Founder | Startup Consultant | One Exit | Angel Investor | Fundraising

I am an expert in my field with 18+ years of diverse business experience, from startups to established enterprises with one exit under my belt!

My business journey is not linear and has been a blend of creativity, strategy and hustle!

I have guided and collaborated with hundreds of startups from Pre-seed to Series D. My expertise is helping startups tell their story to get funded and accelerate growth!

I am very good at preparing:

✔Pitch Decks: a compelling story to setup investor meetings 
✔Executive Summaries: a comprehensive but concise overview of startups condensed to 1-page 
✔Sales Presentations: a winning deck to land more clients and/or strike partnerships.
✔Business Plans: a detailed plan covering your operation from A to Z 
✔Branding: brand guidelines including visual identity, logo, color palette, and typeface.
✔Financial Projections: an editable and dynamic model with 3-5 year projections, balance sheet, and cash flow statement

My experience spans many sectors: Technology, Education, Real Estate, Fintech, Fashion, Health and Wellness, SaaS, Consumer Goods, Life Sciences, Adtech, Media and entertainment, Legal, Hospitality, Tourism, Financial Services, and Aerospace.

Why Work With Me?

✔Proven Success: $1M+ sales generated on Upwork and an approach that's helped startups raise $2B+
✔Customized Strategy: Each project is tailored to peak investor interest and secure capital
✔Efficienct: Ensured maximum productivity within the agreed timeline
✔Credibility: Endorsed by clients as professional, approachable, and exceeding expectations

I'm excited to be part of your success with a proven process and a passion for seeing startup ideas come to life.

✉️ Send me a message and let’s discuss

Peter Korbel

The future of startups isn't building big.

It's building small, then scaling up:

Micro by micro!

Here's the difference.

▶️ Traditional Approach

You want to build a big social app.
So you do months of research.

Launch everything at once.
Hope it works.

▶️ Microstartup Approach

You ask: What does this look like in 5 - 10 years?
Then unbundle it into 5 - 10 smaller pieces.

Each piece is a microstartup.
Launch that first.
Then start building the next microstartup.

The traditional approach is high risk.
The microstartup approach is iterative.
Each microstartup funds the next one.
Each success compounds.

You're not guessing what users want.
You're watching what they actually use.

What would your microstartup be?

---

For more of my content, check out my newsletter Startup Anatomy.
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We break down founders like you who built something real online — how they did it, what worked, and what they’d do differently.

---

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Build a Microstartup

Google used to decide who wins online. 

Not anymore. Here’s what's next:

More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, 
and other LLMs instead of searching on Google.

And that will be tough for founders.

There is no page two in AI search.

You're either the answer.

Or you're invisible.

That shift is forcing businesses to rethink how they appear online.

Traditional SEO was about ranking on Google.

Now the game is AI citations.

Meaning:

When someone asks an AI tool a question, 
your company becomes the brand it recommends.

I’ve been exploring tools in this space, 
looking at how founders can show up in AI search results.

One platform that caught my attention is Outwrite.ai.

What I found interesting is that it focuses on something most founders have not started thinking about yet:

How to structure content so AI systems can trust it enough to cite it.

Instead of guessing, the platform shows:

• Which prompts mention your brand
• Which competitors AI recommends
• What content structure actually gets cited

In other words, it helps small teams understand:
How AI decides who becomes the answer.

And that matters more than ever.

According to recent data, 37% of consumers now start product searches inside AI tools instead of Google.

If that trend continues, visibility in AI will become just as important as SEO was for the past 20 years.

For solo founders and small businesses, 
especially, the question is no longer:

“How do I rank on Google?”

It's becoming:

“How do I become the answer AI gives?”

Are you also curious to see how this evolves?

---

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Startup Strategist | Founder | One Exit | Angel

AI Picks The Winners

Do you know how societies move forward?

By giving someone:

A shot!

A real chance to build.
A chance to create something bigger.
A chance to change their own trajectory.

That's what America has done better for 250 years.

But here's what most founders don't realize:
Opportunity isn't guaranteed anymore.

AI and crypto are the key architectures.
Whoever wins those wins everything else.

And right now, the race is tight.

If America falls behind, founders everywhere lose.

So what does this mean for you?

1️⃣ Build with urgency
The window to lead in AI and crypto is closing fast.
Those who execute well will define the next era.

2️⃣ Focus on the architectures
AI isn't just a feature.
Crypto isn't just an asset class.
They're foundational technologies.

3️⃣ Apply technology to humans
Biology. Health. Defense. Education. 
Opportunities solve the biggest problems.

4️⃣ Policies that help builders
Regulatory clarity matters.
Infrastructure matters.
Founders can't just build in a vacuum.

This isn't just about building companies.
It's about ensuring the system.

So to every founder building right now:
What you're doing matters more than you think.

You're not just building a product.
You're building the future.

Make it count.

What's the most important problem you're solving right now?

---

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The Window Is Closing

AI just boosts results by 20%. 

You can 3x, 10x, or more. Here’s how:

Here’s how you can build an AI company today.

The mistake:
Most founders make an approach to AI backwards.

Customers don’t actually want AI.

They want better results.

More revenue.
Faster execution.
Fewer mistakes.

Here’s the reality with AI today:

1️⃣ It’s powerful, but not perfect
AI can do impressive things, 
but it still gets things wrong.

