Code to Market

You spent real money. The ad worked. They clicked. Now what?

In this episode, we break down how Vercel, Claude, and Statsig handled their Acquired podcast sponsorships and what happened after the click. From custom landing pages to mismatched CTAs, we dissect what worked and what didn’t.

Then we shift to launch videos. Cursor mailed it in. Sentry nailed the joke. And we explain why knowing the vibe of your product matters more than just production value.

Share with someone running ads or making a launch video.

Two agent platforms launched within 24 hours (Retool Agents and Superblocks’s "Clark"), but only one nailed the launch & positioning. We break down why naming your AI sucks, what Superblocks did right with counterpositioning, and how Retool missed the messaging mark despite a solid(?) product. Plus, a rant on why launch videos are now table stakes and what you need to do beyond them to stand out.

We explore how Clerk nailed its self-service, multi-product strategy without chasing enterprise customers. Hank breaks down why great second products should eclipse your first, while Gonto highlights Clerk’s clever integration with Stripe and strategic funding.

Plus, Bolt's "Unleash the Vibes" event sets the stage for their massive hackathon, and OpenAI’s leaked strategy reveals why Meta, not Google, is their biggest threat due to unmatched distribution.

In this episode Hank and Gonto dive into Hank's experience at React Miami, where online beefs turned surprisingly civil and a "Family Feud" parody stole the show. They also discuss Figma's head-scratching trademark battle over "DevMode," a move that ended up being less strategic genius, more meme fuel.

We share the wild projects, crazy constraints, and innovative pivots that turned panic into progress.

Every startup struggles with this—even the best founders and teams we’ve worked with. How do you actually hire great people, build trust, and scale without turning into a slow, bloated mess? In this episode, we share the hard-earned lessons that helped us grow high-performing teams at Auth0, Vercel, Laravel, and more.

Levels.io is turning vibe coding into a full-blown distribution engine—shipping fast, selling hats, running hackathons, and pulling others into his orbit. We break down what B2B founders can learn from his playbook, then dig into the Rippling vs. Deel spy scandal, Vercel’s drama with Cloudflare, and Supabase’s documentary on Bolt.new.

It's founder mode, for better or worse.

This week, Hank's in the hot seat. Gonto grills him on Laravel’s latest launch - what was great, what wasn't, and what pissed him off.

We cover:

- Why bundling launches > launch weeks

- The secret power of using other people’s audiences

- Tips to improve marketing & pricing pages

- How Gonto wishes Hank positioned harder against launch weeks

One of our most tactical episodes yet!

Raycast just launched AI Extensions, and we break down why their approach to marketing and UX is what Apple Intelligence should have been.

Then crypto story time with Gonto as he talks about the biggest crypto hack in history—$1.4 billion stolen from Bybit—and why their response was a masterclass in crisis communication. We talk about speed, transparency, and how to turn disaster into brand strength.

Plus, some thoughts on owned media, launch strategy, and the rise of B2B video marketing.

We discuss why sales enablement is more powerful than sales collateral and how to get them to stop relying on PDFs and case studies and instead focus on understanding the product and delivering answers in real time.

We also discuss credit card gates on products. After gathering insights from DigitalOcean, MongoDB, and PlanetScale, we break down the trade-offs between frictionless sign-ups and filtering for serious users.