What 5 Years of Building Taught Me
Every time I removed something, things got better.
Removed VC chase → built what customers wanted.
Removed co-founders → moved faster, kept equity.
Cut team from 14 to 5 → everything got profitable.
Killed a profitable coaching business → found fulfillment.
Now I acquire online businesses. This is how I got here.
$10M+
Portfolio
80%+
Ownership
$0
VC Raised
5
Person Team
27 years old. Toronto. Building for 30+ years, not 5-year exits.
The Path Here
Not the highlight reel. The failures, pivots, and moments that broke me.
The $29/Month Humiliation
On a call with a SimpleDirect customer. We were charging contractors $29/month for a financing platform.
“Yeah, my Google Ads guy charges me $12,000 a month.”
He was paying someone 400 times more than us. And happy about it.
We were solving $10,000 problems and charging $29. So I called three of our best customers and pitched a $2,000/month service we hadn't built. Two said yes immediately.
Lesson: Price is a signal. Undercharging attracts the wrong people.
The Y Combinator Poison
5 applications. 3 interviews. 0 acceptances. Three years building for people who would never fund us.
Lesson: I was performing founder instead of building.
The Breaking Point
Salad King restaurant. Downtown Toronto. With my co-founder when the email comes through.
From: Y Combinator
“Unfortunately, we've decided not to fund [the company]... We are concerned about the chicken-and-egg problem... It isn't clear to us how you'll be able to overcome this barrier.”
I walked outside. Paced down Lakeshore Boulevard. Stared at the lake.
“I've spent three years building for people who will never use this. Pitching people who will never fund this. Chasing a version of success that was never mine.”
That night, the spell broke. I stopped performing and started building again.
What Actually Worked
I started asking different questions:
What if I just charged real money from real customers?
What if I built for people who actually needed what I offered?
What if I stopped trying to scale and started trying to serve?
Made more in 6 months than 3 years of chasing VC.
Not because I got smarter. Because I stopped playing someone else's game.
The Hardest Cut
Early this year, I killed a profitable business. A coaching program making good money. Helping people. Doing everything it was supposed to do.
But I was miserable. I'd built “adult daycare”—hand-holding founders who didn't need to win. They wanted accountability partners, not guidance. Therapy, not strategy.
Profitable ≠ Fulfilling
Now I only work with operators who actually need to win. People with real constraints. People who don't need hand-holding.
What I Do Now
I acquire online businesses. Newsletters, affiliate sites, communities, micro-SaaS. The boring stuff that throws off cash and doesn't depend on algorithm whims.
I hold forever. No flipping, no leverage games, no 5-year fund timelines. I'm building a portfolio of assets that compound for 30+ years.
I also share what I've learned. The expensive lessons. The frameworks. The tools. If you're building something profitable and thinking about selling, or just want to think differently about business—this site is for you.
What Now?
If this resonates, explore. Or if you're running a profitable online business and thinking about selling, let's talk.
DMs always open: @TheGeorgePu · george@founderreality.com