Michael Ashley

A lot of founders ask me how I use Claude and Radi8 together. Here's the honest answer: I don't really "use Claude" anymore. Not the way most people think. I don't write prompts. I don't paste in context. I don't explain my audience or my voice or my offers every time I sit down to create content. Radi8 handles all of that. My brand context, my strategy, my campaign plan, my voice, my proof points — it's all stored in Radi8. When Claude works inside Radi8, it already knows everything it needs to know. It's not starting from scratch. It's starting from me. The workflow: 1. Open Radi8 and pull up my campaign plan for the month 2. Pick the piece of content I'm working on — the brief is already there 3. Generate — Claude writes from my brief, my brand, my voice 4. One quick edit pass, maybe 5 minutes 5. Schedule That's it. No prompt engineering. No re-explaining yourself every session. No output that sounds like it could have come from anyone. The insight most people miss about AI content tools: the problem was never the AI. It was the setup. When the AI knows your business as well as you do, it stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a collaborator. That's what I built Radi8 to do. DM me "workflow" and I'll show you how it works. …more

Most founders I work with avoid customer discovery. Not because they don't understand the theory. Because it surfaces uncomfortable truths. When you sit down with a potential customer and ask the right questions, you're not just testing assumptions. You're inviting reality to challenge the story you've been telling yourself about your product, your positioning, and your market. That's hard. It's easier to keep building. Easier to refine the pitch. Easier to convince yourself that more features, better messaging, or a bigger launch will solve the problem. But avoidance has a cost. You burn months building something nobody wants. You misread demand signals. You position yourself in a crowded space because you never learned what makes you different in the eyes of the people who matter. I've seen this across four startups and dozens of advisory engagements. The founders who get traction fastest are not the ones with the best ideas. They're the ones willing to hear that their assumptions are wrong and adjust accordingly. Customer discovery is not a validation exercise. It's a correction mechanism. The goal is not to hear what you want to hear. The goal is to learn what you need to know before you make expensive decisions. That means asking questions that expose gaps in your thinking. It means listening to what customers are actually trying to solve, not what you hope they need. It means being willing to abandon ideas you were excited about yesterday. The discomfort is the signal. If the conversation doesn't make you rethink something, you're probably asking the wrong questions. After 25 years of building and advising startups, the pattern is clear. The founders who embrace this discomfort early save themselves time, money, and wasted opportunity. The ones who avoid it pay for it later in slower growth, misaligned product decisions, and go-to-market strategies that never gain traction. What assumption did customer discovery force you to abandon? …more

On June 11 at 10:00 AM, I'm hosting a free live workshop where we'll use Claude Code to build and deploy real applications — not talk about it, actually do it. We'll build a website, a full-stack web app with authentication, a backend server, a database, and a working front end. All live, all with Claude Code. If you've been curious about what's possible with AI-assisted development, this is a great place to see it in action. Founders, builders, students — everyone welcome. Free to join. 👇 https://www.skool.com/inspiring-founders-5861 …more

Why Founders Keep Asking the Wrong Questions in Customer Interviews I've been mentoring early-stage founders for a long time. One of the first books I put in front of all of them is The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. The core lesson: most founders ask questions that get polite answers, not honest ones. "Would you use this?" tells you nothing. People don't want to hurt your feelings. The book teaches you to ask about real behaviors instead — past experiences, actual workarounds, real decisions. Questions that can't be answered with a comfortable lie. The problem is, founders read it, get it, and then walk into their next interview and ask: "So does this solve a real pain point for you?" Every. Single. Time. Knowing what a good question looks like isn't the same as being able to generate one on the spot about your specific product and customer. So I built a free tool to close that gap: MomTestQuestions.com You describe your product and your target customer. It generates a set of high-quality interview questions built on Mom Test principles — questions about behavior, not opinions. Ready to use in your next customer conversation. No signup. No cost. Just better questions. If you're in customer discovery mode right now, try it before your next interview. Then come back and tell me what you learned. …more

