👋🏼 Welcome to A Founder’s Life for Me (FLFM). I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned in 5-minute reads.

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How AI Can Fundamentally Change Your Relationship With Work

I’ve been building products for years. The part I loved most was the problem solving.

There is something deeply satisfying about bumping my brain up against a problem it hasn’t seen before. You get stuck for hours. Sometimes days. When you finally cracked it, you step away feeling satisfied. For me, it’s the same feeling I get after a hard workout. My body feels tired, and feeling tired feels rewarding.

My brain has been feeling more and more deprived of this feeling.

What changed?

It will come as no surprise that, over the last couple of years, I’ve adopted AI-assisted development as my primary way of building. I’ve cycled through GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code (currently Claude Code). All of these tools accomplish the same thing; I am building faster than I ever have.

Where I used to ship one small feature in a day, I can now ship five meaty ones. I can collaborate with AI and quickly generate thousands of lines of useful code. I can say “Do the work for [this] ticket.” And, the work gets done.

The output is better, too. More polished. Things I’m genuinely proud to put my name on. When you know how to use it, the “build it with AI” button doesn’t just get you to “done”… it gets you to “done well.”

But, I shutdown my computer at the end of those productive days and something is missing. My brain didn’t have to break a sweat.

Coding used to do two things

I’d always thought about coding as a similar hobby to playing the piano. I’d thought that both activities were ones where “Satisfaction comes from working through the struggle.” Mastering a difficult part of a song, or figuring out a challenging code optimization problem seemed comparable enough to me. After recent changes to my workflow (which I touch on below), I’m now thinking of satisfaction in two buckets:

1. (The process) Engaging my brain on hard problems

2. (The outcome) Build something that I (or others) get utility from

When I’m playing the piano, satisfaction is all about the process. I don’t perform for others. When I play a song for myself, I’m satisfied because I struggled through the process and I’m building the skill.

When I’m coding, satisfaction is becoming more about the outcome. The process is getting easier and less engaging. I’m not wrapping up a coding session with a satisfied nod and thinking, “I did that.” Mostly, AI is “doing it that” for me. So, the feeling of accomplishment is dwindling. Satisfaction is only coming from the outcome (the utility of the thing I’ve built).

What a coding session actually feels like

When I’m coding, there are still flashes of satisfaction from “the process.”

Before building anything, I spend time strategizing. I think through how a feature should work, and why it needs to work that way. That upfront thinking still engages the part of my brain that loves solving problems. Then, the AI takes over and my brain can largely disengage. I wait while it builds. I manually review and test the output. I course-correct and give the AI targeted feedback. After the initial planning, brain is still in the loop, but it’s doing a lot less heavy lifting.

This isn’t the first time

This satisfaction shift reminds me of when I’ve transitioned from independent contributor roles into managerial roles. I always fear these transitions, wanting to stay close to the challenging technical work. But, once on the other side, I’ve always found ways to keep my brain engaged on new, hard problems.

I feel like I’m at the cusp of a similar transition with AI. It’s just that, instead of people taking over my work, it’s AI agents. And, my role is shifting to becoming a “manager” of an AI team.

So, where does the satisfaction come from now?

The most satisfying parts of the “process” today is actually coming from AI orchestration. How can I break down my work into simple tasks that can be handed off to AI? Instead of building a “complex system of code,” I get satisfaction from building a “complex system of AI agents who, ultimately, write code.”

I still get satisfaction from the outcome of coding (when the things I build help people). But, the satisfaction from the process has almost entirely shifted away from writing code to orchestrating agents.

Learning to love the new process

What satisfies you about your work? Is it the process, or the outcome?

As AI agents dramatically change the way we work, the way we get satisfaction from “the process” of working will also dramatically changing. I don’t want my satisfaction from work to depend solely on “the outcome.” Outcomes are hard. Outcomes are out of your control. And, the whole point of being self-employed is to maintain control over the satisfaction I get from work. So, I need to adapt. I need to change the way I think about “the process” of building products and find ways to enjoy this new way of working as a “manager” of an AI team.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Feel free to email me with any questions.

👋🏼 Welcome to A Founder’s Life for Me (FLFM). I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned in 5-minute reads.

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Vibe coding is magic, but you still need to go to Hogwarts

Vibe coding won’t magically build your app for you — it’s a skill you can learn.

Many people think of “vibe coding” as a magical new age of computer programming where all of your code is generated for you. That’s only partially true. It is magical, but you need to learn new skills to effectively use it.

Vibe coding is “a programming approach that uses an AI large language model (LLM) to generate functional code from natural language prompts.”

I’ve been using GitHub Copilot for AI-assisted programming for the last two years now (subscribed in August 2023). Here are four skills you need to master to magically build apps with vibe coding:

1. “Divination” - Develop AI foresight

2. “Potions” - Select the right ingredients

3. “Transfiguration” - Choose the right words

4. “Defense Against the Dark Arts” - Focus on what matters

1. “Divination” — Develop AI foresight

Let me share some context to help you understand what I mean by “AI foresight.”

I’m currently building a personal financial planning desktop app, “Solidly Finance.” In the current flow of the app, you create a ‘Debt’ with a name and description. For example, you might load in the mortgage on your house.

After you create the mortgage, you can open it and add the details (e.g., the principal and the interest rate of the loan). Early users found this flow confusing. So, I’m consolidating the two steps into one and using AI to do it.

There are a few different ways I can ask the AI to handle this feedback:

1. Send prompts where I expect the AI to generate >500 lines of code. In GitHub Copilot this often falls into a setting called “Agent mode.”

   1. “Users found it confusing that the debt’s details are added after the debt is created with a name and a description. Please address this feedback.”

2. Send prompts where I expect the AI to generate <500 lines of code. In GitHub Copilot this often falls into a setting called “Edit mode.”

   1. Backend prompt: “Let’s merge these two API endpoints together so the user can create a debt and add the interest rate at the same time.”

   2. Frontend prompt: “The backend now allows for an interest rate to be added alongside the debt creation. Please update the frontend form to support this as well.”

3. Send prompts where I expect the AI to generate <50 lines of code. In GitHub Copilot this often falls into a setting called “In-line edit mode.”

   1. Backend prompts:

      1. “Add a section to this API endpoint that checks if an interest rate is provided. If so, add it to the debt.”

      2. “Add a section to this API endpoint that checks if a principal is provided. If so, add it to the debt.”

      3. … continued for each change I want made to the backend code.

   2. Frontend prompts:

      1. “Add a field that allows the user to enter an interest rate.”

      2. “Add form validation to confirm the interest rate is a number between 0% and 100%.”

      3. … continued for each change I want made to the frontend code.

There isn’t a way to be 100% confident in the outcome of any vibe coding prompt. If you only ask the AI to perform small tasks, it is more likely to execute each task correctly but you need to invest more thought and time. If you ask the AI to broadly address the feedback, the AI may spin for five-to-ten minutes only to make changes that don’t align with how you want to solve the problem. These changes are easy to revert, but you’ve waited five minutes and not made any progress.

In this case, my divination instincts tell me to go with approach #2. But, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. In my experience, frontend development is where vibe coding shines and you can get away with broader prompts. Backend logic usually depends heavily on business rules, database schemas, and application-specific quirks that an LLM can’t fully intuit from a single prompt. Backend development requires higher specificity and more targeted asks.

2. “Potions” — Select the right ingredients

Every good potion starts with the right ingredients, and in vibe coding, those ingredients are the files, snippets, and context you give the AI. If you leave something out—or toss in the wrong thing—you won’t end up with the outcome you wanted.

Once I’ve divined how broad of a prompt I’ll give the AI, I think about what ingredients I need to brew the right result. In the example above, that means pulling together four files:

1. The frontend code for the debt name & description form

2. The API endpoint that receives the name and description data

3. The frontend code for the interest rate and principal form

4. The API endpoint that receives the interest rate and principal data

Give the AI the wrong ingredients, and you’ll likely get the wrong outcome. This is where your skills as a developer matter: you need to know your codebase well enough to grab the right components and present them clearly.

This is also where experienced developers shine with vibe coding. They know which files to pick, and which to ignore so the AI can create a working solution. If your codebase feels messy, spend some time with the AI reorganizing it into a structure that makes sense. Like a potions master labeling jars, the better organized your code is, the easier it is to concoct the right context.

3. “Transfiguration” — Choose the right words

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.”

- Albus Dumbledore

Transfiguration is about transforming one thing into another without losing control of the outcome. In vibe coding, the same principle applies. But instead of using spells to change animals into goblets, we’re using prompts to change ideas into code.

The clearer and more structured your prompt, the more likely the AI will produce code that fits. For example, instead of writing:

“Make the form better.”

You’ll get far more useful results if you ask:

“Add validation to confirm the interest rate is between 0% and 100%.”

I have found it useful to experiment with broad prompts like “Make the form better,” just to see if the AI opens my eyes to new outcomes that I hadn’t envisioned. But, if you’re addressing specific user feedback or pushing your app forward, being precise with your words goes a long way to getting the outcome you want.

4. “Defense Against the Dark Arts” — Focus on what matters

Defense Against the Dark Arts is about protecting yourself from dark magic. In vibe coding, “dark magic” doesn’t come in the form of curses or dementors — it comes as distractions. Here’s an example:

1. I set out to consolidate two forms, as I showed you in my example above.

2. During testing I notice that the loading spinner is slow to appear after I submit the form.

3. I wonder “Why is that taking so long? Can I fix it?”

4. I deep-dive into the loading spinner issue and figure out the problem.

5. I decide to make it more responsive and work with the AI to do it.

6. I decide to check if the same issue exists elsewhere in the app... It does.

7. I spend time resolving the loading spinner issue everywhere across my app.

8. Thirty minutes later… I’m on top of the world! I’ve implemented the new and improved loading spinner everywhere! Mission accomplished!

9. I go back to my to-do list and remember that I was supposed to be consolidating two forms, not tweaking the loading spinners. Womp.

The curse of vibe coding is that every little improvement feels just a quick prompt away. You need defenses to protect yourself from this temptation. For me, my Patronus charm comes in the form of a clear to-do list. Instead of chasing every problem I stumble across, I jot it down — “investigate loading spinner delay” — and move on. That way I can return to it when the time is right and stay focused on what matters.

Vibe coding is magic, but you still need to go to Hogwarts

Vibe coding is magic, but it won’t build your app for you. It’s a magical skill you can learn. And, the four skills you need to harness this magic are:

1. Develop AI foresight

2. Select the right ingredients

3. Choose the right words

4. Focus on what matters

For me, the fastest progress has come from practicing these skills on real projects. So, if you’re curious about vibe coding, don’t wait for your Hogwarts letter — start a small project! Experiment with different prompts, try varying levels of context, and learn where the AI shines and where it stumbles. Each attempt builds your skills, and those skills are what matter most.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe below to stay tuned! By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Feel free to email me with any questions, or if you’re interested in trying the Solidly Finance app!

