LIAM DARMODYᵍᵐ

Personal Brand Strategist & Networking Coach → I help entrepreneurs, executives & teams build brands to attract clients, talent & opportunity | Family Man | Connector | AI & Blockchain Bull | Hot Sauce Aficionado🌶️

I help founders, entrepreneurs, and executives build businesses by becoming trusted, visible, and referenceable in their space. My work sits at the intersection of personal brand strategy, go-to-market execution, and AI-enabled operations. I help people understand how to show up across LinkedIn, search, and AI-driven discovery and how that visibility turns into real opportunity over time.

Currently, I'm working with Brandi (mybrandi.ai), helping companies understand how they show up inside AI-generated answers and recommendations, and how brand visibility, trust, and demand are increasingly shaped by systems they do not directly control.

Seeing this shift up close has changed how I help individuals and teams show up online.

A core part of my approach is what I call Voice Enablement with AI.

Instead of writing for people, I teach them how to use AI to think, draft, and create content in their own voice. Most clients stop writing from scratch and start editing instead. Content creation becomes faster, more consistent, and still unmistakably human.

How? Because we are using your actual voice!

What I help with most often:

• Founder and executive positioning and LinkedIn profile strategy
• Personal narrative clarity for humans, AI systems, and decision-makers
• Relationship-based networking and social selling without pressure tactics
• Using AI to streamline content creation, engagement, and workflows
• Measuring what actually matters in brand and go-to-market efforts

Alongside my advisory work, I take on select fractional go-to-market and operations roles, supporting teams during growth, transition, or strategic realignment.

I’m known for helping people:

• Clarify what makes them meaningfully different
• Build trust before asking for anything
• Turn visibility into opportunity over time
• Turn chaos into organized chaos ;)

I call this manifesting serendipity.

It’s not luck. It’s intention, consistency, and showing up in the right conversations long before you need something. It's being in someone's orbit often enough that you become the first person they think of when they need your product or service. 

It's about being top of mind. 

Outside of work, I’m a husband, a dad of two, an early-morning lifter, and a proud hot sauce aficionado 🌶️. 

If you’re building a brand, a business, or your next chapter, I’d love to jam with you. 

Hi5, 
LD

Founder

I help executives, founders, and their teams build magnetic brands that attract clients, talent, and opportunity on LinkedIn. 

My services include: 

My services include: 
- Profile Optimization
- LinkedIn feature training
- Core content strategy
- Ghostediting (ask me about it)
- Content performance analysis 
- Sales Navigator training

Liam's Brand Stand was born out of my passion for personal branding and belief that LinkedIn is the ultimate platform for professionals and organizations to manifest serendipity and unlock opportunity.

This passion started as a fascination that turned into a hobby, then to a side hustle, and now, my full-time focus. I started creating content and being more intentional about building my brand here in January 2020 and since then I've amassed 35,000 followers and my content has garnered ~23,000,000 impressions, ~600,000 reactions, and ~100,000 comments. 

Completely organically.

Pretty crazy, especially when you consider I'm just a suburban dad who took to LinkedIn as a way to have conversation with other adults while cooped up in my house with my wife, a toddler, and an infant during a pandemic. 

That's the kind of opportunity that exists on LinkedIn and I'm on a mission to help more people experience it for themselves. 

If you're interested in doing so, visit: 

liamsbrandstand.com to learn more 
-or- 
calendly.com/liamdarmody to book time with me

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hi5, 
LD

LIAM DARMODY

Today I stepped on the scale & clocked 278lbs. 

I know that sounds like a weird flex, but I have not been in the 270s since August 2016.

Nearly 10 years. 

When I started my business in August 2023, I was 347lbs. 

I couldn’t walk a mile without running out of breath.
I couldn’t walk upstairs without the same.
I feared my kids asking me to play because I knew how hard that would be for me. 

I had spent the better part of 30 years using food as medicine to heal wounds from childhood, which started at A&D burgers in Mississauga, Ontario. 

I decided enough was enough. 

Joined a gym.

Started with 3x per week, which was all I could do back then. 

Then 4x per week. 
Then 5x per week.
And now 6x per week (sometimes ;)

it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, not just because of how challenging the physical workouts are, but because it hasn't garnered massive results overnight.

I've been an all or nothing kind of guy since the beginning of time and I've started and stopped trying to lose weight many times before.

I wanted three months of hard work to magically undo 30 years of unhealthy habits.

It doesn't work like that.

I'm at the point now where the scale doesn't even really matter that much to me because I've realized that which really matters is that I'm showing up in that gym every weekday.

putting in the work to be healthier.

day by day.
Week by week.
Month by month. 
Year by year. 

