Subscribe here | Unsubscribe here | Sept 25, 2025 | FIV #95

✅ Today’s Checklist:

• The simple way to make AI agents better at their jobs

• Why it’s safe (and smart) for founders to be nice

• Unlock Fortune 500 reach on a startup budget (and get $10k in Free Ad Credits)

QUICK LINKS

📊 Market opportunity. How people are using ChatGPT by the numbers & where the gaps are.

🚀 Startups. How to build a $100k/mo iOS app. 30-minute webinar.

🤖 AI upleveling. The surprisingly simple way to make AI agents better at their jobs.

🧠 Founder wisdom. Why it’s safe for founders to be nice.

🌱 Personal development. The memories we rehearse are the ones we live with.

Unlock Fortune 500 Reach on a Startup Budget

When you think of TV or streaming ads, what comes to mind?

Probably the biggest brands in the world. Nike. Apple. Coca-Cola. The companies with billion-dollar budgets and Madison Avenue agencies running their media buys.

For years, that was the reality. If you were a startup founder, those channels were out of reach—too expensive, too complicated, too “corporate.”

Instead, the only realistic move was pouring money into social ads. Quick to launch, measurable, and easy to manage. The default option for startups.

But here’s the problem: those channels are more crowded than ever. CPMs are up. Competition is relentless. The same playbooks are being run by every company in your space. And the harder you push, the less differentiated you look.

That’s why Comcast’s Universal Ads platform is worth paying attention to. It removes the barrier between “startups” and “Fortune 500s” when it comes to premium advertising. For the first time, founders can put their brands on the same stage as the biggest players without needing a massive budget.

Why It Matters

Comcast Universal Ads is a self-serve platform that lets you run campaigns across TV, streaming, and premium digital channels. Think Peacock, NBC, cable networks, and high-quality digital placements.

That means you don’t just get more reach. You get the kind of brand association money can’t usually buy.

When your company shows up in these trusted environments, it changes the story instantly:

• Customers start linking your brand with the household names they already believe in.

• Investors see a company punching above its weight and playing on a bigger stage.

• Competitors realize you’re moving faster than they thought possible.

This is the credibility multiplier in action. And when perception shifts, everything else compounds: sales conversations, recruiting pitches, and fundraising meetings. All of it gets easier when your brand feels bigger.

Why This Is Different

The breakthrough is accessibility. Universal Ads doesn’t require million-dollar media buys. It’s self-serve, designed to be straightforward, and it can fit founder-sized budgets.

That flips the script: what used to be a “someday” milestone can be tested this quarter.

And here’s where the opportunity lies: most founders still assume TV and streaming are off-limits. That assumption creates an opening. If you move now, you’ll be running where your competitors aren’t even looking.

How Founders Can Use Universal Ads

Here are four concrete ways to approach it:

1. Start with a credibility pilot.

• Run a small campaign across streaming or TV.

• Capture screenshots, campaign data, and customer reactions.

• Use those assets everywhere—pitch decks, sales calls, recruiting conversations. Even if the campaign itself is small, the proof that your company ran a premium ad is valuable.

2. Diversify your growth stack.

• Don’t rely entirely on Meta and Google. Test new channels now before they get saturated.

• Use Universal Ads as a second pillar: social for quick iteration and premium placements for credibility and scale.

3. Pair AI with premium placement.

• Use AI tools to generate multiple creative variations quickly.

• Funnel them through Universal Ads to see which messages resonate most in a premium environment.

• Fast iteration + premium delivery = unfair advantage.

4. Track perception, not just clicks.

• Don’t measure success only by CPA or CTR.

• Ask customers if they saw you. Watch how investors react when you mention your campaign. Notice if recruiting conversations change.

• Premium placement builds a halo that pure performance metrics can’t capture.

Why Now Is the Right Time

We’re at an inflection point. On one hand, AI has made creating content faster and cheaper than ever. On the other, the channels where that content gets delivered—social feeds, search ads, and programmatic display—are saturated and expensive.

That gap creates opportunity. Founders who move into underutilized channels gain an edge simply by showing up where competitors aren’t.

And because Universal Ads has lowered the barrier, the timing is unusually favorable. You no longer need to wait until you’re “big enough.” You can start signaling the scale long before you’ve reached it.

The Bigger Lesson

For founders, the real takeaway isn’t just about Comcast Universal Ads. It’s about questioning the assumptions that quietly hold us back.

How often do we say, “That’s for later. That’s for companies bigger than mine. That’s out of reach.”

But sometimes those lines are arbitrary. The gap between startups and Fortune 500s is thinner than it looks. Universal Ads is one proof point. And if you can find even one shortcut like this every quarter, the compounding effect is huge—especially while everyone’s running ads in the same feeds, chasing the same conversions, and fighting the same battles.

You don’t have to wait for the perfect timing, the perfect round, or the perfect budget to step onto the big stage. You just need the awareness that the shortcut exists and the willingness to try it before your competitors do.

👉 Unlock $10K in Free Ad Credits for Qualifying Brands. Just reply “Universal” to this email, and I’ll get you connected with the right folks.

Sean’s Pick of The Week

Simplify TV Advertising, Amplify Results

You set your budget, pick your audience, and Comcast Universal Ads takes care of the rest—placing your brand in trusted, premium environments that cover over 90% of U.S. households.

The payoff? Instant credibility that used to cost millions, paired with a single dashboard that makes cross-screen performance clear.

For founders, it’s a way to look bigger, move faster, and stack the kind of brand association that accelerates everything else you’re building.

Enjoy the newsletter? Please forward to a friend. It only takes 10 seconds.