I was Global Services at United Airlines for more than a decade. This is the top, top tier of United's mileage plus program and by invite only based on revenue. This was a true superconsumer metric. You had a special phone number where a human would pick up immediately. If my flight was delayed for a tight connection, someone would meet me as I deplaned and I'd get into a car and be driven on the tarmac to my next connection. If you badly needed to get on a plane that was full, you had the ability to kick someone off the plane and get their seat. Back in the old days, they might even hold a plane for a few extra minutes for you. Qualifying meant >$50K per year on United Airlines airfare. Mathematically, this mean flying first or business class on international routes. In 2004, I started flying back and forth to Switzerland for Nestle. I'd go Chicago to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Geneva by plane. Then I'd find a bathroom to change into my business attire, then catch the train to Vevey. More countries were added as I served Gillette, Colgate and other global clients. Doing this all in business class was nice. But I literally worked every spare minute that I wasn't sleeping. I carried multiple batteries for my laptop. I was doing spreadsheet kung fu, punching up my powerpoints and practicing for my presentations. This was all before WiFi on planes was a thing. It was exhilarating, but exhausting and I'm glad those days are behind me. But the notion that that version of me wouldn't have LOVED high speed internet from Starlink so I could work while I flew is insane. Which is why I can't possibly understand the CEO of Delta's resistance to Starlink. It will probably cost him his job. @lochhead, @bybreezyco and I discuss on our latest Pirate Street Journal, as well as two other topics that help train you to read the business news through the lens of Category Design. categorypirates.news/p/why-a…

I had a great time with @MarleyKayden at @SchwabNetwork live last week. We had a great jam on the following: 1. Consumers are spending, but not happy because of higher prices 2. Consumers are taking matters into their own hands, powered by Personal AI - Wave 1 was Productivity AI, where benefits accrued to businesses/coding - Wave 2 is Personal AI, where agents will help consumers save money and time 3. If every marketing budget has 10% of stupid, every consumer has 10% of stupid spending - Personal AI will find the stupid, cut it, allowing consumers to redeploy it to spend more - Companies that rely on lazy consumers beware (looking at you AT&T) 4. Paid AI Consumer subscriptions are going to 10x in 2 years - 2% of US HH pay for AI vs. 91% pay for streaming - Category Pirates is doing the category science to size the prize 5. The riches are in the niches...niche Personal AI agents will yield >10x ROI 6. We talk winners and losers, including a non-obvious one where our cell phone bill savings funds AI subs. We break this down in more detail in our latest @categorypirates Deep Dive report, on how I personally saved $10K/year using Personal AI. schwabnetwork.com/video/from…

I went on NYSE live to talk about our radically different take on data centers/AI We predict a 180 shift in popularity once - The personal impact of data centers comes out...lower electric bills, $50K teacher bonuses - More cities and local folks fight over getting the next one - The next generation of AI leaders start speaking up Folks like Alexandr Wang, the 29 year old that kickstarted and launched Muse. The first wave of AI was Productivity AI - Mostly B2B and coding Main benefit was productivity... - ...which the average consumer doesn't care about The second wave of AI is Personal AI - About saving you time and money - Helping you realize your unrealized dream Alexandr is technical and has a track record of outcomes like Scale AI. But he's also a way better communicator than Zuck or most of the OG AI leadership - His essay "Why we're building Muse" was 364 words vs. Zuck's 6500 word AI essay - Wang writes emotionally to humans, Zuck wrote like a robot to regulators I personally saved $10K/year using Personal AI. Read about how you can too in our latest Category Pirates Deep Dive Report by @Lochhead and @bybreezyco and I. Link is in the comments, once it goes live

The Podcast Category Design joint bundle from @interviewvalet and @categorypirates is now live! Here's our good/better/best: 1. Good = Get a free copy of our Podcast Category Design Part 3 Mini-Book: On How to be a Legendary Podcast Guest. lnkd.in/g-B94Yq2 2. Better = $50 digital course for how to be a Legendary Podcast Host. This is based on Part 1 and 2 of our Podcast Category Design series. lnkd.in/gCcJ2nmK 3. Best = $500 joint super-premium offer where we offer: - Founding Tier from Category Pirates including all our mini-books, big books - As well as access to our Pirates @lochhead and Eddie bots! - And for the first time ever, access to the Pirate @IAmTomSchwab bot lnkd.in/g6ChjiiR This is only available for a limited time, so get it before it goes away. Thanks to Pirate @bybreezyco for setting all of this up! And...don't be a Donkey, be a Podcast Unicorn!

I've been watching the Micro Duck robot intently. It's $399 robot duck offered by Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics that is already sold out. It can walk, fall and get up, pick up things with its beak and has cameras and lidar. The thing that makes it different is the software itself is open sourced, so you can program it the way you want. Lots of robots have come and go. Most think it is because the hardware wasn't valuable. In reality, it is almost always the software that makes a robot fly off the shelves or flop. And most hardware companies suck at software, and vice versa. Which is why open-sourcing the software is really smart and could make thing work. As @lochhead , @bybreezyco and I jammed out on it, we created a framework for how novelties become necessities. Listen to the Pirate Street Journal to check it out! categorypirates.news/p/dolly…

New category I bet Pirate Rafi @cultureofprofit could use this in his famous umbrella example to illustrate pricing concepts!

It's called Relationship Capital