Not Boring by Packy McCormick

Hi friends 👋 ,Happy Thursday! Three years ago, Mackenzie Burnett, the founder and CEO of Not Boring Capital portfolio company, Ambrook, wrote the first in a short-lived series we called The Founder’s Letter. At the time, it was basically a dream. Today, Ambrook is a real business with more than 2,500 customers across the country, helping them realize their American Dream.And on Tuesday, Ambrook announced that it’s raised $29 million, including a $26.1 million Series A co-led by Thrive Capital and Dylan Field at Field Ventures. When Mackenzie reached out to talk about how she should start to tell her story more publicly, we decided to have a conversation about what Ambrook is doing, how, and why, and to publish a follow-up to the Founder’s Letter, which we’re re-posting from Ambrook. She called it, “America, the Beautiful.” There’s no better story to publish heading into Fourth of July weekend. As Mackenzie said in our conversation, “The American experiment is many different experiments actually.” We talk about many of the companies building Vertically Integrated companies to make America stronger; Ambrook is an example of grassroots American Dynamism, making the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who make America strong and resilient stronger. You can find our full conversation on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen.God Bless America. America, the BeautifulMackenzie Burnett, AmbrookOn Tuesday, Ambrook announced $29M in funding raised, including a $26.1M Series A led by Thrive Capital and Dylan Field at Field Ventures, with continued support from Homebrew Capital and participation from Designer Fund, BoxGroup, Mischief, Not Boring, and others.When I wrote our first Founder’s Letter, it was mostly about what we hoped to do. Three years later, this one’s about what we’ve actually done. Thousands of producers are using Ambrook to make better financial decisions, grow their operations, and invest more confidently in their land. And I feel more sure than ever that we’re on the right path.Ambrook is building the financial infrastructure for American industry – starting with agriculture – and the opportunity in front of us is massive. We’re still early, but the impact is already visible. Now it’s time to grow.Part ILet me tell you a story.Imagine you grew up on a ranch in the Mountain West. Went to school, hoping maybe you can come back one day. To help out, and eventually continue the family legacy.But then, a family emergency. You have to take over the books from your dad all of a sudden, to keep the operation running. Not to mention run the operation itself.This is the real story of our customer, Chase. His family runs cattle across 30,000 acres in Utah and Wyoming.His first year, he had to wrangle the operation’s legacy accounting software. It had worked for the family business up to this point, but it still took up too much time and left him without a clear view of his numbers day to day.Until he found Ambrook.Chase’s dad is recovered now. And has come back to a family operation more resilient, not just financially, but intergenerationally too.Since I wrote my last letter, over 2,500 operations in all 50 states have now used Ambrook to double their business, cut bookkeeping time in half, get better loan terms, and make land management decisions with confidence. Those customers have spent and managed $1.6B with Ambrook and saved an estimated 75,000 hours in the process.Our customers have told us they feel less anxious and more optimistic about their future. That they feel empowered in ways they hadn’t before. (We had one couple who even told us they decided to get married because of a conversation with the Ambrook team about their finances.)Because instead of feeling behind on their books, many of our customers can now focus on answering the questions that matter: How much have I spent so far on this herd? What will it cost to finish? Will this actually pencil out? And can my operation and my family thrive?There are so many stories I want to tell. Stories of our customers, of our team. What we build and how we build it.But first, let me zoom out.For the first time in generations, most Americans believe their children will be worse off than they are. That type of pessimism is corrosive.Starting a small business used to be the way to build a better future for your family. Owning your time, owning your labor, owning that identity and tradition over generations. Staying independent.It was never easy, but it was straightforward enough.Small businesses are not simple anymore. Especially in agriculture – the first industry we’re building for – survival has meant diversification. A cattle ranch that traditionally sold its commercial herd at the stockyard, might now also run a direct-to-consumer meat program, a seasonal event business, and a trucking arm. These operations are balance sheet-heavy, multi-P&L, and deeply local.Most financial software was built for simpler business models than that: a single enterprise, clean books. But that’s not the world we operate in. Today’s producers are managing herds, equipment, inventory, and land across long and volatile cycles, both remotely and in person. They’ve taken on more risk, added multiple revenue streams with countless payment methods, and adapted their operations to survive.In doing so, they’ve outgrown the old tools, but many can’t afford to manage the enterprise resource planning systems built for their newfound level of complexity.Some are just trying to get organized for tax time. Others want real-time, enterprise-level insights. Both deserve better tools.Ambrook fills that gap with modern, collaborative financial software that meets producers and their families where they are. Accounting, payments, and cash management built for operators who spend more time in the field than the office.Operators like Pittman and JoEllen, a married couple who run a grain farming and beef cattle operation in my home state of Maryland.