The newsletter moat no one talks about

Hey, it's Lucy,

In today's issue:

🧠 This Week's Fix: Newsletters Operator Are Thriving

Happy Spring Equinox! I feel like people are coming out of hibernation and ready to launch their newsletters. Last week I sat on a panel discussion for newsletter operators who are thriving. I think the biggest thing I learned is that building a profitable newsletter doesn’t happen overnight. If you are just getting started it might feel messy.

Finding your voice, crafting valuable content, publishing on a consistent schedule and building distribution channels is time consuming. And so far there’s no magic AI genie in a bottle that can do this without your brain equity.

My biggest take aways from discussion is that nothing replaces great content. I’m talking about the newsletters that are so valuable that you don’t think twice before forwarding them to a friend. You can execute a paid strategy but making irresistible content often requires trial and error, asking for feedback and really getting in touch with the desires and needs of your community.

Another takeaway: Building community around your newsletter. Can you think of 3-5 people who could benefit from what you are sharing? Invite them in. Create real life events. Leverage personal connections to build your list. The panelists all agreed that creating live events—in person and online–have been the biggest boost to growing their newsletters.

This week we’ve diving in deeper on the HyperFix weekly breakdown here.

🔒 Hot Takes: McKinsey’s Agent Hack is a Warning Shot

It seems like everyday we hear of a new hack and I’m worried we are getting fatigued. Recently, security researchers tried to hack McKinsey’s AI platform called Lilli, which is used by over 43,000 employees. In case you don’t know, McKinsey is one of the biggest consulting firms in the world and has been pointed as the gold standard for how companies can adopt AI and come out ahead. The agent researchers used to hack Lilli had no credentials or insider access but within about 2 hours the agent had full access to the production database with 46.5 million internal chat messages and more than half a million internal files.

If you work with clients and are building agents or apps to make processes more efficient, it’s equally important to test your system against attackers and data breaches for this very reason. One of the things to note is that the primary entry point for the McKinsey breach was not a novel attack on unsecured API keys. In our weekly HyperFix breakdown Xavier explains best practices for managing your API keys and how you can avoid exposing them.

✨ AI Kool-Aid: Apple just made it easier for you to run your own AI

Apple has just unlocked the newest generation of GPU’s that makes it even easier to run meaningful AI locally. That means your phone or laptop can handle tasks that previously required sending your data out to external models such as ChatGPT and Claude. So instead of starting from scratch every time you open a new tool, your device can build context over time. It can learn how you write, who you communicate with, how you structure your day, and what matters to you. 

Because it’s happening on your device, that context doesn’t need to be constantly shipped off to a third party. It stays closer to you, which makes it faster, more private, and more useful in day-to-day situations.

For most people, this is where AI actually becomes practical. If your device can handle a large percentage of what you need, you’re less dependent on paying for full-time access to external AI tools. You pay for higher-end capabilities when you need them, not as a default just to get basic utility. And the biggest perk for me? If AI runs on your own device, you do not have to hand over as much personal data to outside companies.

🔥 EXTRA HYPE

• Too much AI could be frying your brain

• Ethics marketing is becoming the new moat

• AI isn’t disrupting college applications, but expect more Zuckerberg drop outs.

• Substack launches its own recording studio

• How to build digital products with your newsletter markdown files

• Will AI kill spreadsheets?

• AI slop might keep our jobs safe 

📨 P.S. If you are building a newsletter and want to eliminate the weekly scramble, that is exactly what we help our customers do.

 👉 Book a consult with our team

And if this sparked something, forward it to an AI-curious friend.