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business

tariff war

+10

Forcing function: If the trade war was an audit, China just passed.

Mar 26, 2026

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3 min read

Forcing function: If the trade war was an audit, China just passed.

The trade war didn't create China's advantage, it just made it impossible to ignore.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

investing

+8

Carta says the venture comeback is real, but the invitations are more scarce

Mar 23, 2026

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3 min read

Carta says the venture comeback is real, but the invitations are more scarce

Carta’s Q4 2025 data is the most honest picture we have of where startup funding actually went last year. And it makes a surprisingly strong case for rethinking the priced round entirely.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

investing

+9

Why I (& Disney) don’t believe in self-serve only

Mar 20, 2026

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5 min read

Why I (& Disney) don’t believe in self-serve only

It's not our fault, but it is our problem...

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

agenct maestro

+11

Services firms = the next $trillion company

Mar 13, 2026

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3 min read

Services firms = the next $trillion company

Sequoia just named the model we’ve been building for two years.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

startup

+10

Want to know what defines if AI will take your job?

Feb 27, 2026

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4 min read

Want to know what defines if AI will take your job?

Why the real threat to your career isn’t the one you’ve been told about, and what a 1960s economist nobody talks about can tell you about where your value is actually going.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

investment

+7

Why Human Judgment Still Matters (Even with AI Everywhere)

Feb 9, 2026

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6 min read

Why Human Judgment Still Matters (Even with AI Everywhere)

When tech fixes everything but nobody picks up the phone, you start to miss the humans. Here’s what I’ve learned building a hybrid AI company.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

software

+8

Software To Replace the Services Economy

Feb 8, 2026

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3 min read

Software To Replace the Services Economy

We built FOMO.ai around outcome based pricing, and the rest of the industry is likely to follow.

Dax Hamman
Dax Hamman

Hard Part First

Hard Part First

Hard Part First is a publication for founders who know that tech is a commodity today and distribution is the moat. I’m Dax Hamman. I’ve been a founder three times: at Chango (sold to Rubicon Project for $122M), and now at FOMO.ai, where I’m building AI + human marketing teams for brands like Noom, Minted, and PetMeds.

© 2026 Hard Part First.
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