I'm putting on a workshop for small business owners on May 28th in San Jose at the MLK Library. It's hosted by the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center, and the focus is simple: how to use AI and social media without living on it all day. Most small business owners I work with tell me the same thing. They know they need to post. They know they need to stay active. But they hate the time it takes, and they never know what to say. That's the problem I solve. Not with another content calendar template. Not with another AI tool that spits out generic posts. But with one repeatable workflow that takes 15 minutes a day and fits your business. I've launched three startups. One ended in an acquisition. I've spent years building go-to-market strategies and helping founders run their own marketing without burning out. The truth is you don't need a marketing team. You need one habit that works. At this workshop, I'll walk you through the practical workflows and time-saving templates you can start using the next day. No fluff. No theory. Just the systems I use with clients who need to stay visible without adding another full-time job. If you can't make it to San Jose but you want help building your own 15-minute marketing habit, I'm offering free 15–20 minute marketing audits. I'll review what you're doing now, give you one or two quick wins, and build your first week of content with you. Book the audit: https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=post_id Or if you're in the Bay Area on May 28th, I'd love to see you at the workshop. …more

Here's a workflow you can steal. One core message → five LinkedIn posts in 30 minutes. Step 1 (5 min): Pick one thing you believe about your industry. Not a tip. A point of view. Example: "Most marketing advice for small business owners is wrong because it assumes you have a marketing team." Step 2 (5 min): Write it as a single declarative sentence. That's your core message. Step 3 (10 min): Generate five angles on it with AI. Story angle (a moment this was true). Contrarian angle (what people get wrong). Tactical angle (one thing to do differently). Mistake angle (what you used to do). Persona angle (who specifically this hurts). Step 4 (10 min): For each angle, write the first two lines yourself — that's the hook. Let AI fill in the middle. Edit the ending so the CTA sounds like you. That's it. Five posts. Same core idea, five different doors into it. Your audience won't feel repetition because each post leads with a different shape of thought. I'm walking through this workflow plus two more — competitor research in 10 minutes, and an editorial system that runs in 15 minutes a day — at my workshop on May 28th in San Jose at the MLK Library, hosted by the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center. If you can't make it, book a free 15 to 20 minute marketing audit and I'll run this workflow with you on your business. https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=post_id DM me if you want the workshop link. …more

Three things I got wrong about marketing across three startups: 1. I treated it as a phase. "We'll do marketing once the product is ready." Then the product was ready, the launch window closed, and we were starting from zero on awareness with a runway clock ticking. Marketing isn't a phase. It's a habit you build before you need it. 2. I hired it out too early. The first agency we paid wrote posts that sounded nothing like us, ran ads against the wrong audience, and I spent more time briefing them than I would have spent posting myself. Outsourcing only works after you know what good looks like for your business. 3. I confused volume with consistency. We did sprints — two weeks of daily posts, then silence for a month. The algorithm punishes that pattern. So does your audience. Three posts a week, every week, beats fifteen posts in a burst followed by nothing. What I do now is the opposite of all three. Marketing is the first habit, not the last. I run my own content with AI-assisted workflows so I know what good looks like before I delegate. And I optimize for showing up every week, not for output spikes. That's what I'm teaching at my workshop on May 28th in San Jose at the MLK Library, hosted by the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center. The exact workflows I use now, after three startups and one exit. If you can't make it, book a free 15 to 20 minute marketing audit and I'll help you skip the mistakes I made. https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=post_id DM me if you want the workshop link. …more

Congratulations to Western Growers and Reservoir Farms on this $1.5 million commitment. This partnership is worth paying attention to—not because of the funding amount, but because of the structure. Western Growers is giving its members exclusive access to robotics field trials across Salinas, Wine Country, and the Central Valley. They're not waiting for perfect technology. They're building a bridge between prototype and commercial adoption. That's a go-to-market strategy. Most early-stage founders I work with struggle with the same problem: they have a working product, maybe even some pilot customers, but no clear path from validation to revenue at scale. The gap isn't always the product. It's access to the right testing ground and the right early adopters who can give real feedback under real conditions. Western Growers is solving that for agtech companies. They're creating a repeatable environment where technology can be tested, refined, and proven before it hits the broader market. That cuts years off the adoption timeline. If you're building a B2B product, the principle is the same. You need a structured way to get your solution in front of the people who will actually use it. Not in a demo. Not in a pitch deck. In their workflow, solving their real problem. That means identifying your early access group—the customers who have the problem acutely, who are willing to test, and who have enough influence to move others when it works. Then you build the program around them. You give them something exclusive. You make the feedback loop tight. You document what works and what breaks. And you use that as proof for everyone else. This is how you move from prototype to repeatable sales: not by perfecting the product in isolation, but by proving it works in the field. If you're stuck between pilot customers and real traction, book a free 15-minute marketing audit and we'll map out who your early access group should be and how to structure the program around them. https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=post_id https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/reservoir-the-field-is-the-lab …more

