Stealth AI Startup

Hype Man

Frazier Ventures LLC

Founder

FreedUp

Co-Founder

WayForward

President and Executive Director at WayForward

GVA Property Management

Staff & Resident Support

The Austin Stone Community Church

Director of West Campus Students

Director of High School Ministry

Interim Campus Pastor

Austin Bolt Company

Inside Sales Representative

Co-Founder of FreedUp - a Full Stack Executive Assistant Agency | Empowering founders & executives to reclaim their time, increase their profits, and achieve their most ambitious goals

Important PSA below. This one got me 😂

People, hear me out!  Make sure to run your ideas through trusted friends and advisors before jumping at an idea you cooked up with Chat. That is a recipe for disaster. 

AI has incredible access to information, but information isn’t all that’s needed. 

As Derek Sivers wrote, “If more information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.” 

What’s needed?

Wisdom. 

What’s wisdom? Knowledge (information), but rightly applied. 

You also need to make sure you have friends who will just shoot you straight and tell you when you’re being dumb. 

I’ve got a few in my life who do it a little too eagerly! Ha! 

Happy Friday, y’all.

Scott Frazier

Entrepreneur | Hype Man @ Stealth AI Start Up

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I’ve got some exciting and bittersweet news to share.

After almost 3 years of building FreedUp, I’ve sold my share of the company to Aaron and am transitioning out of my role as co-founder.

FreedUp is stronger than ever: more clients, a growing team, and Aaron’s steady leadership have positioned the company for incredible growth ahead. I couldn’t be more confident about the future.

A handful of acknowledgments are in order. 

First, I’m forever grateful to Aaron Hayslip for inviting me into this wild adventure in the first place. Our journey from ridiculous college roommates to entrepreneurs has shocked all who knew us then (including ourselves!). What a joy it’s been to build a company with a friend. It’s a season I’ll always cherish. Forever rooting for you, my brother. 

Next, I want to thank Pammela Hernandez, CHRP® for keeping us sane(!), shaping an amazing team culture, and helping FreedUp become what it is today. Keep being the awesome karaoke-singing, joke-making, random-fact-sharing leader you’ve always been.

To our FreedUp team: Your dedication transformed FreedUp into something special. From those early days to where we are now, you made it all possible. Thank you for all the memories and laughter, especially FreedUp Fridays, where I learned just how competitive some of you really are! 

To our clients and partners: Thank you for trusting us with your business. You challenged us to be better every single day, and I’m grateful for that challenge. I leave y’all in strong and capable hands.

As for what’s next? I’m helping start a software company, currently in stealth mode, that’s building at the intersection of AI and Operational Support. If you’re a marketplace leader, I would love to connect. We’ve got big things brewing.

Can’t wait to share more soon, but signing off today with immense joy for this wild ride we call life. 

What a gift it is to look back with gratitude and ahead with excitement.

Onward.

Entrepreneur | Hype Man @ Stealth Start Up

4 days ago, I wrote a post that currently has 350k impressions, 590 comments, 182 comments, 59 repost and climbing. Here's the secret to writing posts that take off: 


No one really knows. It's magic. 

Jk jk 

Well, to be honest, I don't really know why certain posts take off more than others. However, here's what I do know. 

Taking writing courses has helped significantly. 

Joining Darren McKee’s LinkedIn & Social Selling cohort absolutely changed the way I engaged with this platform. 

Practically I've: 

posted 5x a week for 13 months 
commented on 10+ posts every day 
sent a written, voice or video DM to 10 people daily 

What’s the most random post you’ve had blow up? Because honestly, we’re all just out here experimenting. 

(Before this post, my most “successful” post had to do with the U.S. interstate road system haha. At least this last one was industry adjacent!)

Just got back from SF Tech Week with a notebook full of founder pitches.

And I noticed something strange.

9 out of 10 conversations went like this: "Our agents are smarter than everyone else's."

Yeah, you and everyone else, my man.

But you know who caught my attention? The ones solving the boring problems nobody wants to talk about.

After dozens of these conversations, here's what hit me:

Everyone's so obsessed with building the agentic layer that they're overlooking massive opportunity, such as:

• Education: Most companies have no clue how to actually use AI. They need teachers, not more tools.

• Implementation: Companies buy AI like they're buying gym memberships in January. All excitement, zero follow-through. Someone needs to actually build and deploy these systems so they work in the real world.

• Infrastructure: While everyone's building castles in the cloud, somebody needs to pour the concrete foundation.

