🦾 The Micro Brand Era
New tighter edition
The future is microbrands.
You don't need a million followers. You need a thousand people who trust you, or a hundred, really. Maybe even fifty.
It's Kevin Kelly's thousand true fans, but smaller.
A hundred people on your email list who'll buy from you, do deals with you, and refer your work to others.
100 is the new 1,000. Build that trust now, while everyone else chases reach.
This is the way.
P.S. I’m getting back into watches. I’m looking to buy used or new watches to kickstart my inventory… luxury, vintage, unique, microbrands. If you have anything you’d like to sell, send me an email (just reply here) or ismynamecolin@gmail.com
And why not, going to start a new Substack. Nothing yet, but if you want to get on the list when I start there, go here.
📰 Links
Anthropic and Google DeepMind CEOs call for a US-led AI coalition at the G7
Apple is raising prices on the memory-chip crunch, Tim Cook says
Manus revenue soars as original investors move to reverse the Meta deal
The Pragmatic Engineer: Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization?
Kevin Roose is leaving the NYT to start a new podcast with Casey Newton
Former Sequoia MD Roelof Botha joins SpaceX's board of directors
🛠️ One Build — The 100 True Fans List
Open Claude. Paste your last 10 posts plus what you actually sell.
Ask it to find the 100 people most likely to buy, ranked by interest and intent, not follower count.
Have it draft a personal, no-pitch check-in message for each segment.
Send five a day. Trust compounds. That list becomes the moat.
🎯 Skill — THE PROOF FOLDER
Spend 60 minutes pulling every testimonial, kind DM, screenshot, and win into one doc. Then paste the best ones into your bio, your landing page, and your emails. Trust needs receipts, and most people hide theirs. That's the way.
📈 Markets
🟢 Winner: MU +5.56%. Memory chips are ripping as the crunch lifts prices, and Apple just said it is raising prices because of it.
🔴 Loser: PLTR −6.33%. The AI-software leader led a broad red day across the AI names.
Every downswing is a buying opportunity. Concentrated. Boring. Held forever. Do not trade, just keep buying.
🐦 Tweet
📊 Stats
Toy Story 5 opened to 160 million dollars in North America, the second-biggest opening weekend ever, and 312 million dollars worldwide. Source: Variety
GoPro invented the action-cam market and held 75% share in 2022. Then DJI and Insta360 ate it. Incumbency is not a moat. Source: Rest of World
Japan's operating vending machines fell about 20% from 2013 to 2025, down to 1.95 million units. Source: Nikkei Asia
🔥 Useful Sh!t Corner 🔥
🗓️ On this day in 1941 → Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest land invasion in history.
🦾 How to be dangerous → Learn to edit. Cutting 30% makes everything you ship hit harder.
🌞 Health → Walk 10 minutes after every meal. Cheapest blood-sugar control there is.
🍳 Cooking → Salt your pasta water like the sea. It is the only shot you get at seasoning the noodle itself.
💬 Quote → "A creator needs only 1,000 true fans." —Kevin Kelly
🤖 AI reality check → Do not point AI at growing your audience. Point it at deepening trust with the 100 who already know you.
🧰 The Stack & The Goods
🛠️ The tools I actually run my business on → My Apps Stack (click here)
🛒 My favorite products, with subscriber discounts → My Favorite Products
👋 I’m Colin → Father, AI builder, founder, investor. X-IG-TT → Free Stuff
🧠 Become irreplaceable: Build Your Personal AI Moat. Get 50% off the year and support so I can keep dropping free stuff here and here.
Use AI. Stay Human. This is the way.