2️⃣ Mistakes happen in every format
Sometimes the error is small.
Sometimes it’s completely off.

3️⃣ Total dependence is dangerous
If your product only works when AI is perfect, 
you’re building on fragile ground.

Right now, most AI products fall into three buckets:

• Existing companies adding AI features
• Tools that help experts do their job faster
• Tools trying to replace experts for beginners

The second category works best.

Because experts know how to handle imperfect output.

A developer can fix messy code.
A marketer can improve weak copy.

But a beginner stuck at 80% completion has no idea what to do next.

I’ve personally been excited by plenty of “AI-powered” tools.

But the real opportunity isn’t adding AI.

It’s solving problems people actually feel.

When the improvement is dramatic enough, 
customers notice immediately.

At that point, it stops being just another feature.

You’ve created a new category.

So don’t focus on building “AI-powered” products.

Focus on building outcome-powered solutions.

That’s where the real opportunity is.

Who’s ready to start changing the game?

---

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---

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Build an AI company today

Startup Anatomy // Newsletter Edition 13

He built a $1B empire by doing less.

You’ve probably used a product owned by him without realizing it.

Andrew Wilkinson

From a $12/hour barista to,
building a quiet billion-dollar holding company.

No venture capital.
No hype cycles.

Just buying profitable, “boring” businesses
and letting them compound.

From MetaLab
to 40+ companies under Tiny

While others chased growth,
Andrew chased ownership.

And it worked.

This week on Startup Anatomy:

→ The $500 web design gig that changed everything
→ Why “boring” businesses beat sexy startups
→ The 3 - 6× EBITDA acquisition strategy
→ How to run 40+ companies without micromanaging
→ Why he never raised a dollar of VC money

He didn’t build more.
He bought better.

Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/g3RbHZMG

—

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Businesses went all-in on AI in 2023.

Most still can’t show real ROI.

AI isn’t the problem.

Workslop is.

Workslop is an AI output that looks polished.
But lacks thinking.

Slide decks with no strategy.
Reports with no insight.
Long emails that say nothing.

And it’s not a small issue.

The hidden costs of workslop:

→ 40% of U.S. desk workers received workslop last month.
→ 2 hours: That’s the average time to fix each incident.
→ $186 monthly cost per employee.
→ $9M annual cost for a 10,000-person company.

I use AI every day.

It’s powerful.

But tools don’t replace judgment.
They amplify it.

If the thinking is weak, AI scales the weakness.

Founders need to be sharp here.

Here’s what actually works:

1️⃣ Stop forcing AI into everything
Not every task needs it.
Use it where it adds leverage.

2️⃣ Upgrade the mindset
High-agency people use AI to think better.
Low-agency people use it to avoid thinking.

3️⃣ Treat it like a collaborator
Good prompts require clarity.
It’s guided work, not magic.

4️⃣ Keep standards high
AI-assisted work is still your work.
No lower bar. No shortcuts.

Winning with AI isn’t about using it more.

It’s about using it better.

The edge isn’t access to AI.
The edge is better thinking.

---

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storemee

135-madison

Building on OpenAI could be your biggest mistake.

Here’s why you should think twice:

When you build on a powerful platform, they’re:

Watching, studying, learning.
And they have every right to.

If you build something valuable on top of their API, 
they can see exactly how it works, what customers love, 
where the revenue is coming from . . . 
and they can build it themselves.

History supports the pattern.

Bill Gates and Microsoft let developers thrive on Windows.

Lotus 1-2-3 became Excel.
WordPerfect became Word.
The platform owner eventually owned the category.

Same with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

Partners built games and apps.
Facebook studied the ecosystem.
Then they shifted the rules.

Platform companies want the full pie.

Here is what it means for founders:

1️⃣ Build on a platform? Assume they see everything.

2️⃣ If your edge is just access, it’s not an edge.

3️⃣ Owned distribution beats borrowed features.

I’m not saying “don’t use AI.”

I use it daily.

But understand the game you’re playing.

If you’re renting the land, the landlord always wins long term.

The smartest founders don’t just build products.

They build leverage.

They know exactly who owns the rails.

What do you think?

---

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Everyone’s screaming that AI is killing jobs.

Here’s what founders need to understand:

➡️ The problem isn’t AI

Entry-level hiring is down about 12 percent globally

But according to LinkedIn’s data, 
the slowdown isn’t AI wiping people out.

It’s macro. Interest rates. 
Companies are slowly spending.

Over a million new AI-related roles have been created.

So this isn’t “AI took the jobs.”
It’s “the skill mix just changed.”

➡️ The career ladder was always a lie

LinkedIn has been asked for years:

“Show me the typical path to become:
A CEO, CFO, or operator.”

There is no linear path.

Careers are messy.
Sideways.
Non-obvious.

The faster you accept that, the faster you win.

➡️ Skills are compounding faster than titles

The required skills for the same role have shifted by
over 25% in just a few years.

They expect that to change by 70 percent by 2030.

Stop planning your next 5-year title.

Start planning your next 6-month skill stack.

➡️ AI literacy + human leverage

You need AI literacy.

But you also need:

→ Curiosity
→ Communication
→ Creativity
→ Courage
→ Compassion

AI can summarize. Translate. Rewrite.

It cannot replace judgment.
Taste. Leadership. Conviction.

