I’m going to be blunt: you’re probably wasting 80% of your time on the wrong things. I see it every day. Creators, entrepreneurs, even established companies, all chasing the same tired metrics, pumping out generic content that nobody really wants.
I remember back when we were building MovieLaLa. We were a small, scrappy team trying to take on the giants of movie discovery. The conventional wisdom was to build more features, add more movies, create more lists. We spent months doing just that, and our growth was flat. We were burning through cash and morale was low. One night, over cheap pizza and warm beer, my co-founder turned to me and said something that changed everything: “What if we stopped trying to be everything to everyone, and started being something special to a few?”
That’s when we pivoted. We stopped adding features and started focusing on one thing: hyper-personalization. We built an engine that didn’t just recommend movies based on what you’d watched, but on your mood, the time of day, even who you were with. It was a massive gamble, but it paid off. Our engagement skyrocketed. We finally had a product people loved, not just used. That experience taught me a lesson I’ve carried with me through two exits and over 200 angel investments: personalization isn’t a feature, it’s the product.
The Great Content Lie
There’s a lie circulating in the creator economy, and it’s costing you dearly. The lie is that more is better. More content, more features, more noise. It’s a lie perpetuated by platforms that want you to stay on the hamster wheel, constantly producing, constantly feeding the algorithm.
Take generative music, for example. Everyone is chasing more features. Text-to-music, style transfer, more instruments. But they’re missing the point entirely. It’s not about giving users a million options they’ll never use. It’s about creating a single, perfect piece of music for a specific moment. A soundtrack for their run, a focus track for their work, a lullaby for their child. That’s the holy grail. The companies that crack that will win. The rest will become footnotes.
I see this pattern everywhere. In AI writing tools that promise to write anything, but end up writing nothing of value. In AI video tools that can generate stunning visuals, but can’t tell a compelling story. They’re all stuck in the feature trap, and they’re dragging creators down with them.
The Data-Backed Truth
Let’s talk numbers. A study by McKinsey found that personalization can lift revenues by 5-15% and increase marketing spend efficiency by 10-30%. I’ve seen it firsthand in my portfolio companies. The ones that embrace hyper-personalization are the ones that break out. They have higher customer lifetime value, lower churn, and a moat that’s almost impossible for competitors to cross.
Think about a company like Scale AI. They’re not just another data labeling company. They provide high-quality, customized data for specific AI models. That’s hyper-personalization at an industrial scale. Or look at Hugging Face. They’re not just a model repository. They’re a community hub where developers can find, share, and collaborate on models for their specific needs.
This isn’t just a B2B phenomenon. The most successful creators are doing the same thing. They’re not trying to appeal to everyone. They’re building deep, meaningful relationships with a niche audience. They’re creating content that feels like it was made just for them. They’re turning followers into superfans.
How to Escape the Feature Trap
So how do you do it? How do you break free from the content hamster wheel and start creating work that matters? Here’s my playbook.
1. Find Your “Who”
Before you create anything, you need to know who you’re creating it for. And I don’t mean some vague demographic like “millennials who like tech.” I mean a specific person. Give them a name. A backstory. A personality. What are their hopes, their fears, their dreams? What problems are they trying to solve? The more specific you are, the better.
At RemoteTeam, our “who” was the founder of a small, remote-first startup struggling to manage their team. We knew their pain points inside and out, because we were them. That’s why our product resonated so deeply.
2. Go Deep, Not Wide
Once you know your “who,” you can start creating content for them. But don’t just scratch the surface. Go deep. Become the world’s leading expert on their problems. Create the definitive guide, the ultimate resource, the one thing they can’t live without.
This is where so many creators go wrong. They try to cover too many topics, and they end up being a master of none. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big ocean.
3. Use AI as a Scalpel, Not a Sledgehammer
AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for personalization, but only if you use it correctly. Don’t use it to generate generic, soulless content. Use it to augment your creativity, to automate the tedious tasks, and to deliver personalized experiences at scale.
For example, you can use AI to:
- Analyze your audience data and identify micro-segments you never knew existed.
- Create dynamic content that changes based on who’s viewing it.
- Power a recommendation engine that’s so good, it feels like magic.
4. Build a Community, Not an Audience
An audience is passive. A community is active. An audience consumes. A community creates. If you want to build a sustainable career as a creator, you need to build a community.
This means creating a space where your “who” can connect with each other, share their ideas, and feel like they belong. It means listening to their feedback, incorporating their ideas, and making them feel like they’re a part of your journey.
The Future is Personal
The era of one-size-fits-all content is over. The future belongs to the creators who can deliver hyper-personalized experiences that are so relevant, so valuable, and so unique that they become indispensable.
It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require a fundamental shift in how you think about content creation. But if you’re willing to put in the work, to go against the grain, and to focus on what really matters—the rewards will be immense.
I’ve bet my career on this idea, and it’s paid off every single time. Now it’s your turn. Stop chasing the algorithm. Stop feeding the content monster. Start creating for one person. The rest will follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.
How has this view evolved over time?
My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.