NSF I-Corps is the gold standard for customer discovery. If you have ever wanted to understand how innovation actually moves from the lab to the market, this is your chance to see the methodology up close. The NSF I-Corps Hub Northwest is offering a free, virtual course focused on planetary health technologies. Applications are open through May 29, 2026. Customer discovery is the single most underestimated skill in early-stage startups. Most founders skip it or do it halfway because they are eager to build. Then they spend months or years building something nobody will buy. I-Corps teaches you how to test assumptions, talk to potential customers before you commit to a roadmap, and validate whether a real market exists for what you are building. It is structured, repeatable, and grounded in evidence. Even if planetary health is not your focus, the frameworks and rigor you learn here apply to nearly any technology or market. The program forces you to get out of the building and run real interviews. You leave with clarity on who your customer is, what problem you are solving, and whether your solution has legs. This is especially valuable if you are a solo founder or running a small team without access to formal mentorship or accelerator support. You get expert coaching, a proven process, and a cohort of other founders working through the same challenges. If you are serious about bringing a new technology to market and want to build something people will actually pay for, apply. The course is free, the methodology is tested, and the insight you gain can save you years of wasted effort. Applications close May 29. Send me a message if you want to talk through whether this is a fit for where you are in your journey. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/nsf-i-corps-hub-planetary-course-applications-open …more

I love seeing this. West Sacramento just cut the ribbon on community-funded EV charging infrastructure. Not a government grant. Not a big utility play. Grassroots clean energy, funded by the people who will use it. Here's what caught my attention: they didn't wait for permission or perfect conditions. They validated demand with the community first, then built the solution. That's exactly how early traction works. Most founders think they need all the resources lined up before they can make a move. Full budget. Perfect messaging. Complete product. But momentum doesn't start that way. It starts when you validate a real problem with the people who feel it most, then build the smallest version that solves it. The West Sacramento project didn't need top-down approval or a five-year roadmap. They identified a local gap, rallied the people who needed the solution, and moved forward with what they had. If you're stuck waiting for the perfect conditions to launch your next campaign, refine your positioning, or start building visibility, this is your reminder: traction comes from action, not preparation. Find the smallest group that feels your solution. Validate that it matters to them. Build for that group first. The infrastructure comes after the momentum, not before. If you're wrestling with early go-to-market strategy or how to build traction before you have all the resources, let's talk. I run free 15-minute marketing audits for founders. Comment below and I'll send you the link. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/powered-by-climatize-community-funded-ev-charging-comes-to-west-sacramento …more

Most founders I talk to say the same thing: "I don't have time for marketing, and I can't afford to hire it out." Natalia Bishop, founder of the WILD Accelerator, told me something that stuck. She said most of the founders she works with have the idea and the drive. What they don't have is a system to stay visible without burning out. That resonated because it's the exact challenge I see with early-stage founders every week. You're building the product, closing deals, managing cash flow — and somehow you're supposed to stay top of mind with prospects and investors too. In our conversation on the Inspiring Founders Podcast, Natalia walked through how WILD supports founders from underrepresented backgrounds with grants, mentorship, and leadership coaching. One of the most valuable things they offer isn't funding. It's helping founders build a repeatable system for showing up consistently, even when resources are tight. You don't need a full marketing team to stay engaged with your audience. You need a workflow that's simple, repeatable, and doesn't eat your week. If you're handling your own marketing and want a system that fits your schedule, book a free 15-minute marketing audit with me. I'll walk you through one or two quick wins and a repeatable content workflow you can run yourself. https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=podcast-8 P.S. The full conversation with Natalia about building support systems for underserved founders is live on the Inspiring Founders Podcast — on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. https://www.inspiringfounders.com/podcast …more

It's competition season for university student founders. If you're building a company while juggling exams, team schedules, and pitch decks, you already know how hard this stretch is. The late nights refining your deck. The pressure to stand out in a room full of talent. The quiet worry that your idea won't land the way you hope. Here's what I've seen after advising dozens of founders and helping build companies from launch to exit: the teams that do well in competitions aren't always the ones with the flashiest ideas. They're the ones who can explain their value clearly, show they understand their customer, and prove they can execute. Competitions are a forcing function. They push you to sharpen your story, defend your assumptions, and practice delivering under pressure. Win or lose, that clarity stays with you. So if you're in the middle of this right now, good luck. Take the feedback seriously. Use the reps. And remember that the real work starts after the competition ends. If you're a student founder who wants a second set of eyes on your messaging or go-to-market plan, send me a message. Happy to help. #startups #entrepreneurship …more