a lighting rig is partially visible, with subtitles reading "writing content with fingers and everything. And yeah, that's all that we can do."
10:11: And yeah that's all that we can do really we can just reflect and be sort of you know be honest with ourselves and be like yeah we we could have been doing a lot more.
10:20: A man with styled gray hair and a beard looks directly at the camera, wearing a dark t-shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left and subtitles reading "really. We can just reflect and be sort of, you know, be honest with ourselves and" at the bottom.
10:28: So it's a little bit late now but there's still time we can turn the ship around and we can you know start doing what we should have been doing the last couple of years like branching out our marketing into all these other channels that are that are out there waiting for us to waiting for us to exploit.
10:30: A man with gray hair and a goatee, wearing a dark t-shirt, holds a small black object in one hand and a silver device with a black antenna in the other, standing against a textured gray wall.
10:40: A man with styled gray and black hair and a light beard looks downward, wearing a dark shirt against a textured concrete wall, with a lighting rig visible to his left and on-screen text reading "been doing the last couple of years, like branching out our marketing into all these other channels."
10:50: A man with styled hair and a gray shirt is speaking in front of a textured concrete wall, with a lighting equipment stand visible to his left, and subtitles at the bottom reading "that are out there waiting for us to exploit. No, I mean, not exploit, waiting for us to utilize."
10:52: No I mean not exploit waiting for us to utilize.
10:59: So yeah I'm not sure how to end these videos but that's the plan and get used to seeing a few more of these like insufferable talking head videos from me now and again on X.
11:00: A man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, holds a small black object in his right hand while looking directly at the camera against a textured concrete wall. A lighting rig with the brand name "SOMFY" is visible to his left.
11:10: A man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark shirt, holds a small object near his mouth while speaking, with the text "insufferable talking head videos from me" displayed at the bottom of the frame.
11:14: Thank you for listening.

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