I may still be round but I'm in the best shape of my life. 

And it feels amazing.

My advice to anyone who has struggled with weight loss is to try this: 

1) Find a gym with coaches & classes. Expert accountability and community are massive motivators. 

2) Go 3-5 days per week for 3 months. Non-negotiable. 

3) Meal prep. Every Sunday I throw 4 lb of ground chicken, a bag of hash brown potatoes, and 15 eggs on a blackstone flat top and make a meal for myself that has 100 g of protein. That's breakfast after the gym every day. 

If you do that, you will notice a change in yourself, not just on the scale but mentally. You will start to believe that you are capable of things you never thought you were capable of. 

And that will motivate you to keep going.

I’m still on my journey. I’ve got a long way to go, but I have zero doubt that I will get there now. 

And that is something I haven’t felt ever before. 

It’s liberating as hell. 

Good luck. 

My DMs are open if you ever want to jam about it.

I’ve got to go carry both of my kids up the stairs now, and I’m proud to say I won’t be winded. 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

Personal Brand Strategist & Fractional GTM Operator helping founders build their businesses with LinkedIn & AI 🌶️ Hot Sauce Aficionado 🌶️

No alternative text description for this image

HUGE NEWS! 

My incredible wife Megan Bailey Darmody has a new job! She’s swapping floral fragrances, petals, and stems for wax, wicks, and fragrance sticks by joining CandleScience to lead performance marketing. 

CandleScience is one of the largest suppliers and educators in the candle making industry and I am so excited for her (and to have more candles around the house…;)

Megan is an absolute boss and I’m so proud to be her husband. She inspires me every single day. 

Please join me in congratulating her on the new role!

Hi5,
LD
🕯️

Brand Strategist and Fractional GTM Operator helping founders grow their businesses with LinkedIn and AI • Hot Sauce Aficionado 🌶️

This is not okay. 
This is not what America is supposed to be.
This is not what “law enforcement” looks like. 

This is not “the land of the Free”
This is not “the Home of the Brave” 
This is not “one country, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”

This is barbaric.
This is cowardice.
This is fear mongering. 
This is absolutely devastating.

This is the execution of an American citizen exercising his unalienable constitutional rights. 

And it’s f*cking unacceptable.

I am astounded that this continues to happen with seemingly zero repercussions. 

What are we doing? 
How did we get here?

And most importantly, how do we stop it? 

I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on politically, if you are willing to stand by and watch this without speaking up or taking action, you’re not my kind of people. 

Political differences are acceptable—appreciated, even. 

Staying silent as American citizens are murdered by masked “men” beating their chests and brandishing weapons to fuel their bravado is not. 

My heart goes out to the families who have been impacted by these devastating displays of government overreach. 

I cannot begin to comprehend your pain and nothing I say could possibly fill the void left by such a tragic loss.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t say something. 

I will never forget this image. 

Especially not at the polls.

☮️&❤️

This one's for my fellow dog owners... 

The other day, a weird triangle box showed up on my doorstep while I was working and when I opened it, I found this AI-generated portrait of my dog, Lucky DarmoDoodle, looking far more classy and refined than is reality. 

Turns out my wife found this site called Vogue Paws that will turn any photo of your hound into a portrait worth framing. 

This is not an ad for that service, I just think it's cool. 

I'm curious...

Do you have a pet? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

Dear Leaders, 

Please stop putting random hour-long meetings on people's calendars without context. 

Sincerely, 
Everyone who's ever worked for someone else.

Underrated life hack: 

Make others feel seen, heard, & understood.

Too many people think that all you have to do is show up a few times per week on Linkedin, write a few posts, and start drinking from a lead firehose. That doesn’t work here anymore.

5 years ago it may have, but not now. 

Building your brand/business on Linkedin requires so much more than simply publishing content.

Linkedin is a signal farm and your ability to pay attention to and engage with those signals is what determines your success here. 

I view it as a funnel exercise.

Once you see it that way, you can’t unsee it. 

I always say that Linkedin is the world’s largest CRM, and the leads are already built in and pre-qualified for you (if you build your network right). 

This is the Linkedin Signal Funnel. 

Do you view it this way, too? 

Hi5,
LD

graphical user interface, text, application

Today I went for a 30-minute walk and talk where I actually held my iPhone up to my ear the entire time like it was 2007. It was weird. Do not recommend.

I bet I’ve said “I wish I knew how to code” hundreds of times over the last two decades. I definitely have had no shortage of app ideas. 

