Amplify

Slow and steady progress at middle-of-year highlights the urgency of data-driven instruction.

Middle-of-the-year assessment data show that while all K–2 students are making incremental gains in reading readiness, far too many are still at risk of falling behind, highlighting the crucial need for data-driven instruction.

Amplify Appoints President and Chief Revenue Officer

Amplify Technology, LLC, an AI-native RIA growth platform built on data lake architecture, announced leadership promotions: Jason Rowley was named President to lead day-to-day operations, and Kimberly Hill was promoted to Chief Revenue Officer to oversee revenue strategy, sales and client acquisition. Vickie Lewin will step back from her Chief Growth Officer role to serve as a consultant. The moves follow recent C-suite additions including Mark Fischer as inaugural Chief Operations Officer and Jack Martin as Chief Marketing Officer. Amplify reports supporting nearly $24 billion in assets under management, serving more than 39,000 households and 649 advisors, and has grown its team to over 100 employees after doubling headcount since 2024.

Hire a 'Hype Monkey' to Amplify LinkedIn Presence

The newsletter argues that technology companies should employ a 'Hype Monkey' — a person (real employee or contracted actor) whose role is to post entertaining, irreverent social content from a personal profile to generate goodwill that transfers to the brand. The piece explains a LinkedIn-specific growth tactic: the Hype Monkey sends 50–100 connection requests weekly to target prospects while other employees connect with and regularly engage (like/comment) on the Monkey’s posts, training LinkedIn’s algorithm to surface that content to prospects. The author provides examples (e.g., fictional 'Trevor' at Torq, Renée Shaw at tl;dv) and practical setup advice: hire a charismatic junior (often Gen Z), give them 2–3 hours/day for posting and engagement, run the experiment for ~3 months and measure whether sales hears “I already know you.” The post is sponsored by Stripo (an email template builder).