Funded · 2026-06-15 · 8 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
8 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Adam Jellen addresses a common problem he observes: founders taking brief, out-of-context advice from Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms as universal rules rather than starting points for deeper analysis. Using his own experience with cold email content that sparked backlash, he explains that brevity-driven social media posts necessarily lack nuance about edge cases, market conditions, and founder backgrounds. His core philosophy is directionally accurate even if not 100% comprehensive for every situation. Jellen advocates for a framework where founders ask three questions about any advice: Who is this person and how did they arrive at this idea? What are the first principles underneath? How does it specifically apply to my situation? He also introduces the Adamant Fundraising Program as a resource offering 75 training videos and weekly office hours to help founders move beyond soundbites into structured learning, recognizing that top founders leverage expert communities and peer networks as their secret weapon in fundraising and company building.
Founders should understand the context of who is giving the advice and why, unpack the first principles behind it, and then determine how it applies to their specific situation - rather than following abbreviated social media posts as universal rules.
Twitter's 240-character limit forces brevity that strips away nuance, edge cases, exceptions, and situational context by definition, making comprehensive advice impossible in that format regardless of the creator's expertise.
It's a resource offering 75 training videos on fundraising execution, plus access to a community with weekly pitch deck teardowns and office hours where founders can ask specific questions about their fundraising strategy and investor interactions.
Some founders felt the advice disadvantaged those without strong networks or warm introduction access, interpreting directional best practices as rules that disqualify founders from underrepresented backgrounds.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is almost entirely throat-clearing about mic quality, a product advertisement, and one platitudinous meta-point about understanding context before applying advice. There is nothing a B2B operator would not already know, and there is essentially zero substantive content about fundraising or startups.
make sure that you understand the context around advice that is given as in don just take the soundbitey headlines or the stuff that is jammed into 240 characters on X Twitter and take that as tactical follow this exactly for everyone advice
it can feel like you're shouting into the void
The sole 'idea' - understand context before applying compressed advice - is a well-worn truism with no first-principles development, no contrarian angle, and no novel framing. The rest of the episode is self-referential meta-commentary about the host's own content.
use whatever people tell you as a sort of vector or an inspirational thought and make sure you think to yourself, who is this person?
they are always going to be directionally accurate
This is a solo monologue episode; there is no guest. The host presents as a fundraising content creator and coach but demonstrates no practitioner credentials - no companies built, no rounds led, no scale achieved - within this transcript.
my voice on Twitter is abrupt because that's kind of how I want to speak on Twitter
I've been gathering a lot of content around cold email in general because I about to do a mini lecture on the art of fundraising emails
The only named specifics are microphone brands (Blue Yeti, Shure) discussed for audio quality reasons. There are no companies, metrics, dollar figures, investor names, or concrete fundraising examples anywhere in the episode.
the Blue Yeti is what they call a condenser mic. And this Shure microphone is a much more sophisticated piece of machinery
75 different training videos around the fundraising process
This is an unstructured solo ramble with no interviewer, no questions, no follow-ups, and no analytical framework. The episode moves from mic apology to product pitch to responding to Twitter critics to encouraging positive comments, with no coherent throughline or craft.
Psst, check this out. I want to tell you how embarrassed I am around the last kind of like three months of content
So thanks so much for everyone. I hope this was kind of an enlightening and still helpful episode
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Not all advice is created equal - and bite-sized content on Twitter or LinkedIn was never meant to be followed word for word. In this episode of The Backchannel, Jason gets candid about his own content, why his takes are always directionally accurate but never fully comprehensive, and how founders should be filtering and applying advice they find online. He also shares why leaving a kind comment for a creator you follow might matter more than you think.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Psst, check this out. I want to tell you how embarrassed I am around the last kind of like three months of content that has come out on my podcast, on my YouTube, et cetera, anything that is multimedia related. Because about three months ago, I got this new mic because I wanted a better audio experience for all of my products and all of my content. And it is a vastly superior mic relative to the Blue Yeti, which I had used since 2020.
Yet I was getting worse and worse audio experience I just realized that the Blue Yeti is what they call a condenser mic. And this Shure microphone is a much more sophisticated piece of machinery around audio visual equipment. And as such, I need to have the mic closer to me like this. I had been putting it down here to kind of frame the video a little bit better, but in so doing created some really bad audio content.
So I'm hoping this is better. I'm hoping you hear me better. I'm hoping it's got that rich, buttery feel that I love in so many podcasters' content. So that's my first thought.