I’ve been hearing so much about vibecoding and dabbled a little bit, but never built anything that actually worked on my phone.   

Until last night, when Sitting in front of the TV watching football, I vibecoded my first functional mobile app using ChatGPT and Claude Code.

I:

-> installed Node.js
—> used it to run Expo from the terminal
—->used Expo Go on my phone to preview the app

Things I knew nothing about prior. 

And in 2 hours I coded a functional MVP of an app I’ve been thinking was a good idea since becoming a father. 

It ain’t pretty (yet), but it’s functional. 

And I’m feeling pretty proud of myself, not to mention I really enjoyed the whole experience. It’s kind of like solving a puzzle.

All in my native tongue. 
No programming knowledge necessary. 

What a time to be alive! 

I’m curious… 

Have you used AI to build any software yet? 

Hi5
LD
🌶️

Are you a generalist or a specialist? 

I spent the better part of the first twenty years of my career feeling pretty insecure about the fact that I was more of a Swiss Army knife than a specialist. 

I was genuinely surprised when I would get new opportunities with higher titles because we've been taught to believe that you don't climb the ladder unless you have a very specific set of skills and scope. 

But being a generalist has always been my natural motion. I’ve always been too curious and too fascinated by too many things to just focus on one. 

These days I see articles about how “the future belongs to generalists” and companies are focusing on cultivating T-shaped talent—people with depth in one area and breadth across many others. 

I'm excited about this narrative and a lot more comfortable embracing that jack-of-many trades moniker nowadays than ever before.

Excited about the future.

I’m curious: 

Do you consider yourself more of a specialist or generalist? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

P.S. this post started as a comment on Conor Grennan’s recent post about generalists. Go follow him for fantastic AI thought leadership content.

I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a lot of new faces viewing/following/connecting these days and for the most part they are exactly the types of people I generally want to be talking to:

Founders at tech companies
Fractional executives 
Executive coaches 
Marketing folks
Comms folks
Ops folks
AI folks 

Come to think of it, that is a lot. I guess I like to talk to a wide variety of people, but regardless, I’m seeing a lot more of them and I like it. 

I think LinkedIn’s new 360Brew AI system is brewin! 

How’s LinkedIn treating you these days? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

I just crossed 300,000 words whispered through Wispr Flow 
(apparently that’s the equivalent of three books!) 
Over the last six months, I’ve dictated an average of 103 words per minute, across 79 different apps. Slack. LinkedIn comments. Emails. Texts. Notes. Everywhere.

Wispr Flow is the best tool I found in 2025. 

It’s one of those special products that revealed a problem I didn’t realize I had—I didn’t realize how much mental load typing created until I didn’t have to do it anymore.

Same way Uber changed how I thought about taxis.
Same way Tesla changed how I thought about driving.

Once I stopped typing and started thinking out loud, everything just felt so much more natural.

With AI, I can dictate stream-of-consciousness thoughts and let the machine do the cleanup. The result is faster output and more authentic writing. I’m no longer switching modes from “thinking” to “typing.” 

I just think and talk. 

That’s a massive unlock.

I’m usually an early adopter with a pretty high bar, which means I moves on quickly from most new products I try. 

Not this one. 

Wispr Flow is now core to how I work.

If you want to try it, you get 2,000 words free. Fair warning though… there’s a very good chance you’ll end up paying the $15/month.

(Sorry, not sorry)

Check it out here and get in flow!!!! 

👉 https://lnkd.in/epMgJFez

Hi5,
LD 
🌶️

P.S. Not a paid partnership. I just genuinely love this product!

It's now been a little more than three years since ChatGPT launched on November 30th, 2022. And it's so wild how much AI is changing virtually every aspect of our lives. 

I started using ChatGPT the day it came out and was a paid user within a week.

Then Claude hit the scene and I started using that. 
Then Perplexity. 
Then Gemini. 
Then Grok. 

ChatGPT's first mover advantage is strong in my case, which gives it an unfair advantage over the others because I do use it as my default for most things. 

I like Claude better for writing. 

I'm intrigued to see how much market share Gemini is gaining though I haven't really committed much time to using Gemini myself.  

I don't really mess with Grok. 

I know some people who are all-in on one thing. I know other people who use different LLMs for different purposes. I think I fall into the latter bucket but ChatGPT remains my primary for most things. And I struggle to balance usage across all effectively. 

I'm now at the point where I might be looking for that thing I did the other day and having to check multiple LLMs. 

One of my goals in 2026 is to streamline my AI stack and focus on deciding which one is really the best one for me all-around rather than defaulting to ChatGPT because it's been around for me the longest.

And so, I'm curious...

