Zach Holman
Web developer and writer; an early GitHub employee, author of speaking.io and of widely read essays on startups and product.
Zach Holman did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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The pace of building new companies has become so fast that legal incorporation, not building the product, is now often the real bottleneck.
things are happening really fuckin' fast these days, to the point where the incorporation step isn't an afterthought in the middle of a paragraph; in many cases it's the real blocker.
zachholman.comSaid 27 Sept 2026This on korrents
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The clearest sign a message was generated by AI rather than written by a human is that it reads unnaturally, reciting facts about the recipient's own life back to them.
No real fucking human being talks like that. In fact, I think that might be the only remaining Turing test we have left.
zachholman.comSaid 16 Sept 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
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27 September
From one piece You Should Have an LLC 2 beliefs · zachholman.com
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Their words
get an LLC. Even if you don't particularly have something in mind to launch right now, it's worth grabbing one to be able to move quickly in the event that you do.
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Their words
things are happening really fuckin' fast these days, to the point where the incorporation step isn't an afterthought in the middle of a paragraph; in many cases it's the real blocker.
21 September
16 September
From one piece As Someone Who Has Written This Blog Post, 2 beliefs · zachholman.com
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Their words
AI has made it so insanely easy to grab a few factoids from your bio in an effort to "tailor" their approach to you.
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Their words
No real fucking human being talks like that. In fact, I think that might be the only remaining Turing test we have left.
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From one piece Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investor 3 beliefs · zachholman.com
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Their words
Most investors will side with doing that if they think the pitch is truly novel: even if they don't participate, they still want the aura of referring it to another investor who might.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investorzachholman.com
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korrents.com
Asking a referring investor whether they personally invested puts the startup being referred at a disadvantage.Their words
It immediately puts your company at a disadvantage because they're already getting other signals from other investors (that they ostensibly trust) that your company wasn't a good fit for them.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investorzachholman.com
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korrents.com
Venture capital decision-making runs more on subjective feelings than on objective substance.Their words
A lot of venture capital is full of wishy-washy bullshit human feels over reals.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investorzachholman.com
29 July
From one piece The Cold Email 3 beliefs · zachholman.com
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Their words
It's also helpful to realize that while you may be sending the cold email today, in another area tomorrow you might be someone else's cold email. Not every part of life is a linear progression.
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korrents.com
Reaching out to people with no prior connection expands a person's network and reduces blind spots.Their words
It greatly expands your own network and helps dismantle blind spots.
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korrents.com
People tend to remember the outcomes of things that worked out and forget the many attempts that led nowhere.Their words
In this case, you tend not to remember the awkward chat you had with the famous CEO at the meetup, or that one email you fired off three years ago, but you remember the outcome of the things that did go well.
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Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
The pace of building new companies has become so fast that legal incorporation, not building the product, is now often the real bottleneck.
things are happening really fuckin' fast these days, to the point where the incorporation step isn't an afterthought in the middle of a paragraph; in many cases it's the real blocker.
You Should Have an LLC Said 27 Sept 2026
Founders should set up a business entity like an LLC before they have a specific idea, so they can move quickly once one arises.
get an LLC. Even if you don't particularly have something in mind to launch right now, it's worth grabbing one to be able to move quickly in the event that you do.
You Should Have an LLC Said 27 Sept 2026
The clearest sign a message was generated by AI rather than written by a human is that it reads unnaturally, reciting facts about the recipient's own life back to them.
No real fucking human being talks like that. In fact, I think that might be the only remaining Turing test we have left.
As Someone Who Has Written This Blog Post, Said 16 Sept 2026
Show 7 more
AI has made it far easier to fake a personalized message by pulling a few superficial facts from someone's public bio.
AI has made it so insanely easy to grab a few factoids from your bio in an effort to "tailor" their approach to you.
As Someone Who Has Written This Blog Post, Said 16 Sept 2026
Venture capital decision-making runs more on subjective feelings than on objective substance.
A lot of venture capital is full of wishy-washy bullshit human feels over reals.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investor Said 5 Aug 2026
Asking a referring investor whether they personally invested puts the startup being referred at a disadvantage.
