Founder Reality
Archive
Earlier writing, books and projects from Founder Reality. These pieces capture my views and circumstances at the time. You can also browse all essays in publication order.
Earlier writing
Why We Started With Character
This was George’s character-first launch thesis; later writing records changes in product and model direction.
Published
We Are No Longer Building a Canadian Legal AI Model
This records the legal-model roadmap and why George moved away from it.
Published
We Asked Our 4B Legal AI 10 Questions. It Invented 7 Cases.
This is the failure report from the small legal-model experiment, including the roadmap George had at the time.
Published
Closed Orchestrators Will Commoditize. Open Ones Will Compound.
This records George’s open-orchestration idea and the reference implementation he hoped to build.
Published
What fine-tuning actually costs (it's not what you think)
These were estimates for a planned training run; they do not record completed spending.
Published
Why I'm fine-tuning a small model (and why it runs on your laptop)
This was the small-model plan before training started, with a roadmap George expected to revise.
Published
GPU Cloud Shopping in Canada: What's Actually Available
This captures the hardware advertised and the account approvals George received during that procurement search.
Published
We're Shutting Down Our Cloud-Hosted Apps
This records the cloud-hosted product shutdown and the exceptions and repository plans discussed during that transition.
Published
I Am My Hedge Fund
This is George’s quant-experiment postmortem and investing perspective from that period.
Published
I Sold Everything in One Hour
This records George’s portfolio sale and the forecasts he made at the time.
Published
Compounding Is Not the Eighth Wonder of the World
This records George’s move from compounding toward cash runway, with the allocations and comparisons he was considering then.
Published
I Failed On That Podcast
This is George’s account of the podcast experiment and how it changed his mind about his earlier advice.
Published
The 14 → 5 Layoff That Taught Me About AI and Teams
This records the team reduction, finances and tradeoffs George observed at the time.
Published
Survival Mode
This records the payroll and product decisions George made during that survival-mode phase.
Published
The Sovereign Individual Is Dead
This is George’s response to The Sovereign Individual and his change of mind about optionality.
Published
The Risk Calculus Changed
This records George’s rethink of his leap-and-dropout advice during the product transition.
Published
When I Mistook Good Conditions for Skill
This is George’s reflection on quant losses and the market conditions he was facing then.
Published
I Turned Off Thousands in MRR This Week
This records George’s decision to stop renewals and simplify the product.
Published
I'm Underperforming the S&P 500 (And Publishing It Anyway)
The performance figures capture George’s portfolio at that point in time.
Published
Head of R&D for My Own Life
This records the experiments and product decisions of that period. The courses and jurisdiction moves were plans, with no completed launch or move established here.
Published
I Lost $300K Being Smart
This records the quant-loss account and portfolio launch. The promise of live portfolio data belongs to that announcement; its current availability is not established here.
Published
One Brand
This records a phase of brand consolidation and the business model George was planning then.
Published
Capital, Code and Audience: A Historical Five-Person Team
This describes the small team, cofounder roles and competitive comparisons from that stage of the company.
Published
Why I Changed My Mind About Multiple Products (And You Should Too)
This records George’s change of mind about focus and running multiple products.
Published
How to Know When to Pivot vs. Shut Down Your Startup (The 8am Text That Saved My Company)
This records the move from a planned shutdown to a 90-day financing experiment. The targets were a plan for that period.
Published
My Historical Portfolio Postmortem: When I Chose Multiple Bets
This is George’s postmortem on balancing a portfolio of experiments with focus, as he saw it then.
Published
A Historical Financing Sunset Proposal and Its Later Outcome
This records the financing-startup shutdown and the plan George had at that stage.
Published
Why I Question One-Size-Fits-All Founder Location Advice
This records George’s response to relocation and venture-capital advice from an independent founder’s perspective.
Published
Building in Public vs. Building in Private (The Truth About Transparency)
This records George’s thinking about what to share publicly and when.
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Stop Learning About Startups and Just Start One
This is George’s account of learning, building and the mistakes he made in those earlier projects.
Published
My Historical Simplicity Experiment in Investing and Products
This records George’s thinking about simplicity, quant experiments, investing and focus at that time.
Published
Hit 25K Followers (And Why I Barely Try)
This records an audience milestone and the habits George was trying. Future content income was a possibility he was considering.
Published
Why I Declined a Partnership That Felt Misaligned
This records the partnership and lending decision as George understood it at publication.
Published
Why Co-founders Are Overrated (And AI Changes Everything)
This records the staffing and partnership arrangements from that cofounder episode.
Published
Introducing Founder Reality: Building a Community of Authentic Builders
This was the community launch announcement. Its three-times-weekly schedule and other promises refer to that launch; current availability is not established here.
Published
All essays · All newsletter copies
Earlier tools
Explore earlier tools with their original assumptions explained on each page.