5 Ideas from August

Author

Joel Hansen
August 27, 2024

Hey Friends,

Happy Last Tuesday of August to everyone who celebrates ☕️

Welcome back to Stay Curious — a newsletter I write once(ish) per week month to riff on a few things keeping me curious. I talk about startups, habits and dumb challenges I feel peer-pressured to sign up for.

Here’s some things I wanna dig into today:

1) Wanna test out a new AI Calendar App?

Ever wanted an EA that books meetings for you? So did my friend. So he spun up an AI-powered EA to do it for you. It’s called Jane.

I’ve been using it the last couple weeks and love it.

All you have to do is CC Jane in an email and she auto-checks you and your meeting’s calendar and sends a time that works for both of you

  • no need for calendly

  • no need to swap times via email

  • no need for a real EA

Just cc Jane in the email thread and give her a 1 sentence command and batta-bing, batta-boom, you’ll get a cal invite sent to both of you

If you wanna give it a shot, tap below.

2) AI Shark Tank Event This Thursday

My friends at Kernal are hosting an AI-themed shark tank event this Thursday @ 12pm PST if you wanna join. It’s meant for VCs/Angels that wanna hear founders pitch their latest ideas but anyone can tune in.

  • all of the investors are pretty cool

  • the 4 founders are building some neat stuff

  • and it’s free to sit in

3) Book of the Month: Never Enough

Need a book for the fall? Add Never Enough to your list. I’m 60% through and loving every page.

Written by Andrew Wilkinson, a Victoria-based founder, he talks about his journey going from university dropout making lattes in Victoria to taking his company public and employing 1,000+ people

Give it a look up on google or tap below to see the testimonials.

4) Startup Podcast with Pieter Levels and Lex

AI is changing the startup game. And this conversation with Pieter and Lex is a great example of where the pulse is on the latest free tools to spin up ideas.

Full episode is here or you can find a couple posts online of shortened versions.

The unique part is Pieter is a solo, self taught developer who’s built dozens of ideas from his laptop.

He’s not a google or an amazon. He’s a 1 person team spinning up startups used by thousands of people.

AI is scary, but it’s also democratizing access for anyone to build on the internet at 100x the rate you could 10 years ago.

5) Lessons Learned from the 100KM Run

On August 11th at 3:47AM, I finished my biggest physical and mental challenge to date. A 107 KM run that took me almost 20 hours.

My body finally feels 90% recovered, but boy oh boy, it was a doozie. I’m still fully wrapping my head around having it done but here’s some fresh thoughts off the dome on getting it done:

  • every big goal is easier with company: having 4 friends to do this big run with was critical to me finishing it

  • our body craves whole foods: the hardest part of the 20-hour run was the stomach aches. I had way too many sweet/salty snacks packed and not enough whole foods (soups, veggies, meats, cheese). I’d pivot my meal planning for the next one

  • when you’re exhausted, bring on a pacer: I had a friend join at kilometre 67 who paced my buddy and I to the finish line from 8pm to 3:47am. Without him, I think our mentality would’ve been more negative and our pace would’ve been twice as slow. It was a powerful reminder that when we get exhausted, we need fresh minds/hearts to inspire us to keep on pace with our big goals

More to come on this experience, but happy to share more if any of you have questions. Just hit reply.

What big goals are you chasing this year? We still got 4 months left.

Liked today’s deep dive? Forward it to a friend.

Joel

P.S. I spun up this website for our airbnb yesterday morning in a coffee shop. LMK if you like it.

You can hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn 

But the true newsletter besties hit me up on Strava and IG

Forwarded this email? Sign up here