Michael Ashley

I wrote this with Claude, who scheduled it with Radi8, all from one chat on my iPhone… in bed. That sentence used to be impossible. In the last hour, from this exact chat, I drafted and scheduled three LinkedIn posts across two different brands — one for Radi8 and two for my personal account. Different audiences. Different voices. Different goals. All from one Claude conversation. On my phone. Under the covers. No app-switching. No logging in and out. No copy-paste between tools. I told Claude what I wanted, it pulled the right brand context for each account, drafted the posts in the right voice, and scheduled them at the times I asked for. This is what we built Radi8's MCP server for. For an agency managing 10 or 20 client brands, this is the difference between social media being a desk job and it being something you can actually run from anywhere. Waiting for a flight. Between meetings. Sunday night clearing the week ahead. Monday morning before you've even had coffee. Each brand stays fully isolated — its own voice, its own context, its own connected channels — but every one of them is reachable from a single Claude chat on whatever device you happen to have with you. The operational chaos that used to require a desk and six browser tabs now fits in your pocket. If you run an agency and this sounds like the unlock you've been waiting for, try Radi8 free for 14 days. Connect it to Claude once, and start managing every client from one chat. https://www.Radi8.com …more

Most small business owners I talk to say the same thing about social media: they know they need to do it, but they hate being tied to their desk to do it. You're checking email between meetings. Waiting for a call to start. Sitting in your car before walking into an appointment. Those are the moments when you actually have time to post. But your laptop is somewhere else. That's why we built Radi8 for iOS. Your entire social media studio on your phone. Write, generate, schedule, and publish LinkedIn and X posts from your iPhone or iPad. Everything syncs with your Radi8 account, so you can start a post on your computer and finish it on your phone, or the other way around. No more waiting until you're back at your desk. No more missing the window to stay visible because you didn't have the right tool at the right time. Download Radi8 for iOS and put your marketing in your pocket: https://www.radi8.com/ios …more

Radi8 Beta is over - We are live! Try it free https://www.radi8.com If you have been putting off consistent marketing because it felt like too much time or too much money, Radi8 is built for that exact problem. Send me a message if you want a walkthrough or have questions about which plan makes sense for your business. https://www.radi8.com/pricing …more

Attention restaurant owners. Santa Cruz Works is hosting an invitation-only luncheon on May 13 at the Cocoanut Grove. It's a private introduction to AIO, an AI platform built specifically for restaurant operations. If you run a restaurant in the Santa Cruz area, this is worth exploring. Here's why: most restaurant owners are dealing with the same operational challenges. Scheduling, inventory, customer communication, order management. The tools built for enterprise operations don't fit the way small restaurants actually work. And generic AI platforms require too much setup to be useful when you're already stretched thin. AIO was designed for restaurant operations from the ground up. The luncheon offers a chance to see how it works, ask questions directly, and evaluate whether it solves problems you're dealing with right now. You'll also get insight into Launchpad 2026, Santa Cruz County's largest job fair. If hiring or talent retention is on your radar, that's a second reason to attend. This isn't a public event. It's invitation-only, which means smaller group, direct access, and real conversation with the people building the platform and the local business community showing up to learn about it. If you're in the area and you want to evaluate tools that could streamline how you run your restaurant, this is a solid opportunity to do that in person. Check the Santa Cruz Works site for details and how to request an invitation. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/luncheon-brings-restaurant-leaders-together-for-a-look-at-aio …more

Juicero raised $120 million and shut down four years later. The product was impressive. A beautifully engineered juicer that squeezed proprietary juice packs. The pitch was compelling. Fresh, cold-pressed juice at home with zero mess. But none of that mattered because they misjudged the market. They built a $400 machine for a customer who didn't exist at scale. Worse, when reporters discovered you could squeeze the packs by hand and get the same result, the entire value proposition collapsed. This wasn't a failure of execution. It was a failure of go-to-market strategy. If you're a small business owner handling your own marketing, the same mistake shows up in smaller ways every day. You build something without validating whether your audience actually wants it. You position a feature instead of a benefit. You invest time creating content that sounds good internally but doesn't connect with the people you're trying to reach. The fix starts with three questions before you build or launch anything: Who is this for, specifically? Not a broad market. A real person with a real problem. What job are they hiring this to do? Juicero thought people wanted convenience. Turns out they wanted juice, and convenience meant not buying a $400 machine. How will they discover this solves their problem? If your positioning doesn't make the value obvious in seconds, you're asking too much of your audience. Juicero had the funding, the team, and the product. What they didn't have was a clear understanding of their customer or a go-to-market strategy grounded in reality. You don't need $120 million to learn this lesson. You just need to ask the right questions before you spend time and money on the wrong strategy. If you're not sure whether your positioning and content strategy are connecting with your audience, book a free 15-20 minute marketing audit. I'll walk you through where to focus first. https://www.radi8.com/free-audit?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=free_audit&utm_content=post_id Case study: https://www.smartwareadvisors.com/blogs/insights/case-study-juicero-overbuilt-mvp-amp-misjudged-market …more

