Building in Public

This is a post for anyone interested in following along with what I have been doing. This has been pinging around in the my head as a necessary update to family for months. Sorry about going off the radar, and here is an update on what I have been up to and where I’m going.

Most of 2024 has been a disaster. Earlier in the year I built excitement for a business idea for a sports cards market place. The idea is that no current market exists which is serving the community of collectors / investors. Tere are options from companies from my child-hood who are stuck in the past. There are options from hobbyist who haven’t created a serious offering. Finally, there are markets that don’t cater to the sports fans (Ebay.) Much activity happens in the walled gardens of Facebook, and that’s a clear indicator of a market ready to be served.

The idea was given to me by a long-time friend, who I took on as a co-founder. The idea was that we would work on this together and split the company. Keep in mind I’m regularly getting pitched bad ideas. This is one of the first that grabbed my interest. Things seemed to be kicking off well. I applied to an upcoming cohort of “Founder University” run by a renowned tech investor. The cohort material was simple, it was a roadmap to get to the major next step of having something to pitch to an investor. The roadmap was 3 months, which also seemed like enough time to get things rolling. I was among 10% selected of those replied and even fewer who were given the option to join with no up-front payment (refundable if you made the requirements.)

The project started out as a disaster. In hindsight, this should have been obvious. When you take on a co-founder, you expect that person will come through for you on certain things. It was clear this person was only interested in being the idea guy and was likely unqualified for any role I could have given him in the company. I did attend nearly every meeting and kept up with the requirements of Founder University, but it was clear I started on shaky foundations and needed more time. Additionally, this meant that I would need to find work, while pushing the sports cards market to the back-burner.

Where to now? I’m still very excited about the cards marketplace, and I feel that I have identified another potential interesting angle for making this idea venture scale (investor friendly.) I would like to build he marketplace such that investors could get exposed to ownership of cards, without actually owning them. The company itself would acquire and store these cards, then sell shares through a blockchain. If this all sounds like it would be a regulatory nightmare that I have no idea what I would be getting into, you’re right!

There’s a detour I want to take first though. I have been gaining interest in AI also, and it’s something I can’t ignore. This space feels like the early days of the internet. I don’t know we’ll ever see another period like this again, especially if AI radically changes the world. Technology has been on such a pace of growth, I believe we’re close to the point where we will only be able to dscribe our world in terms of magic. This could be a positive or it could be a negative, but I feel compelled to jump in the fire.

I now have another business partner (watch out!) and ideas we will approach much more carefully. I could run this company through another round of Founder University, but I think I’m going to hold off until a future round. The idea is to run a table-top game (think Dungeons and Dragons) with the AI as the DM. Even though the AI should greatly simplify this, it will be a lot of work to implement. We’re also approaching this with an open mind for building applications for potential clients. Whatever we could build for a game, we could also build for any other processes. This cautious approach will give us more immediate ways to build an income while building the main business. As we also build this expertise, we can apply it to other ideas such as the cards market. I’m loving the possibilities of what AI could do in a marketplace.

The trick (and the excitement) is that nobody really knows what they are doing here. This is a fronteir. The only way forward is to get your hands dirty and build. The reason for this blog is to share things I find interesting in thinking about these subjects. As I discover them, write a little about them, I’m also thinking about them. This will help direct our knowledge acquistion. I’ll also be seeking out “build in public” communities so that I can share the progress of what I’m doing, both here and in those communities. I’m excited to be sharing these sorts of things with people on a similar track.

Other news? I have some prospects for part time gigs doing the same as I have done. One is in the waiting, but I have had issues with blistering feet for over a month. My feet hurt to move, to sit, and the most simple things have been a logistical challenge. I have mostly been sitting out this time, because I can only sit at a computer for a certain period of time. Though I haven’t been doing myself favors by shying away from things such as pain pills and antibiotics. I want to feel what is going on with my feet, and I don’t want the side-efffects of anti-biotics. The cause? I’m stil trying to work this out, but I beleive the culprit was a pair of sandals which were constructed with toxic chemicals. I no longer wear the sandals and I’m hoping the cycle of blistering will stop within a week or two. Regardless, I’m shooting for getting back to work on Monday.

This is already way too long. Thank you for reading. And if you’re reading this, then you likely know how to get in contact with me if you have any comments. Thanks!