On accumulating knowledge (and 2,000+ hours in podcasts alone)

Going through over a thousand CVs and ~100 interviews over the past few months, I remind myself of the importance of the right environment - an ecosystem of insights, healthy competitiveness, studying, skill development, critical thinking and productive debates, among others.

No wonder the Bay Area is, once again, the leading hub of innovation for many AI businesses today. A combination of transforming Nasdaq titans and new players moving back to San Francisco, on-site, to build the future of the web.

This is one of the reasons I’ve backed doola as an investor and run 2 LLC formations + year-long accounting through their all-in-one package. Dropping a 10% off sign-up link for founders exploring US formations for anyone interested.

Is our brain a muscle?

While training our brain is a continuous development activity, the brain itself is NOT a muscle. You can’t flex it as you can your biceps or any of the other 630+ muscles in the body, but your intellectual capacity goes up with continuous learning.

Curiosity is a great way to keep the momentum going, but curiosity alone can train your brain on non-productive work activities. If you’re fluent in the latest luxury watches, Oscar nominees, and football tournament scores, but unless that skill translates to business objectives, it’s a hobby and not a hard skill.

Aligning curiosity with business objectives and career opportunities is the combination that yields the best results - and few are capable of achieving that.

Of course, hobbies and personal interests, or lifestyle curiosity, aren’t inherently bad. It’s about the breakdown and accumulated knowledge of hard and soft skills tied to professional results.

On podcasts and learning on the go

I wrote a short post on my blog on having spent 2,000+ hours on podcasts in my lifetime (probably more).

This doesn’t count the 500+ or so books, or thousands of videos, course lessons, many tens of thousands of articles, a gazillion posts and tweets by industry leaders, fast-growing startup founders, and many more.

I went through a quick list of podcasts I’ve binged, some with hundreds of episodes each - diving into product and management thinking, executive decision making, market research, industry deep dives.

Many a time, these lessons don’t resonate at first. Especially during the early weeks, overwhelming slang and lack of contextual understanding of the problems. Over time, repetitive issues arise, and mental patterns are formed around common industry pain points and struggles worth focusing on.

Accumulated knowledge is hard to match

Some interviews I conduct are with people who share a similar passion for certain topics, courses, influencers, or shows.

If someone listened to 300+ episodes of “Marketing School”, I know they’ve been through this journey on a specific topic.

Or 50+ episodes of “B2B Revenue Vitals” or “The Brutal Truth about Sales and Selling”.

If they watched dozens of Lenny’s Podcast episodes, I know what they focus on.

For applicants who haven’t been exposed to these - or the equivalent industry knowledge - catching up is neither fast nor easy. The volume of data presented is 50 to 100 hours worth of value added. It takes time to sink in as well - you can’t just take a 5-day 10-hour daily course and receive the same insights, compared to several months of daily listening, reminiscing, iterating, and practicing daily.

This is why continuous learning is so powerful. It’s a special type of MOAT that builds up unique skills and can’t be built as a vibe-coded MVP in a weekend.

Mario

📚️ Books I read this month

• “The Sales Acceleration Formula” - just completed, highly recommended - the 4th HubSpot hire ever and an IT engineer who built the sales division from zero to $100M ARR

• “The Sweaty Startup” by Nick Hueber (35% in)

• The FP&A Handbook: Mastering Financial Planning & Analysis (40% in)

• “Revenue Architecture” by Jacco van der Kooij (50% in)

• Ray Dalio’s “How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle” (45% in)

• “Hooked” - on habits and cues and product alignment (50% in)

🔖 Focusing on Kwanzoo’s offsite leads this month. After the pivots in first-level buyer intent data early last year, a great opportunity lies in 2nd-party data.

🔖 HubSpot’s new Growth Playbook: Loop. Is HubSpot effectively adapting to the era of AI with its new branded framework?

🔖 Turn crisis into operational strength. A structured evaluation framework helps executive teams refine strategy after disruptions.

🔖 Secure personal devices at work. This BYOD guide outlines how to balance mobile security with user privacy.

🔖 Use AI for smarter liquidity oversight. New methods for AI-driven liquidity monitoring improve speed and accuracy in risk assessments.

🔖 Coordinate messaging across channels. Improve mobile app conversions with email, push, and in-app prompts working together.

🔖 Cut SaaS onboarding time and errors. A case study shows how automated sync via SCIM and SAML protocols improved efficiency.

🔖 Don’t overlook AI security risks. Learn how companies guard against data poisoning and model misuse as AI expands.

🔖 Your mindset shapes your biology. Research in neuroscience reveals how thoughts can rewire physical and mental patterns.

🔖 Make your product stand out. Maldon turned perception into pricing power with a smart rebrand around elemental salt.

🔖 Get beyond AI showmanship. See how top teams use integration techniques to drive real business results.

📰 Quiet housing signal flashes red. Building permits drop to pandemic lows warning of recession in a Moody’s report.

📰 Webscale spending breaks records. Data centers post $122 billion capex and $93 billion R&D outlay in the second quarter.

📰 AI power shifts to custom models. Startups focus on tailored interfaces over model size, reshaping the industry dynamic.

📰 Trust becomes key brand asset. As AI floods content channels, credibility tops scale for lasting growth in a market shift.

📰 OpenAI sees bubble but holds course. Bret Taylor says current hype is a necessary step toward future value in an AI discussion.

📰 Eastern Europe shines for outsourcing. Firms tap tech talent and Western practices as a global tech hub emerges.

📰 TikTok’s U.S. deal takes shape. Trump administration unveils framework with China that could avoid a ban in a tentative agreement.

📰 AI transforms inmate healthcare. Armor Health partners with Antidote-AI to improve diagnostics and treatment in correctional facilities via a clinical tools.

📰 Climate policy faces US-EU crosswinds. Trump advisors aim to weaken enforcement while EU tightens rules, risking global cooperation.

📰 AI coaches speed startup growth. Ronald Osborne’s autonomous agents streamline operations and slash costs to improve small business ROI in a new model.

📰 Alphabet hits three trillion. Google’s market value tops $3 trillion after antitrust relief and faster AI rollout in a valuation update.

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Need My Help?

Keeping myself busy - here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling enterprises on top of WordPress? DevriX provides martech retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo and we manage high-traffic platforms (hundreds of millions of monthly views), B2B SaaS apps, partnership management solutions, supporting $10M - $250M businesses with scalability, custom funnels, CRO, big data augmentation, AI-driven processes, HubSpot workflows, programmatic SEO - and everything a modern business requires in digital in 2025.

🚀 Work 1:1 with me? At Growth Shuttle, I run two popular plans: Async Advisory ($3,500/mo) for $3M - $30M founders and executive teams and the smaller Strategic Growth Circle ($997/mo) for $100K - $500K entrepreneurs, agency founders, scale ups.

🌠 Feature your business across the community? The B2B Ecosystem includes this newsletter and 40 other digital properties (directories, newsletters, blogs, SaaS, and social accounts) targeting B2B executives. See how your business can benefit.

📈 International founder looking into US LLCs? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.

📊 Into digital M&A? I work closely with Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides the tools to list your business and close the deal.

💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.