Manny P.

Austin Network...this is going to be a great one! 🚀 On March 30, the Flutter Austin + GDG Austin communities are hosting a very special meetup with Marcus Twichel (Flutter/Dart GDE, Tech Lead at Very Good Ventures) live...in the flesh! He’ll be walking through a live demo of a coffee shop platform running across 8 different screens from a single Flutter codebase - mobile, web, kiosks, POS, kitchen displays, menu boards, and more - all syncing in real time. Then he’ll break down the architecture behind it! If you’re a Flutter engineer, curious about serious cross-platform architecture, or a tech professional in Austin, this will be a really valuable session. 📍 Voltron Room - Capital Factory 🕡 Doors open at 6:30 PM ⚠️ Limited to 200 spots (in person) 🏝️ Virtual attendance for those outside of the area Food, drinks, networking, and some very cool engineering discussion! Grab a spot here 👇 GDG Event: https://lnkd.in/gcTY-t-w Meetup: https://lnkd.in/gHzmfWCu #Flutter #AustinTech #SoftwareEngineering #GDGAustin

4

3 Comments

🔄 HIRING SEQUENCE GUIDE: Pre-Seed Stage (1-5 employees) The order of your first hires dramatically impacts runway and traction. Based on our pre-seed stage data: Most successful sequence: 1. Technical co-founder (if not already on team) 2. Product engineer with UX capabilities 3. Growth generalist (not specialist) 4. First customer-facing role 5. Operations generalist Least successful sequence: Starting with specialists, sales before product validation, or ops too early. The strongest pre-seed teams we work with delay hiring and extend runway by leveraging fractional talent for non-core functions. What was your first hire, and would you make the same choice again? #PreSeed #StartupHiring #TeamBuilding #CarbonThreeRecruiting

2

Most people think startups are a lottery. A venture studio exists to remove as much randomness as possible. At Revolution Venture Studios, we don’t chase ideas and hope they work. We design companies deliberately. Real problems first. Demand validation before code. Operators embedded from day one. Capital, infrastructure, product, engineering, and go-to-market are built in, not bolted on later. This model trades: ✔️ luck for leverage ✔️ volume for conviction ✔️ experimentation for repeatability Founders aren’t left guessing alone. Ideas either earn the right to exist or die early and cheaply. Capital follows signal, not hype. That’s the difference between gambling on startups and systematically building companies. And that’s the venture studio model. #VentureStudio #StartupBuilding #CompanyCreation #Founders #Startups #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #ExecutionOverIdeas #RevolutionVentureStudios

6

4 Comments

Roo Code lets you mold your #AI coding agent into what you actually need. Brandon Mathis from This Dot Labs built custom modes for documentation, pair programming, writing specs, and improving his prompts. If you're serious about agent workflows (which you have to be), this is worth a read.

13

4 Comments

Figma recently announced its $200 million acquisition of Weavy. The one-year-old startup becomes Figma Weave. Within four months of launch, Weavy won high-profile clients including Google, Nvidia, Panasonic, and HP. Enterprise had already validated node-based AI workflows long before the acquisition. Weavy's biggest competition, ComfyUI, (the open-source alternative), has 89,200 GitHub stars and is free to use. Both platforms use node-based architecture to connect multiple AI models. Both offer the same control layer between prompt and output. The biggest difference is the deployment model. ComfyUI requires local installation and a high level of technical proficiency. Weavy runs in a browser with packaged UX. ComfyUI works for technical practitioners building custom solutions. Figma Weave works for companies deploying AI capabilities across design teams. Weavy proved enterprise adoption. Figma acquired the GTM strategy and client validation, not just the technology. Node-based workflows become table stakes for professional creative output. The control layer between prompt and final asset becomes the commercial differentiator. Single-prompt tools lose ground to architectural workflow platforms. This will create demand for two distinct skill sets. Specialists with the technical competency to architect custom ComfyUI pipelines, and implementers who deploy packaged solutions at organisational scale. Companies need both. Ultimately, the people with the expertise to translate open-source capabilities into enterprise deployment constraints will become the next strategic hires. It's a given that creative tech companies can't remain in pilot mode. Production deployment requires workflow infrastructure, not just model access. Figma just proved this, and it cost $200 million. #aiworkflow #creativetech #figma #comfyui

6

Been reflecting on UX Research portfolios lately — both as something candidates create and something teams try to evaluate consistently. This piece does a nice job of framing portfolios around clarity of thinking and impact, rather than completeness of artifacts. Subtle, but important. Would love to hear different perspectives: What signals matter most to you when reviewing (or building) a UX research portfolio? https://lnkd.in/evzxge2E #UXResearch #UXCareers #ResearchPortfolio #Hiring #DesignResearch

17

So...any other product designers with zero or little coding knowledge building your own designed apps with AI coding tools like bolt.new, Lovable, or Cursor? The claims of "anyone can build apps with AI now" I was given aren't holding up. Though these tools have given me a massive boost, I still have to do plenty of problem solving, editing, and debugging. If I hadn't taken those web dev courses a few years ago, I'd be stuck. Am I doing something wrong? FYI, my knowledge of code is "can understand and read, but not write".

21

28 Comments

UX research does more than improve products. It can also unlock meaningful tax savings for companies. Many organizations do not realize that qualified UX research activities may meet IRS requirements for the Credit for Increasing Research Activities, also known as the R&D Tax Credit. When UX teams contribute to software and product development, their work can satisfy the IRS four-part test for qualified research. In those cases, the wages of UX researchers and their direct supervisors may be counted as Qualified Research Expenses, which drive the value of the credit. This credit is filed with IRS Form 6765. For eligible companies, it can result in a dollar-for-dollar reduction in federal taxes, and qualified small businesses may even apply it against payroll taxes, improving cash flow by up to $500,000 per year. As UX continues to shape innovation and user-centered product development, it also represents a strategic financial opportunity. When organizations treat UX research as both a product investment and a qualifying R&D activity, they gain efficiency, insight, and potential tax advantages in one motion. UX strengthens the business across design, customer value, and financial performance. That is an opportunity worth recognizing and using.

