Drew Chapin chapin.blog

I write and speak about startup culture: what building actually looks like from the inside, and why the public version of it is usually wrong. Essays, talks, and podcast appearances, collected here.

writing, talks & podcasts 23

topics
2026.05 HACKERNOON Research: Programmatic and News Aggregators Are Cooked, Social Is a Discoverability Terror
2025.11.09 HACKERNOON Crowdfunding Your Startup Is Making a Big Comeback
2025.10 CHAPIN.BLOG The Patterns of Startup Failure
2025.10.02 TALK "The Dangers of Over-Confidence" at Berkeley Haas
2025.08.28 HACKERNOON Wikipedia Rules Everything Around Me
2025.08.13 HACKERNOON Who Should Handle Your Digital ID?
2025.06 HACKERNOON The New Tools Rewriting the Web
2025.05.22 TALK "Founder-Friendly Really Means Isolation" at ACFE
2025.05 HACKERNOON The Modern Job Hunt: AI Interviewing AI
2025.04 HACKERNOON If Your Products Aren't AI-Searchable, You're Already Losing
2025.03 HACKERNOON The Rise (and Real Value) of #PrisonTok
2025.02 HACKERNOON Sam Mangel to Sam Bankman-Fried: Acceptance Is the Path Forward
2025.02.12 TALK "Hubris and Ethical Fading" at Yale School of Management
2025.01 HACKERNOON Ladies Is Apes, Too: It's Not Just Men Thriving in Bro Trading Culture
2024.12.20 PODCAST ShowUp, When Business Gets Messy
2024.10.30 TALK "Afraid to Fail" at Drexel's Close School of Entrepreneurship
2024.10 HACKERNOON AI Discoverability for Small Business
2024 HACKERNOON Livestream Shopping: Ready to Explode in 2025
2024.01.25 PODCAST Nightmare Success, From Peak to Valley
2023.12 READWRITE AI That Helps Us Be More Human With Each Other
2017.03 HACKERNOON Your Bank Tried to Kill My Company
2017.01 OBSERVER Unicorn Delusion: The Dark Side of Seeking a Billion-Dollar Valuation
2016.10 ENTREPRENEUR 3 Ways to Make Sure Your Online Ads Aren't a Turnoff

all writing · all talks

newsletter

Occasional notes on startups, being found online, and the parts of building a company that founders rarely talk about.

podcast

I am thinking about starting a podcast. If you want to hear more, sign up and I will let you know when it is live.