If you run a manufacturing business in California, finding time to sharpen your strategy or fix supply chain gaps often falls to the bottom of the list. NorCal SBDC and Roadmap 4 Innovation are running two no-cost cohort courses from May through July. Both are designed for manufacturers who need practical frameworks without the typical seminar fluff. The timing matters. These are cohort programs, which means you learn alongside other operators facing similar challenges. That peer context is often more valuable than the curriculum itself. What makes these worth considering: No cost. That removes the usual budget approval friction. Cohort format. You get exposure to how other manufacturers are solving problems you might be stuck on. Focused scope. Strategy and supply chain. Not a general business course trying to cover everything. If you're handling operations and strategy yourself, or if you've been putting off a closer look at your supply chain because you don't have a clear starting point, this is a low-risk way to get structured guidance. Most small business owners I work with struggle to carve out time for anything that isn't directly tied to revenue or customer delivery. But the manufacturers who consistently grow are the ones who block time to work on the business, not just in it. Applications are open now. Courses run May through July. If you know a California manufacturer who would benefit, share this with them. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/free-training-courses-now-open-for-california-manufacturers …more

After working with hundreds of founders, one pattern keeps repeating. The ones who make faster progress are not the ones reading more blog posts or watching more tutorials. They are the ones sitting in a room with other founders who have already solved the same problem. You skip the trial and error. You see what actually works. You adapt it to your business and move forward. That is exactly why I created the Inspiring Founders Peer Group. It is built for founders who want to build a valuable business without burning cash on marketing or headcount. We meet once a month in person in San Jose or Santa Cruz. The focus is on practical problems, real workflows, and honest feedback from people who understand the tradeoffs you are making. You do not need to have everything dialed in. You just need to be willing to show up, ask good questions, and apply what you learn. If this sounds like your next step, apply to join the next meeting at inspiringfounders.com. https://www.inspiringfounders.com/ #Founders #PeerGroup #BayArea …more

51,501 LinkedIn impressions in the last 90 days. Up 185% from the 90 days before. Here's what actually changed: I started posting consistently. That's it. No growth hack, no algorithm trick. The hard part isn't writing one good post. It's writing one this week, and next week, and the week after — while running a business. That's the problem Radi8 is built to solve. Stay visible without living on social media. Try it free → radi8.com …more

Santa Cruz Works Rooftop New Tech is back on May 6, and I'll be there. If you're a founder working on something in tech, this is one of the best nights to show up. Six startups will present on the rooftop at Anton Pacific. Solid food and drinks. Great views. Real conversations with other builders. I've advised and invested in startups for years. Three of those companies had billion-dollar exits. I've also launched three of my own, with one major acquisition. The early stages are hard when you're doing everything yourself—go-to-market, messaging, content—all while trying to build product. The best part of events like this isn't the presentations. It's the conversations between them. The founder who's stuck on messaging and finally gets clarity. The team that's been guessing at go-to-market and walks away with a plan. I'll be there between presentations. If you want to talk through your go-to-market strategy, your messaging, or how to build a content system that doesn't eat your week, come find me. I'm happy to walk through what's working and where you can get a quick win. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/santa-cruz-works-rooftop-new-tech-may-6 …more

We just released Radi8 with Claude. If you already use Claude for writing or research, you can now run your entire social media workflow without leaving the chat. Create posts. Generate images. Schedule. Publish. All through Claude Code. Most small business owners I talk to don't want to spend hours switching between tools or staring at social platforms. You know you need to stay visible with prospects and customers, but the process takes time you don't have. Radi8 with Claude let's you run your entire social media workflow without leaving the chat. Connect Radi8 to your own Claude instance. From there, ask Claude to draft a post, create supporting visuals, and schedule it to go live. The entire workflow happens in one conversation. No separate design tool. No separate scheduler. No context-switching your way through content creation. If you're already paying for Claude and handling your own marketing, this is the simplest way to stay consistent without living on social media. Radi8 with Claude is live now. Want to see how it fits into your workflow? Send me a message and I'll walk you through it. …more

Generating an image for your post should not steal creative time. Radi8 generates quote cards in your brand so you stay in the writing flow. …more

Brian Solis argued at SXSW that augmentation is the new productivity: most people use AI to do what they already know. For founders this matters because the biggest gains come from changing how decisions are made, not just automating tasks. Three practical steps I use with startups: 1) Map core decisions and the inputs that drive them. 2) Prototype one augmented workflow in two weeks and measure decision speed and quality. 3) Standardize prompts, tests, and handoffs so the capability scales. If you want templates or pilot intros, send me a message. #AI https://briansolis.com/2026/03/worth-magazine-covers-brian-solis-keynote-at-sxsw-2026-augmentation-is-the-new-productivity/ …more