There's something deeply satisfying about watching seeds you planted a year ago finally break through the soil. Figuratively, even though I do enjoy growing my own Tomatoes. But I digress. Today, I want to share a few stories from Podscan—my podcast intelligence platform—about what happens when long-term investments start compounding. Some of these took eighteen … Continue reading When Long-Term Investments Finally Pay Off
Author: Arvid Kahl
I write about bootstrapping, audience-building, and building in public at The Bootstrapped Founder.
Formerly FeedbackPanda (exit/2019)
Wrote Zero to Sold, The Embedded Entrepreneur, and made Find your Following.
How to Actually Use Claude Code to Build Serious Software
I've been using Claude Code for over half a year now, pretty much exclusively, to build my platform. Haven't really deviated much to other tools. And I think I've gathered enough experience with the system that it's time to share what I've learned about using Claude Code effectively to build a non-trivial Software as a … Continue reading How to Actually Use Claude Code to Build Serious Software
Follow Your Passion (But Not Like That)
A while ago, I asked my Twitter friends to tell me what the most annoying and most infuriating piece of entrepreneurial advice is that they ever received. And overwhelmingly, "follow your passion" stood out as the one that frustrated them most. I've seen this particular piece of advice being given a lot by people who … Continue reading Follow Your Passion (But Not Like That)
The 1% Improvement Myth: Why Customer Conversations Beat Micro-Improvements Every Time
Let's add another one to the series of entrepreneurial advice that just really irritates me. Today, I'm going after "improve 1% every day" — you know, that meme or mantra about making tiny little improvements every day because they supposedly compound into something massive over time. This one is infuriating, and I'll tell you why: … Continue reading The 1% Improvement Myth: Why Customer Conversations Beat Micro-Improvements Every Time
Don’t Give Up… Your Assumptions
Let's dive into a piece of entrepreneurial advice that's highly irritating and very dangerous. Today I want to talk about the one that I get so much: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up. Force yourself, grind it out." This advice is very dangerous because it builds on the founder's capacity to struggle through challenges, … Continue reading Don’t Give Up… Your Assumptions
Many Heads, Not Many Hats: The Founder’s Identity Crisis
We often joke in entrepreneurship about founders having to wear many hats. But I think that metaphor is wrong. It's not about swapping hats. It's about growing entirely new heads. Not just the cover of the head — the head itself. A new brain that thinks different, speaks different, prioritizes different. And somehow, these heads … Continue reading Many Heads, Not Many Hats: The Founder’s Identity Crisis
The Case Against Vendor Lock-In: Why Easy Exit Means Better Retention
Sometimes software founders are a weird bunch. They've built their businesses on open source software and the contributions of people who've done a lot of work for free. They've benefited at great length from infrastructure and tooling built on open standards that facilitate free exchange of data and ideas. Yet when it comes to their … Continue reading The Case Against Vendor Lock-In: Why Easy Exit Means Better Retention
The Dead Internet Theory: Are We Building Machines That Only Talk to Other Machines?
I saw something on LinkedIn the other day that stopped me mid-scroll. It was a post—clearly AI-generated, you could tell from the cadence, the slightly off phrasing, the generic inspirational tone—and underneath it were dozens of comments. Enthusiastic comments. Supportive comments. And every single one of them was also AI-generated. Bots responding to bots. A … Continue reading The Dead Internet Theory: Are We Building Machines That Only Talk to Other Machines?
Marketing for Founders Who Hate Marketing
Many of the technical founders I know really don't like marketing. And it's not that they don't understand it. They know how important it is to run an effective business. But they don't really know how to do it right. They don't know how to leverage their technical skills to make marketing easier. And they … Continue reading Marketing for Founders Who Hate Marketing
Vibe Coding Won’t Kill SaaS
I really want to clean up a little bit when it comes to vibe coding and software as a service businesses, because I think there's a lot of confusion, a lot of hype, and a lot of complaints about the imminent demise of software as a service solutions. And I think it's time that we … Continue reading Vibe Coding Won’t Kill SaaS