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Related Articles

If you are new to coding and don’t even know how to get started, try reading “How to Teach Yourself to Solve Problems Using Code.” There, I give a more tactical guide and advice for non-coders. If you’re not interested in writing code yourself, it should help demystify what “coding” means. If you want to learn more, give it a read!

👋🏼 Welcome to A Founder’s Life for Me (FLFM). I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned in 5-minute reads.

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Accumulated Advantages, Opportunity Surface Area, and Time

One of the most common questions I’ve received about my consulting business is, “Where do you find your clients?” Today on FLFM, I’ll give a full answer.

My clients have always come through first or second degree connections. I haven’t done any cold outreach. So, everybody I know is a potential client and everybody that they know is a potential client. If you know 500 people and every person you know also knows 500 people, you have 250,000 potential clients through your first and second degree connections!

The hard question isn’t “Where do you find your clients?” it’s “How do you get potential clients to want to work with you?”

Accumulated Advantages

I’m a big fan of Civilization VII, which is a turn-based strategy game where you build a civilization from scratch. In Civ, you compete against other civilizations for power and world domination. Imagine the board game “Risk,” but better.

Each game of Civ takes hundreds of turns where you build towns, manage cities, fight enemies, etc. On no one turn do you make “the one move” that wins you the game. You accumulate advantages slowly over time. If you have a slight military advantage, you lean on that advantage to capture a new town and acquire a food advantage. Now that you have a food advantage, you build larger cities with higher production output. And so on… The playing field starts off level but you lean on your minor advantages to build a lead over time. Whoever does this the best over the span of the game wins.

I’ve thought about building my consulting business in very much the same way. I’ve slowly accumulated advantages that have resulted in more clients wanting to work with me. The accumulated advantages that have earned me clients are brand and time.

Brand

When I starting my consulting business my brand was all I had. People reading this might think, “Well, Alek. You’re also very smart and good looking, that has to be an advantage too, right?”

Wrong! Yes, I am both of those things. But, at the start, it didn’t really matter what I was. People trusted me because of the skills they believed I had. The difference is subtle but powerful.1

I’m not saying you should lie about your skills or what you’ve accomplished. I am saying that being smart and skilled isn’t enough. For people to trust you to solve their problems, they need to confidently believe in your skills. This is your brand.

I’ve slowly built a strong personal brand that people trust through my work and accomplishments:

• I start every one of these articles with my biggest claim to fame, “I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far.”

  • Outcome: People put more trust in me to solve their problems because I’ve built and sold a company.

• I led off by saying that I’ve found all of my projects through people I know. So, when I’m talking about my “brand” I’m talking about how people I know think of me. It also helps that many of the people I know have succeeded on their own paths and earned themselves decision-making positions at their companies!

  • Outcome: People I have long term relationships trust me to solve their problems, and made for great first clients.

• Once I had my first clients, I worked hard for them to make sure they got great results.

  • Outcome: The clients then helped build my brand by writing testimonials.

• This blog has helped me build a brand advantage.

  • Outcome: Increased awareness across my network of what I’m doing.

I started my most recent company with the advantage that I’d built a company before. That advantage earned me my first clients. My first clients earned me my first testimonials. My first testimonials earned me my next clients. Accumulated advantages don’t come all at once. They take time to build.

Time

Now, I also have the advantage of time. In a way, time is a subcomponent of brand. But, it’s worth discussing on its own.

Time contributes to brand

For better or for worse, people assume that if you’ve done something for a long time, you’re good at it. They’ll put more trust in you. As of March 2025, when I’m writing this, I’ve been running my own company for about 2.5 years. All else equal, people take me more seriously than someone else who is just starting out.

Time as its own advantage

Time gives you more surface area for luck to happen.

If you only give yourself three months to hit your revenue targets, you might not be giving yourself enough time to succeed. Even if you have a strong brand, sometimes the timing doesn’t work out. When selling consulting services, I often feel that the stars need to perfectly align for a client to say “yes” to working with me. Some sales conversations take months to come to fruition.

If I didn’t have the advantage of time, these never would have amounted to anything. The early clients that I acquired through my brand gave me this advantage. I wasn’t making a lot of money, but it was enough to keep me afloat. This gave me the advantage of time. And the advantage of time increased my surface area for other projects and opportunities to fall into place.

Accumulated Advantages, Opportunity Surface Area, and Time

I feel very fortunate to be in the position I am. I also feel grateful to “past Alek” for setting me up in this position. He identified his advantages and leaned into them. He built a stronger and stronger foundation by accumulating new advantages over time. There was never “one day” or “one move” that changed everything. My current advantages were built by “past Alek’s” stubbornness, drive, and patience. And, I feel grateful to him for persevering through everything to get here.

Now, it’s my turn. I’ve played a good game so far. But, I want “future Alek” to look back on the work I do today as and feel grateful for the accumulated advantages I’ve given him.

Subscribe below to stay tuned! By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Feel free to email me with any questions.

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Related Articles

In “The Surprising Benefits of Patient Growth” I talk about some of the other benefits that time and patience have given me. If you want to learn more, give it a read!

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads.

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Life is a Multi-Armed Bandit

I think of my life through the lens of a multi-armed bandit.

A multi-armed bandit (MAB) is a problem where you need to optimize resources across choices. The term originates from slot machines.

Here's an example. Imagine you're presented with 2 slot machines (or "one-armed bandits"). Each machine has a different expected payout. One slot machine will, on average, lose money. Another will, on average, earn money. You don't know which is which. You need to play to learn. The features of a multi-armed bandit are:

1. Choices (Arms). These represent the different options or actions available. In my example, I presented you with 2 slot machines. But there can be 5, 10, or more! All of them with different expected payouts.

2. Rewards. Each arm provides a reward drawn from an unknown probability distribution.

3. Exploration vs. Exploitation. The fundamental trade-off in the MAB problem is deciding when to:

   • Explore. Try different arms to gather information about their reward distributions.

   • Exploit. Choose the arm with the best expected reward, based on your current information.

The goal of a MAB problem is to find the strategy that maximizes the total reward paid over time. MAB problems apply to many aspects of life and work:

• Do you order your favorite item on the menu (exploit), or do you try something new (explore)?

• Do you go with the tried-and-true marketing (exploit) or try new messaging (explore)?

• Do you stay in your current job (exploit) or look for new job opportunities (explore)?

Today on FLFM, I’ll explain how self-employment has allowed me to optimize my life in ways I never had before.

First, know what you are optimizing for

Solutions to MAB problems assume you know what you are optimizing. Traditional MAB problems assume you are optimizing for one thing. This is an oversimplification. At any point, we are optimizing for many different things. In our lives and careers we optimize for:

• earning more money

• learning

• working on things that interest us

• enjoying hobbies and activities outside of work

• building & enjoying relationships

Each choice we make yields different balances of each of the above:

• We can quit our jobs…

  • creating the time to enjoy hobbies outside of work and build relationships

  • sacrificing money, learning, and working on interesting things

• We can work ourselves to the bone on projects we love…

  • making money and learning

  • sacrificing time for hobbies and loved ones

In the traditional MAB problem you’re “optimizing the amount of money you earn per pull of a slot machine arm.” Competing priorities add tradeoffs and complexity.

You need to know what you are optimizing for to even begin solving this problem. Once you know what you are solving for, you need to “weight” each priority to build a mental model to decide which options are “better.”

Minimize the cost of exploration

By default, MAB problems presumes that you can switch between arms. This isn’t always the case. In life, there are switching costs. We can’t explore 1,000 jobs and pick the best one.

In our careers, full-time employment makes exploring hard. We commit ourselves to one job for a long time. Over the course of your career, you can’t do very much “exploring.” So the optimal strategy, is to “exploit” the roles you know.

Lower switching costs in my MAB problem has been the single-best-thing about self-employment. I can explore many different paths at the same time. Today, I spend parts of my day on:

• BI, dashboards, and analytics

• advanced AI and data science

• building my own software

I can "explore" all these "arms" without multi-year commitments. I quickly learn what I do (and don’t!) enjoy about each.

Prepare for your priority function to change

I also don’t need to solve for everything with any one job. I can spend different parts of day, optimized for each thing I care about. I spend part of my day on work that:

1. doesn’t teach me much, but pays well.

2. isn’t interesting, but teaches me new skills.

3. is interesting, but doesn’t pay well.

Collectively, I can optimize my day by tuning these categories to solve for whatever I want at the time. Some months I want to dial up on the money, so I do more work of the Type #1 work. Some months I want to dial up the learning, so I do more of the Type #2 work. Some months I get bored, so I do more of the Type #3 work.

Life is a Multi-Armed Bandit

All solutions to the MAB problem involve balancing exploration with exploitation. Successfully finding that balance in your life requires you:

1. know what priorities you are optimizing for with a decision

2. minimize the cost of exploration

Every person’s solution depends on what is important to them.

People may stay in the same job for years because it gives them everything they need. Or, they may be optimizing for things outside of work.

People may constantly try new hobbies because they love learning new things.

I’ve loved the balance that my self-employed life has provided me. Self-employment has forced me to understand what I’m optimizing for, and design my day to optimize for those things.

Subscribe below to stay tuned! By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Feel free to email me with any questions.

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👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads.

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Happy Birthday: A Founder's Life for Me

Happy Birthday! Welcome to the one-year birthday celebration for A Founder’s Life for Me (FLFM). I started FLFM to:

• Share my experiences building companies. I wanted others to learn and try it themselves.

• Grow an audience. I wanted a larger group of people to market my new products.

I shared my experiences. I didn’t grow a huge audience. Most articles end up with about 70-100 readers. Here’s the post from one-year ago where I shared those goals.

I didn’t get exactly what I wanted from this blog. Instead, other benefits surprised me. Today, I’ll share what I gained from writing FLFM every week for the last year, and what it will look like going forward.

Becoming a Better Writer

I’ve become a better writer since starting A Founder’s Life for Me. How exactly? The two things I’ve learned are concision and clarity. These two skills are improving all forms of my communication, too.

Concision.

When I look back and read early versions of FLFM articles, I’m embarrassed. There are run-on sentences that are hard for me to follow. There are two-to-three sentences in a row that all say the same thing.

I’ve always thought of myself as a concise communicator. Looking back, I don’t know that I was. I have room to improve, but I’m far better now than I ever have been.

Clarity.

The articles that took me the longest to write are ones where I hadn’t formed an opinion. When my thinking wasn’t clear, the writing wasn’t clear. In these moments I’ve learned to mentally take a step back and think, “Say what you want to say.” Often, the problem is, “I don’t know what I want to say.”

