Nico, co-founder and CEO of Corgi, a $2.5 billion insurance company, runs a business known for its intense culture. Think 7-day work weeks and living in the office. This extreme drive shapes his views on everything from AI to ambition, leaving little room for conventional wisdom.

AI Makes Sales & Marketing Non-Negotiable

Forget the idea that product alone wins in the age of AI. Nico believes the opposite. He argues that AI is making sales and marketing far more critical than it used to be, especially for B2B companies. As AI automates more core functions and perhaps even homogenizes some product features, the old organic network effects for B2B tools are diminishing.

“AI makes sales and marketing much more important um than than it was in the past,” Nico states. If your product doesn't stand out on its own merits in a sea of AI-powered competitors, your ability to articulate its value, reach customers, and close deals becomes your ultimate differentiator. For Nico, this means the pressure on your go-to-market engine just ratcheted up.

Why Your B2B Marketing is 'Awful' (and How to Fix It)

Nico doesn't mince words about B2B marketing. “I think traditional B2B sales is good. I think marketing is awful.” He sees B2B sales teams as generally effective, but critiques marketing as fundamentally broken, particularly when compared to consumer approaches. The implication is that B2B marketing needs to shed its bland, feature-list-driven past and learn from the emotional, aspirational, and direct strategies that drive consumer demand.

His company, Corgi, embodies this performance-first mindset even in its tech stack. While many in tech have a sentimental attachment to OpenAI's origins, Nico's team prioritizes raw product performance. “Anthropic frankly speaking has been out executing OpenAI. Their product's much better... Anthropic is better.” This isn't about loyalty; it's about using the best tool available to win, even if it means ditching a popular incumbent.

Nico's Unflinching Standard for 'Good' Companies

For Nico, there are two kinds of companies: "good companies" and "everyone else." He believes the number of truly good companies is "very small," and the distinction comes down to an almost pathological will to win and an ambition that transcends quarterly earnings. A good company, in his eyes, is one that "wants to win is like world historic. will be talked about in like a hundred years."

This isn't just about scaling fast or raising big rounds. It's about a collective, unwavering commitment from every person in the organization to put in the work required to build something truly lasting. The rarity of these companies, Nico argues, isn't due to a lack of ideas or capital, but a shortage of this collective will to actually do the hard, often uncomfortable, work that such an ambition demands.

What to Do With This

This week, audit your B2B marketing channels against a simple question: Does this look like consumer marketing? If it’s bland, technical, and feature-focused, strip it down and inject emotion, aspiration, and directness. Then, grab your current AI stack. If you're using a tool out of habit or brand allegiance, challenge it. Test a high-performance alternative, like Anthropic versus OpenAI, purely on enterprise workflow results. Finally, gather your co-founders and ask yourselves if your company's ambition could genuinely be described as "world historic." If the answer isn't a resounding yes, you know what work needs to be done.