Now that the holiday break is over, how are we feeling about 2026? We're talking about the new ideas we have to build or work on, as well as predictions for 2026 in AI, building, normal tech usage, and social media.

Timestamps:

• (00:07) - New year, new excitement
• (01:40) - What has changed since the holiday break?
• (06:18) - Is Justin going to republish Marketing for Developers?
• (11:30) - Building a membership site in Ghost
• (18:37) - How Justin might release the updated content and podcast
• (24:42) - Focus on original instead of the average
• (37:25) - How Brian used Claude to generate visuals for a course on Claude Code
• (46:43) - If everyone is jumping on AI coding in 2026, how is Brian set up to meet the demand?
• (01:00:56) - Prediction for 2026: Standing out from the crowd is going to be key
• (01:05:31) - What's stressing Brian about social media in 2026
• (01:09:36) - Partnerships are going to be very important in 2026
• (01:11:01) - The new media will just become the media
• (01:15:14) - OpenAI will fade from the lead position
• (01:20:36) - AI adoption by normal people needs a better paradigm
• (01:27:13) - AI in music and tv wont' be significant
• (01:29:44) - The problem or the blessing of building even faster with AI in a year
• (01:38:29) - Bootstrapping will become the norm again in 2026
• (01:42:12) - Meta is going to have a big year in 2026

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Marketing for Developers
• Ghost CMS
• Technical knowledge to build an app
• Acquired 10th anniversary
• Acquired sponsorship rates
• Adam's morning walk episode
• Adam's tweet
• Brian's Claude Code course
• Claude Skills / Design World

We're looking back at what our thoughts were about 2025, and scheming ideas and plans for 2026. How do you hand over decision making in your business in an AI world? How does remote work first affect junior developers? And do you panic when sales slow down? Adjust? Rethink everything?

Timestamps:

• (00:06) - Does Transistor get quiet around the Xmas holidays?
• (02:08) - Dealing with insecurity in business
• (05:34) - The Panel in 2026
• (07:09) - Looking back on 2025
• (12:54) - What kind of person is going to do well in 2026?
• (20:51) - Figuring out how to hand over decision making to junior developers
• (28:10) - Remote work vs local work
• (32:35) - Every business is a people business, every problem is a people problem, every solution is a people solution
• (41:03) - We can make requests and we can have boundaries
• (45:08) - What do I want?
• (48:29) - Should Brian diversify his marketing funnel away from YouTube?
• (01:05:06) - Building a cloud service for my products
• (01:24:04) - Building Inbox Summaries
• (01:28:27) - Rewriting for Marketing for Developers for AI

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Bootstrapped Web | 2025 recap & 2026 outlook
• Design OS
• Adam Wathan
• Chris Enns / 🍋
• Tuple
• Taylor Otwell
• Obsidian
• Every
• ONCE
• Lars Lofgren
• Marketing for Developers

Justin shares his thoughts on competition crushing his business, Brian contemplates open sourcing an idea for front end AI tooling, and when should you run with a new idea vs knowing when to drop it.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - Get into it!
• (00:47) - A founder has to worry about threats and opportunities
• (17:55) - What got us here won't get us there
• (28:42) - Why are trials increasing in 2025?
• (34:20) - An update on Builder Methods
• (40:11) - Deciding when to drop or maintain a project
• (51:07) - People want AI on rails
• (01:12:28) - 37Signals new product Fizzy
• (01:15:52) - What's the benefit to open sourcing a project?
• (01:32:59) - Leaving some value on the table

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Adam’s morning walk podcast
• Brian’s personal site
• Brian’s DesignOS announcement
• 37signals Fizzy
• Nathan Barry “Leave some value on the table”
• Tailwind CSS Insiders
• Rework podcast “picking a price”

Brian and Justin discuss the recent launch of Filterhawk, which Brian built to replace Gmail's built-in filters. They also talk about SaaS marketing strategies (which channels still work?). Justin shares some initial numbers from the Black Friday sale.