I’ve learned to ask myself, “What is the goal of what I’m writing?” I start from the top-down. “What is the goal of this article? What is the goal of this section of this article? What is the goal of this part of this section of this article?” And then, as I am writing, “What am I accomplishing with this sentence?” Always having a goal helps me communicate my thoughts with more clarity.

Learning & Documentation

Ask yourself, “What have you learned in the last year?” If you take 30 seconds, a handful of things may come to mind. FLFM has forced me to learn at least one thing every week, and I have documentation to look back to.

Learning.

There were some topics that I felt I already “knew” when I sat down to write. I still learned by writing. The reflection forced me to understand why I held opinions. In some cases, I my opinions needed to change.

For other topics, I didn’t have a clear opinion when I sat down to write. The act of writing itself helped me develop an opinion.

The time I put into writing has helped concepts “stick” better than passive learning. I’ve listened to a lot of content about effective sales, but it didn’t never led caused me to change my day-to-day habits. Do you know what did? Creating my own sales content!

Documentation.

I’ve never had a steel-trap memory. So, cataloguing these learnings has been a huge help. Otherwise, I’d forget the things I’ve learned.

Top-of-Mind: Hey, it’s me again!

Think of your last job. Think of a handful of people you worked with at that last job. Now, ask yourself, “When was the last time each of these people thought of me?” Posting FLFM every week has resulted in me being top-of-mind for a lot of people.

The weekly reminder of “Alek” has contributed to several of my consulting contracts. When people have a problem, and they see me posting, they’re more likely to visualize me as the solution to their problem.

What A Founder’s Life For Me Will Look Like Going Forward

Going forward, I’ll be transitioning A Founder’s Life For Me to roughly a monthly cadence. There may be some months where I post more or less. Here’s why:

• Becoming a Better Writer. My writing has improved. I’m at a point of diminishing returns. Writing articles weekly vs. monthly won’t lead to dramatic differences.

• Learning & Documentation. Learning and documentation is something that linearly scales with my time writing. That’s still something I’m considering.

• Top-of-Mind. The constant reminder of “Alek” has diminishing returns, too. Social media algorithms raise the visibility of your next post if you haven’t posted in a while So, I suspect, posting once per month vs. once per week won’t lead to significant differences in impression counts.

• Adding Bandwidth for Other Posts. I don’t want to be the type of person who spams social media. I want to limit myself to post once per week. For the last year, that weekly post has been FLFM. Now, I can free up some of my “posting bandwidth” to share updates about my company and other topics.

Transitioning out of a weekly cadence feels bittersweet. I’m sad to lose the routine of weekly writing, but I’m happy to gain that time back for other things.

As with all things, we learn as we go. I’m treating this new era of FLFM as an experiment. Before FLFM, I’d rarely posted to social media. I’d never managed a newsletter. So, I’ll see how this new experiment goes and get back to you soon.

Shoutouts

I want to take this opportunity for some overdue shoutouts to the friends who’ve supported me in my writing:

• Jacob Muccio - I can always count on you to share my content with your network, help me write code, or give great design feedback. Thank you for amplifying everything I do.

• Josh King - I would have never thought to write anything myself if not for watching you do it yourself. You’ve also taught me how applicable this content is to people of all backgrounds. Thanks for your inspiration and perspective!

• Jeremy Juliane - My secret to learning concision was asking myself, “Would Jeremy read this?” Thanks for being protective of your time and challenging me to respect the time of all of my readers.

• Jeffrey Bryant - Thanks for being a sounding board for sales-related content. Having never been in a sales role, it was helpful having you there to validate and improve ideas along the way.

• Armen Hagopian - Thanks for teaching me that, despite relevance or family ties, some people will never read what you have to say. It keeps me humble! Let me know if you see this!

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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From "I Can't" to "I Did": Building Bravery

As of this month, November 2024, I have been self employed for two years. I am happy that betting on myself is paying off. More than that, I’m proud of myself for everything I’ve learned so far in my career. I’ve always challenged myself to grow. I’ve always looked at the thing that scared me most about my skillset and tackled it head on.

Chapter I: I can’t code. I can’t do real analysis.

My first job out of college was a mix of “Customer Success Manager” and “Analytics.” I helped clients use our software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to analyze their businesses. Success in the role required a blend of people and analytic skills.

Under the hood I felt like an imposter. I knew what analyses we should run, but I didn’t know how to do the analyses myself. I always had the software to assist me. “I can’t do real analysis,” I thought.

As I matured in my role, I decided to tackle my insecurity head on, “I can teach myself.” As a learning project, I thought, “What if I could measure and analyze my own video games skills?” This project would become my first startup. For two years, I spent my free time learning to run analysis using code. In the end, I had developed a well-rounded my analytics skill set.

Chapter II: I can’t build a real product.

As my confidence in my analytics skills grew, a new insecurity emerged, “I’ve never built a product at a real company.” It felt like a new, gaping hole in my knowledge. I could do analysis. I could build a product myself. I’d been working with the SaaS analytics platform for years. But, I didn’t have the skills to build a SaaS platform like the one I’d been using.

I started looking for Product Management roles. I looked for opportunities both at my current company and at others. I found the right opportunity after a few months of searching. I had built this AI gaming assistant. I found a company interested in that technology and hiring me. They acquired my startup and I started working in Product Management. I got to work with a real team to build a real product.

Chapter III: I can’t build a website

I loved working with my team to build products in the gaming space. But, I wished I had a better understanding of the technical side of web development. I had built data platform for the AI gaming assistant, but I had hired an external team to build the website for it. I didn’t feel I understood how website development worked. When I left that company in 2022, I thought, “I’ve never built a real website.”

It was November 2022 and the holidays were coming up. I decided to spend the next two months learning to build a website. I decided to build a notetaking assistant as my learning project. It was a simple web-based notepad. I would use it to jot down my own notes. I would submit my messy notes to an AI. The AI would clean up the notes and return prettified notes back to me. I had learned to build a website.

Chapter IV: I can’t build a company

After building my web application, I reflected on where I wanted to go next. I had built and sold my AI gaming assistant technology. I never scaled it. It only had a handful of users, “I’ve never built a real company.”

Fast-forward to today. The last two years of self-employment have definitely had its ups and downs. I haven’t built the successful software company that I envisioned. I have built a successful consultancy. I haven’t accomplished my original goal, but I’m not done yet.

From "I Can't" to "I Did": Building Bravery

As you read about eight years of learning in a 5-minute read, I expect it sounds easy. Every chapter was hard in its own way. There were plenty of challenges and failures. Today, I wanted to focus on the brighter side.

I am confident in my skills. I am brave when jumping into scary new challenges. I didn’t have this bravery eight years ago. It’s something I learned by overcoming each of the “I can’t…” thoughts above.

What insecurities do you have about your own skillset? Challenge yourself to face them. Know that it will be hard. Self-confidence and bravery are not things you have, they are things you learn.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

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By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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Building a Company with Respect

Unfortunately, respect in the workplace is a controversial topic. There are people who believe you should build as fast possible. “Move fast. Break things.” People use this as an excuse to be disrespectful. Breaking code is fine. Breaking people is not.

I am a firm believer that moving fast should not be an excuse for a lack of respect. We often disrespect ourselves. We often disrespect our customers. We often disrespect our coworkers.

Respecting ourselves

Respecting ourselves starts with valuing our own time. When we are in a rush, we cut corners. We save a few hours in the moment, but we set ourselves up for frustration down the road. When writing software, this often comes up in the codebase. It is tempting to write messy code. “Why should I take extra time to write an informative description for this function? It may be something I delete in a couple of months!” Shortcuts help you get the initial feature done a little faster. But, you are taking a loan. You pay back the time you gain, with interest, months later. When you revisit that code, you will forget how it works. It will take more time to unravel than it would have to document it in the first place. This lack of respect for our future selves leads to net losses in efficiency.

Another dimension of self-respect is acknowledging our limits. The “grind” mindset, though often celebrated, drives us to overwork ourselves. We ignore our well-being and erode our enthusiasm. Real respect means trusting ourselves. We need to understand what our minds and bodies need. We need to give ourselves the space to recover and maintain a sustainable pace.

Respecting our customers

Respecting our customers means being upfront about what we can deliver. It is tempting to overpromise capabilities. This approach only sets us up for failure. If you need to lie to close the deal, your product isn’t good enough.

We also show respect for customers in the quality of experience we deliver. On the hunt for profitability, this is one of the biggest sacrifices companies make. We rush products to market. We release buggy functionality. We ignore our customer experience. We respect our customers by creating a great experience. A great experience is intuitive, reliable, and satisfying. Through a great experience, we prove that we value our customers’ time. We are not checking boxes. We are showing our customers we respect them.

Respecting our coworkers

In the rush to achieve progress, it’s easy to fall into patterns of disrespect. The pressure for speed clouds our empathy, leading us to overlook the needs of those around us. This disregard often shows up in how we communicate. We cut conversations short. We dismiss others’ ideas. We brush off questions. This behavior feels efficient in the moment.

Respecting our coworkers means valuing their time and emotions. When we push forward without considering them, we signal that their needs come second to ours. Ignoring them makes them feel overlooked and undervalued. Building something great as a team requires valuing each person’s well-being. Respect requires creating a collaborative environment where everyone feels heard and supported. Even in high-pressure situations. This leads to better outcomes and a stronger, more united team.

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Conclusion: Building a Company with Respect

We need to respect ourselves, our customers, and our coworkers. This respect gives us the best chance at success. To achieve this level of respect, we can’t spread ourselves too thin. It is easy to lose sight of this in the rush to do everything.

Respect requires trust. Every action we take should aim to build and reinforce that trust.

1. To respect ourselves, we need to trust ourselves. We need to listen to our bodies and emotions. We need to invest in things today that make our lives easier tomorrow.

2. To respect our customers, we need to build trust. We need to under-promise and over-deliver. We need to create experiences that delight them. They need to feel valued and understood.

3. To respect our coworkers, we need to trust each other. We need to be vulnerable. We need to understand them. With this trust and understanding, we need to be empathetic.

Respect requires that we bring intention and care to everything we do. It is a high standard to hold yourself to. But, respect is a foundation for greatness.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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The Surprising Benefits of Patient Growth

Six months ago, I decided to run an experiment. I wrote about the experiment in Adapt or Endure? A Founder’s Guide to Navigating Changing Circumstances. The experiment: Would I be better off building a consulting business with a software arm?

Before that, I was building a software company. I supported the software company with income generated through consulting work.

Over the last six months, I flipped my thinking. Consulting was my primary focus. Software was secondary.