Look, I get the appeal of building models and agents. It's sexy. It gets the VCs excited. It makes for great TechCrunch headlines.

But you know what's going to help make AI usable and sustainable?

The boring stuff.

There's so much money to be made for those that sell picks and shovels during a gold rush.

So before you jump into building the 47th AI agent this week, ask yourself: What are the picks and shovels in this space?

Because that's where founders can quietly build empires.

What boring AI problem do you think will absolutely take off as an industry?

Just got word that a friend passed away. He was 35. 

No one knows how much time they have with this beautiful gift we call life. 

Don’t waste it.

Confession time: how many of y’all have hit someone with one of these lines in an email?

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Random thoughts from 30,000 feet as I fly back home after my first TECH WEEK by a16z in San Francisco. 

Thoughts on AI and its implementation:

• AI is moving faster than most of us can process.
• It will change everything. Not overnight, not every business yet, but eventually most of them.
• AI is inevitable. Your willingness to embrace it is optional, but your reluctance will cost you long-term.
• If you're not learning AI, you're like your grandparents were with the internet or apps. (HT: Gary Vaynerchuk)

That said...

• AI can't fix bad or broken systems. Strong operators, processes, and fundamentals still win.
• AI still needs a human QA layer. It's a great role player, not a fully autonomous teammate (yet).
• Business hasn't changed. You must know your customer, solve real pain, and do it faster, better, or cheaper than your competitors. No amount of AI implementation will help an ineffective business. 

Thoughts on San Francisco: 

• The energy is contagious. I see the allure. 
• If you're early in your career and want to be in AI, consider moving to SF.
• The city's bouncing back. It still has challenges, but the momentum is there.

Founders and VCs: 

• There are some brilliant founders and investors. 
• There are also a few snake oil salesmen. Discernment matters.
• FOMO still drives a surprising amount of VC behavior.
• There's an over-indexing on young, SF-based, prestige-school founders (HT: Hadley Harris).

The company we're building: 

I'm more bullish than ever and can't wait to tell y'all more. 

Final takeaway: 

The best part of Tech Week wasn't the panels, keynotes, or events. It was the connections made and side conversations. 

Great time with Trenton Hughes, dreaming and scheming. 

Shout out to Chris Saum for being a good friend and helpful guide in this season as I navigate the VC space. Also, for pushing me to be more adventurous in my dinner selections! 🤣

I used to wing sales calls and struggled to close deals. I changed this one thing, and it made all the difference.

The pre-call prep. 

After closing over $1M in sales over the last few years, I've developed a pre-call template that has become my secret weapon.

Template:

Company Deep Dive 
• What do they do? (Not just their website copy, but the real story)
• Industry positioning
• Recent news/acquisitions

Revenue Analysis
• How they make money (all streams, not just the obvious ones)
• Pricing structure
• Target market

Competition Deep Dive
• Direct competitors
• What makes them different (or not)

Leadership Team Research
• C-Suite tenure and background
• One specific detail about each exec
• Any connections or overlap

Call Participants (for each person) 
• Name and tenure
• Any obvious points of connection 
• One unique piece of research (this could be LinkedIn or looking them up on social sites) 
• Why they're really on the call 

Call Strategy
• Clear objectives (not just "close the deal")
• Success metrics
• How do I make them the hero? 
• Hypothesis of how I can actually help
• 2-3 things they should walk away thinking

Risk Management
• Anticipated objections
• Who's not on the call but should be (how could I get them on the next call?) 
• What value they get (not what I want)

Call Agenda (filled out with notes) 

I. Opening 
• list of points of connection or quick talking points 
II. Discovery 
• list of potential first, second & third layer question tailored to them 
III. Transition to Pitch 
IV. Pitch 
V. Objection Handling 
VI. Close 
VII. Next Steps 

At this point, I use a mixture of AI and personal research to fill this out, but I make sure that it gets done before every call. If I don't have time to do extensive prep before a call, I at least work through company information, call participants and a few notes on the call strategy.

Don't just show up on sales calls with a hope and prayer.

Show up with confidence and a plan. Then, maybe say a quick prayer ;) 

(Shout out to Jc Pollard for sharing his template about a year ago, which I used as the foundation for mine)

Just a quick reminder: bolting AI solutions onto your product doesn’t actually make your product better. 

What makes your product better? Knowing your customer and understanding their needs. 

The fundamentals are still the fundamentals, no matter what we add to our tech stack.

