Founder Reality · George Pu
What building companies actually looks like.
Essays and letters on what AI changes about building, working and owning things. Practical tools to work through your own decisions.
Start here
Three ways into the publication: ownership, judgment and changing your mind.
EssayPublished
I'm Afraid to Take a Vacation
Start with the gap between owning a company and having the freedom to step away from it.
EssayPublished
The parts of AI I could no longer delegate
Then consider what a founder needs to understand before trusting work delegated to AI.
LetterOriginally published Published on FR
I Got Locked Out of Frontier AI. It Cost Me $4.
A letter about an experience that challenged George’s ownership thesis, with the later access context preserved.
Latest essays
Recent essays on building, working and owning things.
EssayPublished
I'm Afraid to Take a Vacation
Start with the gap between owning a company and having the freedom to step away from it.
EssayPublished
My Coding Agent Shouldn't Have a Boss
Claude Code is one of the best products I use. That is exactly why realizing how little of it I controlled became uncomfortable.
EssayPublished
The parts of AI I could no longer delegate
Then consider what a founder needs to understand before trusting work delegated to AI.
EssayPublished
I am not afraid of failure. I am afraid of becoming irrelevant.
Failure feels survivable. The harder fear is spending an important period in history building something that doesn't matter - and not knowing whether that…
EssayPublished
I have stopped knowing what a productive day feels like
A personal account of producing more while finding it harder to know when the day’s work is enough.
Find your next read
Work and AI
How AI changes the working day, from faster output to the judgment and review that still need people.
EssayPublished
I have stopped knowing what a productive day feels like
A personal account of producing more while finding it harder to know when the day’s work is enough.
EssayPublished
The parts of AI I could no longer delegate
Then consider what a founder needs to understand before trusting work delegated to AI.
Money and options
Personal perspectives on money, obligations and risk.
EssayPublished
I'm Done Pretending I Know My Net Worth
George’s February account of removing a paper valuation from his profile and focusing on cash flow and expenses.
EssayPublished
I'm Starting to Write About Money
George’s April introduction to writing about financial products, personal choices and the numbers behind them.
Added to the archive
Earlier letters now available here. Original dates and editorial context are preserved.
LetterOriginally published Published on FR
Meet Vinci
George’s June launch letter about building an AI people could own. Includes context on the launch promises and later terms.
LetterOriginally published Published on FR
The Day the Frontier Got Pulled
A June letter about access to frontier AI, with dated context on the suspension and restoration.
LetterOriginally published Published on FR
I Got Locked Out of Frontier AI. It Cost Me $4.
A letter about an experience that challenged George’s ownership thesis, with the later access context preserved.
What are you working through?
A reading path, a worksheet and tools for the next decision.
All free resources →Use your own numbers
Startup Runway Calculator
Estimate cash runway from expenses, income, reserves and buffers. Compare scenarios using your own assumptions.
Consulting Pricing Calculator
Explore project pricing from your revenue goal, client capacity and estimated client value. The suggested range uses illustrative multipliers.
Revenue Concentration Worksheet
Measure customer or platform revenue shares and compare cash runway in a loss scenario, with explicit reserves and monthly units.
The person behind the publication
George is the founder of SimpleDirect, an independent Canadian AI lab. Founder Reality is where he writes about the decisions, questions and changing beliefs behind the work.
New essays and letters by email
When I have something worth sending. Free to read, with nothing to buy.
Read the published letters →