Hey it’s Abe – I’m back!
The last post I wrote was May 9, 2022 – Announcing I found a co-founder.
Fast forward to now – that company was acquired and I spent two years at the acquirer.
LOTS of details to fill in – I’ll save that for future newsletters.
A few weeks ago, I stepped away from my full-time job as Head of Engineering at FERMAT.
Why leave one of the hottest startups in ecommerce backed by Bain and Greylock?
Lots of layers to the answer – but one of the most compelling is that I started using Cursor. If you’re not familiar (PLEASE GET FAMILIAR) – Cursor is an AI-powered code editor.
Now, I’m pretty skeptical of most high-hype technologies. I initially took the same stance toward artificial intelligence. Cool, sure, but overhyped and likely to underwhelm in the medium-term.
When I started using Cursor, it clicked.
I found that I could do the work of five developers myself. Not just that – but the efficiency gains came immediately. I didn’t need to take a course or learn a complex tool – I just needed to pay $20/month.
The feeling was like booting iOS in 2008. Something had changed within me. Something was not the same.
Sadly, I missed the dawn of the internet (Ok, I was like 8 years old), I missed the mobile app revolution, I hit the tail end of the SaaS era.
I’m awake and ready for the AI era.
So, what’s the plan?
First – have open eyes, open ears, and a mostly open schedule. That’s where moving on from my former position was essential. I’m spending as much time as I can meeting with smart people, reading smart content, and experimenting with new concepts.
One avenue for this is opening up shop as a Fractional CTO / 0 to 1 Product and Engineering advisor.
I’m also launching many of my own experiments. Most of these are proof of concept work (or just sales enablement material) to bring to potential customers or partners, get feedback, and determine appetite.
A key goal this time around is to sell first, build second. Ironic, given how easy building has become. Turns out even with AI, you’ve still gotta build something people want.
I expect I’ll operate in the “Applied AI” space – ie: using AI tools to enable novel business outcomes.
This means I’m explicitly not targeting the AI infrastructure / models space. Two major reasons – 1) My background and skill set is in product engineering, not ML/AI, and 2) There is so much money and expertise flowing at the infrastructure level, it feels unwise to compete there.
I plan to keep you updated on my progress.
If you want to chat or collaborate, don’t hesitate to find me on LinkedIn or X.
Cheers,
Abe