It immediately puts your company at a disadvantage because they're already getting other signals from other investors (that they ostensibly trust) that your company wasn't a good fit for them.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investor Said 5 Aug 2026
An investor who passes on a pitch they find truly novel will often still refer it to another investor, to get credit for having found it.
Most investors will side with doing that if they think the pitch is truly novel: even if they don't participate, they still want the aura of referring it to another investor who might.
Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investor Said 5 Aug 2026
People tend to remember the outcomes of things that worked out and forget the many attempts that led nowhere.
In this case, you tend not to remember the awkward chat you had with the famous CEO at the meetup, or that one email you fired off three years ago, but you remember the outcome of the things that did go well.
The Cold Email Said 29 Jul 2026
Reaching out to people with no prior connection expands a person's network and reduces blind spots.
It greatly expands your own network and helps dismantle blind spots.
The Cold Email Said 29 Jul 2026
Life does not progress in a straight line, so someone sending unsolicited outreach today may become the recipient of it from someone else tomorrow.
It's also helpful to realize that while you may be sending the cold email today, in another area tomorrow you might be someone else's cold email. Not every part of life is a linear progression.
The Cold Email Said 29 Jul 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 10 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses Aperture
For photos, I use Aperture to manage things locally, and Exposure to share them with people.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Uses Atom
I write code in Atom, the text editor we've been working on for six years at GitHub. It's based on Chromium, so to customize it you can inspect it just like any other web element.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
their own
Uses Boxen
My development environment is managed by Boxen, Homebrew, and my dotfiles. I'm feeling good about all of that, which wasn't always the case if you were a Ruby developer five years ago.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Show 7 more
Uses Rails
If it's on the web, I'm usually using Rails to build it, with the exception of some smaller apps where I'll still drop down to Sinatra from time to time.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Loved Ruby
I tend to build things with Ruby, and I'm pretty in love with that language even after all these years.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Liked Delta
I tend to fly Delta and stay at SPG hotels, in large part because I think both of them don't have completely maddening UI in their product (be it technical or customer service or the service itself).
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Uses Pioneer HDJ-2000
I use a pair of white Pioneer HDJ-2000s for headphones.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Uses Maschine Mikro 2.0
I'm still very new to creating music, but for that I use a Native Instruments Maschine Mikro 2.0. I use a pair of white Pioneer HDJ-2000s for headphones.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Uses Native Instruments Traktor S4
For live music, I play on a Native Instruments Traktor S4 at either our office or at home.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Loved Fujifilm X100S
I used to bring my Nikon D5100 everywhere, but switched this year to the excellent Fujifilm X100S primarily because a lot of my photos happen casually, on the road, where the smaller size is a big plus.
usesthis.com 17 Apr 2014
Where they publish
Blog zachholman.com His blog about startups and product.
Recent
- You Should Have an LLC 27 Sept 2026 Our ol’ grandpappy had it tough. Back in his day, when he wanted to build a new startup, he’d first spend months coveting the right venture capitalist, undergo hours of interrogations about his planned “agile developmen…
- As Someone Who Has Written This Blog Post, 16 Sept 2026 It’s a great time to be the main character in Memento. Back in 2000, Leonard Shelby had a hard time functioning in society because he had no memory of who he was. But if Memento took place today? Hi Leonard! As someone…
- Probably Won’t Pass You on to Another Investor 5 Aug 2026 This is one of those personal preferences that might differ from investor to investor, but: no, I probably won’t intro you with another investor if I’ve already passed on your company. A lot of venture capital is full o…
Show 7 more
- The Cold Email 29 Jul 2026 Three of the biggest changes in my life all stemmed, in part, from cold outreach. Originally I was waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon. Getting waitlisted is like, being the first loser: you’re good enough to be in the topic…
- There’s No Minimum Angel Check Size 1 May 2026 I remember one time I had this guy call me up, wanted to pitch me, right? Wanted to sell me stock. So I let him. I got every fuckin’ rebuttal outta this guy, kept him on the phone for an hour and a half. Towards the end…
- Signed: A Portfolio for Investors 24 Mar 2026 Awhile back I asked my friend Leah Culver about how she tracks angel investments, because I was just getting into angel investing and it seemed weird that everyone just had some shitty spreadsheet setup to keep track of…
- The Tools of Angel Investing 27 Feb 2026 Part of the annoying thing about angel investing is that you’re ostensibly investing in CUTTING EDGE FUTURE STARTUPS who are about to BRING THE FUTURE TO YOUR FACE and in order to do this you have to go through some of…
- Taking Money off the Table 30 Oct 2025 Recently I had a long call with an old friend who was facing an age-old predicament that I’ve been seeing more and more these days: Lucked out, worked hard, employer is crushing it, and now she’s sitting on a large amou…
- Shipping Calendearing 29 Sept 2025 For when you have too many calendars Once upon a time I built a calendar and then wrote an exhaustively long talk about working with time, timezones, calendars, and everything in between. For a few unrelated reasons we…
- Losing Money is the Point 21 Jul 2025 It’s mind-boggling how many in the general public don’t understand this, so let me rant about it for a bit: many companies are designed to lose money this year. That’s the fucking point. Today’s main character energy is…
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @holman His posting account.
