📔 Jeff’s Diary (yes, I’ll let you read it)

You’re gonna start hearing more people say “know anyone hiring?” - I know I am, and I don’t buy into the abundance bullshit. I buy into capitalism that rewards profits and incentives that drive outcomes. I’ve been in the boardroom, and empathy has no place there. Some kid is trying to replace your job for a few bucks a month and his agents been emailing your boss weekly about the 10x improvements he’s making…. and unless you fight back, right now; you are fucked.

I’m not a doomer, I’m a realist, but when I hear friends looking for jobs, I think about problems to solve because that’s always been where opportunity exists. But now I have the ability to ask an AI to solve it, and you know what….it’s damn good. And I can get the solution faster than I can type up the JD.

For the last 50 years, our most valuable export in this country has been knowledge and yet we’ve just struck the largest reserve we’ve ever seen and it’s flooding the market. Knowledge as a commodity is going to zero, so what will WE do? Us….the humans?

My son is 5…. What should I teach him to prepare for the future? Math? Science? Should I get him good with his hands so he can hold a wrench? WTF are we to do?

I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I’m becoming irreplaceable.

Last week I wrote down all the things I would hire an assistant to do once I finish our fundraise. Then I went into Claude Cowork - and I built her. I sat on my hands for too long and when I finally jumped in and said let me play around, I was no longer scared, I was prepared.

My inability to scale was due to my own inaction. Responding to useless emails instead of spending 20minutes on YouTube watching someone who could save me 20 hours a week. That old me is who I would’ve fired at my company today. I’m up everyone’s ass to 10x themselves….if they don’t have agents working for them while they’re sleeping, I’ll find someone who will.

If you’re scared, if you want to fight back, it won’t be with rebellion in the street. We’re not there (yet). But change is coming, and if any point in the day you find yourself thinking, I need someone else to do that…. you’re not dead, you’re just easily replaced.

Invest in yourself. Because those that do will survive what’s coming. Don’t be naive. Winter is coming….

→ The Exit: Pat Walls bootstrapped a newsletter to $2M ARR and 1.6M monthly visitors. HubSpot didn't buy a SaaS tool. They bought his audience.

→ The Signal: The most powerful restaurant reviewer in America just stopped reviewing. Keith Lee made his first investment, and it wasn't a brand deal.

→ From the Vault: Madison Reed isn't paying UConn's women's basketball players to post. They're giving them equity, internships, and franchise rights. Before they even go pro.

The News: On February 23, HubSpot acquired Starter Story, the bootstrapped media brand built by Pat Walls, a former software engineer who started the company in 2017 from a Starbucks before his day job. No venture capital. No co-founder. No board. Just 4,500+ founder case studies, 800,000 YouTube subscribers, 275,000 newsletter subscribers, 1.6 million monthly visitors, and north of $2M in annual revenue generated by a team of three.

The kicker: In September 2025, Pat tweeted "HubSpot should acquire Starter Story." Six months later, they did.

Why It Matters: HubSpot's VP of Media, Jonathan Hunt, said the quiet part out loud: instead of renting attention through paid media, HubSpot is owning attention through content properties. This isn't a talent acquisition or an acqui-hire. It's a distribution acquisition.

Starter Story's audience isn't random eyeballs. It's early-stage founders at the exact moment they're choosing their tools. HubSpot now owns the campfire where its future customers gather, alongside The Hustle, My First Million, and Trends. Combined: 2.9 million YouTube subscribers and 50M+ monthly engagements across the network.

Pat built three revenue streams (sponsorships, paid memberships, and affiliate) all on owned distribution. No venture capital. No platform dependency. And HubSpot didn't buy the revenue. They bought the trust. Every founder who watched Pat's interviews trusted his recommendations. That trust is now a HubSpot asset.

The Lesson for Founders: This is the playbook that should keep every founder up at night, in a good way. Pat built a media company around a specific community (founders), owned every distribution channel (newsletter, YouTube, SEO), and made himself the acquisition target instead of the acquirer.

HubSpot didn't need another software feature. They needed a relationship with their customer that started before the customer knew they were a customer.