➡️ Founders need to read this differently

If you’re hiring:

Stop filtering by school.

→ Start reading what people write.
→ Watch how they think.
→ Look at how they solve problems in public.

If you’re early in your career:

Don’t panic.

This isn’t the end of opportunity.

It’s the end of autopilot.

The people who win in the next decade won’t follow a path.

They’ll build one.

---

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AI Killing Jobs?

We are slowly turning into question marks.

And it’s quietly affecting how we think.

Let me explain!

I was watching an interview with the CEO of Anthropic.

He’s calmly predicting a future where machines do everything.

And his body was:

Slouched!

Shoulders rolled forward, and spine curved into a soft “?”

The guy running the future of artificial intelligence looked like he hadn’t stood up in 9 hours.

And honestly . . . same.

As founders, we spend so much time:
Folding into car seats, desk chairs, into laptops, and even into our phones before bed.

We’re folded.

And here’s the strange part.

You can be:
Working out consistently, eating clean, and tracking sleep.

And still walk around feeling slightly . . . compressed.

Like your body forgot there are other shapes it can be in.

I started noticing this on the days I worked the longest.

The best days are when I:

→ Sprint
→ Ride a bike
→ Hang from a bar
→ Carry something heavy
→ Or just walk with my hands behind my back like someone’s grandfather

Chest open. Shoulders back. Spine long.

It sounds small.

But posture changes state.

And state changes how you think.

If you’re building something big,
don’t let your body collapse while your ambition expands.

Stand up.

Your brain works better when your ribcage does.

What do you think?

P.S. That interview would have felt different if he’d chosen the posture on the right.

---

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Startup Anatomy // Newsletter Edition 14

He turned a dorm room email
into a $75M media company.

You’ve probably read his work
without even realizing it.

Alex Lieberman

From a bored college senior
to building one of the most influential business newsletters.

No venture capital.
No media background.

Just clear writing, smart distribution,
and a deep understanding of readers.

What started as a simple email to friends
became Morning Brew.

Millions of subscribers.
Multiple verticals.
And a ~$75M exit to Insider Inc.

But he didn’t stop there.

Instead of retiring after the exit,
Alex started building again.

This week on Startup Anatomy:

→ The college email that became Morning Brew
→ How a referral loop grew millions of readers
→ Why writing is one of the highest-leverage founder skills
→ The $75M Morning Brew exit breakdown
→ His new “personal startup stack” after the sale

He didn’t chase hype.

He wrote clearly,
built trust,
and let the audience compound.
—

Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/g39Tk5Gj

—

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The best ideas always sound wild initially.

Here’s what I mean:

Imagine pitching Uber before it existed.

"You'll get in a stranger's car and pay them to drive you."

Sounds risky.

But that's the thing about breakthrough ideas.

They never sound normal.

While everyone plays it safe, you have a choice:

Chase trends and stick to last year's playbook.
Or be a trailblazer.

In 2007, Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone.

"That's the most expensive phone in the world. 

He wasn't alone.

The iPhone became one of the biggest consumer products ever.

In every field, the boldest ideas are misunderstood at first.

When someone calls your idea crazy, you need to ask:

Are they right?
Or are you just early?

Because being early looks a lot like being wrong.
Until it doesn't.

What "crazy" idea are you sitting on right now?

---

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Your Idea Sounds Wrong?

Everyone's arguing about AI but missing this.

What it means for your startup depends on:

Which question matters!

The AI conversation is broken.
Not because people disagree.
Because everyone is debating a different question.

Here are the four debates happening at once:

1️⃣ Is AI useful?

Some say it transformed their work overnight.
Others say it consistently underwhelms.
Both groups are right.

2️⃣ Can AI think?

This is a philosophical question.
It's also mostly irrelevant to founders.
AI can be useful even if it doesn’t think.

3️⃣ Is AI a bubble?

Companies are spending billions on training AI.
Without rapid revenue growth, valuations will collapse.
AI does meaningful work and still thinks it's a bubble.

4️⃣ Is AI good or bad?

Marc Andreessen says it will save the world.
Others say it will destroy everything.
There’s plenty of middle ground between them.

Here's what matters for founders:

They're four separate questions.
And the one that matters is probably different.

1️⃣ If you're building AI tools:
The bubble question matters most.
Can you show revenue growth?

2️⃣ If you're replacing AI workflows:
The usefulness question matters most.
Is your use case AI-shaped?

3️⃣ If you're hiring:
The job timeline matters most.
Are you building slow or fast disruption?

4️⃣ If you're fundraising:
Wall Street's expectations matter most.
Investors expect AI results now.

So which pattern applies?
Nobody actually knows.

AI is the fastest-growing technology ever.

Move fast, risk bad tools.
Or move slowly, risk falling behind.

Stop arguing about whether AI can "think."
Figure out if your use case is AI-shaped.

Which of these four questions matters to your business?

---

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Wrong AI Question

Two numbers decide if your startup survives.

Most founders calculate them completely wrong:

CAC and LTV!

CAC is Customer Acquisition Cost
How much do you spend to get one paying customer?

LTV is Lifetime Value
How much revenue does one customer generate?.

If your CAC is higher than your LTV?
You're literally paying people to use your product.
And your business will die.

Here's what most founders get wrong:

1️⃣ They calculate CAC incorrectly
They only count ad spend.
They forget sales salaries, tools, and time costs.
The real number is always higher than you think.

