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.
Killed profitable businesses when AI made them irrelevant → found clarity. Now I work with founders building in the layers AI can't eat.
$10M+
Businesses Built
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 Cuts
AI compressed entire business categories overnight. Coaching, content services, consulting — margins collapsed as AI did in seconds what used to take hours. I watched it happen to businesses I owned.
So I killed them. Not one — multiple profitable businesses. A coaching program. Service lines that were still making money. Revenue that looked healthy on paper but was already dead on a long enough timeline.
If AI can eat it, let it go.
Now I only build in layers AI can't replace — trust, judgment, network effects, regulatory moats. And I help other founders do the same before the compression hits them.
What I Do Now
I don't sell information — I give you access to judgment from someone actively building through the same disruption you're navigating.
I build businesses. Newsletters, affiliate sites, communities, micro-SaaS. The boring stuff that throws off cash and doesn't depend on algorithm whims. I hold forever.
I share what I learn. The expensive lessons, the frameworks, the tools. Everything on Founder Reality is free, forever. If you're building through AI disruption or just want to think differently about business — this site is for you.
What Now?
If this resonates, start here. Free series, real tools, and a path forward for founders navigating AI displacement.
DMs always open: @TheGeorgePu · george@founderreality.com