11

A product designer, a founder, and an engineer walk into a bar... and none of them knew each other. I came to New York to record some podcast episodes. That was the plan. What actually happened? I ended up hosting an impromptu hardware meetup. A few drinks with past podcast guests and some of their friends. No big name tags. No event agenda. Just people from the world of physical product development, sharing stories about their work, side projects, hobbies, and how they got into the industry. None of them knew each other beforehand. By the end of the night, five or six complete strangers left as friends. And once again, I was reminded: 👥 Networking doesn't need a fancy format ☕ Coffee chats still open doors 🎤 Podcast conversations don’t have to end when the mic stops recording If you're in this industry — whether you're a designer, an engineer, a founder — lean into it. Say yes to the coffee. Show up to the meetup. Ask a question. Drop someone a DM. Put yourself out there. You’d be amazed how many product launches, collaborations, or even jobs I’ve seen come from “we just started chatting after a talk” or “met them at a drinks thing”. In a world where tech often mediates connection, human-led conversations still build the strongest networks. And the best part? You never know where it’ll lead. If you found this valuable, feel free to share it with your network. #ProductDesign #HardwareDesign #HardwareMeetUp

47

6 Comments

I've been reviewing a lot of vibe coding projects lately & startups from individuals chasing the billion dollar solo-preneur dream. And I'm seeing the same thing slow or even kill their progress. It's how AI is being leveraged straight from the get go. It's consistently being used as a tool for the individual to tackle one problem after another which causes huge fatigue and loss of the overall structure. Now what is being under-leveraged though is the idea of "Orchestration" and frameworks as a foundation. These are KEY for proper delegation of tasks with AI. Here's a framework I use whenever seriously starting a project with heavy AI involvement, feel free to take it if it helps you. Tier 1: You (The Visionary) Sets direction. Owns the outcome. Defines what "done" looks like. Tier 2: Department Heads (Lead-Agents - Preset Personas, Skills, Prompt) CTO for tech decisions COO for operations CMO for go-to-market CPO for product direction These translate your vision into plans and research reality, then in turn leverage agents to provide . Tier 3: Workers (Sub Agents - Integrators) Planners turn vision into frameworks ↓ Validators enforce your standards ↓ Integrators connect the pieces ↓ Executors perform the tasks Now when using this, definitely keep context in mind, however if you plan and execute with this frame in mind I can certainly guarantee better outputs and consistency from your agents if you are also using AI to chase the billion dollar dream. Wrote more about it here https://lnkd.in/gaKetWMh

12

2 Comments

As someone who doesn’t have much of any design ability, I’ve been fortunate to work with talented designersand UXers, like Jamie Braith ,and appreciated them all the more for the lack of my own ability. Evolving and using ai effectively, to her point, is changing their world quickly but I absolutely agree that while the process might be shifting and speed, the need to bridge huma centered design with workflows, problem solving and elegance remains the same.

1

Hot take: UX audits don’t go deep enough. Most UX audits stop at surface-level tweaks. • Copy suggestions • Button placements • Color adjustments That’s not enough. We prefer deep diagnostic work: 🧠 Journey mapping 🔁 Flow logic 🎯 Product-to-user alignment Because the real friction? It’s not in the pixels. It’s in the thinking. #UXAudits #ProductClarity #FixTheLogic #ThisIsStoked

5

2 Comments

Most brands *think* they’re testing creative. But in reality? They’re just rotating thumbnails. True creative testing isn’t about changing button colors or swapping one headline. It’s about testing different *ideas*. 1️⃣ Concept-level testing ↳ Test different angles: emotional, rational, aspirational. Not just minor tweaks to the same core message. 2️⃣ Format-level testing ↳ UGC vs. static vs. motion. Carousels vs. single image. Founders vs. actors. Each speaks to a different user mindset. 3️⃣ Message-market match ↳ One angle won’t convert everyone. You need multiple entry points to speak to different audiences at different stages. Testing variations isn’t testing, it’s optimizing. Testing concepts is where scale happens. Found this useful? Like, follow, and repost ♻️ so others can too! ps. struggling with creative bottlenecks? We can help.

121

117 Comments

My non-traditional path to tech is now my greatest asset. With 154,000+ tech layoffs in 2025 alone. Many tied directly to AI restructuring. But I've been here before. When I left hospitality at Fontainebleau for sales at Brickell Mazda? Total reset. New skills. New industry. When I jumped from car sales to coding bootcamp? Same thing. Starting over. Building from scratch. Here's what career transitions taught me: Adaptability isn't just a skill. It's survival. You think imposter syndrome is bad? Try explaining to your family why you're leaving a stable job. For something completely unknown. With no guarantee of success. But each transition built my resilience muscle. I learned to: 1. Find transferable skills others don't see 2. Network outside my comfort zone 3. Reframe setbacks as redirection 4. Build systems for rapid learning Sound familiar? These are exactly the skills needed now. With AI reshaping tech jobs weekly. The developers who will thrive aren't the ones with perfect CS degrees. They're the adaptable ones. The ones who've faced uncertainty before. The ones who know how to reinvent themselves. Maybe your "non-traditional" background isn't a liability. Maybe it's your superpower. What's the biggest strength your previous career gave you? #careertransition #techcareer #artificialintelligence #futureofwork #devcommunity

1