Standing in the Fire

Big episode. Kris crossed the line. John's running out of tokens again. And there's a lot of ground to cover. Topics covered: [0:00] Intro & Back From Summer [1:17] Kris Installs Codex (Finally) [3:36] Founder Fellowship: 5 Vibe Coders Walk In [6:20] Hot Take: Will You Even Need to Learn to Code? [9:36] Getting Unlocked vs. Getting Generic Answers [11:06] AI Art in Client Brochures — A Trust Problem [13:23] Automating Social Media with Box Out [17:34] Trial Reels, Algorithm Games, and Quantity Over Timing [20:09] Onboard Your Own Product — On Repeat [23:50] Fireside New Site & Automated Weekly Emails [26:34] GStack: Build a Feature From Scratch With Bumpers [30:11] Building a Founder Fellowship Tracking App [33:47] Todoist + MCP — Logging the Admin Work That Doesn't Count [35:28] Flare Performance Reports Every Morning [38:49] What's Shipping at Fireside This Week [41:10] OpenAI Astra: Burned a Week of Tokens Before Breakfast [48:14] The Virtuous Loop: Codex Fixed 18 Months of Bugs [52:00] Recommendations: GStack, Astra & Leaders Eat Last Mentioned: OpenAI Codex / Astra GStack (Gary Tan / Y Combinator) Flare: app performance monitoring Box Out Speaker Deck Fireside.fm Momentum Founder Fellowship UserList — lifecycle email Todoist + MCP integration Cloudflare (for building lightweight apps) Jesse Hanley / Bento Grok / Grok Bot Like, follow, and leave a comment. First one's still up for grabs.

Sometimes the thing that's slowing you down isn't the business, it's the nasal spray. John's back, feeling good, and firing on all cylinders. Kris is deep in the work of letting go. This one's equal parts founder therapy and technical nerd session. Show Notes: (0:00) Intro: Starting with the Wins (0:39) It Was the Flonase (John's Back) (2:39) Collecting Validation: Save the Wins Too (5:11) The Fireside New Studio: What's Working (10:04) Delegate or Die: Letting Go Without Losing Control (12:33) New Segment: Sparks Fly (Hot Takes) (13:05) Hot Take: AI Art Is Ruining the Print Shop (20:01) Hot Take: Codex Isn't All Bad (24:59) Vibe Coding: What Nobody Tells You (28:29) Fan the Flames: Try More Than One AI (30:07) The Busy Light Saga (35:28) Embers: Momentum Startup Cohort (37:22) Embers: Podcast Art & Thumbnail Strategy (38:20) Surviving a 5-Hour Railway Outage with Claude (44:45) Flare, Box Out Click Tracking & What's Next Check Out John's Stuff: Fireside.fm: https://fireside.fm Flipper Cloud: https://www.flippercloud.io Check Out Kris's Stuff: Momentum – Coworking space in South Bend: https://momentumsb.com Access Imprints – Screen printing & embroidery: https://accessimprints.com The Hardest Thing Podcast: https://hardestthingpod.fireside.fm

John (https://x.com/jnunemaker ) and Kris (https://www.instagram.com/kristopherpriemer) talk about the real side of running multiple businesses: open loops, hiring pains, patience, and what actually keeps founders going. Show Notes: (00:00) Intro & Catching Up (01:39) Into the Fire: Idea Week Debrief (02:58) Coworking Pivot: Why Private Offices Win (06:42) New Category Thinking (Grüns Gummies) (08:12) How to Fund the Build-Out (08:52) Into the Fire: Health, Friendship & Hell Yeah or No (11:06) Who You're Around Changes Everything (12:23) Fan the Flames: Graham Weaver's Asymmetric Life (14:07) Personality Isn't Permanent & Leadership Presence (16:23) Cornelius Vanderbilt & the Art of No Grudges (22:21) GStack: Gary Tan's AI Dev Workflow (24:36) Using Claude to Fix WordPress Bugs (26:33) YouTube Rabbit Holes & What John's Feed Looks Like (28:29) Embers: Fireside, Flare & Flipper Updates (33:05) Building an AI Watchdog That Redeploys at 3am (38:23) Daily GitHub Summaries for $20/month Check Out John's Stuff: Fireside.fm – Podcast hosting for serious podcasters: https://fireside.fm Flipper – Feature flag management: https://www.flippercloud.io Check Out Kris's Stuff: Momentum – Coworking space in South Bend: https://momentumsb.com The Hardest Thing Podcast – https://hardestthingpod.fireside.fm

A lost episode, finally found and worth the wait. John and Kris get into the real conversations founders rarely have out loud. Topics covered: Recording in person vs. remote - why it changes everything from the conversation to the edit Zoom fatigue and the surprising reason video calls wear you out The compounding effect: Atomic Habits applied to building a podcast (and a business) Hiring contractors vs. in-person employees - the messier, harder reality Patience as a founder - why wanting things to move faster creates its own kind of damage Open loops, stress, and why celebrating closed wins matters more than we admit The cost of being a yes-person when your time is your most valuable asset What's fueling the fire: books, podcasts, community events, and people showing up Mentioned: Atomic Habits – James Clear Ready, Fire, Aim – Michael Masterson $100M Leads – Alex Hormozi My First Million Podcast Momentum (coworking space, South Bend) Like, follow, and leave a comment, it genuinely helps.

In this episode of Standing in the Fire, Kris and John pull back the curtain on what life actually looks like when you're managing multiple SaaS products, a coworking space, and a life that doesn't have a quiet corner right now. What We Cover Into the Fire: What's Been Hard Kris opens up about a stretch where nothing feels like an oasis: hiring pressure, prepping for a big idea week at Momentum, and the small but real win of finally getting those emails out. John reflects on going deep into AI work with no buffer — and how a camping trip to Disney gave him the margin he didn't know he needed. Fan the Flames: What's Been Inspiring John shares a conversation with a friend about Essentialism and a question that's been sitting with him: what does intentional growth actually look like? Growing a business past a certain point means doing things you don't enjoy — so what do you really want? Kris has been listening to Personality Isn't Permanent, a change of pace from the typical hustle-heavy business books. Embers: Small Wins and Experiments Fireside's episode upload flow is getting a real look: streamlined fields, drag-and-drop uploads, and AI-suggested metadata from transcripts are all on the roadmap Momentum is solving a surprisingly relatable problem: members don't want to leave when they're in the zone, with a dead-simple iPad + Square terminal snack shop Fireside cover art generation is in early exploration: episode art, built right into the platform Podcast Rec of the Episode John's been listening to Physics of Startups on the road, specifically the "translation guide" episode on B2B sales and the push/pull framework. Highly recommended for anyone who's ever done a customer discovery call and walked away more confused than when they started.