Let me start from the creator s perspective:
I personally don t have a product (apart from hiring people for creative work or offering personal consultations).

But as a creator, I constantly share content, insights, and information, value that helps me build trust (for free). Based on that perceived expertise, people eventually decide to work with me (a paid service).

1. I've always been on the personal brand side. More and more founders are building it now (sometimes even before the product is ready while it's still in development, before seed fundraising). The CEO builds their position so the product sells more easily at the official launch.

2. But I have experience with people who built the product, scaled it, and only then did we discover who was behind it.

Honestly, with the first approach, I'd be concerned that people invest more in me as a person than in the product. People would idealise the founder and overlook the product's flaws (which could hurt development and constructive feedback).

+ I noticed the most common mistake that many people who started building a personal brand first, connected their product to their personal accounts (emails, social media, etc.) and started having a problem selling these things, because they cannot "give someone keys" to their personal profiles.

There are founders you d love to NOT work for. And then there are founders whose company you wouldn t want to leave, no matter what.

A big part of that comes down to people, their values, and their character.

And often, that starts with the founder.

With the advent of clawdbots, it's as if we've all lost our inhibitions and "put our lives completely in their hands."

I'm all for delegating work, but not giving them too much personal/sensitive stuff to handle.

AI is incredibly good, I d even say almost perfect.

And for many people, that uniformity of perfect templates is starting to feel annoying.

I'll be honest I've never liked the feeling that someone "owns" me.

So being employed was very distant to me. [As if I had no power over my income.]

We've teamed up with @Y Combinator or to give builders one more chance.

Launch on Product Hunt this Friday, tag your post "YC application" @gustaf will personally review the top launches. One or more will walk away with a YC interview, even though the official deadline has passed.

Vercel Day is tomorrow May 15 and if you've been sitting on a launch, this is your window.

Schedule your Product Hunt launch for Friday and be sure to add the Vercel Day launch tag to be included on the official Vercel Day leaderboard. That's where the eyes are going to be. Here's what's on the table for top launches:

Since I haven't been able to meet my work goals very well in the last few quarters, I now plan to approach them more systematically and not push myself too hard on work goals, as that ultimately led to problems that made my plan less sustainable.

So here is my structure and list:

A lot of makers come out with bold claims about their idea: THE NEXT BIG THING.

In most cases, surprisingly, it s not even the next small thing. People simply don t notice it.