Today, I’ll share the results of the experiment. What has this slight change in thinking taught me? What have I learned in the process?

What I’m Doing Now with SolidlyAI

I was running a software business with a consulting arm. Now, I’m running a consulting business with a software arm. Before we dive into what I’ve learned, let me start by explaining what this looks like…

I have many client projects going on at all times.

Some client projects take as little as 5 hours per week. Other projects are as much as 20 hours per week. I’m leading two types of projects:

1. Data Projects: I am working with clients to understand what is possible with their data. I’m working with clients to build those ideas.

2. MVP Projects: I am working with clients to take their ideas from 0 → 1. I am helping them design and build a “minimum viable product” that they can launch.

I have a healthy pipeline with relationships at all stages.

I have a mix of project contracts at different phases:

• existing customer(s) considering expansion/extension

• new customer(s) in contract phase

• new customer(s) where we are aligning on the details of a potential scope over email

There are more projects coming through the pipeline than I have time for, which is a good place to be!

A lot of people ask me where these projects come from. The answer is simple. Simpler than they want it to be... “Connections.” Most of these projects have come from people I have worked with before. I spent many years:

1. doing high quality work.

2. building personal relationships with no business goals.

It is a simple formula. Be a good person who does good work. Do it for a long time. People will want to work with you!

I am not at 100% capacity.

At most, I’ve worked on 3 projects at once. At my busiest I’ve worked <30 hours per week on client work. I have spare time. I spend my spare time on sales and building the SolidlyAI software.

The Need for Patience

I want to be at 100% capacity now. I want high-velocity contracts. But, that is never the pace my clients move.

At most clients, I have one or two people advocating for me to get/stay involved. They have their own priority lists. They end up with dependencies out of their control. In several cases, Legal teams will review the contract terms. Legal teams have taken weeks to review drafts or make edits.

The Power of Patience

I wanted these projects to start today. But, if they had happened more quickly, I would have missed out on other things.

Able to charge higher rates.

Because these projects have taken time to sign, I now have a surplus of demand for my time. When demand exceeds supply, you can charge higher rates. So, the average rate that I am charging clients has increased.

Development of a waitlist.

If I end up with more projects than I have time for, then I can stagger start dates. I could sign a project today that would start in January or February.

It will be hard to sell new projects when I am spending >40 hours per week on client work. To sell a new project, I would have to wait for my time to free up. Then, I would start looking for more work. During that sales process I would be at <100% capacity (and getting paid less than what I could be).

So, the ability to plan these projects further ahead will increase the stability of my income.

Building the SolidlyAI software to a better state.

I won't have time when I am full-time consulting. Enterprise software sales takes time. So, I won't be able to sell the SolidlyAI software to anyone.

With my change in strategy toward consulting, I needed to change my strategy for software. I needed to switch away from enterprise. The last few months have allowed me to transition toward a consumer-focused product.

SolidlyAI still has many of the enterprise focused features it started with. Large businesses can still use it to make the most out of their meetings. I invested my extra time into creating a very low barrier to entry way for individual people to get started. SolidlyAI’s meeting notetaker is available to anyone. You can get started with one hour of free notetaking!

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Conclusion: The Surprising Benefits of Patient Growth

The focus on growing my consulting business has paid off. The experiment was successful. SolidlyAI’s software products will continue in parallel.

1. Patience is Key: Growing this business to where I want it will take time. I need to stay patient to fill my schedule with the right clients and let SolidlyAI develop at its own pace.

2. Surprising Benefits from Patient Growth:

   • Higher Rates: With excess demand, I can charge more for my time.

   • Waitlist of Projects: The steady approach has given me a waitlist of future projects. The waitlist helps me plan ahead and keep my income steady.

   • More Time to Improve SolidlyAI: Between consulting projects, I have time to code. I can build SolidlyAI’s software to a better state.

I’m now running a consulting company with a software arm. Slow, patient growth allows me to build a business that will last.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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Startup Marketing Strategy: It’s Not About "The Next Big Thing"

Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of going all-in. They invest too much in their game-changing move. That one ad campaign. That one viral post. That one feature launch will put them on the map. They spend weeks working on their ultimate plan. But then? They swing and miss.

Building a company is not about hitting a home run with a single swing.

Don’t Expect a Grand Slam

Successful startup marketing isn’t about launching the “next big thing.” It’s about consistent, moderate wins spread out across many bets. This approach yields more consistent results.

One Swing for the Fences

I’ve spent over four hours every week writing these articles. I’ve been writing for almost a year. That’s 200 hours.

My original goal was to build my personal brand, which would then draw an audience for my company. But after almost 12 months, I have ~40 subscribers. Most of them are people I already knew. My desired external result—audience growth—didn’t happen.

The outcomes you get aren’t always the ones you expect. That’s why relying on doing “one thing well” is rarely enough. Success requires diversification.

Doing What Nobody Else Wants to Do

If building a successful company were easy, more people would do it. Many people want a silver bullet—a single ad campaign or viral post that will bring in all their customers. That’s what I wanted with this blog. I thought, “I will do this one thing every week and to solve my marketing problems.” But that’s not how growth works.

You have to do more. You have to go beyond the easy or obvious. And, you have to do it consistently. There’s no shortcut. There’s no silver bullet.

Effective growth requires you to do more than everyone else.

Diversify Your Efforts: What “Doing Many Things Well” Looks Like

For SolidlyAI, I’ve learned that no single strategy would grow my business. To gain traction, I need a multi-pronged approach to marketing. Here’s what that looks like for me:

• FLFM (A Founder’s Life for Me). I’ll be continuing my blog. I've gotten a lot from doing this blog. The outcomes weren’t what I expected. I’ll discuss more in a my year-in-review post (4 weeks from now). Subscribe if you’re interested.

• Reddit Forums. People are having conversations in public about things that are hard for them. I need to be learning from those conversations. It can inform both product development and marketing language. Posting polls and questions is also an invaluable way to gather intel. I can build relationships with these random people to grow my network. I can use these relationships to market my company.

• LinkedIn. Posting under the SolidlyAI’s LinkedIn account is a direct way of gaining an audience. The earlier strategies build my personal brand. This one directly builds Solidly’s brand. SolidlyAI is a meeting-focused product. I can run polls about meeting practices and the share insights.

• 1:1 marketing and testimonials. The appeal of one-to-many marketing strategies is another silver bullet trap. I want to think, “I’ll just do this one thing on this one platform and bring in many customers.” Growth doesn’t work like that. So, I’ll do one-to-one marketing in parallel. Direct outreach. Requesting testimonials. Building personal connections with new people. Non-scalable efforts can lead to big outcomes over long time horizons.

The challenge in managing a multi-channel strategy is staying organized. But, I’m good at organizing. I’m preparing a calendar with tasks assigned for each day. I can spend 30 minutes a day planning a post 2 weeks from now. I can spend 5 minutes executing on the post I planned 2 weeks ago.

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Conclusion: The “Next Big Thing” Isn’t One Thing at All

In startup growth, there’s no silver bullet. It’s not about putting all your eggs in one basket. It’s about spreading your bets across a variety of channels and strategies. Put in the work. Stay organized. Do the things others won’t do. You’ll achieve more than if you placed all your hopes on one big move.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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Predictions for the Future of Software

Over the last two years, I’ve created an AI meeting assistant. There are big companies out there that have built the same thing. These companies have big teams and vast resources. I’ve built an AI meeting assistant that works better for me, all on my own.

With AI at our backs, other people can do this too. What does that mean for the future of software?

How AI is changing software development

Over the last two years, AI has become a powerful tool in software development. Now, AI helps me:

• Learn new things

• Execute tasks

• Identify and fix problems

Before, you needed large teams to build software. You would hire specialists for web development. You would hire backend engineers. You would hire experts in building desktop apps. Now, with little prior knowledge, I have built all this on my own.

What this means for the future of software.

It used to take a large team and lots of investment to build software. It takes less now.

Let's play out the chess moves. What does this mean for the world of software?

More self-employment and changes to fundraising

As it gets easier to make software, more people will succeed. More people will build things in parallel to their full-time jobs. More people will earn income from these side hustles. More people will quit their jobs to work on their side hustles full-time. More people will seek part-time work or fundraise.

Part-time work

Side hustles will not immediately replace salaries. Entrepreneurs need time to grow their businesses. Only with time will their new business surpass their old income. In the interim, part-time work will cover the difference.

What does this mean for the future?

• Services that connect people to part-time work will do well.

• Focus on building a strong network so you can always find work.

Fundraising

People can make more software on their own. Large teams aren’t required for early versions. Early-stage software companies don’t need to fund large teams. Early-stage software companies will fundraise less.

Fundraising supply and demand will shift to fit two molds.

1. The Scaling Startup. These companies will already have proven demand. Investors will expect low-risk payoffs. Payoffs will be mild to moderate.

2. Big Risk, Big Reward. These companies are solving multifaceted, complicated problems. These companies require large teams to solve the problem. Investors will tolerate high-risk payoffs. Payoffs will be large if they happen.

What does this mean for the future?

• More than ever, founders need to show their ideas have traction to raise money.

• Ideas that do not fit these molds will have a hard time finding investors. Consider other sources of income until you’re ready to scale.

• Ideas that do not fit these molds will have a hard time retaining investors. Investors will see other options that are paying off sooner or bigger. They will wish they had invested in those options. They will want to turn your company into something “more like that.” They will try to move you into one of the two molds.

More competition will lower prices.

As making software gets easier, more people will do it. The result? More software solutions will exist. These solutions compete to solve important problems. Software providers used a moat to protect their high prices… recreating their software was complex and expensive. It is getting cheaper with every advancement in AI. Their moats are drying up.

The first domino to fall will be low-complexity apps. The prices of low-complexity apps will come down.

High-complexity software will take longer to change. High-complexity software stitches together many low-complexity solutions. Customers can do this too. I used an all-in-one solution to build my first startup. I relied on this one platform to handle a lot. For my new startup, I am using many specialized solutions. One for user management. One for analytics. One for subscriptions. More people will switch to low-complexity software as they get cheaper. High-complexity software will need to lower prices to stay competitive.

What does this mean for the future?

• Creators of low-complexity software will look for short-term profits and exit opportunities.

  • Short-term profits. There will always be short-term opportunities. People stumble on unmet demand all the time. Profit while you can. But be ready for new competition at any time. New competition will come faster than it ever has. New competition will drive down profits.

  • Exit opportunities. There will be opportunities for big payouts when large companies try to adapt.

• Creators of high-complexity software will lower prices or adapt.

  • Lower prices. To maintain profit margins, they will need to cut costs. They can cut costs by leveraging AI or reducing headcount.

