My Creator Tech Stack

The tools and tech that power everything.

👋 Friends,

It’s starting to feel like summer in NYC - the best time of year.

Time to get off your laptop, put the screens down, and spend more time outside. With PEOPLE, around nature, with dogs, eating ice cream.

Nicole and I are putting together a weekly list of things to do this summer in NYC. The newest, under-the-radar restaurants, cocktail bars, and things to do. If you’d like early access, comment here.

Lastly, Rho and I are offering to fly FIVE founders, creators, or builders into New York City for Tech Week on June 3-9 and pay for your flights and hotels. Apply here.

My Creator Tech Stack

It’s been five months since I left Google to pursue entrepreneurship and it’s been the most fulfilling and challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Over the next few months, I’ll start to reveal what’s under the hood of a creator-led tech events and media company. I’m doing this in the spirit of transparency to inspire and inform those who are:

• Early on in their careers, looking for inspiration

• In the early phases of being an entrepreneur or starting a business

• Unfulfilled in their current careers and seeking new, adjacent possibilities

I’m doing this because I wish I had mentors in my life who told me about the thousands of potential career paths open to me besides the traditional 9 to 5. I wish they had told me that working for a large corporation wasn’t the only way to be successful and that your career isn’t defined by a single job, but the portfolio of projects you do throughout your life. And that you don’t have to choose one (corporate gig) or the other (entrepreneurship). You could do both!

Today, I’ll share the tools, processes, and people I rely on to operate all the businesses and projects in my life. In the subsequent months, I’ll continue to break down the aspects of my business and community and share the thinking and vision behind each one.

Since quitting Google, many have asked: “So what do you do now?”

Here’s what I’m currently focused on:

• Building a portfolio of events businesses targeting early-stage CEOs, founders, investors, senior-level tech leaders, and operators with large-scale mixers, curated dinners, retreat, and conferences. See: Andrew’s Mixers, Lumos House, Junto Series.

• Investing in pre-seed and seed-stage software companies personally and as a Partner at Next Wave NYC, a Flybridge-backed fund.

• Creating content, writing this newsletter, writing for Business Insider, and a new media and podcast entity that I plan to launch soon.

• Building consumer and b2b apps with one of my business partners who runs Creme Digital. See: Quinn.

Across these activities, I spend $15k to $50k USD a month on running the business. Most of it is attributed to events, software, tools, and paying my staff, and goes toward my “tech stack”, the patchwork of workflows, people, and tech that powers the business and keeps the lights on.

Here is the breakdown:

#1. People

I have two part-time staff. Jacob Solano is our Chief of Staff. I hired him to run the events, lead logistics, manage vendors, work with our partners and clients, and represent the business.

Sharon is our assistant. She does research, email processing, scheduling, data management, event coordination, and logistics. She also manages my calendars and email inboxes.

I delegate to Sharon through recorded videos via Loom or voice notes. It’s incredibly effective and 99% of our communication is async.

If you are an entrepreneur or busy executive I highly recommend investing in an assistant. I sourced my own staff but I’ve heard Athena and Shepherd are excellent.

She is the reason I’m not working 100-hour weeks as a new entrepreneur, and can host dozens of events a year across the nation while shipping content every day.

We’re also planning on recruiting two interns for the summer. Apply here!

#2. Banking

If you’re starting a business as a bootstrapped entrepreneur or venture-backed founder, you’ll need a trustworthy bank.

There are many traditional options but I decided to go with a tech-forward financial platform that understands my needs as a non-traditional entrepreneur.

I use Rho, not only because they have a great product, but because both their customer support and leadership team are excellent. They’re accessible, empathetic, and helpful. Couldn’t ask for anything more.

When starting, you want a basic checking account, savings or treasury, and the ability to issue corporate cards. Make sure you get at least a 5% yield on your treasury.

I know and trust the Rho team well. They’re running a promotion right now for entrepreneurs and founders in NYC. If you’d like an introduction, please reply here.

#3. Writing

I write and distribute my bi-weekly newsletter through Substack. I like it because it’s simple, intuitive, and lets me focus on what I enjoy most - writing. However, I’m considering a switch to beehiiv as there are more features to help with audience growth and monetization.