Over the last 7 years, I've helped hire ~200 people. Here's what made top candidates stand out the most.

1. Strong first impression

I know it sounds cliché, but it's so important. They showed up early or on time, dressed appropriately, and were ready to engage. Simple things that set the tone for everything that follows.

2. Knowledgeable about the work

You can tell that they did their research before we talked. They came in with a foundational knowledge base of our business, they were ready to answer questions and ready to ask questions of their own.

3. Excited about the opportunity

I've written about this a few times, but one thing that can really set people apart is their excitement for the opportunity. I'm not saying you have to be overly extraverted and bouncing off the walls, but to demonstrate a genuine interest in the role and excitement about the potential of working together.

4. Communicative

Over the past few years, I've seen something distinct about the people we hired at FreedUp. They sent an email thanking the recruiting team for reaching out. They sent an email to our interviewer saying they were looking forward to the time together. They sent an email after the interview saying thanks. Then, they stayed in communication throughout the rest of the process.

Look, I've hired a lot of people. Some worked out great, others not so much.

But the ones who became our top performers? They typically had these four things in common.

And here's the kicker: None of these requires years of experience or a fancy degree. They're all things anyone can do if they care enough to do them.

So if you're job hunting or know someone who is, remember this:

The basics still win.

I’m deep diving all things cold outreach. 

I’ve been given a crash course by some of the best in the game with Chris Ray Zach Walker & Steve Dickerman. 

Who else should I be learning from?

Jony Ive (former Chief Design Officer at Apple) said this was one of the most important lessons Steve Jobs ever taught him. 

And it wasn't about design, leadership or strategy. 

It was about focus.

Here's what Ive’s said: 

“This sounds really simplistic but it still shocks me how few people actually practice this. It’s a struggle to practice this. 

Steve was the most remarkably focused person I ever met in my life. 

Focus is not something you aspire to. You don’t decide on Monday “I’m going to be focused.”It’s an every minute “Why are we talking about that?”

This is what we are working on. 

You can achieve so much when you truly focus. 

One of the things Steve would say [to me] because he was worried I wasn’t focused, he would say how many things have you said no to? 

I would tell him I said no to this. And I said no to that. But he knew I wasn’t interested in doing those things. There was no sacrifice in saying no. 

What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body you think is a phenomenal idea, you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you are focusing on something else.”

Look, I get it. I struggle with focus. The modern world wants to pull you in a million directions. 

Notifications? On. 
New AI tool? Gotta try it.
Hot new strategy? Better implement it.
Competitor doing something? Can't fall behind.

But here's what I've learned building companies:

The magic isn't in what you say yes to.

It's in what you're willing to say no to that is sacrificial. 

So here's my challenge: What's one thing you need to say no to this week? Not something easy. Something that hurts a little.

Because that's where real focus begins.

In June of 1956, a young girl named Joan wrote a letter to her favorite author asking for his advice on how to grow as a writer.

He wrote her back with 5 rules on how to write well.  

The author? 

None other than C.S. Lewis.

All five rules are great, but two stood out to me. 

• Always use language that makes your meaning unmistakably clear, so your sentence couldn’t be read any other way.

• Don’t use adjectives that simply tell readers how to feel. Instead of saying something was “terrible,” describe it so we’ll be terrified. Don’t say “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”

Two clear takeaways from Lewis today to help us grow as writers. 

1. Don’t just write for yourself. Write with the reader in mind. 

Before hitting publish, ask yourself: Will my reader understand this immediately, or will they have to reread it?" Measure success by their clarity, not your cleverness. 

2. Show versus tell. 

Don’t tell the reader what happened, bring it to life through clear language and good storytelling. 

What's the best writing advice that actually changed how you write? 

(I’ll share Lewis’ three other rules in the comments)

I'm headed to TECH WEEK by a16z next week in SF. 

Anyone else going or anyone I should connect with while I'm out there?

One of the most important lessons you could ever learn. Motion feels productive. Action is productive.

Most of us confuse the two. 

Yet, Hemingway warned us that we must “never mistake motion for action.” 

James Clear explains it here:

"Motion is planning and strategizing and learning. Action is the behavior that produces an outcome."

The difference?

– Talking to a lead (motion) vs. closing the sale (action)
– Researching diet plans (motion) vs. eating healthier (action)
– Dreaming about a business (motion) vs. launching it (action)

Motion has its place. It prepares the ground.
But motion alone won't change your life.

Only action can do that. 

Action bridges ideas and results.

More action, less motion this week.

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