At the end of every year, I write down the major lessons I've learned from building my company and pursuing what is arguably the hardest career path humanity has ever created: entrepreneurship. I take inspiration for this blog from Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang (we actually got sushi a couple of months ago, which was definitely one of the highlights of my year). Enjoy.
1. Hardcore
Honestly, fuck work life balance. There is no way I can hang out with my friends every day and build something that will affect humanity. Adopting a few components from the hardcore mindset really helped. I turned my apartment into an office. I sleep there, I shower there, and I work there. That's it. Beyond that, I operate with a maniacal sense of urgency. Every day feels like we're behind, and that pressure keeps me sharp. Being a solo founder means I get to experience the frontline every single day. I know every part of our product, every bug, every user complaint. When something breaks, I'm the first to know why because there's no one else. If I can't answer a detailed question about our system, that's a problem. The founders who win are the ones who are obsessively close to the details, not the ones managing from a distance.
2. Level 1
Reflecting on the past year, I realized how often I talked about Nozomio and all the failed projects that came before it, and how much I learned along the way. But looking at 2025, this is the first year where things actually started moving and taking the shape of something real. A newborn, in a sense. Some people might say it has already been a long journey, but I still feel like I'm on level 1. Maybe level 2 or 3 out of a thousand. I naturally compare life to video games because I spent most of my childhood playing competitive shooters and strategy games, and that mindset stuck with me. It's how I frame progress in a way that feels real.
Back to the point. I used to think that getting into a prestigious accelerator or raising a lot of money would define success. In hindsight, that is one of the worst takes I've ever had. Achieving those milestones is great, but I've learned that there are a thousand more components that come after those initial baby steps. Hiring, navigating pre-PMF to PMF, figuring out the right sales strategy, building a real product engine. The actual final boss is making something people truly want, something that can influence the world at scale, not just improve a process by a small percentage. There are many levels ahead and good thing I realized it in the beginning of my journey.
3. Y Combinator
I was part of the YC Summer 2025 batch. Y Combinator is the most prestigious startup accelerator in the world. They funded Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Coinbase, and hundreds of other companies that shaped the modern tech landscape. Before YC, I assumed it would transform me into a radically better entrepreneur. But YC doesn't fundamentally change who you are. You leave as essentially the same person, just with clearer priorities: work harder, talk to users, build something people actually want, and focus on the handful of things that matter for your specific business.
YC doesn't teach you how to become the next Elon Musk, because nobody can teach that. If you ever reach that level, it will be because of who you were long before YC and the years of being in a maniac and hardcore state. YC's real value is its ability to identify driven founders solving valuable problems, give them the strongest possible environment, point out when something isn't working, and connect them with people who can help. But the rest is entirely on you.
4. Game of Love
This section was inspired by @thejesonlee
I've read every major biography of iconic tech founders, always paying close attention to one thing: how they balanced love with building a generational company. For a long time I thought it was impossible. Most legends like Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, or even Jeff Bezos had partners who were aligned with their mission from the beginning, supporting them through the chaos and uncertainty. And the truth is, finding that kind of partner is incredibly hard. Early-stage founders are cash-poor, time-poor, and fully consumed by the long-term game. Most people naturally optimize for short-term comfort, security, and attention, not a multi-year bet on someone who barely sleeps and budgets down to the cent.
But when you do meet someone who understands the stakes, who sees the vision, who's willing to ride through the hard part before the reward exists, it doesn't distract you. It amplifies you. A partner who's aligned with your mission isn't a cost but a multiplier. Well, that's what I'll have to figure out on my own.
5. Lean Game
This is the best moment in history to build. A small, focused team can now outperform giants like Google or Microsoft because AI automates nearly all the operational and back-office work, letting founders pour everything into product and speed. My investor Gokul Rajaram[1] said it perfectly. He recently met a solo founder who scaled to 4 million dollars in revenue in just a couple of months using a handful of AI agents. Five years ago this would have been unthinkable. Today it's becoming normal. One-person and two-person teams can now build, sell, reach PMF, and even scale with a level of leverage the world has never seen. The era of one-person billion-dollar companies is coming.
6. In-Person Connection to Your Customer
In-person connection has been one of the most effective strategies for brand awareness and for iterating on the early version of your product. I've gone to more than 150 houses and offices in SF to onboard users, replied to every customer DM within 5 minutes around the clock, and automated bug reporting so no one ever waits. I follow the Collison installation[2] mindset: show up, install it myself, fix issues on the spot, and make sure everything works before leaving. Those moments compound and create a type of loyalty and visibility no dashboard ever will.
(more to come)
If you want to work in an environment where you will learn this much in 2026, please consider joining our team. I can promise that 2026 will be 10x crazier than 2025.