2️⃣ They ignore the timeline
Your CAC might be $100, and LTV $300.
Sounds great, right?
But if it takes 2 years to recover, cash flow kills you first.

Your LTV should be at least 3x your CAC.
And you should recover your CAC within 12 months.

Master these two numbers.

They'll tell you whether your business can scale.
Or if you need to pivot now.

What's your current CAC to LTV ratio?

---

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Two Numbers Determine Everything

OpenClaw feels like the pre-Wi-Fi internet stage.

Powerful, obvious, but still a little annoying to use.

If you are technical, 
you can make it do unreal things.

If you are not, 
the setup alone is enough to make you quit.

Here’s what I think brings OpenClaw into the mainstream:

➡️ A one-click experience
Most people will not install locally or manage keys.
The winner works instantly.

➡️ A killer use case
It will not be “AI agents.”
It will solve one daily pain.

➡️ The simplest UI
Less interface wins.
Text inside Telegram, WhatsApp, 
or Slack beats another dashboard.

➡️ Skills as recipes
A skill is instructions plus tools.
It turns software into a simple playbook.

This category is exciting.

Software becomes instructions that run work for you.

➡️ Real guardrails
People already click bad links and reuse weak passwords.
Agents expand risk.
Mainstream needs safe defaults and clear permissions.

OpenClaw goes mainstream the moment it solves one boring problem so well that people accept the tradeoff and stop caring how it works.

Because that is how adoption always happens.

It is never the coolest tech.
It is the most useful shortcut.

---

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OpenClaw Isn’t Ready

Creativity doesn’t switch off when you run a business.

It follows you everywhere.

You can be cooking dinner.
Driving somewhere.
Standing in line for coffee.

And suddenly your brain goes:

“What if we tried this?”

That’s the reality of building something.

Your mind is always working in the background.
Turning problems around.
Looking for better ways to do things.

A conversation becomes an idea.
A frustration becomes a solution.

A random thought becomes:
A new product, system, or strategy.

Some of the best ideas don’t come in meetings.

They come when you’re doing something completely unrelated.
Entrepreneurship works the same way.

When you care deeply about what you’re building, 
your brain never really clocks out.

And honestly, that’s the fun part.

Ideas can show up anywhere.

You just have to be paying attention.

---

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Startup Anatomy // Newsletter Edition 12

You’ve probably researched an Amazon product using his data without realizing it.

Greg Mercer

From a frustrated seller to building the operating system.

Jungle Scout.

No funding. No master plan.
Just solving one painful problem properly.

One small tool at a time,
Greg quietly reshaped e-commerce.

And it now powers over $50B in seller revenue.

While most chased scale, Greg built clarity.

This week on Startup Anatomy:

→ Civil engineer to e-commerce founder
→ The $1,000 MVP that started it
→ Why data beats guessing
→ Teaching as a growth engine

He didn’t build big first. He built a useful first.

Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gjK89PGh

—

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Co-Founder @ Skytron

Hollywood isn’t fighting AI anymore.

It’s figuring out how to work with it.

I recently had the chance to see my close friend Teddy Downey in action at the Future of Hollywood Conference hosted by The Capitol Forum in Hollywood.

One of the most interesting discussions,
focused on a question that every creative industry is now facing:

How does Hollywood collaborate with AI without hurting the actors, writers, 
and creators who make the industry possible.

Leaders from Creative Artists Agency, 
one of the largest talent agencies in the world, 
shared how the industry is approaching this shift.

The message was clear.

AI is not going away.

But the real conversation is about how it is used.

Three ideas kept coming up during the discussion:

→ Consent
creators should have control over how their likeness and work are used

→ Control 
Clear guardrails around how AI interacts with creative work

→ Compensation
If AI benefits from creative content, the creators should benefit too

Hollywood is already in active conversations with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and YouTube to figure out how this collaboration should work.

This is not just a Hollywood issue.

AI is moving across industries and changing how creative work, intellectual property, and technology interact.

Entertainment is just one of the first places where this conversation is playing out publicly.

Let’s go!

---

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Chamath Palihapitiya took 30 years to learn what you’ll get in 3 minutes.

Process Over Objectives

People frame their lives as objectives.

The problem: Enough feels like it's finished.

You stop learning and stop growing.

Four boundary conditions to protect your growth:

1️⃣ No debt, ever
Debt forces you to stop.
Learning stops. Risks fade. Money takes over.
Having no debt is critical.

2️⃣ Manage your life with humility
Be truthful about how things are today.
Not how you wish they were.
Sharing the truth lets others find solidarity with you.
And it lets you actually see reality.

3️⃣ Surround yourself with younger people
Their biases and frameworks are different.
Everything you know is stuck in a moment.
What worked for you will decay in relevance.
Younger people are your future warning system.

4️⃣ Preserve optionality at all costs
In business, in negotiations, everywhere.
Find win-wins that preserve relationships.
This forces you to listen more, talk less.

If you're young and ambitious:
Be where the action is.

Tech? Silicon Valley.
Finance? New York or London.
There's no shortcut.
You have to be where the fish are.

Don't optimize for compensation.
Optimize for opportunity.

The problem:

You can only learn this over time.
Those in their 40s and 50s understand.
People in their 20s and 30s ignore this.

