tariff war
+10

Mar 26, 2026
•
3 min read
The trade war didn't create China's advantage, it just made it impossible to ignore.

startup
+10

Feb 27, 2026
•
4 min read
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.

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.