“The path we were on before, we were like a ship in the ocean with a small hole in it – just getting lower and lower and lower. With Ambrook, that’s been patched and there’s now a pump pumping the water out, and it’s starting to come back up again. It’s been a turn in the right direction for all of my operations.”Clarity in the now drives confidence in the future. Confidence builds optimism. And that optimism is contagious.Part III think of our work at Ambrook as American dynamism meets the American Dream.Instead of top-down technological advancement, we’re working from the ground up to enable family-run businesses to become more profitable and resilient.When one operation succeeds, it lifts up suppliers, neighbors, the whole community. Better land and resources, supply chain and food supply. That’s the America I want to help build.True optimism comes from seeing real results. Effective land and resource management can strengthen the bottom line and build long-term resilience against shifts in the environment and the economy. We’ve seen that when producers have clarity, stewardship and profitability go hand in hand.To us, that’s grassroots American dynamism.Part IIII think how we build is just as important as what we build. The world is changing. How we build technology is becoming increasingly disrupted by AI. Its own adventure.But when I was thinking about writing about our fundraise, I kept on being drawn back to the quiet moments with the team. The more human moments that make the hard things about building a company worth it. How we work, and how we spend the time in between.I wanted to share some of those memories with you.It was Eric’s second week. Do you want to come to a traditional pig harvest? I Slacked him. Sure, he said. What is it?A few weeks later, we were elbow deep in pig’s blood, helping Howard make blood sausage. Howard’s a customer now.You can see where I did the controlled burn. Katie’s dad gestured at the grass interspersed with clumps of small yellow wildflowers in front of us. Before, this was all just grass. Now it’s a mosaic. How it should be.We piled back onto the ATVs. On the way back from the river, we stopped and he pointed to the ground. This is where we put the biochar. To improve the soil in this part. We’ll probably find out if it works in a year. He shifted his attention to a tall purple wildflower. We’re testing what seed mix grows best across the ranch.I sent a photo of the flower to my dad. Montana, I said.Penstemon grandiflorus, he wrote back. Identifying the plants I send him from my travels is his love language. Large Beardtongue.No one spoke. Tired but happy. It was the three of us, me and Maika and Atticus. We had just signed our second customer, now driving the two hours back to the airport motel.The thunderstorm boomed in silence across the Arizona plains, lighting up the dusk-dark. The Strokes played on the radio.The long car rides, driving past amber waves of grain, that have emotionally contextualized my work in unexpected ways. America, the beautiful.Haley, a mother of two from a Montana ranching family, on why she joined our operations team at Ambrook: I watched your Stripe video, she said. I felt as though we both wanted the same thing for different reasons.She spoke to stewarding the land as a legacy for her children. I want to feel proud about what I pass on to the next generation.We climbed up to the shed’s attic. Katie’s dad pointed to a line of 10 baskets, ordered by year. Each basket was filled with more antlers than the last. The regenerative practices on the ranch had rebounded its wildlife population over the decade.The antlers Katie wrote about, he said. A father’s quiet pride. I finally got to see the antlers that tell the story.The world is changing, and yet so much stays the same.Part IVWe still believe in the American Dream. And we’re here to build for the people living it.This latest fundraising round will help us grow to support tens of thousands of businesses, not just within agriculture, but also to the communities that serve ag, all while deepening our workflows and partnerships, expanding our AI-native architecture, and building a payments network that keeps capital within local communities.Deepening our workflows to get to true cost of productionWith this funding, we’ll accelerate the rollout of advanced financial workflows. Think multi-entity reporting, inventory management, and integrated payroll. These enhancements will help producers spend less time wrestling with spreadsheets and more time making strategic decisions.We’ll also deepen our partnerships across the financial and agricultural ecosystem, connecting Ambrook to more of the tools and services producers already use, from POS systems to livestock management tools, so that data flows seamlessly and everyone wins.Architecting a thoughtful approach to AIWe believe the best use of AI for our customers is to do the quiet things right, from receipt management to automated categorization to anomaly detection.MIT economist David Autor calls AI an “inversion technology,” one that can democratize knowledge and bring decision-making power back to the middle class. That’s exactly how we think about it, too.Keeping capital in local communitiesWe started Ambrook by helping producers find and apply for working capital to provide disaster relief, do conservation work, and further invest in their businesses. Earlier this year, we rolled out 1% APY on all Ambrook Wallets, making sure customer capital was working as hard as they do.Next, we’re expanding Ambrook Pay to farms, ranches, and other businesses nationwide. Because fintech was integrated from the beginning into Ambrook’s accounting platform, we can now offer free, instant B2B payments with minimal paperwork and automatic reconciliation.We’re laying the groundwork for high-context, instant money movement. In the meantime, Ambrook Pay has already significantly improved cashflow and transaction margins.We want to help our customers become more profitable and resilient. Keeping more capital in local communities is a big part of that.Most of all, this investment helps us stay focused on our mission: to give independent businesses the tools they need to stay independent.Together, we can build an America that’s prosperous and resilient and beautiful.An America where Chase’s family can feel confident in decisions they make. Where Pittman and JoEllen feel like they’re doing more than just staying afloat.Thank you to our team, our investors, and the operators who trust us with their numbers and their future. We are honored to be part of your story.All my best,MackenzieThanks to Jim Portela for editing the conversation and to Matt Marlinski for letting us record at his studio, The Manhattan Lab.That’s all for today. We’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow, with a 4th of July edition of the Weekly Dose of Optimism. Thanks for Reading, Packy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

