Episode 6 · Blake Eastman · August 19, 2026 · 50 min
YouTube · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
About this episode
Blake Eastman tried rebuilding the SaaS products his company depended on—from Riverside and Asana to bookkeeping software—using AI.
The tools worked for his personal workflow. Then he encountered the difference between building something for yourself and operating a real software company: infrastructure, edge cases, observability, maintenance, design, guardrails, and thousands of users.
What you’ll learn
- Why Blake became less eager to replace mature SaaS products
- The hidden work required to turn an AI prototype into reliable software
- How he decides what to build and what to leave alone
- Why he now prefers products with APIs, CLIs, and MCPs
- How PostHog and Sentry expose errors, usage, and LLM costs
- The 85% rule he uses to avoid endless AI experimentation
- How builder critiques reveal what polished productivity advice misses
- Why Blake believes “everything is connectable”
- Inside his source-bound research system, the Academic Holocron
Topics and resources
- The Nonverbal Group
- Blake’s newsletter
- Blake on X
- Michael on X
- Riverside
- Asana
- Bench
- PostHog
- Sentry
- Warp
- Aside
- Upwork
- Claude Code
- OpenClaw
- Lettera
- Agentation
More Already Here
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