Prior to writing fully-fledged newsletter posts, I post “mini” versions of my ideas on Twitter and Linkedin to see feedback and gauge engagement. if it does well - I turn it into a longer-form piece here. If it doesn’t, it’s usually the consequence of poor writing or poor thinking, so I’ll attempt to refine, test, and repost or move on.

I schedule ~50% of my posts on socials through Buffer (Twitter) and Taplio (Linkedin). I find that it’s more effective to find a weekly block to batch-write, edit, and publish via scheduling tools. Task batching is a superpower for getting stuff done!

Also, airplanes and trains are by fair the best environments for deep, focused writing. If you need to write long-form, take a trip somewhere 3-4 hours way. Ideally via train.

#4. Email Deployment

Beyond emailing ~70,000 people a month on Substack, I also send ~3,000 emails to my event guests, investors, and early-stage founders for my A-list deal-flow program.

I use Brevo to send out mass to any group larger than 100 recipients.

For regular emails that do not require batch email deployment software, I use Gmail and Boomerang, which track opens and remind me to respond to the recipient within a certain time frame.

#5. Event Management

I’ve hosted over 100+ events on Luma for 30,000+ attendees and am a big fan of the product and team. It’s simple, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing. The founder and team are brilliant too. During the rare times I have technical issues, they’ll respond within minutes.

Beyond that, I use Carrd to quickly create websites like this one. You can set up an elegant, fully functional website within an hour. Amazingly intuitive and affordable at $9 a year.

I also use Wix, which is fairly intuitive as well but comes with a suite of features I don’t need. My main website is hosted there but I may migrate soon as I feel the designs and UI templates are outdated.

For waitlists, I use Typeform to create something like this if I need something elegant. It’s not cheap though (~$1,000 / year).

For domains, Google Domains has now been deprecated so I use GoDaddy. The UI is subpar but it gets the job done.

#6. Business Insurance

Insurance is boring but you absolutely need it. I purchased four types of liability insurance covering both my online and in-person platforms business through Hiscox and Vouch. It costs a few thousand dollars a year but has the potential to save you millions a year.

You’ll thank yourself if you ever get sued. And if you’re successful as an entrepreneur, others will certainly come after you. Get good coverage.

#7. Legal, Finance & Accounting

Legal

• Counsel: My friend Andrew Kazin over at Bronster LLP helped me with the incorporation of my business and a variety of other issues. If you’re looking for counsel, I suggest speaking with lawyers who understand your space and will challenge you. You never want lawyers who are you too “nice” to you - you want those who will relentlessly poke holes so others can’t.

• Immigration: I had to get an O-1A Extraordinary Alien visa to run my business. It’s an unconventional path but is more accessible than you think. It costs anywhere from $10k to $50k, depending on your needs, and I went with Lisa from Plymouth Street and the process was remarkably straight-forward and simple. I’d also recommend folks over at Lima, and depending on your circumstances, Danielle at Open Avenues if you need an H-1B visa. Go with one of these vendors if you need the O-1, H-1B or TN.

• Legal Docs: Most of these services are similar but I go with Dropbox Sign.

Finance & Accounting

• Accounting: I hired a fractional CFO with whom I spend a few hours every month to discuss tax strategy, accounting, and general finances. When the time comes to do the books, I go with dimov Tax Specialists. They offer full-service accounting at affordable rates.

• Payroll: I use a newer payroll provider called Thera to manage my US payroll and global contractors. I can set up payroll, make payments to contractors, and get contracts signed––all in minutes. I have a dedicated Slack channel with the team if I need anything and most requests are resolved within the hour.

• Expense Management: I use a combination of Rho and Quickbooks Online to manage expense tracking. Rho has an incredibly intuitive feature that lets you upload receipts via text immediately after you incur the expense. Saves me hours per week.

#8. Photography & Video Production

I spend ~$20k a year on photography and video production. My biggest regret from previous years was forgetting to capture the beautiful, serendipitous moments at events. Now I believe that it’s a worthwhile investment to record these moments so people can replay and relive them again.

• Video production: Eitan Miller from Boundless Creative has shot 10+ of my events and does incredible work. He even came to Miami and Austin to do work for us.

