🤫 originality, spending time with the right people, one man armies

Hey,

It’s 6:52 am and I’m typing this on the train to Hamburg right now.

At 6 a.m., it was completely empty. Just me and dozens of storefronts.

And for the first time, I noticed how much of it is an illusion.

The shopping street is huge with dozens of stores. But it’s really just a handful of stores repeated over and over again.

On the one hand, you of course got all these brands that seem like competitors like H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories but they’re all owned by the same company.

On the other hand, zoom out further and you realize: it’s not just the same brands.

It’s really just the same handful types of stores repeated over and over again: fashion, coffee shops, phone stores, barbers, fast food restaurants.

Sometimes you see a creative new type of shop open. A kombucha bar or whatever. But they always close after a few months again.

The market doesn’t reward originality.

What usually sticks is something people already understand just done better, faster, or with a slight twist.

🤔 quote

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.” - Mark Twain

This is how I think about sales calls.

Don’t perform. Don’t pitch.

Just be honest.

Be curious about what they actually need. Say what you do, how you do it, and why you think it might help — if it actually does.

I see this done wrong all the time. People slip into “sales mode” — pushing, persuading, trying to close.

Everyone can feel it. It kills the vibe and it doesn’t work.

🤯 ghost yapping

My friend Pete Codes writes LinkedIn posts for founders.

In a world flooded with AI slop, undifferentiated SaaS, and noisier ad channels, having a real founder brand is one of the few levers left.

If you want to grow your audience but don’t have the time — or just don’t want to think about content — Pete will do it for you. Quietly, and well.

He’s not an agency. It’s just him. Which means your posts actually sound like you, not like a recycled growth hack thread.

If you want to take LinkedIn seriously without making it your job, learn more about Pete’s service or email him directly: pete@highsignal.io.

(Pete sponsored this issue of Schemers)

🏄‍♂️ surfing the web

source - from a somewhat older portrait of Scale AI founder Alex Wang. Meta just bought a 49% stake in the data labeling company for $14.8 billion.

source - list of “one man armies”. Good reminder that it doesn’t always require a huge team to accomplish something meaningful.

source - this is one thing I’ve changed my mind on. I used to think chasing trends and hype is dumb. Now I realize that nothing lasts forever anyway.

🫨 music I’m scheming to

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That’s it for this week!

Talk soon,
Jakob