John Andrew Entwistle, Founder and CEO of Wander, discusses the innovative approach his company takes to enhance vacation rentals. He reveals how Wander transitioned from a REIT model to a managed service, growing to over 1,000 locations while maintaining a high customer satisfaction score. The conversation touches on operational strategies that boost NPS, the importance of adapting business models in response to market shifts, and Wander's ambitious vision for the future of travel, aiming to merge travel and home management.

Mike Solana, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Pirate Wires, shares his visionary thoughts on innovative urban development and the nostalgic ambition behind Walt Disney's futuristic city concepts. He challenges the limitations of modern American infrastructure, advocating for regulatory reform and visionary leadership to inspire community building. Solana also emphasizes the potential of niche media in reshaping narratives, while promoting the quest for bold thinkers to guide society towards a brighter future.

Nobody on the internet writes about all of the complexity involved in actually building things -- from homes to jet engines -- better than ⁠Brian Potter⁠, the author of ⁠Construction Physics⁠.I am a huge fan of Brian's writing. I use it as a reference for a lot of my pieces. I once tweeted, "Construction Physics is a national treasure and the president should give Brian Potter a medal or czar job or something." So I was thrilled to get the excuse to talk to him about a bunch of his essays by talking to him about this one specific one, ⁠50 Things I've Learned Writing Construction Physics⁠.Here's the one overarching theme he's discovered writing over 600,000 words in Construction Physics: "Things are always more complicated than they seem. Simple explanations very rarely exist." We discuss that and other lessons by digging into pre-fabbed and manufactured homes, jet engines, gas turbines, windmills, nuclear reactors, batteries, Nobel Prizes, skyscrapers, and even Titanium. Just reading that list, you can probably tell why I like Brian's writing so much. He writes in-depth about all of the topics I love, and I learn so much from him each time.What impressed me most is just how humble Brian is. He knows 1000x more about this stuff than I do, but when he's not entirely certain of an answer, he says so. That's probably in part due to his background as a structural engineer, and in part a response to the lesson that everything is more complicated than it seems. I hope you learn as much from our conversation as I did, and that you go back and read everything he's written. To get you started, here are some of the essays we discuss and that Brian recommends, both his stuff and others'.Potter Essays - How to Build 3,000 Airplanes in Five Years- ⁠Why It's So Hard to Build a Jet Engine⁠ - ⁠What Learning by Doing Looks Like⁠ - ⁠How California Turned Against Growth⁠ - ⁠Another Day in Katerradise⁠ - ⁠The Birth of the Grid⁠Recommended and Discussed Essays - ⁠Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail⁠ - John Salvatier - ⁠Timing Technology: Lessons From The Media Lab⁠ - Gwern - ⁠100 Tallest Completed Buildings⁠ - ⁠Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation⁠ - Byrne Hobart & Tobias HuberYou can find this and all of the articles we discuss on Hyperlegible in one place thanks to our sponsor, Readwise - Visit readwise.io/hyperlegible for a free trial and get all Hyperlegible articles automatically added to your account. Big thanks to Jim Portela for editing! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