If you could only use ONE of the major AI LLMs going forward, which one would you pick? BONUS POINTS for telling us why in the comments. 

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

If I had to pick just two social networks to spend time on, it would be Substack and LinkedIn. 

Why? 

Because they're pretty complementary to one another and most people on Substack link to their LinkedIn profile, you can easily find and follow in both places. 

Admittedly, I spend more time on LinkedIn than I do Substack right now, because I’ve built a larger and more engaged following here. But I plan to increase the time I spend on Substack significantly.

Why? 

Because Substack lets me build a more direct, owned connection with my audience and because it’s a much better platform from a usability standpoint. 

It’s like Substack has gone to all the other socials, taken notes about what sucks, and built the solution. 

I’m increasingly starting to view the two this way: 

Linkedin is where you build your personal brand. 
Substack is where you build (and monetize!) your personal media empire. 

Linkedin is top of funnel.
Substack is middle of funnel. 

Going forward, I’m: 

Incredibly bullish on Substack. 
Incredibly bullish on LinkedIn. 
Insanely bullish on the two of them paired together. 

Are you on substack? 

Drop your link below if so. 

Here’s mine: https://lnkd.in/eEZA6RHN

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

“DAD!! Stop using ChatGPT to play Monopoly!” 

Whoops.

You had one job…

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve gone to an ATM in the last 365 days. Today was one of those rare visits (to get money for babysitter tonight, which is literally my only use case for cash anymore), and of course…

When I reinstalled Linkedin on my phone after my 2-week hiatus, something was different. Namely, dark mode was gone. I don’t know if you use Linkedin in dark mode or light mode, but I’ve been using dark mode for years. I’m like Dracula when i see light mode. 

And so, I’m curious…

What’s your default background setting for Linkedin? 

Looking for a job in 2026? Read this. 
 
On Thursday January 8th, my good friend Angie Callen, PCC, MJSC and 25 of her closest career coaching friends are hosting the 2026 Job Seeker Summit, a FREE virtual event showcasing expert advice from globally-recognized career coaches, resume writers, recruiters and... 

Somehow me. 

Fun fact: my first foray into Linkedin coaching was in 2009 when I launched TalentFish Consulting on a mission to help jobseekers cast a wider net. It was after a layoff and I thought: "teaching people how to network their way into their next opportunity sounds fun... let's do it!"

Only it was short lived because I networked myself into a new job shortly thereafter and didn't have time for side hustles. 

But the principles I taught then are even more valid today and 2026 is going to be a big year on Linkedin, so you might as well jump into some of these sessions to learn from those who know it best. 

The 2026 Jobseeker Summit starts at 9am MOUNTAIN time on Jan 8th and here's the lineup: 

9AM: Event welcome + resume AMA
10:30: Resume Breakout Sessions
11:30: Interview AMA: Real talk on Modern Interviews
1:15: Job Search AMA: Beyond the Boards
2:30: Job Search Breakout Sessions
3:30: AI Panel: From ChatGPT to CareerGPT (this is the one I'm on!)
4:15: Mindset Panel: Bounce Back & Burnout Recovery

Hear from 25 different career coaches, resume writers, and recruiters. 

For free.

Don't pinch yourself. It's true. 

Whether you're looking for a new job or not, the things you'll learn at the Job Seeker Summit are worth the time and price of admission (remember, it's FREE). 

Pre-register for access to giveaways during the day and ALL recordings from the event here: https://lnkd.in/eeGfPgdG

See you there! 
LD
🌶️

2026 Job Seeker Summit - Jan 8th - 9AM MT - FREE!

Unexpected benefit of taking two weeks off of LinkedIn: “it can only get better from here” 🤪Happy to be back. I love this place.

After 14-days of kids being home for the holidays, Megan Bailey Darmody and I decided it was high time for a bit more structure around the things our kids do around the house. 

We’ve tried fridge lists and white boards, etc, but they never really stuck, so I enlisted the help of Google’s Gemini to help me create a master tracking sheet that is more interactive and satisfying than a simple checklist on a fridge. 

Here’s how it works:

- Kids aren’t allowed on iPad on weekdays, unless it’s to update their to do list. This will happen on my iPad or with Mom or Dad’s phone. 

- Each day they complete 💯 of their tasks, they unlock 20% of their weekend iPad time allotment, reflected by a green progress bar atop their tasks and a big “TOTAL EARNED” tracker.

- If they hit all 5 days, they unlock a celebratory badge and all of their iPad time. 

The beauty of this is that I created it entirely with the help of Gemini. The formulas are definitely more complex than anything I knew how to create myself but it was able to tell me what I needed based on the inputs that I was giving it. 

