Growing Ventures
Build a Boring Business
I've been working in tech for close to 15 years and have founded several businesses during that time. Some were successful, but most were not.
Regardless of that, I was fortunate to build a network of founders and operators who I truly admire. Many went on to build immensely successful businesses and among them, I have not once seen an overnight success, only years of grind.
If you read the news lately – or check out LinkedIn for that matter – the public consensus is that in the age of AI, everything we know about building software businesses needs to be thrown out the window, because everything gets reinvented from the ground up.
While every founder looks like they're moving faster, building smarter, winning bigger than you, I must remind you: that's not reality.
It may be true for some, but it's definitely wrong for many.
An overnight success 9 months in the making
While my first company oratio took nine months to find product-market fit before we could scale it to $20k MRR, most other businesses I founded never reached that point.
Our portfolio company Notehouse took six years to reach $100k ARR. That's six full years of shipping features, talking to users, adjusting positioning and genuinely not knowing whether you are on the right track.
Day in, day out.
Every single company I worked on or acquired took years to be built. For those who made it, we felt that at some point something shifted and suddenly people were approaching us instead of us chasing them.
That's what product-market fit actually feels like: not a headline, just the quiet moment when the market starts pulling.
In the case of oratio, the biggest influences on its success were hard work (that was under our control) and market timing (that was hardly under our control). We were lucky to build a product that eventually resonated well with the market.
Your work only compounds if you show up every day
The founders you see celebrated on LinkedIn didn't figure it out faster than you. They just kept iterating until something caught. The stories that aren't told are the many years of grinding before anyone was paying attention.
If you're in year 1, year 3 or year 5 and it still feels like a grind, that's not a sign you're on the wrong path – that is the path.
What persists in the long run are not the flashy, but the boring businesses and founders and operators who show up every day to deliver work that quietly compounds to an "overnight success":
The customer support emails, the tickets on your product roadmap, the conversations with customers, the chargebacks from your Stripe account, the employee who didn't fit the team – all this is part of the journey.
It's true, AI has introduced profound changes to how we build software businesses, opening new possibilities for incumbents and startups alike. But don't get fooled, it raises the bar for everyone.
Now, if everyone builds with AI, it's those who show up consistently and deliver their best work who will make it in the long run. And more often than not, this just sounds outright boring.
So, what are you working on tomorrow?