Recent
- multi-currency is super fun and/or frustrating to build. but the best part about it is that i got to use my l33t sp34k talents from AOL chat room hacking again for this tweet you're not cool unless you got your family dialup suspended for terms of use violations (sorry dad) 15 Oct 2026
- still find it absolutely bizarre that khosla attacked his own portfolio company and just never addressed it again. in normal industries this would be a career-ender but in venture capital it’s just… fine? 15 Oct 2026
- expertise is dead. act accordingly. 12 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- i love the stuff my agents generate. have you ever noticed that other people's agents generate slop, but your agent generates stuff? 6 Oct 2026
- here's a long conversation I had with searls about software and AI and wearing maroon shirts, have a listen and maybe i can become a podcaster 5 Oct 2026
- there was a 2014 talk from @garybernhardt how all software was going to end up being javascript/wasm today your LLM can port GTA V to run on your trashcan or some shit. feels like the talk was correct but just wrong about the language. turns out the language didn't even matter. 4 Oct 2026
- what did riker mean by this? was opus not fast enough for him? 1 Oct 2026
- so much of my career started with 468x60 and 88x31, shout out to two legendary combinations 30 Sept 2026
- really want to hate this billionaire ken griffin for the gamestop mess, but he just gave a stupid amount of money to my school and he also brought us daddy pochettino, so i am conflicted 30 Sept 2026
- ✅ Marked safe from ever being a Man City supporter 29 Sept 2026
- I’m still fascinated by @bedrock. $3B fund investing in companies like Flock. Then the managing partner very publicly melts down with AI psychosis. And then the fund just… stops, with nothing said publicly in the last year. Do LPs claw their money back or something? So wild. 28 Sept 2026
- If you like this AI stuff and think it's pretty cool and you want to just *build* these days... you should just go get an LLC: 27 Sept 2026 zachholman.com
- An oldie post from 2024, but I've been curious about the data side. I had @Muse pull in my whole angel portfolio via MCP from @signedco of ~150 startups; the interesting bit: - Startups who sent investor regular updates: 8% died - Startups who didn't send updates: 28% died 21 Sept 2026
- don’t talk to me unless you have sound effects enabled on linkedin i only talk to winners 16 Sept 2026
- if you're telling someone about their own job from 15 years ago, TURING TEST DENIED 16 Sept 2026 zachholman.com
- Added a new runway feature to @signedco to sort which of my portfolio companies are facing cash crunches. (As a side note, always fascinated by startups who run out of cash and haven't talked to their investors about it. That's what they're there for, to help!) 15 Sept 2026
- Still really enjoying @muse. I use https://t.co/t18YazaYhC for all of my todos, and though it has cloud sync they (still) haven’t added an official API. I told muse to build it and a minute or two later I have ongoing todo sync from my LLM across all my Apple devices. Wild. 14 Sept 2026
- as you get older you realize that the hardest problem we all face in life is what to eat for dinner this time. like we just had dinner last night why do we have to make this decision again 12 Sept 2026
- i just had @Muse set up my @vestaboard to display messages in my zoom background about whichever meeting i'm in next. worked great. then i told it to do a fun one for me in the meantime. this is the message it chose and then this is what it told me in chat after lol send help 10 Sept 2026
- friends, i’m sadly here to say that meta has cooked with @Muse and it’s everything every personal ai assistant has tried to be. it just like… works. i remain skeptical and continue to be really impressed 10 Sept 2026
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Bluesky hol.mn Where he posts.
