Evan Armstrong

Evan Armstrong is the lead writer at Every. He explores profit and power in technology in his column, Napkin Math.

Jul 21, 2022

Crypto Has A Use Case

How Braintrust Used Tokens to Kickstart a Market

Oct 14, 2022

Who Wins the AI Value Chain?

It's A Brave New World

Feb 2, 2023

AI Looks Like a Bubble

Investors need to take a cold shower

Dec 21, 2023

Should You Fire This Newsletter? 2023 Edition

2024 is the year I go big

Aug 27, 2024

Benevolent Billionaire or Despot—Or Both?

A new book on Bill Gates asks: How do you measure a billionaire’s net impact on the world?

Apr 13, 2021

Announcing Napkin Math Fiscal Year 2021

After a short break, Napkin Math returns with a new writer

May 25, 2023

Dying Whales and Dying Billionaires

A note about power

Jul 25, 2024

Can Anyone Compete With Meta’s New AI Model?

Zuckerberg’s open-source gambit could burst the AI hype—or save it

Aug 12, 2022

A Tale Of Two Acquisitions

The Unity Conundrum

Mar 9, 2023

Recommendation Algorithms Are a Necessary Evil (Sort Of)

AI is about to remake our information ecosystem and it is past time for us to prepare

Apr 13, 2023

Steve Jobs’ Legacy for Builders

A book that lit a fire in my soul

Sep 21, 2023

Oh No, I Kinda Want to Work for Elon

An examination of the man-child who would be king

May 2, 2024

The AI Hardware Dilemma

Why new devices are flopping—and how they might succeed

Sep 12, 2024

The Button Problem of AI

What’s the real reason AI hasn’t yet delivered on its hype?

Mar 27, 2025

Analyzing the Fastest-Growing Software Category I’ve Ever Seen

Who wins in AI coding—and who loses?

Aug 4, 2022

The Meh-taverse

A Book Review

Jan 12, 2023

In Defense of the Unoptimized Life

Give yourself the space to be inspired

Aug 25, 2022

Finance is Narrative Not Numbers

The Subtle Art of Manipulating CFOs

Nov 10, 2022

Pinterest Has a Chance

The first full-stack shopping platform

Apr 29, 2021

Gross Margin: An Indicator of Market Power

What America's Oldest Jeweler Can Teach Us About the Value of Bling

Jul 22, 2021

Snowflake: How a Revenue Retention Behemoth was Built

TL;DRThis is the second post on a deep dive in GTM metrics with a focus today on Revenue RetentionSnowflake is a software Dracula. It latche

Oct 28, 2021

The Creator Power Scale: A Formula to Determine if Platforms are Ripping You Off

An examination of the Twitch Hack data

Mar 10, 2022

How To Get Leverage On Your Ideas

The Power Output Equation

Jun 29, 2023

What Happened to the Creator Economy?

The burden of missed expectations