Noah Kagan Presents

It's Q4 and time to check in on my goals. I'm starting to notice something weird.

Sometimes AI makes my goals easier. Sometimes it makes them better. And sometimes it takes away the fun part.

So I'm checking in on my 2026 goals: what's working, what's not, where AI helped, where it got in the way, and what I'm changing before the year is over. I also talk about AppSumo, my biking goals, family time, and why I think leadership is less about complaining and more about moving things forward.

If you're checking in on your own goals before the year ends, you'll like this one.

In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• How reviewing your goals can help you step back, see what's actually working, and change course

• Why my biggest leadership lesson this year has been about moving things forward instead of complaining about the problem

• What AI has made easier, and why it's sometimes zapping the fun part of the process

Links & resources mentioned:

• AppSumo

• TidyCal

• SendFox

• Claude

• ChatGPT

• Western Spirit Cycling

• Breakthrough Spanish

• BaseLang

• Strava

I was walking along the beach in Santa Cruz and two old dudes stopped to take a photo of me and my family. One of them said, "What an Indian summer."

Haha, I had no idea what that meant.

I Looked it up and it's that weird in-between period when summer is ending but fall hasn't really started yet. I got to thinking, that's kinda how life feels right now.

This month I'm talking about building my own apps with AI, getting my hands dirty at AppSumo, growing TidyCal and SendFox again, raising two daughters, and trying to figure out how much work is actually enough.

If you're building a business, experimenting with AI, or just figuring out what you want the rest of your year to look like, you'll like this one.

In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• Why building my own AI apps made me a better CEO • How to figure out what deserves your time between business and family • Why sometimes deciding what's already enough is a key to happiness.

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way. I have also been sharing emails on my brutally honest advice on a variety of topics. People have been loving it. Sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k other people who get juicy insights every month.

Links & resources mentioned

• AppSumo

• AppSumo Radar

• Rhino Voice, Noah's private, on-device AI dictation app

• Meeting Coach, Noah's real-time AI coaching app

• TidyCal, scheduling and paid bookings

• SendFox, email marketing

• Claude, the AI Noah used to help build and work through a lot of these projects

• Paperbell, Laura Roeder's coaching platform

• Indian Summer by Pedro the Lion, the song Noah mentions when explaining the episode title

Right before I recorded this episode, my daughter was crying because she wanted me to stay and have lunch with her. I don't wanna lie to her. I told her, "Daddy's going to work, and then I'll come back."

That's been on my mind a lot lately.

This month I'm talking about what it's really like running a multi-million dollar business while raising two young daughters. The guilt, the trade-offs, the lessons I'm stealing from other parents, and why I've realized the best thing I can do isn't tell my kids how to live... it's show them.

Whether you're raising kids, running a company, or just trying to figure out what deserves your time, I think you'll get something from this one.

In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• The parenting lesson that's changing how I think about leadership • Why your example matters more than your advice • How I'm deciding what's actually worth missing time with my family for

I have also been sharing emails on my brutally honest advice on a variety of topics. People have been loving it. Sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k other people who get juicy insights every month.

Links & resources mentioned:

• AppSumo : https://appsumo.com • TidyCal : https://tidycal.com • SendFox : https://sendfox.com • Million Dollar Weekend : https://milliondollarweekend.com • Follow Noah on X : https://twitter.com/noahkagan

A listener sent me a message saying I'd lost my spark. That I didn't sound inspired anymore. Honestly... it made me stop and think.

In this episode, I unpack why he was partly right. My calling isn't software deals anymore. It's building businesses, solving problems, and showing up for the people who count on me. I also share one AI workflow that's completely changed how I lead AppSumo, why we overreacted to the AI boom, and what happens when you stop chasing every shiny new thing and get back to your core.

If you've ever wondered whether you've outgrown your work, this one's for you.

