AI Agents

Quick ask for the agency folks in my network. I posted yesterday about connecting Radi8 to Claude through our new MCP server, and the response from agencies has been the most fired-up part of building this so far. Turns out a lot of you are drowning in tabs and credential-swapping, and the idea of running every client brand from a single Claude chat lands hard. So I want to show it to you directly. If you run an agency or freelance for multiple brands, send me a DM and I'll set up a quick demo. Fifteen minutes. I'll walk you through how it works, connect it live to Claude, and you can see for yourself what it feels like to draft, schedule, and manage posts across all your clients without ever opening a separate app. No pitch deck. No sales script. Just the product. If it's useful, great — you can start a free 14-day trial that day. If not, you'll have seen something genuinely new in how AI and social tooling can work together, and that's worth fifteen minutes either way. DM me to grab a slot.

I've been heads-down building Radi8 for a while now, and last week we had one of those founder moments where something big clicked. We've been building Radi8 as an AI-native social media platform for small business owners, founders, and the agencies that support them. As part of that work, I built an MCP server for it. If you're not deep in AI tooling, MCP (Model Context Protocol) is what lets Claude and ChatGPT actually do things in other apps — not just talk about them. Wiring Radi8 in meant our customers could now manage their entire social presence directly from a Claude conversation. Then we tested it with agencies. That's when it clicked. An agency managing 5, 10, 20 client brands can now run all of them from a single Claude chat. Switch from one client's content plan to another by just asking. Draft a LinkedIn post for one, schedule an X post for another, check what's queued across every account — without ever opening a tab. Each brand stays fully isolated. Its own voice. Its own context. Its own channels. But all reachable from the same place. For agencies that have been juggling fifteen browser tabs and six logins, this changes the math entirely. No more credential-swapping. No more accidentally posting Brand A's update to Brand B's account. No more brand bleed. This is what we're building Radi8 for — to take the operational chaos out of social so our customers can spend their time on the work that actually matters. If your agency manages multiple brands and you're tired of the tab chaos, give us a try. Free for 14 days. https://www.Radi8.com

Spent today in a workshop with Kent Kaufman, Manoj, and their Silicon Valley AI team. Farooq walked us through Spec Driven Development with AI Agents and how it produces stronger, more reliable code. The session reinforced something I've been thinking about: the best tools don't just automate tasks. They change how we approach the work itself. For founders building products while also trying to stay visible and engaged with customers, that shift matters. You need systems that help you think clearly, not just move faster. If you're wrestling with how to stay consistent with marketing without it consuming all your time, send me a message.

How do you automate marketing with AI? AI will handle repeatable execution: content variants, email follow-ups, ad creative tests, and performance monitoring. The real constraint is strategy. Without a clear go-to-market hypothesis and prioritized early growth channels, automation amplifies noise, not traction. Practical path: pick one channel, design simple experiments, automate the repeatable steps, measure lift, and iterate. With 20 years building and scaling startups, I help founders convert unclear go-to-market strategies into operational growth systems at Radi8. Send me a message to schedule a free marketing audit. #startup

My point of view on content marketing is simple. Founders often treat content as a brand or traffic play. It delivers fastest when built as a repeatable acquisition engine: a defined buyer, a single, measurable offer, formats mapped to that buyer, and a small channel pilot to validate economics. With 20 years of building and scaling startups, I use that framework at Radi8 to remove guesswork in early growth. If your go-to-market feels unclear, start with a testable acquisition hypothesis. Send me a message for a free marketing audit.

Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era? Wired reports AI agents are taking on much of the grunt work. The most valuable skill today is deciding what those agents should do. I agree. For early-stage founders that means shifting from pure execution to designing clear agent workflows: name the outcome, define the success metric, and build a fast feedback loop. Start by automating one repeatable task—content drafts, user outreach, or ad copy—and specify the outcome, the KPI you’ll watch, and how often the agent reports back. Without that structure, automation increases overhead instead of removing it. Send me a message to schedule a free marketing audit. Michael Ashley, Founder & CEO, Radi8 | Startup advisor, investor, mentor https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-agentic-individuals-future-of-work/

The objection I keep hearing about automating marketing with AI, and why I still disagree Objection: We can’t automate because our go-to-market is unclear and early channels are unproven. That mistakes automation for strategy. With 20 years of building and scaling startups, I use AI to accelerate learning, not replace decision making. In early GTM tests I use AI to run rapid channel experiments, generate audience hypotheses, automate creative and reporting, and keep validated channels running without heavy oversight. The result is shorter feedback loops so founders can make faster, better decisions. If you are an early-stage founder testing GTM, send me a message to schedule a free marketing audit.