Are you a runner who loves gear and wants better recommendations for you and from people like you? Check out Bluubird, a company I've been working with! The app is free to download/use, and you might get a chance to try out some sweet gear!

Some news: I've joined @Ola_Capital as a senior advisor! Ola is a new early-stage fund led by @DrRichardHansen, investing in endurance and outdoor performance companies. Richey is a clinician who also coaches an Olympic development team here in Boulder, and the fund is built around a thesis I've been living for years: Elite athletes are often the first to adopt what the rest of the world eventually needs; better recovery, earlier diagnostics, and environments engineered for performance and longevity. Ola Capital invests in technologies validated at the highest levels of human performance and helps bring them to everyday consumers, extending not just how long people live, but how well they live. My role is on the go-to-market side, helping founders with positioning, partnerships, and getting in front of the right people in the endurance world. If you're building something in endurance, outdoor, or performance health and you're raising now or in the next few months, I'd love to hear about it. DM me or reach me at [email protected]. And if you know a founder who fits, tag them here!

Took a train up through the English countryside to go visit @ScienceinSport and @Hytrotraining for a tour and @longrunlabs episode, and a great first time meeting @Warren_Hytro and talking shop about the progress of the company that’s bringing blood flow restriction to athletes worldwide. I’m reminded yet again that the best conversations happen in person and that it’s often worth the effort to jump on the flight or take the trip. Today required over five hours of train time plus a few hours in the car, and I’m so glad I did it. Thanks for the chauffeur service, fellas! And shoutout to @jonisportsci for connecting me with both of these awesome companies 😂🫡

Most brands are optimizing their website for AI. That is not where AI is looking. When someone asks an AI model about running shoes, the model does not go to your website. It fans out into seven or eight searches of its own, looks for best of and review content published in the last four months, and pulls from Runner’s World, Reddit, YouTube, and Gear Lab. Your website shows up less than five percent of the time. This is query fan out. And understanding it is the single most important thing a running brand can do right now to show up in the new top of funnel. Full breakdown in our episode of the @longrunlabs Podcast with Michael Rueckert of Centium AI. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

So much of why I write on the @LongRunLabs substack is to reflect and think through a concept/idea, or a new process, and this piece is no exception! open.substack.com/pub/longru…

Two things build trust in performance nutrition, and neither one is a study. Dr. Marc Bubbs, 25 years with Olympic, NBA, and Premier League programs, on what actually moves an athlete. 🎧 New @longrunlabs with @DrBubbs is out!

The endurance category is having a capital moment and most of the money is the wrong shape for the companies it is chasing. 5,000 words on which of the seven categories you are actually in, when not to raise, why a fund's pass is usually the most useful thing you get all year, and why the winners here are elephants rather than unicorns (shout out to @Erica_Wenger for that thesis!). longrunlabs.substack.com/p/a…

I've had so many people ask to "pick my brain" about fundraising for outdoor brands that I wrote a 5000 word piece on what I'd tell these people, based on dozens of conversations I've had with founders and investors lately! New on @longrunlabs

Question for the founders and marketers out there: what’s been on your mind and/or challenging you lately? I’m looking to schedule a couple more conversations in August on @LongRunLabs, my business of the outdoor industry podcast, and I’d love to hear what you’d like to hear, or what’s been challenging you lately?

Most brands run growth backwards. They buy awareness before the product is good enough to get talked about, then wonder why paid never compounds. If you switched your marketing off tomorrow, would one user still bring in the next? If no, that's the work. Not the campaign. On product marketing, from the president of onWater. New from @longrunlabs!

My friend @JasonFitz1's search traffic is down 80-90% from its peak. His podcast is also the most-cited running pod in AI answers; 5th overall in a category with Runner's World & Trail Runner. Same guy. Same decade of work. The skills didn't change. The reader did. New article👇

From the Olympic Pair to the Water Aisle: @sarahendershot on Building Loonen longrunlabs.substack.com/p/f…

A handful of people ran 21K on New Year's Day in 2021 instead of drinking the night before. Now it's a global event, building 1K a year toward a full marathon in 2042. The best brand activations can't be copied. Jason Daniel of @lskdco on @longrunlabs 👇

Just wrapped one of my favorite conversations in a while. Sat down with Michael Rueckert of Centium AI and asked: what do the 5 biggest AI models actually recommend in running? We ran 2,200 questions, never named a single brand, just to see who they pick on their own. The answers genuinely surprised me. It's not the level playing field everyone assumes. Dropping 7/7 on @longrunlabs. It's a good one. Subscribe so you don't miss it! longrunlabs.substack.com

Two hours into @findmyhuddle this month, everyone was circling the same question. Not "how do I get more customers," but: what am I actually building, and who is it for? Most of us don't have a tactics problem. We have a clarity problem. longrunlabs.substack.com/p/w…

Who's gonna help tip the scale in @beehiiv's favor on the paid side?? 🐝 @forthelrpod: forthelong.run/subscribe @longrunlabs: longrunlabs.substack.com

Observation: it has been easier/faster to grow subscribers (both free and paid) on substack vs beehiiv. I like the experience on beehiiv better (and it's where i host my website + podcasts now), but seeing more growth on substack. i use @beehiiv for everything running/@ForTheLRPod related and @substack for business/@longrunlabs.

The team at @beehiiv resolved this issue at 9pm on a Friday. #BetOnBeehiiv @denk_tweets @danielcberk

A woman in her 40s died at mile 78 of the Cocodona 250 this month. @randizuckerberg was on the course. She knew her. On @longrunlabs last week she said she can't think of a more important use for AI than catching distress patterns on remote courses before humans can. Neither can I. Wrote up the thesis behind Laurel: longrunlabs.substack.com/p/t…