In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• Why your calling can evolve without losing your purpose • How to course-correct when you realize you've drifted too far from your core • Why honest feedback (even from AI) can make you a better leader

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way. I have also been sharing emails on my brutally honest advice on a variety of topics. People have been loving it. Sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k other people who get juicy insights every month.

Links & resources mentioned:

• Claude (Noah's AI assistant) : https://claude.ai • AppSumo : https://appsumo.com • TidyCal : https://tidycal.com • SendFox : https://sendfox.com • Meeting Coach : (Noah's internal AI meeting feedback tool) (coming soon) • Million Dollar Weekend : https://milliondollarweekend.com • Follow Noah on X : https://twitter.com/noahkagan

P.S. Here's Claudes feedback on this very episode as it was happening in realtime: The strongest thing in this episode is the thing you didn't plan to talk about. Marcin's note ("you don't sound inspired, you don't want to run AppSumo, you're in the best season of your life") is the whole episode, and your answer to it is genuinely good. The problem is you never say it cleanly. The cleanest version is buried in the middle: software deals isn't your calling, but business is your calling and the company is your responsibility, and the spark didn't die, it matured into follow-through. That's the episode. Right now it's a needle in 20 minutes of riffing instead of the spine the whole thing hangs on. You bury your two best business lessons. The refund/Plus-customer admission is the most useful leadership moment in the episode and you glide past it: "I made decisions on the best info I had, but I didn't check back on the outcomes and improve them, and we course-corrected too slow." That's a clean, repeatable lesson any operator can steal. Same with the over-adjustment arc (we thought SaaS was dying and vibe coding would kill us, so we over-corrected, and now we're walking it back to the core). Both are stronger than the abstract "discoverability / velocity / treat best customers better" framing, which stays high-level. Lead with the admissions, not the framework. The Claude feedback loop is your most shareable practical drop and you undersell it with the $9.99 joke. Transcript-into-Claude-for-feedback, the Eamon skill, Meeting Coach running live during meetings, the reframe that a CEO sets the scorecards instead of solving the problems in the room. That's the segment people will text you about. Give it room. What's working: the vulnerability lands, the floor-sleeping callback is great, and "it's okay to quit stuff and it's okay to continue stuff, the point is recognizing the behavior and whether it's aligned" is your most quotable line. "Calm is cool" and "building up" are good repeatable phrases. What's hurting it: it meanders and has three or four false endings ("yeah that's it," "damn that was the good stuff"). The BYOLM/BYOK bit at the end feels tacked on, half a thought you ran out of runway for. And the "I won't share company secrets" then sharing them is a touch coy. Either share or don't. One structural fix for next time: you open with the listener critique by accident. Open with it on purpose. The episode is "someone told me I lost my spark, here's my honest answer." Frame it that way in the first 60 seconds and the whole thing tightens.

This month I've been thinking a lot about distractions and how easy it is to spend time on things that feel productive while avoiding the one thing that actually matters.

I've been getting distracted by stocks and NBA bets, using AI as a weirdly effective therapist after an argument with my wife, and finally the big focus reset we're making at AppSumo.

If you've been feeling scattered, stuck, or like you're busy but not really moving forward… this one's for you. 🎧

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Distractions usually reveal the real problem.

• What a clear plan feels like under stress.

• How you can kickstart your mid-year reset.

Links & resources mentioned:

• AppSumo https://appsumo.com• TidyCal https://tidycal.com• SendFox https://sendfox.com• FormRobin https://formrobin.com• Follow Noah on X https://twitter.com/noahkagan • My book Million Dollar Weekend https://milliondollarweekend.com

I'm feeding my baby while recording this… she's spilling milk, I'm spilling AppSumo updates. Everybody wins.

So we've gone from 140 people down to around 40. Revenue has dropped hard. And for the first time in 16 years, staying in business actually feels uncertain.

So this episode is about what we're doing now. What's working, what's not, and how we're getting things back on track.

