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Justin's newsletter

I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society.

? "I solve problems and provide value to users!"
Featured Post

Will Claude Code ruin our team?

The first time I sat down and used Claude Code's Opus 4.5 to build software, I couldn't believe how good it was. My next thought was: this is going to change the dynamics inside software teams. Read this article online See comments on Hacker News The standoff between roles Marc Andreessen described this moment as a “Mexican standoff:” Every engineer now thinks they can be a PM and a designer. Every PM thinks they can code and design. Every designer thinks they can do the other two. The risk...

Hey friends, Join us today, FRIDAY (March 5) at 11 AM Pacific (2 pm EST) for the Panel live! Remember: we're no longer livestreaming on Justin's personal YouTube channel. Make sure you're subscribed to The Panel's channel to get notified when we go live. Subscribe to The Panel YouTube Channel Today on the Panel The host will be ███████ ██████ They'll be talking about his ████ ███████ Should be fun! Also, as always, we're available on these fine 🎧 audio podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify...

Hey friends, Changes are coming to The Panel Podcast! Important: we're no longer livestreaming on Justin's personal YouTube channel. Make sure you're subscribed to The Panel's channel to get notified when we go live. Subscribe to The Panel YouTube Channel Join us FRIDAY (tomorrow, Feb 20) at 11 AM Pacific (2 pm EST) for a surprise announcement: We'll be announcing: A new ███████ ██████ ████ And a brand new ████ ███████ New livestream/recording time: Friday, 11 am Pacific Livestreams will now...

The first month of 2026 has been a blur. Like many of you, I've fallen down a Claude Code rabbit hole. Whenever I have spare time, I'm experimenting with it. view this newsletter online As many others have said, Claude's Opus 4.5 model was a tectonic shift for the software development world. When folks started playing with it over the Christmas holiday, many of us had the same realization: "Holy shit – you can build serious software just by chatting with Claude Code in the terminal." Sergey...

Photos from my past year

Happy New Year! Today, I'm sending you my annual review. (A little later than I'd hoped!) For over a decade now (twelve years!), I've been writing these annual reviews. Each one captures a snapshot of my journey – the wins, the struggles, and everything in between. 👉 Read my 2025 year in review One thought (from my review) I've been contemplating: Product people will become more valuable in 2026. If you're someone who understands how customer demand is created, how it grows, and can translate...

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Hey friends, Justin and Brian are going live at 12:15 pm Pacific today: Can't believe this is the last episode of 2025! 🤯 Today: 2025 year recap + 2026 outlook Come join us in the chat! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | Twitter PS: thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments on Bluesky, YouTube, etc for the show. We ❤️ that!

How high?

Happy Saturday! Here are a few things on my mind... Adam Wathan has a new podcast where he walks and talks about what's on his mind. And it's great. ADAM'S MORNING WALK • EPISODE 1 The Tailwind business ain't what it used to be 29:13 MORE INFO View the podcast website How high is customer demand? Successful startups don't create demand. They position themselves in the path of existing demand. In a good market, customers provide their own motivation. I made a video about this: Your job isn't...

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Happy Saturday! Here are a few things on my mind... Warren Buffett's game Great post on Farnam Street: Students often go to visit Warren Buffett. And when they do, he often plays a little game on them. He asks each student to pick the classmate they would choose if they could have 10% of their earnings for the rest of their life. Which classmate would you pick and why? Then he changes things up again. Who would you think least likely to succeed? Why? He asks the students to take out a sheet...

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Hey friends, Not recording The Panel today (sorry!), but I do have a ridiculous new animated video to show you: This is an inside joke from the Mostly Technical podcast: Ian Landsman (one of the hosts) loves to keep restarting his programming project (outro.fm). He does this by typing `laravel new` (which initiates a new Laravel project) in the terminal. Aaron Francis isn't impressed. (I have a new technique I'm using for these; I'll update this post about it soon) Cheers,Justin Jackson –...

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Hey friends, Justin and Brian are going live at 12:15 pm Pacific today: Here are a few ideas we might chat about: Distinct phases of a startup in year 1. Building a marketing website with V0 Brand loyalties. (Example: OpenAI vs Anthropic) People craving “calm” media? Derek Sivers’ “play the counter-melody” Robot butler? Come join us in the chat! BTW – anything else you'd like us to chat about? Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | Twitter PS: thanks to everyone who shows up...