From the field · Essays

Essays

Candid accounts of building, closing and rebuilding companies. Decisions, mistakes and changing beliefs, alongside essays on ownership and technological change.

George Pu
George Pu
Founder of SimpleDirect, an independent Canadian AI lab.
Building in Public vs. Building in Private (The Truth About Transparency)

Building in Public vs. Building in Private (The Truth About Transparency)

Published August 24th, 2025 • Based on Founder Reality Episode 8 Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Everyone's telling you to build in public. Share your revenue, your struggles, your team changes. Document everything. I'm calling bullshit. Most "building in public" is just startup theater wrapped in better marketing. And I'm going to show you why - using my own expensive lessons about what to share, wh

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Stop Learning About Startups and Just Start One

Stop Learning About Startups and Just Start One

Published August 22nd, 2025 • Based on Founder Reality Episode 7 Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube I need to tell you about my three spectacular startup failures - and why they were worth more than every business book I've ever read. Before SimpleDirect worked, I failed three times. Each failure was humiliating, expensive, and taught me lessons I couldn't have learned any other way. Here's the uncomfort

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I Tried Vibe Coding for 6 Months and Nearly Destroyed My Products

I Tried Vibe Coding for 6 Months and Nearly Destroyed My Products

Published August 21st, 2025 • Based on Founder Reality Episode 6 Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Today I'm going to tell you about one of my most expensive mistakes this year - and why it might save your business from a similar disaster. I fell hard for "vibe coding." If you haven't heard the term, it basically means using AI to code based on vibes rather than understanding. You know what you want, AI

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Simplicity Wins in an AI-First World (And Why Your Complicated Plan is Probably Wrong)

Simplicity Wins in an AI-First World (And Why Your Complicated Plan is Probably Wrong)

Published August 19th, 2025 • 23 minutes Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Today I realized I was just building expensive complexity that nobody needed. This is the story of how simplicity became my competitive advantage in an AI-first world where everyone can build everything. The $100K+ Quant Trading Disaster Back in 2020, my friends and I decided to open ANC as a quantitative trading firm. The pla

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Hit 25K Followers (And Why I Barely Try)

Hit 25K Followers (And Why I Barely Try)

Published August 16th, 2025 • 11 minutes Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Hit 25,000 Twitter followers this week. Feels surreal because I barely put any time into it. I don't even have Twitter on my phone. Have an extension that blocks it so I don't get addicted. Only check it on desktop once in a while. If you DM me and I don't reply for days, that's why. The Thing That Doesn't Matter Most Here's

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Work Shouldn't Feel Like Work (And Why I Just Said No to $5 Million)

Work Shouldn't Feel Like Work (And Why I Just Said No to $5 Million)

Published August 15th, 2025 • 25 minutes Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube I just said no to $3-5 million. Partnership came in last week. Legitimate opportunity. Two years of 'some grinding and minimum work' for life-changing money. My spreadsheet said yes. My gut said absolutely not. For the first time in my founder journey, I listened to my gut. Here's why that was the smartest business decision I'v

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Why Remote Work is Killing Your Startup (And Your Sanity)

Why Remote Work is Killing Your Startup (And Your Sanity)

Published August 13th, 2025 • 24 minutes Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube The Remote Work Obsession Has Gone Too Far San Francisco real estate is back. New York City is back. But the tech community is still obsessed with remote work - "work from anywhere," digital nomad life, "the future is distributed." Here's my controversial take: Remote work might be killing your tech startup. I know this is cont

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Why Co-founders Are Overrated (And AI Changes Everything)

Why Co-founders Are Overrated (And AI Changes Everything)

Published August 11th, 2025 • 19 minutes Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Key Takeaways 1. Co-founders create coordination overhead that can kill startups 2. AI tools eliminate most traditional reasons for needing co-founders 3. Speed of execution is your biggest advantage in 2025 4. Equal equity rarely reflects equal contribution over time 5. Decision-making by consensus is startup suicide 6. Co

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Why I'm Starting The Founder Reality Podcast (And Why Most Founder Content is BS)

Why I'm Starting The Founder Reality Podcast (And Why Most Founder Content is BS)

Published August 9th, 2025 • 17 minutes Lost a major partnership at 8pm. Pivoted our entire strategy by morning. This is founder reality - not the highlight reel you see on LinkedIn. Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube Main Arguments * Most founder advice comes from people who've never founded anything - VCs with MBAs, consultants who've never taken real risk * Startup theatre vs. substance - Everyone'

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Introducing Founder Reality: Building a Community of Authentic Builders

Introducing Founder Reality: Building a Community of Authentic Builders

I envision Founder Reality as a place where builders help builders grow. Not through generic advice, but through shared real experiences and open-sourcing our frameworks together.

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