When Every Product Looks the Same, People Are the Advantage
Alex Lieberman says buyers will bet on people, not products, and points to Anthropic staff as an example.
How I AI · The AI content machine that turns ideas into posts that don't sound like slop | Alex LiebermanAlex Lieberman, the Morning Brew co-founder now at 10X, was explaining to Claire Vale, a former executive turned founder, why he was re-engineering his content process to be AI assisted without putting out generic work. He argued that artificial intelligence is making technology easier to copy.
"In a post-AI world where technology gets more commoditized than ever before, there are fewer moats in business, and I believe that trusted distribution is one of them," he said.
By trusted distribution, Lieberman argued, he means people that potential customers already believe. As products start to look and work the same, he believes buyers will choose based on which team they trust to keep building and solving problems.
That is why, he said, every business should build "a media company on top of" itself. At 10X, he said he plans to do the obvious things, like hire full time creators and writers and start a newsletter. But his bigger bet is turning his own employees into creators, and making it as easy as possible for people with full time jobs to publish.
Vale said she gives unsettled chief executives the same advice. She said that in software, "you weren't buying the product, you were buying the road map," and that now buyers are really betting on the team behind the vision. When existing channels have diminishing returns, she tells each chief executive that employees should be the main marketing channel.
The common objection, Vale said, is that chief executives fear that letting employees build a public reputation will get them recruited away. She argues the opposite is true. What drives people out, she said, is not being able to talk about the good work they are doing and build their own standing.
Lieberman pointed to Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, as an accidental master of this approach. He named people around its coding products, including Tariq, Boris, and Felix, who post about what they are building. Seeing those staff members describe their own work, he said, gives him more confidence in what they sell than hearing from the company alone.
Questions people ask
Does letting employees post publicly really help a company hire?
It can, because candidates get to see the actual people and problems before they apply. Engineers in particular often trust a thoughtful post from a future teammate more than a job ad or corporate blog. That is why some startups treat employee posts as recruiting as much as marketing.
What should employees post about if they are not writers?
The lowest risk starting point is what they already know: a problem they solved, a mistake they fixed, or something they learned that week. Short posts with one specific detail tend to work better than broad advice. A photo, number, or customer quote usually helps more than polish.
How do companies handle the fear that a visible employee will be poached?
Most companies that encourage posting set simple guardrails about confidential information and let employees keep their own accounts. In practice, visibility often improves retention because people feel recognized and build professional capital where they are. The bigger risk is usually silence, followed by boredom and departure.