Timestamps:

• (00:06) - Follow up on last week's Justin mystery
• (02:51) - Brian launching Filterhawk
• (13:29) - How did Brian build Filterhawk in a week?
• (26:32) - The refinement phase
• (34:59) - Transistor's Black Friday sales
• (44:34) - BuilderMethodsPro Black Friday deal
• (49:34) - Brian's entering phase 2 of Builder Methods
• (01:06:28) - Thinking about where we have gaps in knowledge of our customers
• (01:09:45) - Thinking about marketing to teams and larger companies

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Links mentioned in this episode

• FilterHawk – Take Control of Your Gmail Inbox
• Inertia.js
• shadcn/ui
• Claude
• Cursor
• Google Gemini
• superwhisper
• Wispr Flow
• Improving frontend design through Skills | Claude
• Hatchbox.io
• Forge
• Rewardful
• Stripe Sigma
• Panic – Nova
• Google Antigravity
• From AI skeptic to UNFAIR advantage – YouTube
• How remote work changed my life
• Podscan.fm

Brian and Justin are joined by a surprise guest: Nadav Keyson, founder of Riverside. We had an impromptu conversation about how Riverside launched (and found traction), the impact of funding (vs bootstrapping), how Navad thinks about competition, and whether he thinks having investors leads to more stress.

Timestamps:

• (00:10) - Agenda for the episode
• (02:19) - The future of The Panel
• (16:18) - WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
• (17:22) - Nadav Keyson from Riverside joins
• (22:27) - How much should we think about our competition?
• (26:15) - When did Riverside raise money and invest in content / SEO?
• (28:42) - What were the keys to building a stable product in a competitive space?
• (31:41) - What are the challenges ahead for Riverside?
• (35:00) - How much is AI involved in writing Riverside's code?
• (39:55) - Has Nadav's stress lessened as Riverside has grown?
• (50:47) - Why should someone use your app? Why you?
• (01:06:51) - Forming an opinion about the world vs finding demand for a solution
• (01:14:23) - Brian's building Filterhawk
• (01:26:41) - What happened to Justin?

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Riverside's original Product Hunt launch
• Rob Snyder blog post: The Physics of Startups
• Brian's new app: FilterHawk
• Brian's tweet

AI dev is changing rapidly, and... AI dev is rapidly changing how we build websites and apps. Brian and Justin wrestle with this new reality and discuss the different phases of a startup, how indies can cultivate brand loyalty, and when you should maybe do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - What does Justin do all day?
• (00:14) - Welcome to The Panel
• (04:05) - The phases of startups
• (20:04) - AI coding might be moving away from spec driven development
• (27:52) - The future of products is shifting regularly
• (31:46) - Building a website dynamically with AI
• (46:41) - How much brand loyalty do we have in the age of AI?
• (01:13:45) - Singing the counter melody

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Panel Animated intro
• Hillcharts
• Cheeky Pint interview with Anthropic founder
• Derek Sivers article
• Humanoid robot
• OpenAI acquires app that watches you
• Duer Jeans
• Plain English podcast

Justin spoke to a grade 12 class about entrepreneurship, and was surprised by what he learned about teenagers.

Brian has thoughts on the impact of Agent OS v2.1 and struggles with the support burden of open-source software.

They talk about “Wealth is the freedom from having to monetize every idea." Also: Johnny Ive and Rivian founder RJ Scaringe's product design processes.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - Now It's Time for The Panel
• (01:30) - AI music creation
• (05:45) - Segments update
• (06:39) - Casel or Castle or ?
• (07:55) - Justin's visit to a grade 12 entrepreneur class
• (18:14) - What kinds of questions did the kids ask?
• (23:31) - Projects that generate unwanted jobs
• (40:25) - The relief of wealth DHH tweet
• (56:19) - Jonny Ive and caring about design
• (01:05:14) - Cheeky Pint podcast interview with Rivian founder

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Suno
• Suno intro song for The Panel
• Justin’s high school talk
• Agent OS
• Builder Methods Pro Discord
• Tweet: “Wealth is the freedom from having to monetize every idea”
• Survey: How does Basecamp get new customers?
• Cheeky Pint podcast interview with Rivian founder

Aaron Francis joins The Panel this week to talk about entrepreneurship, programming, and parenting. We chatted about how personal experiences shape our business journeys, the evolution of programming tools, and the importance of identifying market signals for success.

Timestamps:

• (00:16) - Aaron Francis joins The Panel
• (02:06) - How we're teaching our kids about programming?
• (09:36) - The gap between AI code and design
• (16:04) - How much AI are we using to write newsletters?
• (20:22) - The web feels like it's back
• (21:26) - Signals your business is working
• (43:47) - Navigating when to pivot
• (52:56) - What would you say to grade 12 class?
• (01:12:26) - How to decide what product to work on next
• (01:22:12) - Recording live streams of working sessions
• (01:35:35) - Worrying about ideal customers vs just trying stuff

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Mostly Technical
• Aaron Francis
• Ian Landsman
• Dancing Without A Partner – Signal v. Noise
• Paper – design, share, ship
• Newsletter - Aaron Francis
• Phil Vischer - Wikipedia
• ThePrimeagen - YouTube