You'll get there the easy way or the hard way.

The easy way? 

Do these simple things now.

Which of these lessons are you ignoring right now?

---

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Stop chasing objectives

Ferenc Fekete

Helping non-tech Founders transform Ideas into SaaS products @ VeryCreatives | Product Agency, SaaS & MVP Development | Startups

I've watched many startup founders fail at the same exact point: turning their validated idea into actual software.

They waste months (or even years):
→ Trying to hire the right developers
→ Burning cash on poor planning and execution
→ Second-guessing every technical decision along the way

Meanwhile, competitors move faster, investors demand traction, and the pressure to deliver keeps building more and more.

After watching this pattern destroy countless promising startups, we built VeryCreatives to fix it.

But here's what makes us different:

We don't just build your MVP and disappear. We're product people who think like founders, not just developers who code to spec.

👉 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: We start by pressure-testing your assumptions before writing a single line of code. If the market doesn't want it, we'll tell you straight.

👉 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲: We build like it's our own startup, obsessing over user experience, scalability, and investor readiness from the first sprint.

👉 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱: Whether you're at napkin sketch or Series B, we've been there. We've helped founders go from zero to acquisition, and we stick around for the entire journey.

For the past 14 years, we've built products for venture-backed startups, fast-growing scale-ups, and globally recognized brands like Red Bull, Nestlé, and Philips.

The startups we work with have:
✅ Launched investor-ready MVPs in under 90 days
✅ Secured funding from top-tier investors and VCs
✅ Scaled from first users to thousands of paying customers
✅ Successfully exited to strategic acquirers

Got a SaaS idea that's been sitting in your head for months? 
Let's map out your 90-day path to launch → https://verycreatives.com/book-a-call

Co-Founder

At VeryCreatives, we are a team of expert developers who create powerful SaaS apps that solve problems and drive growth for founders with initial funding. We believe in empowering our clients with innovative software that helps them achieve their goals and stand out in their industry.

Our audience consists of driven and ambitious founders who have just received initial funding for their startup. They are looking for a software development partner who understands their vision, can help bring their ideas to life, and deliver results that will help them achieve their business goals.

Founders with initial funding have a pressing need to build their product quickly and efficiently to maximize their chances of success. At VeryCreatives, we understand this need and are dedicated to creating high-quality SaaS apps that not only meet their requirements but also exceed their expectations. We are committed to delivering value and results that help our clients succeed.

VeryCreatives stands out in the market for our ability to deliver high-quality, innovative solutions that meet the needs of our clients. Our unique approach to software development, coupled with our expertise and commitment to excellence, is what drives us to provide outstanding results to our clients.

Industries our clients operate in, using the SaaS products we've built: 
- Digital marketing, Event marketing & Influencer marketing SaaS
- Foodtech & Delivery 
- Fintech, Banking & Investments
- 2-sided marketplace platforms
- Agriculture & Livestock management
- Packaging compliance & Waste

Markets we cover: UAE, EU, UK, US.

"The project will cost $50k." - Developer
 
3 months later: $120k. Sh*t. What happened?

Every non-technical founder has heard this: "It will take longer than expected."

But you can prevent it (with some high-school math)

Here's how to build an accurate cost forecast:

Step 1: Break it down absurdly small

Not "user authentication: $5k"

But:

→ Login page design: $500
→ Login backend: $1k
→ Password reset flow: $1.5k
→ OAuth integration: $2k
→ Security testing: $500


Step 2: Add complexity multipliers

→ Simple feature: 1x
→ Medium complexity: 1.5x
→ Complex/uncertain: 2x
→ Integration with third parties: 2.5x


Step 3: Add the "unknown unknowns" buffer

→ New team: +30%
→ Existing team, new domain: +20%
→ Experienced team, known domain: +10%


Step 4: Phase the budget

→ Phase 1: Core features (40% of budget)
→ Phase 2: Secondary features (30% of budget)
→ Phase 3: Polish and optimization (20% of budget)
→ Buffer: (10% of budget)


Step 5: Define cut points

If Phase 1 goes over, what do you cut from Phase 2?

Decide BEFORE you're in crisis mode.


The rule:

If you haven't scoped it in detail, you haven't scoped it.

And if you haven't scoped it, any number is a guess.

So…

Maybe pause that developer project.

Launch products customers love, then exit | 5x exits, $100M ARR created for founders

I run a 28-person agency. I used to feel guilty about an ‘empty calendar’ on a Monday. Now I try cancel all of my meetings:

And it’s helped us grow revenue 30%+.

Previously I was in every delivery meeting, every project review, every standup at VeryCreatives.

I thought I had to be in the room for things to run.

Now, our fantastic Head of Delivery meets with the PMs directly. 

And an ‘empty calendar’ means brain space to strategise on growth.

Here's what my Monday looks like now:

1. Strategy session with my co-founder Mate
→ Previous week, pipeline, finances, what's planned
→ Keeps us both aligned so neither of us needs to check in again all week

2. Sales sync
→ New leads, who handles what, timing

3. Afternoon: wide open
→ This is the whole point
→ We use that time to plan new internal tools, shape future services, figure out where we're going next

By lunchtime, the operational part of my day is done.

Everything after that is thinking time.

What's one meeting you could delete from your Monday to create space?

My 6-year old son tells $100M private equity firms if product ideas are ‘good’ (I’m serious).

