Greg Isenberg

Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) is a startup founder and writer on X whose saved posts concern online communities, unbundling, product studios and selling companies. Seven of his posts are archived as tweets, from late 2020 to 2023.

Recurring subjects

• M&A. A January 2021 thread, “M&A 101,” draws on his experience selling multiple companies: build relationships early with potential acquirers (the “rule of 21”: seven companies times three decision-makers), take inbound meetings, find backchannelers at the buyer, hire a lawyer you trust, “don’t take no for an answer” (seven product leads said no and the eighth led to a term sheet), and run a real process. See M&A.
• Community. He proposes “Community Designers” as a new role, the chief product officer of a community, with responsibilities running from identifying the community and recruiting founding members to writing a manifesto. He also appears with Steph Smith and Rosie Sherry as a guest in a six-week online community program run by Makerpad. See Community Building.
• Unbundling. He observes that the internet is in an unbundling phase (Etsy, Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, Udemy) and published a guide to unbundling Reddit niches. See Unbundling.
• Product studios. He argues that product studios are the future of startups: startups move from Charmander to Squirtle to Bulbasaur, while studios go from Charmander to Charmeleon to Charizard, deepening capability along a consistent path. This is summarized on Startup Models.

Where this appears

Saved tweets

• 🚨 THREAD M&A 101 - M&A… (tweet)
• The Newest Job Role You’ve… (tweet)
• 📣 Introducing Our Community Program… (tweet)
• We Are in the Unbundling… (tweet)
• New Substack Post - the Ultimate… (tweet)
• I Think Product Studios Are… (tweet)
• I Am Giving Away 1… (tweet)

Concepts and people

• Startup Models
• Steph Smith