  • Adapt. High-complexity software will need to find niches. Solving many problems for a small niche will protect prices.

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Conclusion: How AI is Changing the Future of Software

AI is making it easier than ever to create software. Here’s what that means for the future:

1. More people can make apps. Thanks to AI, people don’t need big teams to make apps. Now, one person can build a lot on their own. More people can make apps as side projects and turn them into businesses.

2. Different ways to get money. Before, making an app took a lot of time, people, and money. Now, people can build more with fewer resources. There is less of a need for early stage fundraising. Investors will look for apps that solve big problems.

3. More choices. Lower prices. Because more people can make software, there will be more choices. Apps that are easy to make will get cheaper. Complex apps will find niches or lower prices in the long run.

AI is changing how software is built and sold. More people can create software, and prices will come down.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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Red Light, Green Light: Small Factors Add Up to Big Buying Decision

Recently, I decided to spend $400/month on lawn care. At the same time, I'm too cheap to buy a $20/month Netflix subscription. Why do we feel at ease when making some buying decisions and not others? How do we decide whether something is worth buying?

The price isn't all that matters. Small things add up. They can make you confident or doubt each decision. Here’s how.

Sleep Quality Solutions: Red Light

I’ve snored for years, and it’s only gotten worse with age. A new dentist suggested a professional mouthguard. I’d been using a simple one from Amazon, but it had started hurting my jaw and affecting my bite. If I kept wearing it, my jaw hurt. If I stopped, my snoring got worse. The dentist’s plan sounded promising. He’d improve my bite with Invisalign and make a custom mouthguard to solve the snoring. When I saw the $5,000 price tag, I hesitated. Here’s why:

1. Value of the Problem. Green light. On my own, I was stuck. I could choose between low quality or jaw pain. Neither option was appealing. This was definitely a big problem to solve. I would have gladly paid $5,000 to fix it.

2. Convenience. Green light. I wasn’t sure where else to look, and finding other solutions felt like it would be a lot of work.

3. Trust. Red light. I wasn’t confident that a custom mouthguard would help with jaw pain. The dentist told me that "jaw pain could always be a side effect, and I will do my best to mitigate it." I appreciated the honesty, but I was paying $5,000 for a "maybe" at that point.

2 out of 3 lights were green, but instead of buying, I decided to explore other options. After a few appointments, I ended up with a CPAP machine from an ENT doctor. It cost $1,200, a fraction of the dentist’s original solution.

Lawn Service Solutions: Green Light

When my wife and I moved into our new home in Virginia, we knew keeping up the yard would be a big job. Our 0.5-acre yard looked great, thanks to the previous owners, and we wanted to keep it that way. It would take us 2 hours a week, on average, to maintain the mowing, trimming, and upkeep. Plus, we would have to buy all the equipment, which wasn’t cheap.

We decided to see if a lawn service could make things easier. Half the people on our block used the same service. The prior owners of our house used them too. "Why not start there?" we thought. After a quick call, we got an estimate: $4,500 per year. My first reaction was, “That seems fair!” I was ready to buy, and here’s why:

1. Value of the Problem. Would I pay $45 for an extra hour or two every weekend? Yes. Our time is valuable, and the lawn service would give us more of it.

2. Convenience. They had already worked on our yard for the prior owners. So, they were able to provide an estimate over the phone. Any other lawn care provider would need to send someone to the house. Going with this vendor saved us that hassle.

3. Trust. Many of our neighbors used this lawn service. That told me they must be good at what they do, and their prices must be reasonable.

Each of these was a “green light,” giving us confidence to go ahead. If even one of these felt wrong, I would have started looking for other options.

Lessons for SolidlyAI

In these stories, trust made all the difference. The price was similar. The problem was high value. Other solutions were inconvenient to find. The dentist left me with low confidence in what I was buying. The lawn service team left me with high confidence.

As I build SolidlyAI, I'm always trying to learn from other companies. In this case, how can this game of red light, green light help my customers decide? Here's what this lesson reminds me:

• Understand the value of the problem you are solving. If you are solving a lower value problem, that’s fine! But your price needs to reflect it.

• Understand your customer’s other options. If competitors make it easy for customers to compare prices, then we need to either:

  • Be clear on why our service is worth the price, or

  • Be the cheaper option

• Build trust. When people see others trust your service, it is easier for them to trust it too.

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Application: Red Light, Green Light

The "Red Light, Green Light" test can help improve your buyer's journey. Here’s a quick guide on how to put it to work:

1. Identify your value. Before you sell a solution, ask yourself, "How important is this problem?" It's fine to solve low value problems, but you only get to charge low value prices.

2. Improve convenience. Ask yourself, "Will customers have convenient alternatives?" If other solutions are convenient, chances are you'll get a "maybe later." Have a succinct explanation about why you’re worth it.

3. Build trust. Early on, get as many referrals and testimonials as you can. Share these on your website.

Play this game of red light, green light. Make buying decisions easier for your customers.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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How to Stand Out in a Competitive World

When applying for a job, you’re competing with thousands of applicants for the same role. Many of these applicants have years more experience than you.

They have an unfair advantage.

Founders compete with massive, existing companies. These companies have vast resources and huge teams that they could reallocate whenever they wish.

They have an unfair advantage.

How do you win this competition? How do you ensure you’re not another voice in the crowd?

You have to create your own unfair advantage.

The Foundation of Your Unfair Advantage: Uniqueness

The playing field is leveling. Remote work lets anyone, anywhere, compete for the same jobs. AI makes once-privileged knowledge available to everyone. Anyone, from anywhere, can learn the skills they need to excel.

So, if we’re all equipped with the same tools, how do you stand out?

The only way to differentiate yourself is to lean into what makes you unique. You are the only “you” in this world. No one has your exact skills and life experiences. Skills are quick to learn. Experiences take years to build. So, your unique experiences are how you craft an unfair advantage.

Identify Your Unfair Advantage

You’ve built an unfair advantage. Intentional or not. To identify your unfair advantage, ask yourself:

• What unique life experiences have shaped who you are today?

• What skills have you honed over the years?

• What relationships can you leverage?

Add together your ordinary experiences. Together, they give you extraordinary circumstances.

Apply Your Unfair Advantage: SolidlyAI’s Journey

Let’s take my journey with SolidlyAI as an example. I’m building an AI meeting assistant. There are hundreds of AI meeting assistants. To name a few: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Chorus.ai, Rewatch, and Fathom. How is it possible to compete? The only way to compete in this saturated market is to lean into my unfair advantages.

• Lean Startup. I don’t have investors or a large team. This might seem like a disadvantage. But what is the "cost" of having a large team and investors? Money. I don’t need to "build in" profit margin to pay salaries and provide an ROI to investors. A lean team lets me offer the lowest prices.

• Practical Analytics. I have a background in analytics. Most competitors only provide text summaries. I can lean on my experience to also provide numbers. SolidlyAI can grade meetings and analyze sentiment.

• Communication Skills. This newsletter has honed my communication skills. As a result, I can build a clear, concise communication style into the AI summaries.

• Consulting and Tech Background. I have a background in both tech and consulting. SolidlyAI is for consulting teams. Why did I focus on consulting? Fewer people will be able to build tech that helps consultants.

No single one of these items is extraordinary on its own. Together, they set SolidlyAI apart.

Build Your Unfair Advantage

But what if you don’t feel like you have an unfair advantage yet? The good news is, your unfair advantage is something you can create. You aren’t born with it—you build it by living a life.

Your life is a journey of accumulating advantages. Every failure teaches you something new. Every success gives you confidence. Every challenge hones your skills. If you have a goal and no unfair advantage, your best bet is to build one. What would the next two years of your life need to look like to build an unfair advantage? Start there.

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Application: How to Stand Out in a Competitive World

Everyone has access to the same tools and information. The only thing that sets you apart is “you.” Your experiences create your unfair advantage. We find success when we align our unfair advantages with our goals. So, when you have a goal, design your life around creating your unfair advantage.

• If you’re a job seeker, pick roles where your unique experiences give you an edge. Or, create experiences that give you an edge for the role you want.

• If you’re a founder, build a company that solves a problem you know well. Or, build experience with the problem you want to solve.

If you don’t feel like you have an unfair advantage yet, that’s okay. Your unfair advantage is something you build over time. You can build it through unintentional experience. You can build it through intentional choice. Take a moment to jot down your goals. Identify your unique experiences. Add them up into an unfair advantage.

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders #UnfairAdvantage

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.

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What we leave behind

A confluence of life events has me thinking more about what I’ll leave behind. I hope I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, but when I do... what will I leave for the world?

The question of legacy is universal, yet personal. We all wonder at some point what will outlast us. Our work shapes the world. It is part of our legacy. But what are we leaving behind beyond our social media profiles?

Reflecting on legacy

Times have changed. Creating a legacy, in some ways, is easier than it used to be. Now, the internet lets our social media live on after we die. But will those things matter in 100 years?

Our social media profiles will persist. But they don't create lasting, positive change. Legacy goes beyond visibility. Legacy is about making a positive, lasting change.

Creating a positive and lasting change.

Legacy breaks down into subcategories. Knowing them helps you design your own legacy:

• Human impacts:

  • Physical: The changes you influenced in actions. Did you motivate others to change their behavior?

  • Emotional: How did you make people feel?

  • Ideological: Did you change how people think?

• Environmental impact: Did you impact nonhuman elements? How did it shape ecosystems, spaces, or resources?

These dimensions help me think through the long-term effects of my actions.

The universal desire for a positive legacy.

Most of us want to have a positive, lasting impact on the world. Humans have a deep desire to leave a meaningful legacy. Many of the things people dream of doing in life result in some form of legacy:

• Write a book that continues to entertain or inform.

• Build something that continues to help people.

• Be president so that history remembers your name.

• Raise a family that continues to carry your values/DNA forward.

• Drive philanthropic change for ripple effects.

The desire for legacy is a near-universal part of the human experience. The desire for legacy drives us to create, build, and influence others.

Leaving a legacy through your work

How does this apply to building a company? My company solves problems and improves lives. But what about the long term? What will I leave behind?

I try to think about both the short-term and long-term impacts of all the work I do.

• Building software. I ask myself: does this product have the potential to continue to help people in 5, 10, or 20 years? What would it need to look like for that to be true?

• Consulting work. Can the systems, advice, or strategies I provide lead to lasting change? Will my work lead to changes in their behavior long after the project ends? What do I need to do for that to be true?

"How can I create a long-term impact with this project?" Some projects won’t have that lasting impact, and that’s fine! It's about balance. Balance long-term impact with short-term needs.