If you can't explain your product to a 6-year old, I’ve got $100,000 on the fact that no one else will get it either.

I sit through dozens of product pitches every year.

The pattern is always the same:

Founder: "So basically, we're building a platform that leverages AI to optimize cross-functional workflows while integrating with existing enterprise systems to enable seamless collaboration and data-driven decision making."

Me: "What does it actually do?"

Founder: "...It helps teams share files."

The 6-year old test:

Can someone who has never heard of your product understand:

1. WHO it's for
2. WHAT problem it solves
3. WHY they should care

In 5 seconds?

If not, here's the formula that works:

"We help [specific person] [do specific thing] so they can [achieve specific outcome]."

Examples:

→ "We help freelancers send invoices so they get paid faster." 
→ "We help HR teams track applicants so they hire better candidates."

Trust me… my 6-year old is a great product idea validation filter.

Can you explain your product in one sentence?

Clay is one of the only companies I’ve seen do this 🔥

When you open the dashboard:

→ There's an AI chat text box.
→ It asks: "What do you want to build?"
→ You type your goal. It takes you to a chat screen. 
→ Then their AI (Sculptor) builds the workflow for you.

I think this solves three problems at once:


1. The blank canvas problem

Clay is powerful but notoriously hard to start with (lot’s of features).

Beginner users will open it, see an empty table, and don't know where to begin.

This prompt box removes that moment. 


2. Slow learning curve

A lot of tools teach you their features via an onboarding. 

But then over a few years they launch 10+ other features you have no clue how to use.

This Clay feature speeds up the learning curve:

→ You describe the outcome
→ The product figures out which features to use
→ You learn by watching it build


3. HUGE time and cost savings. 

For a lot of large products such as Clay, there are off shoots of service based agencies that build with the product for you.

Now you literally do not need to hire an agency.

The product builds what you need for you.

Making it more fun to use.

-

Have you seen other tools do this?

Why US innovation labs pay $500K for what Hungarian teams build for $100K (and get better results):

I just watched an enterprise innovation lab spend $500K on a product that never saw a single real user.

Then in same quarter, we shipped a similar concept for a German client. 

It took six weeks, it cost much less…. and in the end was live and taking payments vs the US one (zero payments).

The problem is US labs have been trained to solve every problem with a 20-person team.

Think about what happens when you have a massive budget:

→ You hire a product manager.
→ You hire three designers.
→ You hire a scrum master.
→ You hire eight developers.
→ You hire two QA engineers
→ And a DevOps team.

Everyone needs to justify their role. So they build. And build. And build.

👉 The PM adds features to show progress
👉 Designers polish screens nobody asked for
👉 Developers architect for scale you don't have
👉 QA tests edge cases that won't exist for years

Six months later, you have a beautiful product that solves nothing particularly well.

OR-

With that same $500k budget, you could run 10 separate validation sprints at $50k each. Even if 8 fail completely, you still walk away with 2 validated concepts to scale.

Compare that to putting the budget on one product that takes six months to discover nobody wants.

Agree or disagree?

Fireflies.ai hit a $1B valuation.

How to copy their MVP strategy:

Founders Sam Udotong and Krish Ramineni would dial into calls as "Fred from Fireflies.ai", sit silently, take notes by hand, and send them 10 minutes later.

They did 100+ meetings like this. Completely manual. 🤯

→ Zero development cost to validate
→ Learned exactly what users needed (by doing the job themselves)
→ Proved people would pay $100/month BEFORE investing in code
→ Only automated after hitting $750/month revenue

What I take from this:

Before you scope features, before you wireframe, before you hire anyone:

Can you deliver the core value manually? Without hiring any developers?

If yes, do that first. Talk to those customers. Understand the problem deeply.

Then build.

-

P.s.

We use Fireflies.ai at VeryCreatives.

We switched from Fathom because it felt more complete and could even log our internal calls in Hungarian. 🇭🇺

Could you imagine Fred joining your call to take notes?

What's stopping you from delivering your product's value manually this week?

The fastest way to make $100k MRR with SaaS 

Copy all of your competitors features:

No, seriously.

But only once you take this into account.

Your competitor has 50 features. 
They’re proven over 5+ years.
They’re clearly making revenue.

Just copy them all right?

Here's the problem:

Your competitor built those 50 features over 5 years.

They added most of them because:

→ A big customer asked for it
→ Someone on the team thought it was cool
→ They were trying to justify a price increase

They probably regret half of them.

What to do instead:

1. Identify their core value proposition (usually 2-3 features)
2. Find which features their customers actually use (check G2 reviews, Reddit, support forums)
3. Identify what they do poorly (read 1-star reviews)
4. Build that. Better.

Don't compete on feature count. 

You'll lose.

Compete on solving one problem exceptionally well.

What's the one thing your competitor does that you could do 10x better?

Has Claude Code killed your SaaS dreams?

I keep reading this headline:

“The SaaSpocalypse is here!!”

→ HubSpot has lost over half its value.
→ Adobe has dropped 40% on AI fears.
→ ServiceNow dropped 11% in a single day.
→ Asana is down 92% from its all-time high.
→ Docusign is down 54% from its 1-year high.
→ Salesforce is down 40% from its 2025 high.
→ Atlassian has lost 76% of its value in the last year.
→ Workday just hit a 52-week low down 39% this year.

