Julian Shapiro
Investor & Writer at Hyper / Independent
Julian Shapiro is a full-time investor and partner at Hyper. He created a JavaScript web animation engine used by Uber, WhatsApp, and Samsung, and is known for his deeply researched handbooks on growth, writing, and other topics. He has over 250,000 Twitter followers and is known for original thinking over clickbait content.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Julian Shapiro shares his frameworks for product-led acquisition, the Creativity Faucet (why good ideas only arrive after bad ones are exhausted), and the distinction between mind followers and labor followers. He explains why his deeply researched handbooks are forcing functions for his own learning that become audience-building tools with only marginal extra effort, and why novelty and original thinking matter far more than clickbait volume.
Leadership Principles
- → Good ideas arrive after the bad ones are empty — you must exhaust bad ideas first so your brain learns to pattern-match novelty
- → Optimize for mind followers, not labor followers — people who follow you for your original thinking have higher affinity and loyalty
- → Create handbooks as forcing functions to be thorough when learning, then share them publicly for only 30% more effort
Notable Quotes
"Why do good ideas arrive after the bad ideas are empty? When you've gone through a bunch of bad ideas, your brain starts reflexively identifying what elements are causing the badness. Then it becomes way better at avoiding those bad elements."
— On the Creativity Faucet framework — why you must exhaust bad ideas to reach good ones
"You have people who follow you for the quality of your brain, and people who follow you for being a glorified curator. When people follow you for your mind, higher affinity means more loyalty, means they pay closer attention."
— On the mind followers vs labor followers distinction for building an authentic audience
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