In 2013, at 23, I sold my company.
It got rolled into a bigger venture-backed company, and my slice was worth about $5 million on paper. Houses in my town cost $290k back then, so in my head I was set for life.
Years later, that bigger company sold too. I got an email saying it had sold (yay!) but that common stock holders were getting $0 (boo!).
See, my $5 million was common stock, and that company was doing $35M in revenue at 70% margins, backed by huge names. On paper I looked rich. But once the preferred investors got paid back first, there was nothing left for the rest of us. Gone. Zero.
Best lesson I ever got, and I'm grateful I learned it at 23 instead of 43.
Here's what it taught me. Startup equity is just gravy (and you can't count on gravy). Whether that paper number ever turns into money depends on a hundred things you are often out of control: the market, the timing, the next round, who got paid before you in the stack. You can do everything right and still open an email that says $0.
Even founders who have built billion dollar companies before, sometimes can't do it again, again, again.
So I build differently now. Profitable. Steady. No venture capital. Twice a year I send the team profit shares, and the reaction is always the same. “Wait, this is real?” It's real because it's cash in a bank account, not a number on a cap table waiting for the stars to align.
Examples of some of my businesses. There's LCA, our design firm building agentic interfaces for companies like Slack, Intuit, and Character AI. This business is massive. Our team has 5+ years building intelligent products for the biggest brands in the world. DM me if you want to work with us.
And ideabrowser, the #1 tool for people looking for startup ideas, trends in the agentic era. Literally free to sign up for ideas so might as well. We'll be announcing more monetization soon.
Different products, same engine: profitable, run lean with AI on the inside, and grown through creator-led distribution instead of a raise or a sales team. That's the whole holdco model.
And to be clear, I'm not saying I'd never raise, or that VC is bad. I've seeded multiple unicorns and done really well from venture. It's a phenomenal machine for the right business at the right time for the right founder. I'm just saying it's one game, not the only one, and for most people it's not even the one that fits.