And of course it also gave me a prompt I can use for building a prototype app in Lovable.  

(Stay tuned for more on that front)

What a time to be alive.

Parents, I’m curious… 

How has AI helped you improve around the house?

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

__
Dig this? Saves and shares appreciated.
+Follow LIAM for AI, branding, & business innovation content

Grace Gong is the founder of Smart Venture Media and the host of two well-known VC podcasts: Smart Venture Podcast (SVPpro.com) and Venture with Grace, a daily show. She is an angel investor in the AI sector, a super angel & venture scout for Alumni Ventures, Advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck. 

Her podcasts have featured high-profile guests such as C-level executives and VPs from companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Sephora, Dunkin' Donuts, Chipotle, Adidas, Pepsi, Instagram, Deloitte, Reddit, DoorDash, Pinterest, Cisco, Salesforce, NVIDIA, Snowflake and more. Additionally, she has interviewed Managing Partners from top funds, many of whom have appeared on the Forbes Midas List, as well as unicorn founders from companies like Craigslist, Square, Loom, and Glean. Grace regularly posts about technology, venture capital, and entrepreneurship and has been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Finance. She is also a #1 Bestselling author in the VC category on Amazon New Release. Before founding Smart Venture Media, she worked in venture capital and private equity. If you share her interests, feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn @GraceGong.


2025: Spoke at AWS, Seattle Startup Summit, event collab w/ various funds. Hosted Smart AI Leadership Summit and Smart AI 100 Summit SmartVentureMedia.com (10M+ impressions/ yr) Companies/ funds we have worked with including Microsoft, Snowflake, Sequoia, Vercel, Alumni Ventures, Amazon AWS, Auth0 among others.
2024: Venture with Grace daily live podcast (top 10%) features top GPs, LPs, execs, and founders. Angel investing in the AI space. 1.5M+ impressions in 7 days end of 2024.
2023: Spoke at LinkedIn HQ, ads clients: VC funds, startups, big tech.
2022: LinkedIn Top Voice in Finance, LinkedIn's creator accelerator fellow; clients including big tech & unicorn startups, speaking engagements: Dell, Microsoft
2021: CEO of Smart Venture Media (monetized, joined VC fellowship)
2020: Podcast - Smart Venture Podcast (top 1.5% among 3.4M podcasts globally, listeners in 100+ countries)
2019: PE 
2018: VC  
2017: Book 2 - How To Be A VC (No.1 new release on Amazon VC category; ft. 22 investors on the Forbes Midas List - investors who invested in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, etc) 
2016: Book 1 - The Last Key To Success (ft. 21 founders on Forbes 30 under 30)
2014: Master's + PE
2013: UIUC

🤓 svppro.com
🚀 Stay connected: https://linktr.ee/gracegong115
💼 Book an ad on my podcast | Book me to speak at your conference/ events: 
grace@smartventurepod.com
💰Book to chat with me: https://intro.co/gracegong

Grace Gong

CEO CLUB is officially live! 

20 handpicked founders and VCs in the room: Founder who raised $100M at seed/Series A. VCs who backed the hottest companies in Silicon Valley like Higgsfield and Micro1. Big tech SVP. W26 Y Combinator companies we knew would be the ones to watch.

Mid-dinner, a founder pulls out his laptop—because the work doesn't stop.
That's CEO CLUB.

Michelin-trained chef. Private venue. One minute you're talking about Disneyland, the next you're solving a bug so your customer can process million-dollar transactions.

This isn't another founder dinner where people swap LinkedIn profiles and ghost each other by Tuesday.

It's a curated series connecting the sharpest founders with the VCs writing meaningful checks and the builders who need what you're making. Breakout sessions. Real intros. A community that actually picks up where dinner left off.
You weren't in the room. But next time? That could change.

↓ Apply below ↓

CEO CLUB by Venture with Grace.

None of this happens without our incredible partners Vanta and WilmerHale.
 
Thank you for believing in this vision and making CEO CLUB possible. 🙏

#CEOClub #VentureCapital #FounderDinners #SiliconValley

Just saw Guy Kawasaki in Hawaii.

The guy who made the Macintosh a religion before anyone called it “evangelism marketing.”

40+ years in tech and still going.
That’s the game. Longevity isn’t about one big win. It’s about showing up for decades.

2026 is going to be wild for Smart Venture.
Can’t announce what we’re building yet, but it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever done.

