I've been thinking a lot about patterns. Not product decisions. Not roadmaps. Personal patterns - the kind that shape how I show up, whether I notice them or not.
After years of building - companies, systems, communities - I can see my own fingerprints. The rules I follow. The traits I default to when no one's watching.
And as I step back from one chapter and look at what comes next, I want to write them down. Not as fixed truths, but as a snapshot. A way of seeing the operating system I'm running on today, before it inevitably shifts again.
So here it is. The shape of me, right now.
My Operating System
- I build to make sense of the world. Sometimes that means a product. Sometimes a tool, a system, or a sketch. I don't build just to ship - I build to understand. To turn the abstract into something real.
- I care. About whether the work matters. About how people behave when strategy is thin. About whether we're chasing outcomes or just theatre. That idealism is a strength, but also a liability.
- I play long games. Trust compounds. So does work that lasts. I'm not chasing the biggest audience - I'm building a body of work worth keeping.
- I run on high agency. I move when I see a gap. I don't wait for consensus or permission. I need clarity and purpose, not sign-off.
- I carve through ambiguity. When ownership's unclear, I pick up the thread. When priorities clash, I bring focus. Not because it's my job, but because it needs doing.
- I switch altitudes fast. One moment I'm working with founders or leads on direction and trade-offs. The next, I'm on a customer call, reviewing designs, or testing a release minutes before it ships. Switching like this isn't distraction - it's how I connect strategy to detail, spot gaps, and keep momentum alive.
- I write to create clarity. I talk things through to explore. I write to refine. Writing shows the gaps, sharpens the thinking, and aligns the team. It's not content. It's a tool.
- I lean on systems when they're needed. I don't love process for its own sake. But I know when a lightweight system will help - creating clarity, reducing friction, and enabling others to run faster. The point isn't control. It's making sure the team adds up to more than the sum of our parts.
- I believe in small, high-trust teams. I don't need 50 people and a wiki full of process. I need a handful of sharp minds, shared context, and the trust to disagree, decide, and deliver.
- I need momentum. Not busyness. Momentum. Progress that resolves tension. When ambiguity drags, I ship something - a doc, a decision, a release - to get things moving again.
- I look after my energy. I want deep work and deep rest. Enough slack in the system to think clearly and act intentionally. When I feel stretched, I don't grind harder - I reset how I'm working.
How This Shows Up in Work
- On building products: Talk to customers obsessively, build incrementally. Ship beats perfect. Revenue is the best validation. Foundations matter more than features. Product-market fit rarely feels how you expect. Solve real problems, not imagined ones.
- On early-stage work: Messy beginnings are where the opportunities are. Do things that don't scale until you must. Multiple hats are a feature, not a bug. The first 10 customers teach more than the first 10 features. Pre-seed to Series A is a different game. There's no substitute for putting in the hours.
- On teams and leadership: Hire people who figure things out. Context over control. Systems thinking beats hero work. Trust is the only currency that compounds. Good people leave bad processes, not bad companies.
- On shipping: Bias to action over paralysis. Ship small, learn fast, iterate. Debt is fine if it buys learning. Momentum creates strategy.
- On scaling: 0→1: find something people want. 1→10: build systems that work. 10→100: don't break what works. What got you here won't get you there.
- How I work: I get my hands dirty - coding, customer calls, digging into detail. I think in systems but ship in increments. I prefer small teams that move fast over big ones that move slow. I value clarity over consensus - and write like I talk. I optimise for learning speed when everything's uncertain. I stay close to the work because that's where the truth lives.