In this timely conversation, Conrad Bastable (https://x.com/ConradBastable) breaks down his epic essay "Forsaking Industrialism" and explores why the West has abandoned manufacturing while China built a world-beating industrial platform over decades. Read it here: https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/forsaking-industrialism-the-most-expensive-thing-you-didnt-buy We dive into how EU regulations inadvertently benefited Chinese manufacturing, why tariffs alone can't solve America's industrial challenges, and what it would take to rebuild America's manufacturing capabilities. Conrad explains the concept of "platform economies" that China has mastered, why capital markets naturally push against long-term industrial investments, and the uncomfortable trade-offs between principles and prosperity that nations must navigate. From electric dirt bikes to BMW's battery dilemma, this wide-ranging discussion offers a fresh perspective on the most urgent debate in America. Conrad's reading recommendations: - Alexander Hamilton's "Report on Manufactures" https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0001-0007 Conrad's other essays: - "Full Stack of Society" https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/the-full-stack-of-society-can-you-make-a-whole-society-wealthier-full-version - "Escalation Theory" https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/escalation-theory-compliance-violence-and-overachievement-in-society - "Monetization & Monopolies" https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/monetization-amp-monopolies-how-the-internet-you-loved-died Sponsored by Readwise - Visit readwise.io/hyperlegible for a free trial and get all Hyperlegible articles automatically added to your account: https://readwise.io/reader/view/hyperlegible Big thanks to Jim Portela for editing! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

Pseudonymous writer ⁠Parakeet⁠ joins me to discuss her viral essay "⁠Skittle Factory Dementia Monkey Titty Monetization⁠."I first heard about Parakeet a couple weeks ago when I saw half of my Twitter feed and half of my Substack Notes feed sharing her essay, including a bunch of people I wouldn't expect to share an essay with "Monkey Titty" in the title. I read it immediately, and saw why. Parakeet describes universally applicable ideas with the color turned up to 11 so they stick.We explore the "dementia personality" - how our core thought loops shape who we are and might one day define us. Parakeet shares insights from working at a dementia facility, explains her Skittle Factory metaphor for personality (and researching Skittle Factories), and reveals her unconventional productivity hack that's transformed her writing output. We talk about her writing process, gifs, why more people should read George Orwell's Politics and the English Language, and what she learned from her once-half-paralyzed dance teacher. Plus, hear the bizarre true story behind the "Monkey Titty" portion of the essay title and why Parakeet believes everyone should re-read Atlas Shrugged as an adult.Key moments:(5:35) Origins of the dementia personality concept(10:30) Can we change our core mental loops? (15:18) Skittle Factory Mass Extinction Events(21:50) Rewiring your brain through Luigi Jazz(30:05) Why this essay got shared by so many smart people(31:50) Using gifs(40:31) Parakeet's productivity hackReading Recs from Parakeet:Parakeet: ⁠YOUR EYES ARE LEAKING CORPORATE CUM™⁠Parakeet: ⁠ALGORITHMIC GROOMING OF YOUR INNER CHILD™⁠George Orwell: ⁠Politics and the English Language⁠Ayn Rand: ⁠Atlas Shrugged⁠Hyperlegible is sponsored by my friends at Readwise, who build software that helps you get the most out of your reading. If you want to give it a try, go to ⁠readwise.io/hyperlegible⁠ where you start a free trial and get all the articles discussed here on Hyperlegible automatically added to your account.Thanks to Jim Portela for editing and getting the parakeet animation to work! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

Hi friends 👋, Happy Wednesday! After almost two years, Julian Lehr is BACK to writing.He wrote a piece called The case against conversational interfaces, arguing that we're not going to be talking to our computers instead of using graphical user interfaces. GUIs work pretty well!Instead, he thinks that conversational interfaces are going to be a complement to existing workflows. We'll talk to our AI while doing what we do now, to do things like tell other apps to start doing things while we stay in flow.Julian shares his writing process -- chat through a draft with AI, write ~60% of it by hand, and then pull it together in Figma, or sometimes, Google Docs. He said that like some people need a change of scenery to write, he needs a change of tools.So why did he come back after two years in the wilderness? Simply: too many people were too consistently wrong on the internet. After seeing one too many "we're all going to be chatting with our computers" takes, he had to write the other side. And he delivered.We cover a lot, from why he keeps coming back to Kevin Kwok’s Arc of Collaboration to how he uses his "thanks to" section to status signal. For this essay, he thanked Blake Robbins, Chris Paik, Jackson Dahl, Johannes Shickling, Jordan Singer, and Signulll -- an absurdly high signal roster.Conversations like this one - where I get to nerd out with the people I've read for so long - is exactly why I'm doing Hyperlegible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.You can find this and all Hyperlegible episodes wherever you watch and listen: YouTubeSpotifyApple PodcastsHyperlegible is now sponsored by our friends at Readwise, which builds software that helps you get the most out of your reading. When you go to readwise.io/hyperlegible, you can find all of the essays that we discuss on Hyperlegible in one place. I want this to be the best place to go whenever you’re looking for something fresh and high-quality to read (and listen to). We’re getting serious over here. I’ve started working with an editor, Jim Portela, so if you notice that this episode is higher quality, that’s why. As always, I hope you enjoy, and please keep sending me your favorite essays!We’ll be back in your inbox on Friday with a Weekly Dose, and I will be back with a fresh Deep Dive next week. Thanks for listening,Packy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

