Dan Shipper
I'm the co-founder and CEO of Every, an applied AI lab exploring the future of work. I write Chain of Thought, a weekly column about AI read by more than 130,000 people, and host AI & I, a podcast about how the smartest people in the world use AI.
Before Every, I co-founded Firefly, a customer-support software company I started while a student at Penn and sold to Pegasystems in 2014. I've been writing online since 2010. I live in New York City.
Now
Every is a living laboratory for what great human work looks like after automation. We publish a daily newsletter read by 130,000+ builders, and we make software—Cora (email), Sparkle (file organization), Spiral (writing), Monologue (dictation), Proof (collaborative editing), and Plus One (an AI agent in Slack). We also train executive leadership teams at the top tech companies and financial services in the world how to use and implement AI at work.
Selected writing
- May 2026After AutomationWe automated everything and kept hiring anyway: AI creates more human work, not less.
- Sep 2025Every's Master Plan: Part IIAnyone can clone one of our products. Cloning the whole universe—apps, ideas, distribution—is the hard part.
- Mar 2025Why Generalists Own the FutureIn the age of AI, it's better to know a little about a lot than a lot about a little.
- Jul 2024Every's Master PlanWriting isn't a luxury for when business is good; it's the process the whole business runs on.
- Jan 2024The Knowledge Economy Is Over. Welcome to the Allocation Economy.Every maker becomes a manager—judged less on what you know, more on how well you allocate intelligence.
- Jan 2024ChatGPT and the Future of the Human MindChatGPT is a lever that becomes a lens: every task it takes over shows you what your mind is actually for.
- Sep 2023Admitting What Is ObviousYou're never going to be great at something you want to want.
- Jun 2023What I Do When I Can't SleepTaste improves when you can name it. Feed everything you love to an AI and it hands back the words you couldn't find.
- May 2023AI Is Transforming Media Forever, Here's HowOne writer with AI has the cost structure of software—and can ship what used to take a team.
- Apr 2023Against ExplanationsAI predicts without explaining. In fields where explanations never arrived anyway, that turns out to be enough.
- Mar 2023GPT-4 Is a Reasoning EngineGPT-4 is a reasoning engine, not a knowledge database. Its answers are only as good as the information you feed it.
- Jan 2023Can GPT-3 Explain My Past and Tell My Future?Load ten years of journals into an AI and ask it questions: you get a mirror that shows your face in new light.
- Jan 2023GPT-3 Is the Best Journal I've Ever UsedA journal that talks back: no blank page, never tired of listening, awake whenever you are.
- Jan 2023The End of OrganizingAll that time organizing your notes was wasted. The ultimate tool for thought is tools that think.
- Nov 2022AI and the Age of the IndividualCompanies exist to coordinate intelligence. When intelligence gets cheap, individuals win.
Everything I write lives at every.to/@danshipper. My old startup blog (2010–2016) is preserved in the archive.
Press
- 2026Lenny's PodcastThe AI paradox: More automation, more humans, more work
- 2026The New York TimesSmaller Is Better in Silicon Valley's 'Tiny Team' Moment
- 2026AxiosAnthropic's viral new work tool wrote itself
- 2026AxiosAnthropic's Claude Code transforms vibe coding
- 2025The New YorkerWhy Can't A.I. Manage My E-Mail?
- 2025MercuryWhat Comes Next? Dan Shipper Is Figuring It Out
- 2025Lenny's PodcastThe AI-native startup: 5 products, 7-figure revenue, 100% AI-written code
- 2025The New York TimesWill Writing Survive A.I.? This Media Company Is Betting on It.
- 2023TEDThe Unexpected Key to Boosting Your Productivity (The Way We Work)
- 2021AxiosThe 'Everything' Bundle Is the Latest to Leave Substack for Its Own, More Robust Technology
- 2015First Round ReviewThis 23-Year-Old Built and Sold His Startup While in School — Here's What Made the Difference
- 2014TechCrunchPegasystems Acquires Co-Browsing Tool Firefly, the First Investment by First Round's Dorm Room Fund
- 2013The New York Times (You're the Boss blog)A Start-Up Fund That Lets College Students Make the Decisions
- 2012Business InsiderStartups Are Flinging Job Offers at Dan Shipper, but the 20-Year-Old Philosophy Major Would Rather Stay at UPenn
More coverage from the last fifteen years on the press page.