My second thought comes up as I react to so many people on social media as I post on LinkedIn and Twitter and then have to field questions, reactions, etc. My one thing that I want to give to everyone, and it's a thought that I give to people as I'm doing live workshops as well, which is, first of all, make sure that you understand the context around advice that is given as in don just take the soundbitey headlines or the stuff that is jammed into 240 characters on X Twitter and take that as tactical follow this exactly for everyone advice It is by definition abbreviated, incomplete, uncomprehensive, non-comprehensive.
There are gaps. There are subtleties. There are nuances that will apply to every different situation. and if you don't understand that or you don't try to tap into the context from which the creator made that then you are going to be confused you might be angered you might not apply the advice very well and so one of my biggest pieces of encouragement and coaching for people is when looking online use whatever people tell you as a sort of vector or an inspirational thought and make sure you think to yourself, who is this person?
How do you think they gathered that bit of advice and why are they sharing it? And then after that, say, okay, well, if I try to understand why that piece of advice was given, well, how do I like unpack the first principles behind that? And then how does it apply to me? I say this because my voice on Twitter is abrupt because that's kind of how I want to speak on Twitter.
and in a lot of ways people will take it without thinking about the nuance behind the advice and get upset and say well what about this situation or no that's not right or you're stupid or you're wrong and you know i'm fully capable and willing to engage around that sort of reaction to my content because i know where it comes from and i can respond with additional nuance and I can frame it in a way that might drive someone to a more specific application of the advice. I also want to say that while some of the stuff might come off slightly inaccurate because of how it formatted for brevity for responses especially on X like trying to get responses for the algorithm et cetera They all come from a core deep philosophy and understanding and belief in how fundraising and startups work And so while they might be slightly off or not 100% comprehensive, they are always going to be directionally accurate.
They are always going to come from a place of wanting to support founders, make you guys better. And they all come from a good place. The founders I see that do best in company building and fundraising have a secret weapon. Their secret weapon is a community of people, of experts, of peers in the startup industry that they can ask for help from at any time, guide them through processes like fundraising.
I wanted to make that easier for everyone else to have access to by building the Adamant Fundraising Program and Community. This gives you access to 75 different training videos around the fundraising process to give you that expert starting point around how to actually execute fundraising and then access to a community where we host live pitch deck teardowns and office hours every week to make sure that you can ask the minute questions on how your deck should be better, how you should reform your strategy, how you should answer investors who are reaching out to you that you don't know how to answer.
So if you want to check that out, if you want to get the secret weapon that I think a lot of the best founders have, check out adamantfundraising.com and join us today. So if you take that context for all of my content, I hope that you will be able to better use some of my instructions on Twitter and Twitter, X and LinkedIn, understand some of my more bite sized content, like the back channel, and then be able to sort through my longer form stuff, my essays, et cetera, and really get some educational support around the fundraising process, startups in general.
The last thing I was going to say is some of this stuff or this episode in particular was inspired by some people getting upset by my cold email content. I've been gathering a lot of content around cold email in general because I about to do a mini lecture on the art of fundraising emails for my raising capital series of workshops And I been posting some stuff, really hard hitting stuff and people have gotten upset. It's like, but warm introductions are hard to get access to.
What are you saying? Like founders shouldn't do this and shouldn't do that. You're kind of disenfranchising founders who have a harder time or come from worse networks, etc. And so there has been some negativity, but I do also want to say that I continue to get really great positive reactions for a lot of my content.
A lot of thanks, gratitude, expressions of, you know, just warmth around the content and the support that I've been able to give through my free content. And so my last thing from a content creator's point of view is I always tell people whenever they say something nice to me, I thank them first because it feels great. And then I always encourage them to do this more often with content creators you know about, small and large. I think that no matter how large you get, receiving comments that are positive and thankful for the work that you do is extremely encouraging, feels really great, and helps people like me continue to push through and create more helpful content because it can feel like you're shouting into the void.
It can feel like that, oh, maybe I'm not doing the right thing because the loudest people in the room are the people that are most upset by your content or have a contradictory point of view that they wanna just get out there. So if you ever consume any sort of content from any kind of creator and you wanna give them a shout out, if you wanna share some thanks and gratitude, dude, I guarantee you they will appreciate it. And I guarantee you, you'll get some sort of response. So thanks so much for everyone.
I hope this was kind of an enlightening and still helpful episode of the back channel. And I'll see you next time. Hopefully with continued good audio.
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