Recent
- i love the stuff my agents generate. have you ever noticed that other people's agents generate slop, but your agent generates stuff? 6 Oct 2026
- so much of my career started with 468x60 and 88x31, shout out to two legendary combinations 30 Sept 2026
- If you like this AI stuff and think it's pretty cool and you want to just *build* these days... you should just go get an LLC: 27 Sept 2026 zachholman.com
Show 17 more
- don’t talk to me unless you have sound effects enabled on linkedin i only talk to winners 16 Sept 2026
- if you're telling someone about their own job from 15 years ago, TURING TEST DENIED 16 Sept 2026 zachholman.com
- Added a new runway feature to signed.com to sort which of my portfolio companies are facing cash crunches. (As a side note, always fascinated by startups who run out of cash and haven't talked to their investors about it. That's what they're there for, to help!) 15 Sept 2026
- Still really enjoying Muse. I use Things.app for all of my todos, and though it has cloud sync they (still) haven’t added an official API. I told muse to build it and a minute or two later I have ongoing todo sync from my LLM across all my Apple devices. Wild. 14 Sept 2026
- as you get older you realize that the hardest problem we all face in life is what to eat for dinner this time. like we just had dinner last night why do we have to make this decision again 12 Sept 2026
- i just had muse set up my vestaboard to display messages in my zoom background about whichever meeting i'm in next. worked great. then i told it to do a fun one for me in the meantime. this is the message it chose and then this is what it told me in chat after lol send help 10 Sept 2026
- friends, i’m sadly here to say that meta has cooked with muse and it’s everything every personal ai assistant has tried to be. it just like… works. i remain skeptical and continue to be really impressed 10 Sept 2026
- best we can tell, an onlyfans or similar model has been using our address for her simps and we keep getting bouquets of flowers this week for her apparent birthday (or for one guy, their two week anniversary together). the house is now mostly flowers. 24 Aug 2026
- Opening day is incredible. It’s basically like back-to-school days, where you get to see all the familiar faces and see what everyone was up to over the summer. Granted, we’re doing it at 9:30am at the pub, but it’s basically the same thing. ⚽️ 22 Aug 2026
- Had a lovely time talking with Marcia Dawood about angel investing, building Signed, investing in sports, and how AI can help unlock all three of those. Yes, I used `unlock`. That's how you know it's business-oriented™. Full episode is on YouTube: 21 Aug 2026 youtube.com
- imagine: running an agent which was solely trained on the hardest problem remaining in computer science: staying signed in to any anthropic service for longer than a few days 19 Aug 2026
- finally succumbed to the bluesky custom domain vanity url 18 Aug 2026
- MRI results came back today from a human doc: a herniated disc. Obviously I had tossed the raw scans in to LLMs last week; Opus and Fable missed it, Sol caught it. This is now the gold standard in analyzing performance of frontier models. First step: herniate your back. 11 Aug 2026
- the most stressful question while living in san francisco is do you pay 6x the price for a waymo or do you instead suffer a human driver 7 Aug 2026
- Quick new post: no, I probably won't pass you on to another investor. (I wish founders would stop asking me, too, for their sake.) 5 Aug 2026 zachholman.com
- GitHub, university, and football. I owe a lot of the good things in my life to reaching out to people I didn't know: 29 Jul 2026 zachholman.com
- i can't believe we used to type code with our fingers 29 Jul 2026
Link verified 8 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
LinkedIn zachholman His professional profile.
Link verified 4 Sept 2026.
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Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
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