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The Ghostwriter Behind Hinge and Duolingo: How the Best Founders Tell Their Story with Adam Delehanty
Description
Adam Delehanty has spent his career helping famous CEOs and investors find the language their ideas deserve. He's the founder of Ghost, a content agency that works with some of the most recognized companies in tech, including Hinge, Google, Duolingo, e.l.f. Beauty and dozens more.
This is the launch episode of Well Said. We chose Adam as our first episode because he sits at the center of writing, communication, founder psychology, and culture. Everything this show is about.
In this episode:
• Why Adam calls ghostwriting "journalism times therapy" and how long-term relationships with founders become something closer to confidant than contractor
• The “VGPS” framework for introducing yourself to new people in a way that helps them remember you, and generates curiosity (Vision, Gratitude, Profile, Service)
• Why culture books are becoming essential tools for organizations to scale their culture and clarify their specific way of working
• The AI "steroids" analogy and the gap between sloperators (publishing at scale with nothing to say) and hermits (deep expertise, zero output) - (check out https://ghostagency.substack.com/p/sloperators for more context)
• Why he believes the founder should always write or speak the first draft, and what happens to a message that goes through too many layers of approval
• Why quality of readers matters more than quantity, and how five inspired people can change a company more than going viral
Make sure you subscribe to Well Said everywhere you get your podcasts, so you never miss another episode. Thanks for listening!
CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — "The wrong people have the steering wheel of content creation"
02:49 — AI is steroids
09:06 — Ghostwriting = journalism × therapy
09:53 — How to tell the truth when you have lawyers and a board
13:47 — Companies are religions
18:28 — The origin story that separates funded founders from everyone else (Hinge + Duolingo)
20:19 — The VGPS method to introduce yourself
33:20 — LinkedIn do's and don'ts
38:00 — Rapid fire: Patrick Radden Keefe, the word "dude," and the worst advice in content