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Welcome to the 1276 new operators who joined us this week! 🤯

Hey Fastlane Insiders! 👋

If you're reading this on Thanksgiving, I hope you're taking a moment to pause—away from dashboards, ad accounts, and inventory spreadsheets—and just breathe.

If you're reading this tomorrow as Black Friday kicks off, I hope you slept well.

Either way, I want to say thank you. This newsletter exists because you show up every week, ready to learn, test, and build something meaningful. That doesn't go unnoticed.

Now, here's the reality most founders face heading into this weekend: the bottleneck isn't creating more ads or launching more campaigns—it's knowing what will actually work before you spend weeks and thousands of dollars finding out.

BFCM isn't a sprint. It's the start of a marathon that runs straight through the holiday season and into January. The brands that survive Q4 aren't the ones who hit the gas hardest on Day 1—they're the ones who validate creative before launch, pace their cash, and move from theory to proof faster than everyone else.

Right now, I'm watching two massive shifts reshape how brands compete:

But the real pattern across brands thriving right now? They're not chasing AI hype. They're using AI as a validation tool—knowing what works before investing time and budget.

Here's what's inside this week's edition:

🎧 This Week's Podcast – Armen Mkrtchyan from Extuitive reveals how 150,000 AI consumer agents predict which ad creative will convert before you spend testing budget, plus the evolutionary design framework that's been validating products for 20 years.

📚 Knowledge Drop – The 2026 SEO playbook where AI visibility beats traditional rankings, and why the brands AI systems trust are winning while everyone else chases clicks that never come.

⚡ Industry Pulse – Deloitte's BFCM spending data, what separates elite web dev partners, AI workflows compressing product launches from weeks to days, and Shopify's Liquid AI partnership shipping faster search in production.

This week's packed with strategies that turn AI from buzzword into business advantage—right when you need them most.

Enjoy today. Rest a little if you can.

Tomorrow, we go!

Let's dive in. 👇

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You can generate 50 ad variations in an afternoon. The problem isn't creating options anymore—it's knowing which ones will actually perform before you burn weeks and thousands of dollars testing them live.

I chatted with Armen Mkrtchyan, CEO of Extuitive, a company that emerged from Flagship Pioneering—the same innovation lab behind Moderna. His team built something that shifts the game completely: a proprietary system powered by 150,000 AI consumer agents trained on real US consumers that predicts purchase intent, flags skepticism triggers, and spots price sensitivity before you launch.

This isn't another AI image generator churning out pretty pictures. This is validated creative testing at a scale that was locked behind enterprise budgets for 20 years, now accessible to Shopify merchants.

Here's what we unpacked:

The brands winning right now aren't outspending everyone on media. They're validating creative with real consumer feedback before launch—then letting their teams focus on perfecting winners instead of polishing ads consumers will scroll past.

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Here's the uncomfortable truth: more than half of all searches now end without a single click.

AI Overviews answer questions right on Google. ChatGPT gives the summary. Perplexity stitches together six sources you'll never visit. The old playbook—rank number one, watch traffic roll in—doesn't work when the search page has become the destination.

But the game didn't disappear. It just moved.

In 2026, winning SEO means being the brand AI systems trust enough to quote and surface when your topic comes up. The brands that get this are building durable visibility while everyone else is still optimizing for 2019.

Here's what's working:

The tactical move: own your weight class. Target topics where similar-size brands already rank, build the best resource in each cluster, add schema, and watch AI start pulling from you.

Organic visibility is still the highest-ROI channel. The difference now? SEO compounds across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and every AI system—and with Shopify's new partnerships letting shoppers buy inside AI chat, being the brand these systems cite just became even more valuable.

If you made it this far, you're either hiding in the bathroom scrolling while your uncle explains crypto for the third time, or you're already running launch day scenarios in your head. Either way, I see you—and I appreciate you.

Here's the pattern I keep seeing across the brands that thrive through Q4 and beyond: they validate before they invest.

They know which ads will convert before burning testing budget. They understand AI visibility compounds long after BFCM traffic drops. They compress timelines not by working harder, but by letting AI handle repetitive work while humans focus on what actually moves the needle—strategy, storytelling, and customer connection.

BFCM is loud!

Everyone's shouting discounts and urgency. But the brands building durable advantages aren't just executing this weekend's playbook—they're putting systems in place that give them an edge heading into 2026.

Whether you're testing your first product or scaling your 500th SKU, speed plus proof beats perfection plus guesswork every time.

If something in today's edition resonated—or you're already testing one of these plays—hit reply. I read every response, and your feedback shapes what we dig into next.

Now go enjoy your day. Rest if you can. And when tomorrow comes, trust your prep and let your systems do their job.

Cheers,
— Steve

P.S. Missed a previous edition? Check out the archive for more growth strategies and insights.