• Photography: Connor Roach is both an outstanding photographer and the founder of an AI photography startup called Clik that I advise.

Eitan and Connor are both incredible partners who have taught me that when you work with a vendor who is excellent at their craft, it feels less like a vendor-client relationship, and more like a unified team.

#9. Data Management

90% of my work is done on the following interfaces.

• Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides) for most basic tasks

• Typeform for designing intake forms and waitlists

• Airtable for slightly more advanced data management, contact management, and CRM

My hack: Sharon manages the majority of our sheets and enriches contact data on a daily basis so we always have the most accurate, up-to-date information.

#10. Inbox & Calendar Management

Sharon fully manages both my inboxes and calendars and saves me 20+ hours a week with email triage, responses, and scheduling. We use email labels and folders religiously and have specific and strict workflows for everything admin-related.

One of the things I was most excited about when I left my corporate job was the ability to design my own schedule, and the thing that drained me the most while working a 9-5 was the unnecessary meetings. Now, I limit my meeting days to just Monday and Wednesday, default to 20-minute meetings, and try to do most of my work async.

I went from having ~20 hours of meetings a week in corporate to ~5 hours a week as an entrepreneur.

***

The tools and software we have available to us today as business professionals, entrepreneurs, and the “founder-curious” are 100 times what they used to be a decade ago.

You can now build a website in minutes for free—a task that once took hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars ten years ago. You can hire exceptional offshore talent for a fraction of what it would cost five years ago. And you can even run your entire small business finance and accounting operations with software in the cloud—a feat that required a four-person team a few years ago.

It’s never been easier to build something of your own.

📌 Andrew’s Picks

Fascinating internet things I’ve come across…

• Pursuits That Can’t Scale – I recently came across anu - she writes the only newsletter I’ve ever purchased a subscription to, where she shares her musings on tech careers, social dynamics, and consumer startups. In this piece, she writes about chasing your passion as an entrepreneur.

• Scott Galloway: Do This In Your 20s To Make Millions In Your 30s – Once you can get past the flamboyant name of the podcast My First Million, you’ll see that this is one of the best business podcasts out there. Huge fan of Sam, Shaan, and Scott. This is one of the best episodes I’ve heard lately directed to folks in their 20s.

• The comms of falling in love – Lulu is a mastermind at the craft of PR and corporate comms. She spoke at my conference a few months ago and I was awestruck by her ability to tell stories and use language to convey emotion.

💃 Community Perks

• 🏨 Traveling for work? If you’re looking for a hotel with cozy rooms and social co-working areas, check out citizenM. I exclusively stay with them. They’ve even been kind enough to offer this community a discount. Reply here.

• 🚴 Discounted Equinox membership in NYC. Equinox is my second home. I recommend it. Reply here for a free trial and a discounted membership.

• 🇺🇸 Looking for a US immigration lawyer? Reply here for an introduction to the lawyer I worked with for my O1A visa.

• 🍽️ FREE FOOD! I found an app that gives you 30%+ off fancy restaurants in NYC. AND $50 off your bill every month, plus $25 when you sign up. Not sure how long the offer will last. Sign up here.

• What other perks should I include? Let me know.

🖼️ Behind the Scenes

Recently had an amazing two-hour workout with a new friend of mine, Phat Le, who is a fellow entrepreneur and tech founder.

He’s a remarkable person who started a transportation tech company while at school and sold it to Jaguar. Yes - the car company. He then dropped out and was awarded the Thiel Fellowship, where he was given a $100,000 grant to further pursue entrepreneurship.

Now he’s working on the next venture called Noots. A personalized health and wellness company that makes supplements that make you sharper, smarter, and stronger.

I’m not a caffeine user. I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t normally take supplements, but I wanted to give these nootropics supplements a shot.

So I took the pills with a glass of water and moments later I felt a rush of energy, focus, and motivation that I hadn’t felt in months. Got two days of work done in half a day, and it reminded me of the concept of the superhuman pill called NZT-48 in the movie: Limitless. It was phenomenal.

If you’re looking to try a new supplement, check out Noots. But first, check with your doc and do your research to understand what you’re putting into your body. Once you’ve done that, Phat offered y’all a code for 20% off: AndrewsMixersSS24.