All the major SaaS companies stock prices are falling off a cliff in the last 6 months.

Everyone is calling it the SaaS apocalypse.

People believe AI can do everything immediately and the whole industry is going down the sinkhole.

I don't buy it.

What I do think is that the way we use these products is about to change completely. And the SaaS companies that survive will have these 4 things in common:

1. Ecosystem lock-in

You cannot code your own Google Docs integration, Gmail integration, Fireflies integration, and all the other tools your team runs on. Your company and your client's company are connected through shared Slack channels. Try building that from scratch. You can't.

By keeping your current software, you get access to an ecosystem of plugins and connections to other companies that would take years and a load of money to replicate.


2. Proprietary data

If a SaaS product has been collecting and structuring your industry data for 10 years, that data becomes the product. AI needs data to be useful. The platforms sitting on the best data win.


3. Distribution

Casey Hill wrote about this recently and he's right. Having millions of users already on your platform is a moat no startup can copy on day one. That's why Salesforce isn't going anywhere. 


4. Outcome-based pricing

This is where things get interesting. Companies might not pay for seats anymore. They might pay for number of invoices submitted, accountancy submissions per year, or tasks completed by agents.

The actual value will shift from the interface and people doing the work to letting agents do the work with the best workflows possible. SaaS products in the future will open themselves up for agents, becoming MCP services.

And here's what people forget about building their own...

You have to own maintenance, support, handling technical difficulties, and scaling. I don't think companies will build their own software for accounting, finances, or managing people in HR. 

TDLR;
- The moats are ecosystem, data, distribution, and pricing flexibility
- The winners will be platforms that open up for AI agents
- Building your own still costs more than people think

What's your take on the SaaS shakeout? Are the public market movements justified?

Wispr Flow is blowing up right now 🔥

Their onboarding is why:

→ It’s a Voice-to-text app valued at $700M.
→ They are currently growing 50%+ month-on-month.
→ In 2025, they 10x’d customers in 5 months.

During onboarding, you speak to configure your settings. 

By the time setup is done, you've already used the core feature without realizing it. 

Brilliant!

After 13 years of building products, the biggest onboarding mistake I see is separating setup from usage. 

Founders build welcome sequences with videos and walkthroughs. But then… The customer finishes onboarding having never done the one thing the product exists for.

Wispr Flow makes setup and the core action the same thing.

The whole point of onboarding is getting the customer from zero to value fast. 

If your product needs 10 steps before a user sees value, think about what you can cut. 

The best V1 products I've worked on put the core experience first and build everything else around it.

How fast does your product get a new user to the thing they signed up for?

Wispr Flow Has The Best Onboarding:

ChatGPT 5.4 won’t give you your next SaaS idea.

These 6 places will:

After 20 years building software products for founders, here are the 6 most common places they said they found their idea.

1. G2 reviews (1-2 stars specifically)

Go to any established SaaS category. Filter by lowest ratings. Read the complaints.

→ "We switched because the reporting was unusable"
→ "Integration with X broke every update"
→ "Support took 3 weeks to respond"

These are real customers spending real money, telling you exactly what they wish existed. That gap between what they paid for and what they got? That is your product.


2. Reddit, Inc. and niche communities

Search subreddits like r/SaaS, r/startups, r/smallbusiness for "I wish there was" or "looking for alternative to."

→ Real pain, described in the customer's own words
→ Free market research that most founders ignore completely


3. Job boards

This one surprises people. Look at what roles companies are hiring for. If 40 fintech companies are all hiring "compliance automation engineers," there is a gap in the tooling. Companies hire when software fails them.


4. Crunchbase and funding announcements

What is getting funded tells you what investors have already validated. You do not need to copy them. But if 12 companies raised seed rounds in the same space in the last 6 months, the market is real.


5. Product Hunt trending categories

Not for copying what launched yesterday. For spotting which categories keep producing new entries. Repeated launches in one space means the existing solutions are not good enough.


6. Google Trends comparison

Take 4-5 tools in any category. Compare their search volume over 2 years. One declining while the category grows? Their customers are looking for something else. That something else could be you.


The pattern across all 6 is the same….

Find people who already have them and are already paying someone else to solve them badly.

I have seen founders burn through 50k, 100k building products nobody asked for. And I have seen others spend two weeks doing this research and walk into our workshop with an idea that had paying customers within 90 days.

Where do you look for product ideas before building? 
Which one did I miss?

6 Websites SaaS Founders Find Product Ideas

McKinsey & Company just released the best markets for 2026.

$100B+ is flowing into ONLY 5 sectors:

1. Healthcare and clinical tech
→ $15B+ in private investment last year according to McKinsey
→ Regulatory barriers keep vibe coders out 
→ We've built in this space and watched one get acquired within 18 months
→ Aging populations in the EU and US guarantee demand for another decade

2. Open banking and embedded finance
→ PSD3 in Europe is forcing banks to open up even more data
→ Every fintech needs compliant infrastructure that actually works
→ The products that win here are boring on the surface but deeply technical underneath
→ We've shipped open banking platforms that are still running 4+ years later

3. Legal tech
→ One of the most underdigitized professional services globally
→ McKinsey & Company estimates legal operations spending on tech will double by 2027
→ Contract automation, compliance workflows, case management... the backlog of things to build is massive