More soon. ☀️

#VentureCapital #Startups #AI #Marketing #Entrepreneurship

My top takeaways from Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake:

Sales and Marketing are “one brain in two bodies.” The classic friction between these departments is a growth killer. At Snowflake, they functioned as a single unit. Marketing doesn’t "hand off" to Sales; they co-pilot the entire revenue journey.

Kill the MQL; focus on Pipeline. Stop celebrating 20,000 leads if they don’t convert. Denise’s team measured success by qualified meetings with the specific accounts Sales actually wanted. Align your metrics with business outcomes, not department vanity.

Say “Yes” before you’re ready. Denise accepted a Global Head of Marketing role at 27 while feeling completely unqualified. Don’t wait for the "perfect" moment of readiness. If a leader you respect bets on you, bet on yourself and learn on the fly.

Positioning must be “Believable” for the stage. Snowflake didn't start by claiming to be a "Data Cloud"—no one would have believed a tiny startup. They started with "Data Warehouse built for the cloud." You earn the right to a massive category by winning a specific, high-pain wedge first.

Verticalize to win the Enterprise. To scale from millions to billions, you must stop "selling technology" and start "selling business outcomes." Speak the specific language of finance, healthcare, and retail. Generalists get ignored; specialists get hired.

AI is about “Hyper-Personalization at Scale.” AI won't replace great marketers, but it will replace the manual drudgery. The goal is a closed-loop process that serves the right message to the right person in real-time, without a human pulling every lever.

Preserve a “Truth-Telling” circle. Success creates an echo chamber. You need a board of advisors (or a partner) who will ground you and tell you the painful truth about your strategy. Feedback is a gift you have to earn through radical trust.

None of it matters—and that’s liberating. We’re on a blue marble drifting through space. Play the sport with everything you’ve got—be intense, be world-class—but never forget it’s just a sport. That perspective is the backstop that makes the intensity sustainable.

Full pod link in first comment. 

#VentureWithGrace #Snowflake #GTM #MarketingStrategy #TechLeadership #SaaS

10pm work call. Walking out of the airport. Rainbow waiting.

January 1st.

Everyone’s posting their crazy goals today. I’m thinking about something different.

You don’t need the perfect plan on day one.
You just need to walk through the rain.

The rainbow shows up when it shows up. Not before. Not because you manifested it or built the perfect strategy deck.

Because you kept walking.

2026 isn’t about the goals you set today. It’s about what you do when it’s 10pm and you’re tired and it’s raining and you still show up.

The rainbow shows up when you keep walking.

#Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #FounderJourney #VentureCapital #2026

Never thought I’d be so important that people are DMing me to “go back to work” 😂

I’m on vacation til Friday. But let’s be real - work doesn’t wait.

I work through every vacation. Last one? 10 days before our conference, grinding til 2 AM every night.

I don’t believe in work-life balance.
If you want to build something that matters, you have to go ALL IN.

But here’s what I DO believe in:
Building something so meaningful that “work” stops feeling like work.

When the mission is clear, vacation becomes optional.

The grind becomes a choice, not a burden.

That’s the difference between building something you tolerate and building something you can’t stop thinking about.

#founder #startup #entrepreneur #business #ceo

Allison Baum Gates is a General Partner at SemperVirens VC, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in healthcare, fintech, and enterprise SaaS. An experienced technology investor, author, and speaker, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from global LPs and backed more than 70 companies—with nine unicorns, 24 exits, and 10 board roles among them. Previously, she co-founded Fresco Capital, invested at Trinity Ventures, and was an early team member at General Assembly, acquired by Adecco for $413 million. A Harvard graduate and former Goldman Sachs trader, Allison has lived and worked across five countries, lectures at Columbia Business School and UC Berkeley-Haas, and is the author of Breaking into Venture (McGraw-Hill, 2023), a guide to understanding and entering the VC industry.

Topics: 

- Pattern recognition at scale: what actually separates durable venture returns from hype cycles

- Building and managing institutional LP relationships across geographies and fund vintages

- Board dynamics, power, and governance in venture-backed companies from seed to exit

#VentureCapital #InstitutionalInvesting #BoardGovernance #StartupScale #SmartVenturePodcast

Allison Baum Gates, SemperVirens GP on Future of Work & HR Tech

How to land a whale 🐳 in B2B sales.

You don’t chase it.
You don’t rush it.
You don’t scare it away.

Whale watching made this painfully obvious.

The biggest deals surface when buyers are ready — not when your quarter needs help.

#B2BSales #EnterpriseSales #Startups #Founders #GoToMarket

I've chatted with 200+ AI founders backed by a16z, Sequoia, Lightspeed and other top VC funds on my podcast and at my dinners. Here's what actually happens in 2026.

