DROdio - B2B CEO | Father

How I'm using AI as an Airbnb host to generate in-depth 5 star reviews from guests

I'm the CEO of Storytell.ai, an AI startup based in the SF Bay area. I'm also the owner & host of the Lagoon Retreat, a corporate/executive retreat property. I'm using my startup Storytell to create really effective draft reviews for my guests that have been leading to 5 star

Aligning our Humans: 🚀 Storytell's "Operation 50,000"

When Jing, Erika and I founded Storytell.ai late last year, we knew we had a special opportunity to define a big Vision, a strong Mission, and a winning Strategy to leverage AI in ways that makes us more effective and satisfied with how we each live, how we work,

The "Rocks vs. Ripples" Approach to Product-Led Growth

I find Product-Led Growth to be comprised of defining future priorities (qualitative) while measuring past results (quantitative). It's like throwing a rock into water and then reacting to the ripples. Throwing the Rocks: As Mike Maples says, Founders are time travelers. We've seen a future, and now we've come back

Fasting 165 Days in 2023: Back In The Driver's Seat

I've written a lot about fasting, ketosis and health. Yet I still feel like I'm just learning about fasting, how it affects my health, and what it means for my ability to be in the driver's seat of my body. When I'm not fasting, I feel like I'm a passenger

vanlife

What’s Coming: The Intersection of 4 Megatrends by 2025

This is a post about four megatrends converging in the next three years that I don’t hear many people talking about: Effectively limitless energy + globally accessible high-speed, low latency bandwidth + the sharing economy + the gig economy. > I believe that these four trends will converge by 2025 in a way

Parenting

Being an Adventure Dad

I do my best to be an "Adventure Dad" to my kids. It's so fulfilling that I wanted to try to fully describe what that term means to me. > In a nutshell, adventure dads start from "yes". One of my personal philosophies as a startup Founder is #StartFromYes. It's easy

Health

Join My Challenge: Rowing 2,022,000 Meters in 2022

Back in 2015, I rowed 1 million meters in eight months. Now I'm at it again – except this time I'm going to row 2.022 million meters in 2022. Anyone want to join me in this challenge? > I'll be using using the #2.022-million [https://twitter.com/search?q=%232.

Going All-In on an Off Grid Workspace

I recently wrote about creating a WFH workspace for under $5k [https://drodio.com/creating-your-own-remote-workspace-for-under-5k/] using a Costco shed. In that post I shared how I could boost the internet connection's speed & reliability. I've not only done that, but I also went all-in on a robust solar generator setup powered

vanlife

Inc. Magazine #Vanlife

When we passed through NYC on our summer work+play roadtrip [https://drodio.com/finding-dispersed-campsites/], one of Armory's clients put me in touch with an editor at Inc. Magazine, which turned into this story [https://www.inc.com/eric-hagerman/drodio-daniel-r-odio-armory-van.html]. Here's the video: Here's an in-depth interview: Here are

Why I Sign Emails with #Velocity

I sign off in my emails with #velocity instead of Regards Here's why: 🏎️ Speed is a Skill As Patrick Collins of Stripe points out, Speed is a Skill. It can be improved with focused effort over time. Velocity permeates everything we do at Storytell, where I'm CEO. Our goal is

Welcoming Armory's Next CEO

I'd like to welcome Jim Douglas as Armory's next CEO as I transition to Chairman of the Board on September 1st. When we started Armory in my garage and went through Y Combinator almost exactly five years ago, I knew we were building a very special company due to the

Create Your Own WFH Workspace for Under $5k

There's something absolutely magical about walking out of your house, across your lawn, and into a dedicated workspace. I've written in the past about doing the best work of your career in remote locations [https://drodio.com/working-remote-first-do-the-best-work-of-your-career/]. The flip side is figuring out how to create your best remote

Finding Dispersed Campsites To Work (and Play!) From

I just had someone named Robert email me: I've followed your blog for a while and got inspired to start incorporating elements of van life into my day to day. Haven't took the full plunge yet, but I bought a portable power station/solar panel/hotspot with the hope of

Do an Energy Audit

One thing Anu taught me in the Y Combinator growth program is the importance of doing an "energy audit" on oneself. Founders and CEOs are pulled in many directions and often need to focus in areas that may reduce vs. increase their energy. Much of this analysis lies in really

Using Technology to Support a Small Town Fire Department

> TL;DR: We set up a Patreon page for the Squires Volunteer Fire Department. Donate to it if you can – even just $10/month goes a long way to serve this poor, rural community in Missouri. http://www.Patreon.com/SquiresVFD [ http://www.Patreon.com/SquiresVFD] My family and I

photography

Creating an "Instagram Life" Living Picture Frame

I've taken 105,038 photos in the past decade or so, and they're all tucked away in my Photos app. I wanted to find ways to liberate them from the archives to actually enjoy them, so over the past year I've been experimenting with ways to have those photos automagically

vanlife

Adapting to Extreme Climate Events

If someone had told me a decade ago that it would be a smart idea to figure out how to create and maintain my own power grid, I would've thought that was nuts. But as the wildfires in California and the freezing weather in Texas have shown us, our climate

Culture

Distributed Work: Do the best work of your career

I'm working this week from the side of a volcano in Arenal, Costa Rica, as an experiment to push the boundaries of distributed work. I'll be working from various spots in Costa Rica for several weeks. This is the future of work, and here's why: Being able to work productively

founders

Is Y Combinator worth it?

Back in late 2016, I started Armory [Http://www.armory.io]in my garage (pictured above) with my two co-founders. We also applied to Y Combinator. I often have founders ask me if YC is worth it right around now, during YC application season. The short answer is Yes, you

founders

How I prioritize my time

> One of our Armory crew just asked me: At some point, I’d LOVE to hear how you prioritize your tasks and manage your time. I’ve tried a lot of different methods, but nothing has completely stuck… I've tried many approaches: Zero Inbox. GTD. Workflowy. Sublime/text editors. Personal

founders

Tech CEOs: Become a DEIB Accomplice, Not Just an Ally

The term "DEIB" (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging) has become a hot phrase in Silicon Valley, as companies strive to create a workforce that's a better reflection of our communities. However, I find that Diversity and Inclusion tend to get lumped together as one thing, when in fact they're quite different.

founders

My INROADS story

I've recently become an advisor to INROADS, a program I went through twenty years ago, to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed in the business world. Here's my INROADS story – if you're also an alum, I'd love for you to post a comment and share yours as well. What is

founders

Understanding and Living Empathy

For the past 15 years, I've been really focused on deepening my personal toolbelt when it comes to understanding and de-escalating highly charged personal interactions, and generally how to improve my own personal ability to understand and live with empathy for the incredible people in my life. Fifteen years might

Calculating COVID-19’s Possible Impact in The SF Bay Area (and Your Region)

There's a great NYTimes interactive graphic w/ a slider [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-trump-response.html] you can use to model out various assumptions around when social distancing measures are put into place, and how strong they are. That interactive graphic goes hand-in-hand with this FB

founders

Still Betting on Elon

Back in 2012, when TSLA was $32/share, I wrote this blog [https://drodio.com/im-betting-on-elon/] titled “I’m Betting on Elon,” and I considered TSLA to be a $1,000/share stock within a decade. Now, just 8 years later, it’s trading above $900 a share, valuing Tesla