Enshittification Is a Market Inefficiency
Every company that squeezes its users creates an opening for someone who doesn't. That's not idealism. That's economics.
• 11 min read •
ethicsbusiness strategy
Founder Perspective
Founder Perspective
Business thinking, entrepreneurship, and strategic decisions
Why Your SaaS Has Zero Users (It's Not Your Product)
Built an app nobody uses? The problem isn't your code or your pricing. It's that you don't actually understand the problem you're trying to solve.
• 14 min read •
domain-expertisestartups
Ethics Is a Feature
In a world of rug pulls and enshittification, actually caring about people isn't naive. It's the most durable competitive advantage you can build.
• 12 min read •
ethicsfounder advice
The Spec Work Trap
Why asking capable people to work for free doesn't work, what it signals about the person asking, and how to respond professionally.
• 9 min read •
startupsequity
Looking for a Technical Cofounder Is Usually a Red Flag
Written for builders. When somebody asks you to be their technical cofounder, the request tells you what they think your work is worth. How to read it.
• 9 min read •
startupstechnical cofounder
The Equity Tell
If startup equity is so valuable, why does it only flow one direction? The answer reveals everything about what that equity is actually worth.
• 8 min read •
startupsequity
The Job Posting That Doesn't Exist
That CTO role you're applying for might not be a real job. Here's how to recognize deal flow harvesting disguised as employment.
• 8 min read •
startupsjob search
The Startup Industrial Complex
The startup ecosystem has become a dream factory that profits from founders, not businesses. Here's how to see through it.
• 19 min read •
startupsentrepreneurship
Luck Is Real (And It's Not a Strategy)
Success requires luck, but luck isn't random. It compounds on capability. The goal isn't to get lucky. It's to become someone luck can work with.
• 8 min read •
founder advicesuccess
The Many Hats Hypothesis
The best way to learn your business is to do every job yourself. Not forever, but first. Direct experience teaches what delegation can't.
• 8 min read •
founder advicebootstrapping
Your Startup Doesn't Have to Be Software
The tech startup narrative dominates, but software isn't the answer for everyone. Without a tech background, it might be the hardest path, not the smartest.
• 8 min read •
startup strategyfounder advice
The Question Nobody Asks: Why You?
Founders obsess over market opportunities but skip the most important question: why are you the right person to build this? Fit matters more than opportunity.
• 8 min read •
founder-market fitstartup strategy
Focus Beats FOMO Every Time
Chasing trends and imitating competitors is a losing strategy. The founders who win choose carefully, commit fully, and compound effort over years.
• 7 min read •
startup strategyfounder advice
Amazon Listened to Me
Amazon shipped a feature I had publicly asked for two years earlier. A short note on what it feels like when a good idea finally lands somewhere.
• 4 min read
Surviving Web Design Projects: Beware the Spoiler
Every web design project has someone who can derail it late. How to spot the spoiler early and structure work so one person cannot sink the project.
• 9 min read
The Impermanence of Modern Communication
Social media made communication constant and disposable at the same time. A look at what we quietly gave up when everything became a feed.
• 4 min read
Three Pillars of Creative Projects
After enough creative projects you notice what separates the ones that work from the ones that do not. Three things that consistently decide it.
• 9 min read •
business
All Websites are Marketing Projects
Clients arrive with ambitious visions for their website. The uncomfortable truth is that every website is a marketing project, whatever else it is.
• 4 min read •
businessmarketing
The Four Big Questions
Four questions that drive most of the work on any design project, and why answering them early prevents the expensive kind of disagreement later.
• 9 min read •
businesscontent
Mind the Recoil
A candidate looked perfect on paper and said all the right things. On the hiring instinct that fires late, and why you should listen when it does.
• 6 min read •
business
How to Hire a Freelancer
How to hire a freelancer without getting burned. What to ask, what to check, and the warning signs that tend to show up before the money does.
• 8 min read •
businessfreelancers
The Open-Source Ethos: Paying it Forward
What the Obama campaign did with its software raised a real question about giving work away. On the open-source ethos and why paying it forward pays.
• 5 min read •
business
Dear Amazon: Why Doesn't This Exist?
Wanting a product nobody has built yet is uncomfortable, and it is also where most good ideas start. On trusting your own unmet needs.
• 4 min read
It's Hard to Start
Finishing is easier than starting, at least for me. On why personal projects stall at the very beginning and what actually breaks the deadlock.
• 8 min read
What Are You Not Doing?
Creative people get stuck in ruts. The most useful question is not what to do next, it is what you have quietly stopped doing without noticing.
• 5 min read •
businessweb design
You Can't Shrink Your Way Out of a Shrinking Problem
Small businesses under pressure often cut their way toward collapse. Why shrinking is rarely a strategy and what to do when revenue is falling.
• 5 min read •
business
On Quoting High
A designer told me he had quoted a number that scared him. On pricing your work honestly, and what quoting too low actually ends up costing you.
• 4 min read •
web design
Natural Content Marketing
Content marketing works when you have something to say and fails when you do not. On writing that earns attention instead of manufacturing it.
• 5 min read •
marketing
Just Be Decent
The secret to winning business turned out to be embarrassingly simple: be decent to people. Why professional courtesy is still a competitive edge.
• 4 min read
Embracing Your Preferences
When your job description shifts with every client, your preferences are the thing that stays constant. On knowing what work you actually want.
• 4 min read
Right Now is Awesome
It is easy to romanticize some other era of building things. A short argument that the tools and opportunities available right now are remarkable.
• 3 min read
31 articles in Founder Perspective