Pierre's journal

For most of my career, I’ve been building products for others.

It’s been a great journey, I shipped products I’m very proud of, used by millions, solved complex problems and learned from some of the best people in the industry, but today, I’m doing something different.

I’m starting a new project that reflects what I’ve learned, what I care about and the kind of business that I want to create.

A bit of background

I’ve been working for most of my adult life, all of it in the tech industry (I did other things before that, but I wasn’t an adult yet, maybe I’ll talk about my other lives one day).

There have been fun times and tough times, but I’m grateful to past myself for keeping on going, I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.

Anyway, I always had ideas, like most developers (or most people in the industry), started a bunch of things that I never finished for <insert reason>, and eventually just abandoned the idea that I would do something for myself, until now.

Why now, you might ask? Well, here are four things that I recently realized:

1. I know how to build stuff that works.
2. I know how to build and ship products people want (and not trying to convince myself people want the product I built).
3. I know what kind of business I want to pursue, and most importantly, what kind I do not want to even touch with a 10-foot pole.
4. I have no idea what I’m doing, but now I know that nobody really does.

It might sound dumb (it probably is), delusional (why not) and naive (for sure), but, for once in my life, I’m willing to take the risk.

I’ve built enough products to know where my weaknesses are, what I’m good at, and where I need help.

I’ve learned to move quickly without sacrificing quality, to iterate purposefully, and to listen to users instead of my ego and today I’m putting all of that into practice to build something I believe in.

A business, not just a product

The product I’m currently working on is pretty important, but what I’m aiming to achieve goes far beyond a product.

I’m building a business that could support my family, myself, and a team, that could grow sustainably and that puts people first, whether that’s collaborators, employees or customers, it’s all about creating something I could be proud to run for decades.

It doesn’t mean I’m telling growth or investors to fuck off, I’m convinced both of these things are good, as long as it’s about scaling thoughtfully with a solid foundation ensuring lasting value and impact.

So, yeah, naive and delusional, but focused on building with intention.

I’m also fortunate enough to not be completely isolated in the process, so I can avoid (some of) the classic “I know what I’m doing” trap (and I don’t know anyway; see point n.4 of the previous chapter).

Cool cool, now what?

You just read a full post (did you?) without even knowing what I’m talking about, and I’m sorry about that.

I’ve got a problem, a clear vision, I’m attached to the idea, but not too attached so I can pivot if needed, I started working on The Thing™, and I have the drive to make it work.

I’ll talk a bit more about what The Thing™ actually is soon, please bear with me, you’re probably in a cloudy room right now after reading all that (you did, right?), but, as stated earlier, I’m taking the long shot, so we have time.

I’m mostly writing this post to gauge interest, see if some people would be interested in reading about the journey, or not at all (in which case, I’ll still write about it tbh).

What I could tell right now, though, is that it’s not about AI hype stuff (so, not another GPT wrapper), it’s built with love (but mostly code), and, while not being a breakthrough disruption of the spacetime continuum, it could improve the daily life of many, if not most, people working in teams (or even alone).