Insights
When I write, it usually clusters into three threads: founder mindset, the economics of code, and what I call the wrong-right way—the temptations that feel efficient in the moment and expensive later.
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10 posts- Founder Mindset Jul 10, 2026
Building a new feature is fun! 😢
Build mode feels like forward progress—but it's often lateral. The two-monkey problem, and how sales dopamine re-educates the builder brain.
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- Founder Mindset Jul 3, 2026
The 30-Minute Rule
You can't freeze your stack—but you can't spend four hours on every pitch either. Give any new tool 30 minutes to make you genuinely wow, or walk away before it costs you a week.
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- Founder Mindset Jun 30, 2026
MCP Discoverability Hack
After the 30-Minute Rule says yes, I wire the MCP into Cursor and run four prompts—stack compare, backlog impact, time-to-market, and revenue wild card—without falling back into build mode.
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- Founder Mindset May 26, 2026
When Your CFO Doesn't Get Your Token Burn
AI spend is hard to forecast and harder to defend on one P&L line. Why your CFO's pushback is fair, why credit bundles only repackage the bill, and how open vs closed features — plus agents — change burn. A four-step map so token use ties to named features you can budget and cut.
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- Founder Mindset Apr 10, 2026
When Speed Removes the Safeguards
As teams get smaller and execution gets cheaper, the systems that create clarity disappear.
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- Founder Mindset Feb 18, 2026
The “NPR Reporter” Prompt
If you can’t explain your system clearly, you don’t actually understand it.
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- Founder Mindset Aug 15, 2025
End-of-Day Revenue
Revenue shows up—but most teams don’t have clarity on what actually drives it.
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- Economics of Code Jul 18, 2025
Why Developers Always Want to Build — and How It Costs Us
Every time I asked my team to evaluate SaaS tools, I watched the same thing happen. A predictable resistance. A build-first mindset. And over time, I realized: it wasn’t just bias — it was culture.
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- Founder Mindset Apr 18, 2025
Resource Restriction is Great!
No founder I know doesn't need more funding. In the back of every startup founder's brain is the wish to get the funding problem off their backs and work without distraction. It's unfair to say, stop, and embrace scarcity as a superpower.
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- Founder Mindset Mar 26, 2025
Vegas vs. Berlin: What I Learned About How Clients Want to Engage
I reworked my fractional CTO practice by changing my mindset. I had been operating like a German Casino, and missing the mark, but I needed to be more like Las Vegas. Make it stupid easy for a client to hire and pay.
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Once a week—insights in plain language for founders and CEOs sharpening tech judgment.