Starting the build log

I run three things right now. Ghost, an AI SDR platform. Growth Mode, the studio behind it. And Founders Engine Room, a weekly newsletter for business owners.

Each has its own site, its own audience and its own to-do list. What none of them had was a single place that shows how they fit together, or a record of what it's like to build them at the same time. This site is that place. The build log is the record.

The format

One post a month. Four parts, every time:

• Shipped. What went live.
• Broke. What failed, and why.
• One number. The figure that mattered most that month.
• One lesson. The thing I'd tell another founder over a coffee.

A fixed format keeps me honest. There's no room to hide a bad month behind a clever intro. If nothing shipped, the post says so.

Shipped

This site. A homepage, a bio and the log you're reading.

Broke

The first version. It had the right words in the right order and it looked like every other founder page on the internet. Flat, static, forgettable. So it got rebuilt around a live particle engine that re-forms as you scroll: a turbine, then three rings for the three ventures, then a wave, then a globe.

One number

80,000. That's how many particles the homepage moves on a desktop screen. Phones get a lighter version so it stays smooth.

One lesson

First impressions buy attention for everything underneath. If the opening is flat, nobody scrolls far enough to find the substance. That's true of a homepage, a cold message and a pitch.

Next month: what's shipping in Ghost.