Ran

I’d rather have two ultra-clear, useful hours than eight distracted ones. So I give myself one input: what decision needs clarity today? If I get that one thing clear, I’ve done real work.

This is so good. One of the biggest gaps we’ve seen in accessibility compliance is founders thinking “it doesn’t apply to me yet.” We’ve had to build Equally AI to counter that exact assumption, especially with the EAA now enforcing. Your tax calendar is solving the same mental trap: it doesn’t matter if you meant well, the IRS doesn’t care. You’re giving founders something practical before the...

Accessibility isn’t mass-market, so we don’t chase mass reach. We’ve worked with people in legal compliance, design systems, even nonprofit web strategy. These aren’t typical “influencers”, but they have influence.

Not every raise is cash. If someone’s in it for the long haul, I’ll offer equity or performance-based options that vest over time. That way, compensation reflects not just contribution, but alignment with where we’re going.

I like planning the things I don’t want to think about later. That’s usually logistics, meetings, ops stuff. The creative work like the strategy, copy, actual idea, stuff like that, I might leave those a bit loose. Most time the perfect execution for those do not show up on command, so I don’t pretend they will.

For me, ideal work conditions aren’t about comfort, they’re more about decision hygiene. Most decisions aren’t hard because we lack information. They’re hard because we’re mentally scattered, context-switching, and interrupted mid-thought. I work from one place when I need to make decisions that stick, whether that's product direction, legal positioning, UX strategy. Everything else can happen...

Digital advertising broke when it became about chasing micro-metrics across siloed platforms. Our biggest shift with AI at Equally AI has been moving from channel-specific reporting to unified signal intelligence, seeing how different touchpoints interact across the journey. Once we saw that clarity, we cut entire channels and doubled down on what actually compounded growth. AI made that...

Most productivity advice treats time as the main resource. But energy is the real constraint. I track what kind of work I do best at different times—thinking in the morning, collaboration after lunch, admin at night. Then I structure my calendar to match. It sounds simple, but aligning work to energy beats often any app or blocker. That;s my expereince though.

Incredible journey. The Paraguay move alone deserves its own movie subplot. But beyond the story, what I admire most is how clearly you saw the problem in agents, and didn’t just tweak around the edges. Looking forward to seeing how Okibi evolves. Well done!

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is that standards without prioritization are just anxiety in disguise. You can’t hold everything to a 10. So we define where a 10 is non-negotiable, like as concerns user trust, compliance, performance, and allow a 7 or 8 in other areas if it means we ship on time. I dont see it as lowering the bar. It’s about making sure you’re sweating the right stuff.

Honestly, the most interesting ones for me this year have been the companies quietly building useful, not just viral, tools. Harvey, Glean, Abridge and Rewind are worth watching. I’d throw Vellum in here too, as their tooling is powering a lot of internal agent infra, and people building with LLMs at scale know how critical that kind of reliability layer is. And hey, I’d be lying if I said I...

Kitchen cabinet placement. Nearly every kitchen is designed around the assumption that you’re tall, standing, and fully mobile. High cabinets = inaccessible. Deep corner cabinets = unusable. And reaching for plates shouldn’t feel like CrossFit. Why isn’t adjustable-height cabinetry more common in new builds?☹️

Great picks! I usually cross-reference a bunch of platforms depending on what I’m buying. For software or B2B tools, I check G2, Capterra, GetApp, TrustRadius, and Software Advice. For more general or consumer products, my top picks would be Google Reviews, Amazon (even for non-Amazon purchases, just to gauge feedback), Reddit (especially for honest, unfiltered takes), YouTube (deep-dive...

Congrats, @leonxue1 Leon! You’ve clearly put in the work. Wishing you all the best for launch day.

We built the product first. I mean, we had a tool live before I even checked if the name was taken. Our first domain looked like a phishing site, but it worked. People used it and then they told their friends and acquiantances. I've come to realise that merely having a good name won't build your business, but a working product will. The name can evolve but your product can’t grow if it doesn’t...

So of course this is entirely my opinion, but I think most early-stage GTM mistakes come from trying to be too “validated.” We spent months tweaking our positioning for different segments across agencies, SaaS teams, enterprise compliance leads. But the only thing that really worked was shipping a tiny version of the product, with one outcome, for one type of person , and seeing if anyone cared...

Honestly, the most underrated ROI we've realised from using AI in marketing has been the mental bandwidth. Founders underestimate how draining it is to be in the weeds of campaign optimization every week. Once we automated the busywork, we finally had the headspace to think big again about positioning, partnerships, and product. Scaling isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about doing...

Love seeing teams ship with this kind of energy. Big congrats on the 2-year mark!👏🏻

This is a good question. Early stage can be messy, and there's no single roadmap. But here's what I’d say, from both experience and hard-won observations: Start by getting brutally clear on your “why now” for the product and the funding. Most founders start fundraising too early or without a sharp enough story. Investors aren’t just betting on your idea, they’re betting on your momentum. If you...