I'm joining Matt Wolfe (800k+ YouTube subs), Jeremiah Owyang (GP at Blitzscaling Ventures), and Chappy Asel from The AI Collective for a forecasting session where we're actually putting money down.

What we're betting on:
→ Who's the best AI lab by Dec 31st: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or xAI?
→ Does anyone claim AGI in 2026?
→ Will AI close a $50k+ deal on its own?
→ Can AI actually ship code without breaking everything?
→ What are we all missing?

Here's what I know: The gap between AI demos and actual revenue is massive. 

Every founder I talk to is building agents. Almost nobody's buying them at scale yet.

That changes in 2026. Or it doesn't.

Hosted by our friends at The AI Collective (150k+ AI builders), Kalshi (regulated prediction markets), and Roam (AI-powered virtual HQ).

See you there.

#AI #AIAgents #AGI #TechPredictions #Startups

David Zeng is Co-Founder and CTO of Beacons AI, the Y Combinator-backed all-in-one platform powering 9M+ creators with AI-native tools for link-in-bio pages, websites, email marketing, ecommerce, and monetization across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more—helping solopreneurs turn brand deals, affiliates, and digital products into sustainable businesses without tech headaches. A Stanford PhD in signal processing and machine learning whose medical imaging research deployed globally in hospitals, David previously led ML at Azumio (launching Calorie Mama AI) and interned on computer vision at Google, bringing hardcore AI engineering to the $250B creator economy where Beacons handles unique creator mixes on every major US social network.

Topics:
  - Using ML signal detection to spot viral patterns before platform algorithms react.
 - AI link-in-bio 3x's conversions – predicts TikTok/IG/YouTube audience overlap
 - Why the creator economy needs AI-native tools, not more dashboards

 #CreatorEconomy #SaaS #Startups #YC #TechInvesting

David Zeng, Beacons CTO on AI Tools for Creator Economy

Joseph Ros is a Partner and General Manager at Entrepreneur First(EF), the pioneering global platform that invests in exceptional individuals before they have an idea or co-founder. Based in San Francisco, Joseph has backed early-stage technology companies across AI, biotech, robotics, hardware, and climate tech in markets including Singapore, India, Europe, and North America. At EF, he leads talent investing and follow-on capital while driving EF’s global pipeline that connects top technical talent from Europe and India to Silicon Valley. Before joining EF, Joseph was a founder and self-taught engineer, building and scaling consumer web products that reached millions of users across industries like gaming, legaltech, and edtech.

Topics: 
- Talent-first investing: Why backing individuals before ideas produces outlier companies
- How EF evaluates founders at day zero (signal, grit, and technical edge)
- Building global founder pipelines: Europe & India as the next AI power centers

#VentureCapital #TalentInvesting #EarlyStageVC #AIStartups #GlobalFounders

Joseph Ros, Partner at EF on Talent-First Investing & Global Scale

Distribution for startups 101.

Stripe didn’t buy growth — they embedded into platforms that already had users.

#startups #founders #distribution #growthstrategy

entering my villain era 😈

#2026 #founder #ceo

🎉 Week 102 Recap — Venture with Grace  

Week 102 explored cutting-edge AI infrastructure, VC investment strategies, GTM mastery for SaaS, causal AI innovations, and usage-based billing revolutions — unpacking commercialization, diligence, scaling, and growth in tech.

Week 102 lineup:

Deepak Prasad, Qualcomm Director: Qualcomm's US tech deals, long-term technical advantage, cloud-to-edge diligence

Priya Ramachandran, Foster Ventures Founder: GTM for international SaaS, proving PMF for cross-border founders, operator investor eval

Ray Wu, Alumni Ventures Managing Partner: Global AI & SaaS investing, corporate venture lessons from HP & Cisco, building startups across markets

Abby Kearns, former CTO of Alembic Technologies on AI and OpenSource: Modernizing Puppet to cloud-native, causal AI for marketing ROI, scaling global eng teams

Scott Woody, Metronome CEO: Usage-based billing as core infra, scientific modeling in SaaS, Dropbox-scale lessons for startups

Week 102 delivered battle-tested insights on turning research into VC-backed reality, diligencing edge tech, and fueling SaaS growth amid 2026 shifts. The big theme: Builders and investors are redefining infrastructure for an AI-driven world.