I want part of my legacy to be to teach people to forge their own paths in life. Too many people don't believe they are ready to pursue their dreams. They waste too much time waiting for a confidence that never comes. The world is worse off when people shy away from pursuing what they care about. Fear of the unknown keeps them from taking that first step. Through A Founder's Life for Me, I hope that part of my legacy is to encourage others to make the leap. Pursue your dreams and, in doing so, leave your own lasting, positive impact on the world.

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Moving forward

In the end, legacy is about how the choices we make today ripple through the lives of others and the world around us. The legacy we leave is the sum of the meaningful, long-term changes we inspire.

I want to inspire you to be bold. I want to prove to you that you are ready to make your own mark. So that you, too, can craft your own legacy. What will you leave behind?

#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders #Legacy

By sharing what I've learned, I hope to teach people to forge their own paths in life. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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What Deadlock (the game) teaches us about startups

In a previous article, I shared the principles we can learn from Hades II and apply to building a company. For the last few weeks, I’ve been playing a new game, Deadlock, and it’s taught me a few valuable lessons that I wanted to share. Deadlock is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game where two teams compete to capture each other’s base. It’s fast-paced, tactical, and conveniently packed with insights that map directly to building a company.

You can’t skip the grind

In a MOBA like Deadlock, players begin with a clean slate. Your character starts at level one, and your goal is to level up as quickly as possible to gain an advantage over the opposing team. In the early game, the best way to do this is by defeating NPCs (non-player characters). It’s not glamorous, but it's essential. You build momentum slowly, working through tasks that feel repetitive and tedious. Ultimately, you have to be precise about when you transition from NPC farming to fighting other players.

This principle carries through to building a company: there’s no skipping the grind. Building a successful company demands the same early-game focus on repetitive, unsexy work—whether it’s cold calling, customer interviews, iterating on designs, or solving foundational problems that don’t make headlines. There’s always the temptation to skip ahead to the more exciting parts but, often, your focus is pulled away from the grind too early. You can’t rush the process. Mastering the basics is what prepares you for the bigger fights down the line.

Play to *your* strengths

In Deadlock, every player selects a character to play as and each character has a distinct role and play-style. Some characters are aggressive and thrive in close combat. Other characters stay at a distance, poking enemies with ranged attacks. Still others are built to support their teammates, healing and shielding them in battle.

I’ve always gravitated to the support roles, “Who can I play as who will help my teammates the most.” When I play characters that don’t line-up with this identity, I don’t play as well. If I play as:

• An aggressive character who requires taking huge risks → I typically shy away from taking the gambles that I need to make big plays happen.

• A character that excels at poking the enemy team from afar → I lose focus when a teammates need support. I rush in to help but I end up in the fray without a character that’s built for close quarter combat.

I’ve found this to be one of the game's most important lessons. When building a company, just like in Deadlock, success comes from understanding and embracing your own strengths.

When I play as a support character in games, my whole focus for the game is, “How can I help my teammates be there best selves?” If I’m playing with a teammate who excels at diving in and taking huge gambles, I try my best to create opportunities for them and keep them alive when they do take these risks. If I’m playing with a teammate who excels at doing damage from afar, I strive to keep the opposing team’s players distracted and far away from my teammate.

I want the company I’m building to reflect the same attitude, everywhere from pricing to the user experience. Every decision I make should be toward whatever helps my customers the most. Even seemingly arbitrary decisions like pricing—I’m reframing how I think away from “What do other people charge for similar services?” toward “What’s a sustainable price that will allow me to keep investing in making this a better product for my customers?”

In moments where I’ve tried on the “aggressive salesperson” hat or the “build something and see what happens” shoes, I’ve enjoyed the work far less than when I’m building something that actually benefits real people. Knowing who you are and where your strengths lie is critical, not just to success in a startup, but also to enjoying the journey.

Everybody has their own opinion on what’s “best” for you

In Deadlock, as you level up your character, you’re presented with different skills and upgrades to choose from. You can follow “build paths” that others recommend—guides that tell you which upgrades to acquire and in what order. Some players religiously follow these guides, assuming they provide the best path to success.

But here’s the thing: what works for someone else might not work for you. Your choice depends on how you want to play your character, who your teammates are, who you’re up against, and what the situation demands. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The same build that works wonders in one game can fall flat in another because the dynamics are different. In the end, you have to adapt your strategy based on your playstyle and the unique circumstances of each match.

The startup world is no different. Everyone has an opinion on what’s “best” for you and your company. From pricing models to growth strategies, you’ll be bombarded with advice from mentors, investors, and even well-meaning friends. Some of it will be invaluable, but some of it won’t apply to you at all. Just like in Deadlock, where the best strategy depends on the player, the best business advice depends on you, your strengths, and your specific business context.

For example, some founders thrive on rapid, aggressive scaling. They chase growth, take risks, and dive headfirst into new markets. Others, like me, prefer a more methodical, customer-focused approach. It’s tempting to look at successful companies and think, “That’s the path I should follow,” but the truth is, what works for one company doesn’t always translate to another. Success is about finding your own way, making decisions that align with your vision and strengths, and knowing when to disregard the noise.

Real victory comes when you stop trying to fit into someone else’s mold and start shaping your path based on what’s right for you.

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Ultimately, these lessons from Deadlock apply directly to the entrepreneurial journey: embrace the grind, play to your strengths, and trust your instinct. Building a company, like playing a competitive MOBA, is all about balance—balancing long-term goals with short-term tasks, balancing your unique strengths with the feedback you receive, and balancing when to listen to others or trust your gut.

Just as no two games of Deadlock are the same, no two startups follow the exact same path. The key is to learn from the experience, adjust your strategy, and keep pushing forward, all while remembering that success comes from perseverance, adaptability, and a willingness to forge your own path.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #DeadlockTheGame #Valve #VideoGames #MOBA

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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The #1 Secret About Success in Startups

In a previous article, I discussed The Psychological Impact of Social Media on Founders. I wrote about how social media can influence our perceptions, particularly when we see others showcasing their successes online. Today, I want to discuss a related topic: how so much of the content we read essentially markets “get rich quick” schemes disguised as advice.

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The Secret

If you’re reading this, then you probably fall into one of three categories:

1. You’re a regular reader of this blog (thanks for sticking around!),

2. You’re a friend or colleague curious about what I’ve been up to, or

3. You were enticed by the title of this article.

If you’re in that third group, congratulations! You’ve activated my trap card! The title of this article suggests I’m going to reveal some groundbreaking secret to success in startups, but the secret is: there is no secret.

Anyone on the internet who claims there’s a hidden key to success is either: someone who got lucky (and doesn’t realize it), or someone trying to sell you something.

Success isn’t easy, and despite the romanticized shortcuts we see promoted online, you’ll find that giving yourself the best chance at success requires patience, effort, and resilience.

Let’s Play a Game

Which of these article headlines would you click on?

Article Headline Game #1:

• A: “This One Piece of Advice Got Me to My First Million.”

• B: “Every Challenge I Faced Earning My First Million.”

Article Headline Game #2:

• A: “This Untold Secret Will Quadruple Your Marketing ROI in Minutes.”

• B: “The 26-Week Roadmap to Evaluate and Improve Your Marketing Efforts.”

Most of us would click on “A” in both cases. Even if we know that things won’t be that simple, it’s hard to resist the allure of an easy solution. As humans, it’s natural for us to seek the easy way out; we’re wired to seek large rewards with minimal effort.

Personally, I’d click on “A,” too! I’d read out of sheer curiosity… is their “#1 secret” helpful advice or a well-wrapped exaggeration?

This may be why those types of posts thrive. Some people are genuinely searching for a shortcut to success. Others, are there to see if their secret holds any value. In either case, the easy-win narrative hooks us.

Why I Don’t Believe Anything is Easy

While there may be short-term inefficiencies in markets or industries, there is no such thing as a long-term “free lunch.” Even when something appears easy and offers a huge payoff, it tends to self-correct over time. If there’s a large reward with minimal effort, people will rush in, and before long, that payoff gets diluted until it matches the effort required.

It’s like the gold rush of the 19th century. When word spread that gold was easily found in California’s rivers and streams, thousands of people flocked there hoping to get rich quick. At first, a few lucky folks did find gold with minimal effort. But as more and more people arrived, the easily accessible gold was quickly depleted. The latecomers had to dig deeper, invest more effort, and face tougher competition, and many ended up with nothing to show for their efforts.

If you’re reading about “easy money” on social media, the window of opportunity has already closed, just like arriving at the gold fields a few years too late. We’ll still hear success stories that imply otherwise: “This person is making over $100k a month by spending an hour a day on this one, simple thing.” These are the exceptions, not the rule.

Opportunities that seem too good to be true usually are, and by the time they hit the mainstream, the payoff has already been diluted.

How This Has Impacted Me

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received well-meaning suggestions over the years that sounded like easy fixes: “Why don’t you just try this?” The suggestion is always followed by anecdotal evidence or dollar figures supporting the idea/claim.

I’ve followed a few of these paths, only to find that the “payout” was far less than the investment of time and energy. Chasing shiny new opportunities can easily lead you off course. Instead of getting distracted by every new trend or the promise of easy success, you’re better off focusing on building something sustainable.

Implications for You

The next time you come across someone selling a quick fix, ask yourself these questions:

• What’s their motive?

• Are they trying to sell you something or build fame on social media?

• Are they genuinely trying to help you?

In a world filled with noise and empty promises, staying grounded is crucial. Most shortcuts are illusions. Success takes work, and while that may not be what you want to hear, it’s the truth. Keep the following in mind:

1. Plan for and expect moderate outcomes over long-time horizons. Focus on your input behaviors—consistent effort, learning, and resilience—rather than expecting huge outputs immediately. This attitude will help you stay motivated and realistic when results take time to manifest. For more on attitudes toward effective goal-setting, you can read Four Critical Components of Setting Great Goals (and linked below).

2. When new shiny opportunities come your way, find ways to evaluate the payoff and the effort with minimal upfront investment. Before committing significant resources, run small-scale tests to assess whether the opportunity is worth pursuing. This will help you avoid wasting time and energy on distractions. For inspiration on how to run these small-scale tests, you can read An Expensive Spark: Validating Before Investing In Your Ideas (and linked below).

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Nothing is easy. Long-lasting success is built through consistent effort, learning from failures, and remaining focused on your long-term vision. Instead of looking for shortcuts, you’re better off putting in the work. Embrace the journey, the challenges, and the rewards that come with perseverance.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #GetRichQuick

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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Value Tracking: The Key to Stronger Client Relationships and Professional Confidence

A couple of weeks ago, I started writing this article. As I wrote it, I realized that the core concept was to: “always keep the ‘so what’ of what you’re doing in mind.” And, I wanted to spend more time talking about that key concept before talking about value tracking. That’s when I wrote “The #1 Shortcut to Effective Communication.”

