Candid accounts of building, closing and rebuilding companies. Decisions, mistakes and changing beliefs, alongside essays on ownership and technological change.
No paywalls. No courses. No upsells. Nothing. Everything I publish on Founder Reality — every essay, every video, every podcast episode — is free and will stay free. I'm making this commitment publicly so I can't walk it back. Here's why. The Internet Broke Trust Over the past decade, the playbook for building an audience became obvious: give away free content, build an email list, sell a course. Every creator figured it out
In an AI world, you don't hire for roles. You hire for people. The old model is dead: Define role → list requirements → find matching person → slot them in for years. The new model: Find interesting person → understand who they are → figure out their role based on what's needed. Here's why this shift matters, and how to hire for the person you'll actually work with. The Old Model Is Dead The traditional hiring process: 1.
The gap between knowledgeable AI users and blind prompters starts small but becomes Himalayan. Day 1: Both get working prototypes. Difference maybe 10%. Day 100: One has shipped 100 bad decisions, the other has guided 100 good ones. Difference maybe 1000%. This isn't about coding ability. It's about the difference between using AI as a tool versus being used by AI as a tool. Here's why domain knowledge still matters鈥攁nd how th
Your job title is a cage. Losing it is liberation. For six years, "Founder" defined me. It was my identity, my worth, my answer to "what do you do?" Then I deleted it from my Twitter bio. What happened next surprised me: I became more free, more authentic, and ironically more successful than when I was desperately trying to live up to the label. Here's why your job title might be the biggest obstacle to becoming who you actual
Using AI for execution is leverage. Using AI for decisions is surrendering control. Most founders think they're getting smarter by consulting AI on every business decision. Actually, they're outsourcing their stress without improving their judgment. And slowly, imperceptibly, they're letting AI run their business instead of the other way around. Here's how to tell if you're being run—and how to take back control. The Executio
End of 2019. Arashdeep's basement near campus. Trying to make music together on Macbooks. I looked at him and said: "What about building software together? Building an app, building something that's truly amazing and that can potentially change our lives. But most importantly, it doesn't matter if it fails or makes it through鈥攚e'd have something that we can talk about, that can help us in our career journey regardless of what we
I built my life around the Sovereign Individual thesis. Then COVID closed borders in 5 days and states started tracking dentist visits. A revision.
A few years ago I pitched a VC in Menlo Park. Their second-to-last question: "You're working on two companies at the same time. How does that work? Aren't you unfocused?" I explained one was an experiment while I spent most of my time on SimpleDirect. They passed. I could have taken ANC off my profile. I didn't. Other pitches, same question came up. Podcast appearances, same thing. "How do you stay focused?" The assumption beh
I got lied to a lot when I started. Took me years to realize that's just what happens when you're young, have money to spend, and can't tell the difference between confidence and competence. My BS detector needed training. The only way to train it was getting burned. The Education When networking was still a thing in my world, I'd go to events and meet people. Everyone looked impressive. Everyone had something to say. I had
"Quit your job and start a company." "Drop out." "Bet on yourself." I'm telling you: that advice is from a game that ended.
I've been lucky. I've also been unlucky. I've lost $300K on a quant team that produced nothing. I've made money on businesses that worked despite my mistakes.
I just moved into a house, which means I'm now responsible for clearing the driveway. Every few days, same routine.
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