Notes
NotesFrom the studio notes
The notes are the long version. Read one before you decide to write to us.
75 notesshowing 25–48, page 2 of 4
Build
Five Small Firms Cut Their Software Bills 40 to 80% by Vibe Coding Their Own CRM. Who Owns What They Built?
Vibe coding a custom CRM cut five small firms' software bills 40 to 80%. What the Moltbook exposure and the research teach, and a checklist before it holds customer data.
Brian Gagne
Build
Agencies Are Cutting Jobs While Clients Still Need the Work. Agency Capacity That Flexes Is the Model That Holds.
Agencies cut headcount 8% in 2025, with 15% forecast for 2026. Why hiring to grow is risky, and how flexible agency capacity lets a lean shop take on more work.
Amelia Gagne
Build
The Patreon Profile Merge Paused Creator Payouts Until They Clicked. What You Rent and What You Own.
The Patreon profile merge paused posting and payouts for creators who had not combined profiles. What changed, what an auto merge deleted, and what to own instead.
Amelia Gagne
Build
Forrester: 9 in 10 Marketing Agencies Use AI, Mostly to Cut Their Own Hours. Clients Want the Savings.
Nine in 10 marketing agencies use AI, mostly to cut their own hours, and clients want the savings. What Forrester and the 4As found and where to aim AI instead.
Amelia Gagne
Build
Leaving Substack Keeps Your List. Email Deliverability Decides Who Sees It.
Moving a newsletter off Substack keeps your list. Email deliverability does not move with it: what Gmail requires, why opens mislead, and what owning it takes.
Brian Gagne
Build
Google Closed Firebase Studio to New Users 14 Months After Launch: Your Live App Survives, Unexported Code Gets Deleted
Firebase Studio closed to new users June 22, 2026 and deletes workspace data March 22, 2027. Deployed apps keep running. How to export what you built.
Brian Gagne
Build
Selling Your Agency to an AI Roll-Up? What the Public Record Shows and What to Check First
Thinking about selling your agency to an AI roll-up? What public filings show, how the SBA values a business, and the contract, tax and noncompete checks to run.
Brian Gagne
Build
Cannes Lions Started Rewarding Systems. Does Your Creator Business Have One?
Cannes Lions 2026 began judging the systems behind brands. Apply it to your creator business: own your site, list, sales and records, and use platforms for reach.
Amelia Gagne
Build
About $95 Billion in Tariff Refunds Was Queued by June. The CAPE Declaration You File Is a Sworn Statement.
A CAPE declaration attests every entry's origin, classification and value are true and correct. What it says, the five-year windows, and the records to keep.
Brian Gagne
Build
OpenAI Set Shutdown Dates for Sora. What It Teaches Agencies Reselling AI About AI Vendor Lock-In
OpenAI closed the Sora app on April 26 and the Sora API on September 24, 2026. What AI vendor lock-in means for agencies reselling AI, and how to audit it.
Amelia Gagne
Build
44% of Websites Fail Core Web Vitals in Real Visits. A Green Lab Score Won't Tell You
Core Web Vitals come from real visits over 28 days, not a one-time lab test. What Google measures, why mobile scores lag, and what a small business should fix first.
Brian Gagne
Build
Forrester Says Agencies Are 'Resigning Their Agency' in 2026. What the Agency Model Shift Means for Clients and Partners
Forrester says the agency model is moving from agent to owner. What principal media is, what ANA research found, and the questions clients should ask now.
Amelia Gagne
Build
What a Google Search Profile Does for Creators, and What It Can't Own
What a Google Search profile does for creators, who can claim one, why it doesn't change ranking, and how to send its followers to a site and list you own.
Amelia Gagne
Build
GitHub's Outage Year and Platform Lock-In: Could Your Business Leave If It Had To?
GitHub's 2026 outages and Ghostty's exit show where platform lock-in really lives. Three checks for your domain, your data and your exit cost.
Brian Gagne
Build
Private Equity Is Buying Managed Services Firms. Recurring Revenue and Real Engineering Hold Value; Resale Gets Squeezed
Investors joined 80% of managed services deals in early 2026. What buyers pay for, why resale is squeezed, and how an MSP can add engineering without a hiring spree.
Brian Gagne
Build
Brands Are Adding AI to Creator Marketing. The One Thing They Can't Generate Is an Owned Audience
Brands are adding AI to creator marketing, but creator ad spend still grew. Why an owned audience is what keeps creators paid, plus New York's AI ad label rule.
Brian Gagne
Build
The WP Engine Lawsuit: What the Court Decided, and What It Means for a Business on WordPress
The WP Engine lawsuit after the September 2026 ruling: what the court decided, who owns wordpress.org, and three portability checks for a business on WordPress.
Brian Gagne
Build
Wix Cut 1,000 Jobs and Bet on a Prompt Box. What It Means for Agencies Built on a Website Builder
Wix cut 20% of staff, grew its AI app builder and saw its agency Partners business slow. What an agency built on a website builder should sell now.
Brian Gagne
Build
Ask YouTube Answers Questions With Your Videos. What Tutorial Creators Should Do Now
Ask YouTube is YouTube's conversational search, now open to U.S. viewers. What YouTube has published, how it may affect tutorials, and what creators can do.
Amelia Gagne
Build
Google Just Taught Chrome How to Read Your Website Like an API. Start With Structured Data
Chrome is testing WebMCP for AI agents. What a small business needs first: honest structured data, labeled forms and pages machines can read, per Google.
Brian Gagne
Build
Omnicom Plans to Cut Agency Labor Costs by $1 Billion a Year. Independent Agencies Should Not Copy the Math
Omnicom planned $1 billion a year in labor savings after buying IPG. What the filings say about agency labor costs, and how independent agencies can grow.
Amelia Gagne
Build
YouTube Shorts Remix Now Uses AI on Your Videos. Here Is the Default and the Opt Out
YouTube Shorts Remix now includes AI tools like Reimagine and Gemini Omni, and Shorts are opted in by default. What changed, where the opt out is, what to do.
Brian Gagne
Build
Webflow Added AI Credits to Every Plan. What AI Credits Cost Your Website and What You Keep When You Leave
Webflow added AI credits to every plan in May 2026. How AI credits are spent, what happens when they run out, and what a code export leaves out.
Brian Gagne
Build
Your White-Label Vendor Just Rebranded as a Strategic Growth Partner. Read It as a Positioning Play.
Your white-label vendor now sells strategy and account management. Who owns the code and logins, the contract clauses to check, and a one-hour review.
Amelia Gagne