Day 6 - Slow days as a solo founder
I look forward to the day I find a technical co-founder so I can move faster.
I spent the past few days prepping the metadata for the flash cards that will go in my knowledge graph. And much of that was refining prompts to do the metadata tagging at scale. And I’m happy that I got it done but it was so boring!
Yesterday was also a bit slow for me. Woke up, refined some prompts then had a 2 hour session to explain my business plan to one of my GTM co-founders. He’s an old friend so it was a mix of “how are you?” and “ok this is my business plan”.
After that, I went to the gym, did a bit more prompt tuning, and made some food.
I had signed up for co-founder matching event at Antler Japan but I misread the description. It was an event for Antler residents looking for a co-founder - not a general matchmaking event. Only plus was that I ran into a guy I sat next to at a voice agent event earlier in the week. He recognized me and approached me and we had a good conversation. Glad we had that talk.
I experienced something similar in Berlin: the same people go to these events. So if you don’t connect with someone immediately, you’ll probably see them again at another event.
Another side note, it’s been super easy making connections here in Tokyo. I’ve been here 2 weeks and already made some strong connections.
After the antler event there was a welcome party I had to attend. After 1-2 hours I was getting an itch to do some more work so I hid away with my laptop and got a few more things done before heading off to bed.
Today I’m going to hackathon at Bitcoin Base but I’m not really feeling the vibe. I’ll probably just work on my own project and see if it’s worth coming back on Sunday.
(Pic is some sashimi I made yesterday - $3!!!)
With you on this! I’ve had plenty while building my own content app. Those quiet hours usually mean the groundwork’s happening, even if it doesn’t feel productive. Momentum often hides in those maintenance days; they’re what make the visible wins later possible.
I think the slowness can sometimes be more brutal than the fast iteration a startup requires.
There are slow days and slow months. Totally normal. Provided the systems can take care of themselves, you absolutely need to focus on you, otherwise your business will never grow.
Love the transparency! Totally get the struggle of solo-building without a technical co-founder. You are making great progress, though refining prompts and systems like that will pay off big once you scale.
Totally get this. Some days as a solo founder just feel slow like nothing’s moving, even though you’re putting in the work.What helps me is reminding myself that consistency compounds. Even one small task done on a “slow day” still moves the project forward.
Keep going slow progress is still progress
Wish you lots of luck with your solo hard work now and a great success in working with the best tech partner in the nearest future💪
Going through something similar as a solo non technical cofounder. Wish you all the best in your journey
Sounds like you’ve been putting in a ton of solid effort lately — even if the metadata work wasn’t the most exciting part 😅. It’s great that you’re building momentum, making connections, and still finding time for the gym and good food (that sashimi looks amazing for $3!).
Totally relate to the “same faces at every event” thing — that persistence really pays off for building genuine relationships. Keep pushing forward; your focus and consistency are going to pay off big once you find the right technical co-founder.
Love the hustle! Sounds like you’re making solid progress even without a tech co-founder — those consistent small wins add up fast. Also, $3 sashimi is an absolute steal!
I’m also working solo....building my SaaS content marketing services. From getting my live site ready to engaging on niche platforms for slow, organic SEO growth (so Google recognizes my brand) and doing ghostwriting, it’s all about small, consistent steps, patience, and gradually building authority and visibility
You’ve precisely identified the biggest leak in your funnel: the technical co-founder bottleneck.
But your core tactical mistake is spending the last few days on low-leverage, boring tasks like metadata tagging and prompt tuning. That is a half-win that guarantees a delayed launch.
You are applying Conversion Certainty to your prompts, but allowing strategic vagueness to define your time.
The superior strategic lever is this: Immediately stop all busywork. Your financial gain is maximized by enforcing Conversion Certainty on your calendar. You need to deploy a high-scarcity, high-impact outreach sequence to find and secure that technical co-founder.
The boring work can wait. The only non-vague priority that drives revenue is eliminating your core structural dependency. That is the only task worth doing until it is 100% complete.
Hey thanks for responding to my post. can you give me a more 'layman's terms' approach to what you are saying?
in my opinion, the highest return on investment would be going to events that allow me to pitch my idea to other engineers. and I have been doing that - but there are only so many events that give me this visibility.
but yeah I am open to some more ideas on how I can better convert on the idea of finding of co-founder