4. AI-native B2B tools 
→ $70B+ in generative AI investment in the last 18 months
→ The wrapper era is ending. Investors want products with real data moats
→ Best opportunities: vertical AI for specific industries (farm-tech, logistics, insurance)
→ If you're building a thin ChatGPT layer on top of a spreadsheet, you're already behind

5. Marketplace platforms for fragmented industries
→ Logistics, construction, agriculture, skilled trades
→ These sectors run on phone calls and spreadsheets
→ Building a marketplace here is harder than people think (chicken-and-egg, trust, payments)
→ But the ones that crack it become acquisition targets fast

What I tell founders who ask me where to build:

- Pick a market with regulatory friction. It protects you.
- Talk to 20 people in the industry before you scope anything.
- If a freelancer on Fiver could build your V1, the market is already too crowded.
- The best exits we've seen came from products solving boring, complex problems in industries that move slowly.

Where are you seeing the most opportunity right now?

P.s.

I couldn’t fit all the details in this post (It’s 100+ pages). Comment ‘report’ below if you’d like the full 100+ page PDF report this is from and I’ll send it over.

Plain is the only company I've seen do this 🔥

They show you what you can achieve in 5, 15, and 29 minutes on their landing page.

Instead of a feature list or pricing table, you get a timeline of outcomes.

Plain is an API-first support platform used by Vercel and Cursor. 

It’s the kind of tool where you'd normally expect a "book a demo" button and a 3-week onboarding process.

But their landing page breaks it down simply:

5 minutes

→ Connect Slack, Teams, Discord, and email
→ Connect your CRM and issue tracker
→ Respond to your first ticket


15 minutes

→ Deploy an AI agent across all channels
→ Define SLAs, business hours, and customer tiers
→ Automate queries with workflows


29 minutes

→ Generate AI insights from support requests
→ Deploy a knowledge base from your support messages
→ Let customers self-serve with Ask AI

I've been building software for 20 years and I've seen hundreds of product pages. Almost none of them answer the question every buyer is silently asking: "How long until this actually works for me?"

Plain answers it before you even sign up.

If you're building a SaaS product that takes real effort to integrate, here's what you can take from this:

1. Show buyers how fast they'll see results instead of listing what your product does.
2. If your product is complex, break the complexity into small wins. Give people a reason to start.
3. Time-based milestones beat feature lists. Nobody cares about your 47 integrations. They care about "5 minutes to first ticket resolved."

Map your onboarding into time blocks and put it on your landing page. It de-risks the decision for your buyer and I think more SaaS companies should be doing this.

Have you seen other companies do something similar?

How to hire 10/10 SaaS employees

Depending on your rev and growth stage:

Some founders rush hiring and burn cash with nothing to show for it. 

Here's how to know what you actually need:

1. Hire a sprint team when you're going from 0 to MVP
→ You've identified a real problem and want to validate fast
→ You need people who've done the grunt work before, like user journey mapping and usability-first development
→ These short focused sprints typically take 6-10 weeks from idea to working MVP

2. Hire freelancers when you have a team and a working product
→ You're growing and already have a roadmap
→ You need temporary help to ship a feature or tackle a backlog item
→ They're great for that specific integration before a big demo, but don't expect long-term commitment or strategic input

3. Hire an internal team when you're playing the long game
→ You have the time and budget to hire and retain top talent
→ You have someone in-house to lead the team and set priorities
→ You've already built infrastructure like HR, PM, dev ops, and internal comms
→ Expect 3-4 months to hire senior devs, plus another 1-3 months to get them productive

For most early-stage teams, an internal team isn't the best starting point unless you're going deep tech or building something highly complex.

Match your hiring strategy to your actual stage.

P.S.

Here's the catch though… if you're launching in a regulated industry… Or one that's underutilized in tech, where the product team has to dive deep into the niche and understand its inner mechanics before they write a single line of code.

Stuff like legal tech, Farm-tech SaaS or Healthcare platforms.

Freelancers won't cut it here. 

They don't have the domain knowledge or the patience to build it up.

These are the cases where you go with an experienced product team. One that already has the processes, workflows, and strategy to navigate complexity from day one.

I've developed products for 5x exits.

Ask your product partner these 4 questions.

When a non-technical founder sits down with a developer for the first time, they usually talk about their vision, their timeline, and their budget.

Wrong approach…. You should be interviewing them.

After 13 years of building SaaS products, here are four questions that separate great developers from expensive mistakes:

1. "What would you NOT build for V1?"

A good developer gives you a specific list of things to cut. A bad one says "we can build all of it." If they don't push back on your feature list, they'll build everything you mention and invoice you for every hour.


2. "Can you walk me through something similar you've built?"

You want specifics. Screenshots, architecture decisions, trade-offs they made. If the answer is "yeah we can do that" without showing proof, keep looking.


3. "What happens if a feature takes twice as long as estimated?"

You want a plan, not a promise. Good developers talk about scope adjustments and priorities. Bad ones say "it won't happen." It will.


4. "How would you help me figure out what to build first?"

The best answer involves user research, validation, and customer conversations. If they jump straight to "what tech stack do you want?" they're builders, not product thinkers. You need both.


These four questions cost you nothing and save you $15-20k per month in building the wrong thing with the wrong partner.

The best product partners you'll ever work with will tell you what NOT to build.

Save this before building your v1.

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