14.ai Dispatch #33: LA, Pasta Sauce, and Support Tickets... what more could you ask for?
This week in the lives of customer support AI and being French.
Turns out founders are just winging it too...
We went to Amplify Summit in Newport Beach, basically where ecommerce founders pretend they have it all figured out for three days straight.
We walked around with a camera asking founders the hard-hitting questions: Who are you? What do you sell? How do you advertise? Can we post this on LinkedIn for millions and millions to view? Will you subscribe to our newsletter if we say please?
We hire engineers to hate their jobs (on purpose)
Most companies hire the cheapest labor they can find to answer support tickets forever.
We hire AI engineers to answer our customers’ support tickets until they can’t stand it anymore and automate them.
Brilliant engineers hate repetitive work. They have agency to do something about it. They’ll answer “where is my order” maybe 5 times before they physically cannot take it anymore and figure out how to never answer it again.
The people improving the AI are the same people living in the trenches answering tickets.
Hire people too restless to answer the same question twice.
The pet collar tactic
We strapped a GoPro to our black labrador Riva and sent her into our competitor’s office.
Competitors can’t resist a good girl. They’ll be spilling their entire product roadmap while giving her belly rubs.
“Who’s disrupting the enterprise SaaS market? You are! Yes you are!”
Some people call it “probably illegal”, I call it leveraging canine assets for market research.
What we learned from Ryann, ex-MrBeast team member and founder of Rise Wave Media
Ryann Carr was part of the MrBeast team and now runs Rise Wave Media, helping creators and brands rack up tens of millions of organic views.
Gear won’t save you. If you can’t make good content with an iPhone and a ring light, a $10K camera setup won’t help.
She’s watched people with Hollywood resumes crash and burn because they couldn’t check their ego at the door.
They showed up saying “I’m going to make this better” instead of asking “how does this channel actually work?”
What worked six months ago can die overnight. And you have to be okay with that. The algorithm doesn’t care about your feelings or your “proven strategy.”
Growth comes from expanding who the content is for. Most creators plateau not because of the algorithm, but because of audience saturation. Everyone who wants your content is already watching. Keep the core. Widen the door.
Her biggest pet peeve? Those perfectly staged “day in the life” videos where the influencer wakes up with a full face of makeup and the kids all say “thank you mommy” in unison.
Yeah. That.
Spotify link below.
Next live: Growth marketing mastery: Scaling consumer brands
Join us on LinkedIn Live with Morry Mitrani - VP of Growth at BelliWelli, former Growth Lead at Bumble.
Morry was employee #15 at Bumble (back when they were working out of a two-bedroom apartment) and built their growth team from early stage through IPO. Now he’s doing it again in CPG.
He’s going to break down how modern consumer brands scale without just lighting money on fire with paid ads.
We’re covering:
Full-funnel growth strategies that don’t rely on Facebook miracles
Acquisition channels that actually scale in 2025 (spoiler: it’s not what worked in 2019)
Retention, LTV, and community-led growth tactics
Testing frameworks and analytics that lead to predictable revenue instead of chaos
Perfect for: Founders, growth marketers, DTC operators, and brand leaders who are tired of growth advice from people who’ve never actually grown anything.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/events/7419214628569866240
TikTok Shop legends: Founders & ecomm execs, prove you survived & tell us how
If you’ve:
Turned a random live shopping into a revenue tsunami
Navigated category approvals like it’s a full-time job
Lived through “the week the algorithm forgot we exist”
…and still have a pulse (and preferably positive GMV), you’re exactly who we need.
We’re launching a book that exposes the real playbook (and pitfalls) of TikTok Shop for serious brands. Gritty insights from people who’ve actually scaled.
Share your saga async or in 15 mins: email marie@14.ai or tap the form. We’ll buy you virtual coffee… or therapy, whichever you need more.
What we’re reading/watching this week
Marie: The Complete History & Strategy of LVMH , Acquired FM
Michael: The Hamster Wheel Has Engineers, Isaiah Granet
Ugo: Shipping at Inference-Speed, Peter Steinberger
Joshua: I was too busy this week
Until next time!
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