See you live next week for more exciting episodes! 👋

#VentureWithGrace #AI #startups #founders #vc

Vignesh Ravikumar is a Partner at SIERRA Ventures. Vignesh Ravikumar joined Sierra Ventures in 2013 and focuses on investments in Enterprise SaaS, Vertical SaaS, and Digital Health/Healthcare IT. Vignesh has a background in M&A transactions for enterprise software companies, having worked at AGC Partners, a Boston-based investment bank. Vignesh holds a BS in Management Science (cum laude) and a Minor in Math from UC San Diego. 


Topics: 
- Underwriting AI-heavy SaaS when infra, pricing, and competition shift
- Pricing and packaging playbooks for AI-native SaaS at seed/Series A
- Vertical SaaS 2.0: deep workflow, compound products, and moats

#VentureCapital #EnterpriseSaaS #VerticalSaaS #DigitalHealth #HealthcareIT

Vignesh Ravikumar, Dhanush Ram and 5 other attendees

Vignesh Ravikumar, Sierra Ventures Partner on Enterprise & Vertical SaaS

Aaron Cannon — CEO of Outset — on Venture with Grace, sharing how AI is reshaping the pace and depth of research.

Aaron walked through how this approach unlocks faster understanding without sacrificing nuance, helping teams learn more, sooner, and make better decisions with confidence.

Episode is live now — a compelling look at how AI can accelerate research and insight at scale. Link in Bio.

#AIResearch #UXResearch #ProductDiscovery #QualitativeResearch #QuantitativeResearch

Scott Woody is Co-Founder and CEO of Metronome, the leading usage-based billing platform empowering SaaS companies to model flexible pricing strategies, iterate rapidly without engineering bottlenecks, and turn billing into a growth engine amid 2026's shift from seats to consumption models. With prior stints as CTO at Metronome since 2019 and Director of Engineering at Dropbox where he scaled core infrastructure for 12 million+ users, Scott brings hands-on builder credentials from co-founding Foundry Hiring—an ultra-simple ATS that handled full-stack from marketing to code. A Stanford grad whose computational biology research spanned protein folding simulations, DNA mutations, and motor protein assays, he bridges academic modeling rigor with enterprise software at scale, having engineered Dropbox's evolution from startup to public giant before tackling SaaS monetization's biggest pain point.

Topics
- Why usage-based billing is becoming core infrastructure, not a finance feature
- How a scientific modeling background shaped a SaaS infrastructure founder
- Lessons from Dropbox-scale systems applied to early-stage startups

#UsageBasedBilling #SaaSGrowth #PricingInfrastructure #FounderInsights #BuildInPublic

Scott Woody, Metronome CEO on Usage-Based Billing & SaaS Growth

How to build distribution for your startup (without burning cash).

Nike didn’t hire Kim Kardashian. They partnered with her company SKIMS. 

Here’s how. Follow me so your startup doesn’t die.


#startups #founders #distribution #businessstrategy #entrepreneurship

Aaron Jacobson  — Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) — on Venture with Grace, spotlighting the next major frontier in cybersecurity.

As devices, applications, and data become more secure, identity is emerging as the critical layer left to solve. With agents operating across systems, knowing who has access — and proving it in real time — matters more than ever.

Aaron shared why identity sits at the center of modern security and how real-time verification will define the next generation of protection.

Episode is live now — a sharp conversation on cybersecurity, identity, and what comes next. 

#Cybersecurity #Identity #EnterpriseSecurity #VentureCapital

Howard Wright — VP at NVIDIA — on Venture with Grace, sharing a simple but powerful leadership habit.  

Being fully present when someone is speaking sounds obvious, but in a world full of notifications and constant distraction, it’s a rare skill. Howard framed deep listening as a sign of respect — and of quiet confidence.  

He shared how leaders who truly listen build stronger trust, make better decisions, and lead with humility.  

Episode is live now — a thoughtful reminder on presence, leadership, and the power of listening.

#Leadership #ActiveListening #Management #ExecutivePresence

Lior Susan  — founder & CEO of Eclipse — on Venture with Grace, sharing a framework for spotting the next wave of disruption.

To find industries ready for transformation, Lior looks bottom-up: study how work actually gets done, layer in the macro forces at play, and examine the technologies powering the ecosystem today.

He pointed to how e-commerce reshaped logistics as a reminder that when technology meets the right market conditions, entire industries can change — raising the question of what’s next.

Episode is live now — a thoughtful conversation on innovation, venture investing, and identifying inflection points.

#VentureCapital #Innovation #Disruption #EmergingTech

taplio

The Battle

LIAM DARMODY

Grace Gong

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreLIAM DARMODY's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreGrace Gong's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

LIAM DARMODY

Grace Gong

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}LIAM DARMODY's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreGrace Gong's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreLIAM DARMODY's LinkedIn Performance