LinkedIn recently announced its new Creator Marketplace, making it easier for brands to connect directly with creators, executives, and industry experts.

The bigger takeaway isn't the feature itself, it's what it signals. As AI makes content creation more accessible, expertise, credibility, and trusted voices are becoming more valuable. LinkedIn is betting that people want to hear from practitioners and operators, not just company pages.

For founders and growth leaders, this is another reminder that your personal brand is no longer separate from your company's go-to-market strategy. The people who consistently share meaningful insights and real-world experience will continue to have an advantage in building trust and creating opportunities.

Remember when "out-of-home" was the thing you tacked on at the end of a media plan if budget was left over? That era is over.

After a decade of pouring everything into feeds, brands - including the digital-native ones that built their entire identity online are putting money back into billboards, transit takeovers, and posters. And the numbers say it's working.

The digital-only playbook hit structural limits, and you've felt all of them:

The shift isn't "abandon digital." It's treating OOH as the backbone that stabilizes reach and makes the digital spend work harder.

We’re excited to share a new episode of Ascend: Stories of Scale, How AI Is Transforming Sales Coaching and Sales Performance | Yogi Panjabi, Founder of People Lens.

Sales teams have more tools than ever, but most leaders still cannot explain why reps underperform.

In this episode, Angelique and Tracey sit down with Yogi, to break down the gap between sales tech and actual performance.

They cover why traditional CRM systems fall short, where managers lack visibility, and how AI is helping teams better understand and coach the people driving revenue.

A sharp listen for anyone building or leading GTM teams.

Stream the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts here.

What actually becomes the moat when AI is accessible to everyone?

That question came up at a small event hosted by Slash and Bland this week.

The takeaway is simple. Access to AI is no longer the advantage. Trust is.

Slash is betting on relationships, combining an all in one financial platform with high touch support in a self serve world. Bland is building proprietary models for regulated, high stakes environments where reliability and accountability matter more than speed. Corgi’s edge comes from deep industry data that competitors cannot easily replicate.

The pattern is clear. The winners will not just build strong AI. They will prove it is safe, accountable, and ready for real world use.

When everyone has the tools, trust and how you communicate it becomes the moat.

I'm excited to co-host The Executive Table on June 18 in Santa Monica alongside Nicole Casperson and Avnita Gulati.

We'll be gathering 15 founders, investors, and C-suite leaders for an intimate evening of meaningful conversations, new connections, and discussions on what's next for innovation in Southern California's growing startup ecosystem.

If you're a founder or senior operator in SoCal, request for an invite here.

As we gear up for FTW: SF, we’re excited to keep building with the community.

If you’re interested in partnering, speaking, sponsoring, or getting involved in any way, reach out to me, or just reply to this email, or send me a message.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

If anything here resonates, we hope it doesn’t just stay as insight, but turns into action, into momentum, into something real.

At AScaleX, we’ve been fortunate to stand alongside teams in some meaningful moments of growth:

But numbers alone don’t tell the full story.

Behind every metric is a shift in clarity, in positioning, in how a team decides to show up in the market. And that’s where real growth actually happens.

If you’re exploring how to unlock similar outcomes for your own team, I’m always open to a conversation.

- Angelique