When you start a company, you always face a choice:
How fast do you want to grow — and how much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice?
I already shared that my timeframe is 30 years, not five. I’m not rushing.
Early on, I made a deliberate decision to bootstrap my company. Not because investment is bad, but because my project has characteristics that make early VC money counterproductive.
Why I’m Not Raising Now
- What I’m building is unusual; most VCs wouldn’t “get it” at this stage — I’d receive confusion instead of capital.
- I’d rather build than spend months pitching decks and simplifying my vision to fit someone else’s model.
- Seed rounds are often burned while founders are still figuring out their product. If I skip that phase and later present a profitable, stable business, I’ll get better terms and lose fewer shares.
So how do I fund the early stage without sacrificing ownership?
The answer is simple: my mind.
The Generalist Advantage
To me, my thinking feels normal. But after speaking with founders and leaders across disciplines, I realized it’s not.
I’m a generalist with depth — someone who sees across systems, technologies, and narratives. I can look at a startup holistically, through:
- architecture
- engineering
- product
- positioning
- go-to-market
- storytelling
- team dynamics
- long-term viability
This is rare.
Ironically, in an interview earlier this year, the business owner asked:
“Switching projects and technologies is fun… but when will you mature and specialize?”
I smiled.
“Never.”
Because the age of AI will be dominated by generalists — people who operate across boundaries, not in silos.
That’s why I decided to make my mind my first investor.
Founder First, Consultant Second
I refuse to apply for any job expecting 40 hours a week — I’m already building my own long-arc venture.
Instead, I offer targeted consulting: a few hours of deep insight that move companies forward far more efficiently than full-time employment ever could.
My math is simple:
- If I can cover my lifestyle with ~10 hours of consulting per month, I have the rest of the month to build my modern guild.
- If consulting demand reaches up to 30 hours per month, I can hire my closest collaborators full-time.
This is enough to produce the first real products. Once those products generate revenue, consulting becomes optional — and naturally, my hourly rate rises.
Because every hour spent advising someone else is an hour not spent building my own company.
This Is My Sustainable Funding Model
No grind.
No dilution.
No sacrificing my life for a lottery ticket.
Just clarity, sovereignty, and long-term thinking.
If you resonate with this approach — we may end up working together one day.
