Referral programs: efficient growth or unsustainable incentive racing?

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AI may be changing how we work, but it’s also changing how we interact with software — and not always for the better. CJ and Kyle Poyar dig into the growing pains of product design, IPOs in weird markets, and the unexpectedly depressing world of startup networking.

* Navan IPO: Why a $613M company burning $80M is still pushing for an $8B valuation — and what it says about the state of software IPOs.

* Prompt Bars Are Everywhere: The rise of “blank box” UX, why every app suddenly looks like ChatGPT, and how that’s giving users prompt anxiety.

* Referral Programs: Ponzi Scheme?: Incentives are up, CAC is down — but is this growth channel actually sustainable or just marketing MLMs in disguise?

* When to Disclose AI-Generated: If your calendar link feels cold, wait until your AI avatar shows up in an ad. We debate where the ethical (and strategic) line is for AI transparency.

* Business Blunders:• Sad Dinners (CJ): Why every LinkedIn dinner photo looks depressing — and what it says about startup culture.• ChatGPT Bad Chart (Kyle): An incredible dataset ruined by a rainbow mess of tiny fonts and meaningless categories.

* Potentially Reliable Thing at 2AM:• Arnold Twins Revenue (CJ): The wild deal behind Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy debut — and how it made more money than Terminator.• Reese Witherspoon Book Club (Kyle): Viral influence, middle-of-the-night decisions, and what media we trust half-asleep.

* Pricing in the Real World:• CJ: Iced Coffee Variable Pricing: Starbucks, cold brew, and the surprising economics of how product pricing actually works day to day.

* Something We Tried This Week:• Kyle: Fyxer Virtual Assistant: A hands-on experiment with offloading operational drag — what worked, what didn’t, and what Kyle’s still skeptical about.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by Campfire.

You may know that we use Campfire as our ERP, and it’s been a game changer for our finance workflow. The interface is intuitive, migration was quick and painless, and it’s freed us up to focus on strategic work instead of manual processes. In case you don’t know, Campfire is an AI-first ERP powering next-gen finance & accounting teams. Helps you close fast, unlock insights and scale smarter.

If you’re curious about where finance tech is heading, and would like to hear more of my thoughts on the topic, don’t miss Campfire’s Finance Forward AI Summit - the upcoming summit bringing together the sharpest minds in finance and operations.

You’ll hear directly from industry leaders on how they’re using AI to shape the future of finance, and how your team can get ahead of the curve. I’ll be speaking on panels with finance leaders from Anthropic, Snowflake, Mercury and more. The summit is October 28th in San Francisco; I hope to see you there.

Sign up for the summit at campfiresummit.ai or learn more about Campfire at www.campfire.ai.

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