Hi friends 👋, Happy Monday! Kicking off the week by sharing Episode 002 of Hyperlegible.This is a conversation with Utsav Mamoria on his excellent essay, How to live an intellectually rich life, which broke out of containment in India and raced across the globe to the tune of 1,100 likes at the time of recording. For good reason: Utsav combines philosophy, mathematics, biographies, personal experience, and hand-drawn sketches to create a map – quite literally – for living an intellectually rich life. He takes us on a journey through Moradoom, Igamor, and Evermore, before arriving at Luminspere, the Mountains of Knowledge with tools like the Axe of Satisfaction, Torch of Curiosity, and Oars of Consistency. Utsav weaves together so many ideas so beautifully that you just need to read it, and then listen. Or listen, and then read it. His one sentence takeaway: Consistency trumps everything.But there were a lot of good sentences. Here are a few of my favorites: "The way to live an intellectually rich life is to focus on two things: Put ideas above sensations, and try to have more diverse ideas than the ones you already have."On Epistemic Anxiety: "Accept that you don't know everything about everything and you don't need to have a point of view on everything... develop expertise in a few fields while trying to read as broadly as you can.""Building worlds in fiction is a given, but building worlds in non-fiction is done a lot less.""Write something which has meaning beyond the current moment. It has to go beyond the zeitgeist.""All learning requires us to suffer an injury to our self-esteem."You can find Utsav on X at @utsavmamoria and subscribe to Tumse Na Ho Paayega here.Going forward, I plan on releasing a few of these per week. This week, I have three killer interviews lined up, and just brought on an editor so we can increase both the quality and the cadence. North Star: when there’s something really great written on the internet, you can expect to find its author in the Hyperlegible feed within a few days. I likely won’t send you an email every time (still playing with that), but you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts, and I may send a weekly roundup on Sundays with all of the conversations in one place. Subscribing helps you curate the internet, and helps us grow this thing to bring the good words to as many people as we can. Hyperlegible is now sponsored by our friends at Readwise, which builds software that helps you get the most out of your reading. I’ve been using Readwise for years to support my newsletter, my curiosity, and now, this podcast. I wanted to partner with Readwise specifically for a few reasons. One: I use it every day, multiple times a day. When I find an essay I love, I save it to Readwise, where I can highlight and annotate it to prep for either inclusion in essays or conversations on Hyperlegible. Two: I’m an investor in Readwise. Three: they partner with my favorite written-word-related podcasts, Founders and How I Write. And Four (and most importantly): when you go to readwise.io/hyperlegible, you can find all of the essays that we discuss on Hyperlegible in one place. I want this to be the best place to go whenever you’re looking for something fresh and high-quality to read. I am having a blast doing this podcast. It’s an excuse to talk to my favorite writers, and to share the fruits of their hours and hours wrestling with ideas with you. As always, I hope you enjoy, and please keep sending me your favorite essays! Thanks for listening, Packy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

For the first episode of Hyperlegible, I talked to my friend Tina He (@fkpxls on twitter) who writes the excellent Fakepixels, which she recently brought back to life after a four year hibernation and on which she’s dropped gems each week since. Last week, Tina wrote an essay called Jevons Paradox: A personal perspective about something surprising she’s noticed: AI is causing a lot of people to work more, not less. Since you can now do more with each hour, the opportunity cost of each hour not worked is higher! The treadmill spins faster and faster. Read it, and subscribe to Fakepixels while you’re there: https://fakepixels.substack.com/p/jevons-paradox-a-personal-perspective If you're wondering how (or whether) to compete in the age of AI, Tina's personal perspective will help. Please let us know what you think and share your favorite essays with me @packym on twitter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.notboring.co

Ryan Delk, CEO of Primer and advocate for innovative education solutions, dives into the transformation of K-12 education and the shift from software to microschools. He discusses the urgent need for reform, overcoming regulatory hurdles, and the vast market opportunities in education. Delk emphasizes community involvement in launching new schools and the role of technology in enhancing learning outcomes. He also explores how the pandemic has reshaped educational perspectives, paving the way for diverse options that prioritize quality and accessibility.