Field Notes
Notes from the field.
Short essays on AI, trust, brand and the stories technology companies tell about themselves.
Shake
NewBanjo learned to shake hands because the incentive was clean and he trusts the hand on the other end. Why that's the missing piece in AI, and what a century of electricity can tell us about closing the trust gap.
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Compliance software made me feel something.
Vanta, Clay, Gamma, AirOps, Wiz, Ramp and Mercury run sharp demand engines and still refuse to let the product message be the whole story. What the B2B brands people actually remember have in common.
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Specs aren't a story. Your brand is.
Most companies now read like product marketing wrote every word. Why specs belong in the sales conversation, and why story, reputation and trust decide the shortlist in the age of answer engines.
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Brand is the algorithm now.
AI search is moving faster than any channel in memory, and the answers change every time you ask. What hasn't changed is what the machines trust. Why brand is now the algorithm, and why it has to be run like a system.
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Everyone automated the brand. Now they're hiring storytellers.
For two years the story was the easiest budget cut. The deliverables showed up; the returns didn't. Why trust is now a purchase criterion, and why the AI labs themselves are paying top of market for people who write.
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How I use AI without making slop
Slop isn't AI. It's AI with nobody steering. Where generative tools earn their place in a brand, where they never belong, and the one test I use before anything ships.
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Your seed deck is not your story
The round closes on a Tuesday. By Friday, the company has outgrown its own description. Why the story falls behind after a raise, and why the fix is reported, not brainstormed.
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The barrier to making has hit zero
When anyone can generate a polished film before lunch, looking good stops meaning anything. What's scarce now, and what an AI-native brand function looks like.
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