Today, I’ll dive deeper into the practice of value tracking and explore how it can significantly benefit you and your client relationships.

How value tracking benefits your client relationship

Value tracking is essentially the process of tying your work back to the “so what” of your client. What revenue are you driving? What costs are you lowering for them? How are you impacting their bottom line? These are the questions that value tracking answers.

When done correctly, value tracking should clearly demonstrate that your product or service is worth what the client is paying for it. It’s not just about showing off what you’ve done—it’s about quantifying the impact of your work in a way that resonates with your client’s business goals.

In fact, value tracking is directly tied to three of the “Four principles for successful, long-term client relationships.” By effectively explaining that your value exceeds the cost of what you offer, you’re building a foundation of trust. When clients can see, in concrete terms, how your work is benefiting them, they’re far more likely to continue the relationship long-term.

How value tracking benefits you

Value tracking isn’t just beneficial for your clients—it’s also valuable for you. One of the biggest challenges in any professional relationship is knowing when you can say “no.” There’s always pressure to deliver more value, or go the extra mile. But when do you feel comfortable stopping? When can you say, “I’ve done enough”?

One of the benefits I’ve seen from value tracking is that it helps alleviate this pressure. When you can quantify the value you’ve delivered, you gain confidence in your work. You know you’ve made a significant impact, and that allows you to draw clearer boundaries around your time and effort. This not only reduces the risk of burnout but also helps you maintain a more sustainable work-life balance.

Having value-oriented conversations with your clients increases the stability of your relationships. It helps retain clients longer because they see the continuous impact of your work. And if a client is considering canceling the contract, this often becomes clear earlier on, allowing you to address concerns before they escalate.

Another often overlooked benefit is that value tracking equips other people in your client’s organization with the information they need to advocate for you. You’re not always going to be in the room when decisions are made, but if you’ve done a good job of documenting and communicating the value you provide, others can carry that message forward. This reduces the amount of work you have to do later on to justify your role or your fees.

Methodology: Four Practical Tips for Value Tracking

Now that we’ve discussed the “why” of value tracking, let’s talk about the “how.” Implementing a value tracking framework doesn’t have to be complex, but you do need to be methodical.

1. Creating a Value Tracking Framework

Start by documenting the various workstreams you’ve worked on. Then, tie those worsktreams back to the client’s bottom-line. How did your actions lower costs? How did they increase revenue? Don’t just assert those benefits—explain the math behind them. You’ll need to make assumptions at times. It’s crucial to stay conservative with these assumptions. Overpromising can lead to distrust, which is the opposite of what you want. If the value is recurring, consider annualizing it or projecting the value over a period of 2-4 years to give your client a clearer picture of the long-term benefits.

2. Visual and Story-based Evidence

Not every decisions is made with this practical mindset. As I discussed in “Balancing Practicality with Showmanship,” your argument needs an emotional appeal as well. To tell that more emotional story, use stories, screenshots, and testimonials. Screenshots and stories provide tangible proof of your efforts and make your impact more real to the client. Pair these with testimonials from your client that justify the value you’ve provided. There’s nothing more persuasive than hearing directly from a satisfied customer.

3. Tools and Techniques

You don’t need complex software to track value. A simple Google Sheet can be incredibly effective for documenting your work. What matters most is consistency. It can be easy to forget about high-value initiatives as time passes. So, add to this Google Sheet every week or two with key workstreams that you’re focused on with your client. Documenting workstreams and estimating your value as-you-go will save you time overall and help you remember every valuable workstream you delivered.

4. Regular Reviews

For longer-term contracts (six months or more), set up a meeting once per quarter to review your value tracking with your client. This keeps the conversation ongoing and ensures that you’re always aligned with the client’s goals. It also provides an opportunity to adjust your strategy if necessary, ensuring that you’re focusing on the right things in partnership with your client.

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Value tracking is more than just a tool—it’s an attitude toward how to think about your work. It’s about continually tying your work back to the “so what” of your client and, in the process, gaining clarity and confidence in your own contributions. By implementing a structured approach to value tracking, you can strengthen client relationships, reduce your own stress, and ultimately build a more successful, sustainable business.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #ClientRelationships #ValueTracking #Renewals #Communication #EffectiveCommuniation

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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Balancing Practicality with Showmanship

My wife and I saw John Legend perform at Wolftrap National Park a few weeks ago. He recounted stories and sang the songs that got him to where he is today. He wore flashy clothes, spoke and performed theatrically, and carried himself with a level of showmanship that caught me off-guard.

How does this relate to my experiences as a founder? Well—I was reminded that my more practical communication style has a complement: showmanship.

Today, I’ll review both the practical and “showy” approaches to communicating about your company. I’ll share examples of how I’m learning to balance the two styles and the impact it has had on my company.

The Case for Practicality

I typically live on the practical end of the communication spectrum—I root my communication in realism, transparency, and straightforward value propositions.

Practicality appeals to the rational side of your audience, emphasizing the tangible benefits of your product or service. Practicality in marketing a company is about:

1. Building Trust: By being transparent and focusing on your product’s real-world benefits, you build credibility with your audience.

2. Appealing to the Pragmatic Buyer: Not every customer is swayed by flashy marketing. Many are looking for solutions to specific problems, and a practical communication approach focuses on explaining why your product is the best tool for the job.

3. Sustainable Growth: Practicality tends to attract customers who are more loyal and less likely to be swayed by the next big thing. Building a stable, committed customer base can lead to more sustainable growth.

Practicality works particularly well in industries that focus on trust and reliability—such as healthcare, finance, or B2B services. For example, a company offering an AI meeting notetaker solution might find that a practical, trust-building approach resonates more with potential clients than a flashy campaign that lacks substance.

The Case for Showmanship

I’ve never been one for showmanship. I’ve thought, “If my company solves a high-value problem, then that’s all I need to say.” But I’ve learned that putting on a show is often required, especially in the early stages of building your company.

Showmanship in marketing your company is about creating an experience, a narrative, or an image that captures the imagination of your audience. Where practicality appeals to the rational, showmanship appeals to the emotional by:

1. Creating Buzz: A well-crafted narrative or a visually stunning campaign can generate excitement and anticipation even before your product hits the market.

2. Building Emotional Connections: People don’t just buy products; they buy into ideas and emotions. Showmanship helps create a story that resonates at this more profound level.

Showmanship works well when selling B2C products or services. For example, a company offering AI-powered B2C content curation services might find that creating an emotional response through their marketing has a higher impact than focusing solely on time savings.

Finding the Balance

You shouldn’t need to choose between showmanship and practicality. Both communication styles influence every buying decision. At its core, a buying decision is influenced by three mindsets:

1. Pragmatic - What’s the ROI of the purchase I’m making?

   1. Example message appealing to this mindset: “Solidly’s AI notetaker saves you over an hour a day on notetaking.”

2. Emotional - How does/will this purchase make me feel?

   1. Example message appealing to this mindset: “SolidlyAI gives you the peace of mind to fully engage in every conversation, knowing nothing important will slip through the cracks.”

3. Social/Identity - Does this purchase align with how I see myself?

   1. Example message appealing to this mindset: “SolidlyAI empowers you to be an organized and confident client relationship leader.”

Practical communication appeals to the buyer’s pragmatic mindset, and showmanship appeals to the emotional and social mindsets. Every prospective buyer is different and requires different balances of the three. So, for maximum efficacy, marketing communication must appeal to all three mindsets, balancing showmanship and practicality. Here’s an example message from SolidlyAI that does that:

Solidly’s AI notetaker empowers you to be an organized, attentive, and confident client relationship leader. Our detail-oriented AI notetaker provides peace of mind, allowing you to focus on building meaningful client relationships. All while saving your team over an hour a day on notetaking and communication.

This final message draws the reader in with showmanship, painting a picture of who they’ll become and the emotions the product will inspire. It concludes with a practical message, highlighting that SolidlyAI will capture every detail and save time.

What’s the Impact?

In the early days, when SolidlyAI’s messaging was solely practical, the engagement time on our website was 22 seconds per session. Over time, as we’ve added more showmanship to our communication style, engagement has increased by nearly 4x to 82 seconds per session. The impact of these changes has taught me to marry showmanship with practicality in the company’s ongoing marketing communication.

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

At his recent concert, John Legend reminded me of the impact showmanship has on an audience. Showmanship ignites emotions and captivates an audience in ways practical communication can’t. Founders need to use both styles to build a company.

As founders, we need to create a compelling story that appeals to every aspect of the buyer's decision-making process by weaving practical value propositions together with engaging, emotionally resonant narratives. By making these changes to the SolidlyAI website, I’ve seen a nearly 4x increase in engagement.

I had previously believed showmanship and practicality to be opposing forces—swearing off showmanship in favor of practicality. Moving forward, I’m committing to a more balanced approach between these two styles. Showmanship and practicality are complementary tools that, when used together, can elevate our communication and, ultimately, our success.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #Communication #EffectiveCommuniation #Marketing

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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The #1 Shortcut to Effective Communication: “So What?”

After over 200 hours of writing these articles, one insight stands out: the most valuable edits happen when I ask myself, “So what?”—what does my reader genuinely need to hear?

Too often, these realizations come late. I might write an entire section, working to make the message clear and concise. But as I near the conclusion—wham—I realize the content wasn’t as helpful as I thought. The next step? “Highlight. Delete. Start over.” I’m now learning to force these “So what?” moments earlier and more often in everything I do.

Today, I’ll share how this learning has sharpened my communication across various channels, including Slack, email, meetings, blogs, and websites.

When You Know Your Audience (Slack, Email, Meetings)

For any communication, the first question is, “Who is my audience?” This may seem obvious—just check the "To" line—but understanding what they care about is the real challenge. Ask yourself not just what they want but why they want it. The deeper your understanding, the better your message will resonate.

With this knowledge, I focus on the takeaways I want my audience to walk away with. I spend time challenging these takeaways from the perspective of each member of my audience. Once I’m happy with the takeaways, I expand each key point into a full narrative. Finally, I cut any information my audience doesn’t nand I run spell check and my Grammarly app to quality control my writing.

This process may sound time-consuming, but it becomes second nature with practice. Here are some practical tips:

1. Audience Size vs. Length: Keep messages to larger audiences shorter. You can be more detailed with smaller audiences.

2. Different Contexts: Everyone should receive the same base message. If some of your audience doesn’t have certain context, provide it separately to avoid cluttering the main message.

3. Different “So Whats?”: Customizing messages based on audience segments may take more time upfront, but it saves work in the long run. Tailor your message for each group’s specific “So what?”.

4. Handling Follow-Ups: Anticipate follow-up questions but avoid overloading your message. Instead, provide resources like links or attachments where they can find answers.

