A weekly industry memo for founders who refuse to build generic software. I’m sharing the frameworks, "Dark Arts," and product strategy we use at Jams to build high-fidelity products in the experience economy.
You and Marc Andreessen have the same AI
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Hey there, There is a strange paradox happening right now. For the first time in history, the distance between You and Marc Andreessen (or any billionaire tech titan) is effectively zero. You have access to the exact same intelligence. The same reasoning models. The same code generation. The same creative engines. Yet, most founders I talk to are using this god-like power to… write better emails. They are optimizing their inbox. They are summarizing meetings. They are shaving 15 minutes off their morning routine. They are using AI for Efficiency.The Empire Builders are using it for Leverage. The Trap of “Good Enough”In 2025, we saw a flood of “AI Wrappers” and “Ugly MVPs.” The thesis was: Build it fast, let the AI write the code, ship it before it breaks. That era is over. Because if you can build it in a weekend with an AI agent, so can everyone else. “Functional” is no longer a moat. It’s a commodity. If your software just “works,” you are competing with free tools. The New Moat: “See Me” SoftwareI was reading a16z’s thesis for 2026, and one concept stuck with me: “See Me” Products. For the last decade, we built “Help Me” software. Help me book a cab. Help me find a file. Help me send an invoice. These are utilities. Robots love utilities. But humans? Humans crave connection. The next wave of billion-dollar companies won’t just be “tools.” They will be Digital Hospitality. They won’t just “do the thing”—they will anticipate why you want to do it. Example: When we built this app for a client (a private community for PE founders and investors), we didn’t just build a directory. That’s a “Help Me” tool. We built a Matchmaking Agent. It doesn’t wait for you to search. It looks at who you are, what deals you’re looking for, and who you met last month, and it says: “Hey Juan, you should talk to Sarah. She just exited a logistics firm that fits your buy-box.” That isn’t efficiency. That is Insight. That makes the user feel seen. Friction is for HumansHere is my contrarian bet for 2026: Efficiency is for robots. Friction is for humans. Use AI to automate the boring stuff, yes. But use that freed-up time to add more friction where it counts: * In the design. * In the user onboarding. * In the “human touch” points. Don’t use AI to build a cheaper version of what exists. Use AI to build the thing that was previously too expensive to exist. Build the Empire. Let the others write the emails. — Juan P.S. If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building an asset, we’re opening up 2 spots for our Product Shaping Audit in January. We strip your idea down and rebuild it with “High-Fidelity” leverage. [Reply “AUDIT” to get the details]. Follow me to get the Daily Memo: And share this newsletter The Founder Memo goes out every Sunday. Join 1,000+ founders here. |
STOP USING AI TO WRITE EMAILS. USE IT TO BUILD EMPIRES.
A weekly industry memo for founders who refuse to build generic software. I’m sharing the frameworks, "Dark Arts," and product strategy we use at Jams to build high-fidelity products in the experience economy.
Hey, Juan here. If you made it here through my Founder Memo videos, thank you. This one's a bit more personal than the previous ones. I spent 4 nights in a remote area in northern Patagonia called Frey (Bariloche, Argentina). It was my most intense climbing experience. No phone signal. Lots of climbers and hikers from everywhere. Great sense of community. And an alpine paradise formed by a huge valley. All this creates a big sense of connection to the place. Here are 3 lessons from the trip...
Hey, Juan here. I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life building digital products. And I’m now convinced the biggest opportunities aren’t purely digital at all. Let’s dive in. 🧠 From the Lab The internet is getting weird. AI-generated articles are everywhere. Photos are fake. Sora and Meta are churning out AI videos. It’s a huge hall of mirrors. How do you know what’s real? Kevin Rose, relaunching the old social news site Digg, is obsessing over this. He calls it the “verification problem”....
Contrarian opinion: taking time off during a burnout is useless Last week I felt a huge burnout. Probably the biggest one in a year. And I was very close to letting go, shutting down the laptop and going on holidays. Luckily I didn't. Most people tend to need "breaks" every once in a while. Weekends completely off the grid. 1 or 2 week trips. An entire month off per year. At the same time, most people on the day to day tend to say out loud: "I just need a break". Or "I can't wait for the...