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Diagram showing stages of AI startup ecosystem including idea, funding, development, launch, growth, and revenue

The Builder’s Bet

I’ve spent 15+ years building things inside other people’s companies. This week I started building one of my own. It’s called Aqen.ai. You bring the idea. Aqen brings everything else…

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One-Person Companies Are a Forcing Function, Not a Fad

Every few months someone posts a screenshot of a one-person company doing a million dollars a year. The replies split clean in half. One side calls it the…

Futuristic city at night with neon signs, data pipelines connecting city hall and neural core, people with umbrellas.

I Trained a Small Language Model on My City’s Government Documents

A few weeks ago I shipped a phone app that lets residents measure the speed of cars on their street. The thing I learned building it wasn’t about…

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The Non-Product Surface Area

Every time I’ve watched a company get built from the inside, the same thing happens. The founders pick a product direction, start shipping, and for a few quarters…

Multiple digital power tools with glowing displays arranged on a cluttered workbench under neon lighting

The Lowe’s Tool Shelf Problem

Or: why knowing every new AI tool is the wrong flex I was at Lowe’s last weekend staring at the oscillating multi-tool wall. Fourteen variants. Corded, cordless, brushless,…

The Org Chart Is Flattening & Nobody Has a Replacement

Two things happened last week that look unrelated but aren’t. JPMorgan told its 65,000 engineers and technologists that AI tool usage is now part of their performance reviews.…

I Vibe Coded a Civic Tool

Everyone’s vibe coding the next todo app. The next AI wrapper. The next SaaS dashboard that solves a problem three other SaaS dashboards already solved. I vibe coded…

“Tokenmaxxing” Is Lines-of-Code Thinking for the Agentic Era

Silicon Valley has a new competitive sport, and it’s exactly the mistake you think it is. The New York Times reported last week that engineers at Meta, OpenAI,…

Your AI Notetaker Is the Biggest Security Decision You’re Not Making

Every engineering leader I know is running at least one AI meeting recorder. Fathom, Otter, Fireflies, Granola — they show up in your Zoom call, they transcribe everything,…

Minutes Added To Workforce

Every company I’ve talked to in the last two quarters is asking the same question about AI: what’s the ROI? The instinct is to measure AI value in cost…

The notebook, in your inbox.

The notebook, in your inbox. Every Tuesday, one essay on AI implementation, engineering leadership, or the operator-to-founder transition. No digests, no roundups, no AI-generated news — just the ideas I'm actually working through.