If you're a founder and you're still paying rising CPMs on Meta, look at what HubSpot just told you with their checkbook: the audience is the asset. The media brand is the moat.

Stop sending creators an "influencer brief." Start sending them a product sample and a cap table summary. The creators who will move the needle for your business aren't the ones who want a flat fee and a swipe-up link. They're the ones who try your product and immediately start telling you what's wrong with it. That unsolicited feedback is the strongest signal of conviction you'll ever get.

Pat Walls is the creator-as-operator thesis in a single case study. He didn't wait for a brand deal. He built the brand, owned the distribution, and sold the whole thing.

On March 20th at 1PM ET, OWM is hosting a free live webinar breaking down exactly how to turn creator partnerships into ownership stakes.

You'll learn how to find the right partners, structure deals that earn equity instead of burning cash, and keep creators activated and building publicly for your brand long after the contract is signed.

If you're a founder looking to turn distribution into a growth engine, this one's for you.

Free. Live. 200 seats. No replay.

When you OWN it, you treat it differently.

The News: On March 3, Keith Lee announced his first-ever investment in a food brand: an equity stake and multi-year strategic partnership with Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, the 22-location Asian fusion chain with retail distribution in Walmart and Costco.

Lee has over 20 million followers. A single TikTok review from him can put a restaurant on a six-month waitlist overnight. The industry calls it "the Keith Lee Effect."

He could charge any restaurant in America a premium for a sponsored post. Instead, he bought into the cap table. Brooklyn Dumpling Shop's investor list now includes Kevin O'Leary, Stephen Ross, Matt Higgins (RSE Ventures), the New York Yankees, and Patti LaBelle. Keith Lee just sat down at that table.

Why It Matters: This is the same pattern we've been tracking. Travis Kelce bought Sleep Number stock. Kim Kardashian became co-founder of UPDATE. Now Keith Lee, the most influential food voice on the internet, is choosing ownership over sponsorship revenue.

The signal is consistent: the best creators aren't selling their influence anymore. They're investing it.

The Operator Take: If you're a founder in food, CPG, or restaurants and you're still pitching creators a flat fee for a post, read the room. Keith Lee didn't need Brooklyn Dumpling Shop's money. He has 20 million followers and can move markets with a 60-second video. He chose equity because he sees something he wants to build with, not just promote.

The next time a creator with genuine conviction in your product reaches out, don't send them a rate card. Send them a term sheet.

Slow news week for equity deals, so we're pulling one from the vault. This is from August 2024, but it's the single best example we've seen of influence-for-equity at the college level, and most founders still haven't heard about it.

The News: While most NIL deals hand a college athlete a check and a script, Madison Reed structured something entirely different with UConn's women's basketball program: 50/50 split between cash and equity. Plus for-credit internships. Plus mentorship from the executive team. Plus future rights to open Hair Color Bar franchise locations.

The athletes: Azzi Fudd, Paige Bueckers, Ice Brady, Morgan Cheli, KK Arnold, and Sarah Strong. Founder Amy Errett calls each athlete's parents personally. This isn't an influencer campaign. It's a recruiting pipeline for future franchise operators.

Why It Matters: The standard NIL deal is a transaction. Creator posts. Brand pays. Engagement decays. Everyone moves on. Madison Reed built a system: equity that appreciates as the brand grows, business education that compounds after their playing career ends, and a franchise pathway that turns influence into a permanent revenue stream.

Errett put it plainly: "We're trying to set them up to run businesses later on if they choose to, and we're saying our success at Madison Reed translates through your equity being worth more money."

The Operator Take: The old model: Pay Azzi Fudd $50K to post. You get a traffic spike. It dies. The new model: Give her equity, teach her the business, give her a franchise license. Now she's not promoting you. She's building with you. And she's doing it before she even goes pro.

If your creator strategy is still "pay for a post," you're renting. Madison Reed is building a farm system.

➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for the unfiltered takes I can't fit in this newsletter.

➡️ Forward this to another founder who's struggling with creator partnerships. Ownership spreads one conversation at a time.

➡️ Need 1:1 guidance? Block time with me any Friday here. No pitches, just real talk.