If you’re going to build a conference, a newsletter, a podcast, an AI service or even a tennis tournament, please pause before you decide to be ad supported. (Ads are not the same as sponsorship).

When you work for advertisers, you’re focused on short-term interactions with people who relentlessly measure all the things you and your actual users don’t care about.

When we choose our customers, we choose our future. Advertisers are fickle and self-absorbed customers. They’re happy to demand more of the things your users don’t want, and will do so until your users leave, and then they’ll abandon you.

Sure, it might take longer to find the users who are willing to also be paying customers, but the short-term thrill of selling an ad contract might be a trap.

Build something your users are willing to pay for. Then you can focus all your energy on what they want and offer it to them. When your users are your customers, every decision is easier.