What I'm working on now

Last updated: May 2026 · Updated monthly

Building

• Brand Radar v2

  Competitive intelligence that actually surfaces actionable creative patterns. Tracking competitor ads across Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center, then generating remixed versions grounded in your brand.

• Campaign Studio editing

  Natural-language editing for generated ads. Say "make the headline shorter" or "try a warmer tone" and the ad updates. We want editing to feel like talking to a designer, not clicking dropdowns.

• Video ad generation

  Short-form video ads for TikTok and Reels. Starting with motion graphics over product photos, working toward full scene generation.

• Multi-language support

  Generating ad copy in 19 languages so non-English markets can use Mani natively. The marketing site already supports 19 locales. The product is catching up.

Reading

• Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. Positioning framework that changed how I think about who Mani competes with (hint: not other AI tools).
• Creative Strategy and the Business of Design by Douglas Davis. How creative decisions map to business outcomes. Relevant as we think about what "good" means for AI-generated ads.
• Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal. Open-source maintenance as a lens for running a product company in public. Influenced the /now, /colophon, /changelog approach.
• Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger. Practical design decisions. I keep coming back to this when making layout calls.

Listening

• Lenny's Podcast. Product strategy from people who actually shipped. The episode on creative testing loops changed our ad variant approach.
• My First Million. Business ideas and execution stories. Good for pattern-matching on what's working in SaaS right now.
• Latent Space. AI engineering deep dives. Essential for staying current on model capabilities and how other teams are building AI products.

Considering

• When to launch on Product Hunt. We have enough features for a compelling launch but want the onboarding flow to be tight first. Probably Q3 2026.
• Whether to build a Shopify app or keep the web-first approach. Shopify app distribution is powerful but locks us into their ecosystem. Leaning toward web-first with a Shopify integration layer.
• How much to invest in video ad generation vs. perfecting static and carousel first. Video is where the market is going, but static ads still drive most DTC ad spend. Sequencing matters.

Not doing

• Building a mobile app. The daily queue and approval flow work great on mobile web. A native app adds maintenance cost without adding user value right now.
• Chasing enterprise features before product-market fit. Team workspaces and RBAC are on the roadmap but not the priority. Solo founders and small teams first.
• Raising a big round. Bootstrapping as long as possible. Revenue-funded growth forces better product decisions than venture-funded growth.