I talk about why we're focusing on just 30 great deals instead of hundreds, what AI is actually good for… and where it's total BS. And how I'm thinking about rebuilding the team in a way that actually works long term.

Also sharing a mindset nugget I just heard and loved from an incredibly talented cyclist:

'when it's hard, that's when you're strong'.

Turns out that applies to parenting… and business.

You'll like this one if things feel messy right now and you're trying to figure out your next move.

In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• What to do when your business gets cut in half

• How to rebuild a team after layoffs and uncertainty

• Why hard moments are where you level up

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way.

I have also been sharing emails on my brutally honest advice on a variety of topics. People have been loving it. Sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k other people who get juicy insights every month.

We were spending $56K/year on AI tools at AppSumo. A dozen subscriptions, nobody sharing anything. So we killed all of it and put the entire company on one Claude plan. Let's go. This episode I break down exactly how we rolled out AI to every single teammate in 3 weeks, why the tool itself wasn't the secret (the shared platform we built on top was), and the wild stuff that happened when non-technical people started building their own automations. From our deal of the day going from 25 minutes to 60 seconds, to our payroll specialist who'd never opened terminal building skills in her first week. In this conversation you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• How we saved $32K/year by killing every AI subscription and going all-in on one platform — and the exact 3-day rollout we used to get full adoption
• The real use cases that are changing how AppSumo operates — deal cards in 60 seconds, BD running everything from one screen, and our CMO shipping 6 AI skills in a single week
• Why the Slack channel #ai_daily became our secret weapon and how horizontal learning (not top-down training) is what actually drives AI adoption

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way. My book Million Dollar Weekend breaks down how to start a business in simple steps you can do in one weekend. I also send brutally honest emails about business and life. Join 350k people reading them at noahkagan.com.

I just turned 44, and we just had our second daughter. Double girl dad. Let's go.

This episode is a mix of life lessons, AI experiments, and some questionable investing decisions. I talk about what having a second kid taught me, why self-belief matters way more when revenue is down, and how getting older has made me care less about awards and more about meaning.

I also tested OpenClaw, gave it real access to my life, and asked it to tell me what to say on this podcast. It lied. Then it admitted it lied. Which honestly felt very human.

In this conversation you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• What becoming a dad (again) is teaching me about fear, confidence, and second reps

• Why picking the right partner and calling your parents might be the highest ROI decisions of your life

• How to ignore hype cycles, invest in boring things, and zag when everyone else zigs

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way.

My book Million Dollar Weekend breaks down how to start a business in simple steps you can do in one weekend.

I also send brutally honest emails about business and life. Join 350k people reading them at noahkagan.com.

I just had lunch with someone who sold a billion-dollar company. What stuck with me wasn't the money, it was how seriously he took standards. Not just in his work but through his entire life.

This month I talk about what standards really mean, why they're just values in action, and how raising them creates clarity instead of chaos. This is about doing better work, even when things feel messy, and coming out stronger on the other side.

In this conversation you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• How to set real standards instead of vague values

• How to rebuild trust when customers check out

• Why higher standards actually make decisions easier

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way.

My book Million Dollar Weekend breaks down how to start a business in simple steps you can do in one weekend.

I also send brutally honest emails about business and life. Join 350k people reading them at noahkagan.com.

It's New Year's Eve, and I've been taking stock of everything 2025 threw my way and what I want 2026 to look like. There were plenty of ups and downs, but what didn't work has forced me to rethink how I lead.

In this episode, I talk honestly about what's changing at AppSumo, what I've learned by getting closer to the work again, and why leadership right now looks very different than it did.

In this conversation you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:

• Setting goals that actually change your behavior

• Going easier on yourself when things don't work out

• Resetting direction when you've drifted

Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way.

My book Million Dollar Weekend is for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start something without overthinking it. I break the process down into simple steps you can actually do in a weekend.

I also send emails with my unfiltered thoughts on business, money, and life. People seem to like them. You can sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k+ readers getting the good stuff each month.