These principles apply equally to meetings and verbal communication. Know your audience, understand what they care about, and tailor your message accordingly.

When You Don’t Know Your Audience (Blogs, Websites)

It’s often the case that you won’t know exactly who your audience is (think blogs and websites). Anybody can stumble onto these pages, and you don’t know who they are. I’ve found this to be a challenge.

When I can’t visualize my audience, I create user personas—profiles of potential readers. This practice is common in product design and marketing but often overlooked in other roles. Skipping this step was a significant oversight when I started building my company. Without knowing my audience, addressing what they cared about most was impossible.

Now, when putting a new product out there for an unknown audience, I spend a few minutes crafting personas. I consider who might read my blog or visit my website. I give them:

1. A first name

2. A job title and industry

3. A 3-5 sentence "About Me" section

4. A problem they need solving by what you offer

5. What frustrates them about their current process (or lack thereof)

For help, I’ve created a small, free app called Character Chameleon. If you want to try it yourself, input your product or service description, and it will generate five user personas for you.

Use these personas to focus your messages on the “So what?” that your audience cares about. Then, apply the same principles from “When you know your audience.”1

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Have you ever spent hours writing or building something, only to realize at the conclusion that it wasn’t valuable to your audience? You end up deleting everything and starting over, or giving up entirely.

Writing A Founder’s Life for Me over the past year has taught me to consider what’s valuable to an audience. We often overlook a critical step in putting a product out there (whether it’s writing or software): identifying your audience and understanding their priorities. You can’t make something valuable to people if you don’t know who they are.

When you don’t know your audience, create personas to guide your communication. Personas should be rooted in reality, but if you’re looking for a shortcut, you can always generate user personas with the free tool Character Chameleon and ask these personas to provide feedback on your communication. This process will save you from “Highlight. Delete. Start over.” moments and ensure your message lands effectively.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #Communication #EffectiveCommuniation #Writing

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar hurdles. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

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Three Operational Mistakes I Made with My First Startup

Now that I’m further along with my second company, I can comfortably reflect on my mistakes when building my first. There were some silly places where I invested my time and money. Today, I’ll share the three operational mistakes I made when I started my first company. If you ever find yourself on an entrepreneurial path, I hope sharing these mistakes saves you time and stress, ultimately allowing you to focus on the things that really matter.

#1 — Don’t be overly concerned about idea theft

When I started my first company, Game Boost Analytics (GBA), I researched patent law and the patent application process. I wrote NDAs and required people to sign them before they learned more. All of this took my time and focus away from building a good product.

With GBA, I was worried about telling too many people about the idea. Now, I’ll share my ideas with anyone. What changed? I realized that:

1. Most other people are too busy to steal your idea. Nobody cares enough. They have their own lives and it’s highly unlikely they’re going to uproot their lives to work on your idea. So, sharing your idea isn’t high risk.

2. Most ideas have been tried before. Nearly 10 billion other humans have existed on the planet Earth in the last 20 years, many of them were/are equally capable of coming up with the same idea. The odds that you are the only one who’s had this idea are slim. So, your idea is not unique and +1 person knowing about it typically won’t hurt.

3. Success is about the execution. Given #2, if your idea is good and doesn’t exist, it’s because other people have failed. This is because 1) it wasn’t possible until recently, and nobody has succeeded yet, or 2) people have failed to execute in the right way. In either case, it comes down to execution. If you believe you’re going to turn your idea into reality, you have to also believe you will execute faster or better than anyone else. What’s the harm in adding +1 person to the competition?

4. Most ideas don’t emerge fully formed. Airbnb started as a couch-surfing app, and Amazon started with books. Most companies have evolved into what they are now. Sharing your idea with someone is like sharing the first page of a book. It doesn’t matter if they steal it; what really matters is what you do with the rest of the pages.

If you agree with any or all of the above, then save yourself time and mental energy… don’t be overly protective of something that doesn’t need your protection.

#2 — Don’t set up an LLC that’s too specific

When I started GBA, I created an LLC called “Game Boost Analytics.” The original idea for GBA was to use analytics to help people improve their video game skills, so the name felt apropos. As my cofounder and I built GBA, the idea evolved based on the feedback we heard from users. The idea became more about showing people video clips of their in-game performance and less about showing them numbers and data. We clung to the original idea, “We are an analytics company, not a highlight reel company.” Partially, we felt stuck to our original idea because of our name. As a result, we wasted valuable time lingering on analytics when people wanted video.

Learning from that mistake, I’ve created a more general LLC for all my future ideas. The legal name for my current company is “Alek Hagopian Software & Services LLC.” This gives me a general legal name under which I can operate multiple businesses, including my independent consulting work and software startups. For each business, I can spin up a website and tie the website to my LLC in the footer (see SolidlyAI or WatchdogAI for examples).

#3 — Don’t worry about intermingling finances

After creating the LLC, I opened a business credit card and bank account when I started GBA. There were definite benefits to this, including getting nice perks designed for software startups (we used Brex), but the benefits didn’t outweigh the costs as dramatically as I thought they would:

1. Managing multiple accounts didn’t save me as much time as I imagined, because I was constantly moving money between my personal and business accounts.

2. I took on additional stress of maximizing the perks I received, “Should I wait to using these AWS credits? Which website hosting vendor will I get the most cost-savings with?”

Again, none of this mattered in the end. The decision to split my finances up saved me some money and kept my finances a little more organized. But, I spent too much time trying to squeeze out every bit of rewards-portal-cost-savings. I even spent days migrating platforms to take advantage of small subscription savings (e.g., $10/month).

With Alek Hagopian Software & Services LLC, I’ve left everything intermingled for over a year and it’s been totally fine. All I do now is take 5 minutes every week to review my “money in” and “money out” on my existing accounts, adding it all to a simple spreadsheet so I don’t end up with too much accounting work at the year’s end. This approach has kept things streamlined and saved me from falling into the same traps as we did with GBA.1

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Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

I wish I could go back in time and give myself these three pieces of operational advice when I started my first company:

1. Don’t be overly concerned about idea theft

2. Don’t set up an LLC that’s too specific

3. Don’t worry about intermingling finances

This advice would have saved me a lot of time and stress, helping me focus more of my energy on building the right product.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #Operations #StartupOperations #PersonalFinance

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar hurdles. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.

You Need to be at the Top of the Pyramid

It’s amazing how quickly you can lose your drive to succeed. Over the past two years of building my company, most of the time, I’ve had the drive to push through the uncertainties of a founder’s life. But there were a handful of days where I struggled to find that drive. I've struggled to maintain my motivation whenever my “baser needs,” according to Maslow’s hierarchy (depicted below), aren’t fulfilled. Today, I’ll share stories about my experience tumbling down the pyramid and how I climbed back up.

Blizzards

In early 2023, my wife and I lived in a redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It was an awesome place to live; we love the outdoors and I generally dislike being around other people. But in early 2023, we woke up in the night to the loudest thunder we’d ever heard. We looked out our bedroom window to discover it wasn’t thunder; we were hearing untested redwood trees crumbling under the weight of falling snow. We were getting hit by a massive snow storm… unusual for California.

We lived in the middle of hundreds of these redwood trees. On most days, we appreciated their natural beauty. On this night, we respected (and feared) their destructive capability. At any point a tree could decide, “I’ve had enough of this snow” and fallen on our house. Redwoods are huge. If a tree fell on our house at the wrong angle, we’d be toast. That night, my fiancé, dog, and I went down to the garage to sleep in the car. Sleeping in a metal box with wheels in the basement felt like the right decision at the time.

Fortunately, we woke up the next morning unscathed.1 We took inventory of the house. Some trees had fallen in the yard and others had precariously leaned in our direction, but we were through the worst of it. Now to deal with the aftermath… we trudged through feet of snow on our morning dog walk and got the lay of the land. Trees rested on power lines. A neighbor had accidentally driven their car off the road in the night. A power pole had literally split in two, the top half suspended over the road supported by the still-intact cables.

We checked the electricity and internet outage map. Pretty much everywhere was red so we knew it would be a while before they got to us. Our landlord had a generator on the property and we had enough gas to power the house for 24 hours. We didn’t know when it would be safe to drive to town and get more gas.

Literally over night, we’d fallen to the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid. Time to focus on building my company..? Not a chance. We set a schedule for when we’d run the generator, optimizing for keeping our food from spoiling. Ultimately, we survived. After a few days, we were able to get the car down to town to acquire more food and generator fuel. Our electricity and internet didn’t come back online for about three weeks, but we made due by running the generator, tethering to our phones, and frequenting coffee shops.

Bank Accounts

In “The Dark Side of the Fo—under's Life: Uncertainty,” I shared my experiences dealing with uncertain paychecks.

There have been several times over the last two years when I’ve stared at the possibility of a $0 paycheck or watched my bank account swiftly flow down the drain.

Whenever I’ve dealt with this financial uncertainty, I’ve doubted myself. At times like this, I’ve struggled to focus on just building my company. I’ve explored job postings and updated my resume. Fortunately, the strategies I outlined in “The Dark Side of the Fo—under's Life: Uncertainty” have helped to carry me through.

Broken Toes

Earlier this year, I’ve took a less dramatic trip to the bottom the pyramid. It was January 2024, and I was gearing up to watch a football game. I hadn’t watched much football over the last few years, so I was excited to watch my first game in a while. I plopped down on the couch and flipped on the game. I watched the kickoff and realized my rookie mistake, “You know what would go great with a football game… a bowl of chips!” I started the not-so-long walk from the couch to the kitchen and retrieved the chips. I quickly strode into the family room to make sure I didn’t miss anything and **whack** my right foot slammed into an ottoman. You’d think I’d have been more careful after the meatball incident of 2014!

The next day I limped around the house and, for whatever reason, grabbed my toe with two fingers to move it around and see what hurt. It was either broken or fractured. I maintained a limp for a couple of weeks.

As I limped through life, my motivation to work on hard problems also bottomed out. I did what was required for my existing clients, but I struggled to work on the problems with questionable, longer-term payoffs.

Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

How would you motivate yourself to build a company when you’re concerned about food, shelter, or your physical well-being? In my experience, you can’t. And, that’s OK.

Whether it’s an act of mother nature or your own idiocy, we all end up in situations where our base needs are unfulfilled. In these moments, it’s hard to motivate yourself to solve hard problems. The best thing you can do is stay the course. Understand why you feel the way you do (e.g., “I broke my toe”). And, if it’s a temporary state-change, don’t give up on your long-term goals based on solely that feeling.

#EntrepreneurLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployment #BusinessChallenges #StartupJourney #StartupLife #Bootstrapping #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FoundersJourney #Perseverance #Persistance #HierarchyOfNeeds

By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar hurdles. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.