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"I wasted six years being afraid to share because I thought I wasn't there yet. I thought I needed permission, authority, to be someone I'm not.""Content today is not just optional. It is the infrastructure.""You can't just turn on content like a button when your product is ready, because content takes time to compound.""Nobody wants corporate accounts. Nobody wants perfectly polished thought leadership. Everyone wants to know: What are you building? What's working? What's breaking? What did you learn?""Six months from now, you'll have distribution, leverage, and people who care about what you're doing. Or you can wait, and six months from now, you'll still be at zero.""Don't try to be someone you're not. Stay in your lane and be exactly who you are."
Founder Reality with George Pu. Real talk from a technical founder building AI-powered businesses in the trenches. No highlight reel, no startup theater – just honest insights from someone who codes, ships, and scales.
Every week, George breaks down the messy, unfiltered decisions behind building a bootstrap software company. From saying yes to projects you don't know how to build, to navigating AI hype vs. reality, to the mental models that actually matter for technical founders.
Whether you're a developer thinking about starting a company, a founder scaling your first product, or a technical leader building AI features, this show gives you the frameworks and hard-won lessons you won't find in the startup content circus.
George Pu is a software engineer turned founder building multiple AI-powered businesses. He's bootstrapped companies, shipped products that matter, and learned the hard way what works and what's just noise.
Follow along as he builds in public and shares what's really happening behind the scenes.
New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
George Pu (00:00)
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the founder reality podcast. I'm your host George pu And today I want to talk a little bit more about
creating content as a founder, a solopreneur or as a business person. And here's something I got completely wrong actually for the past six years. I thought about being public about my business, men sacrificing my privacy and sacrificing my competitive advantage. I thought I would need VC funding in order to justify earn the rights to talk. I thought my competitors were winning because there was stealth. So I should be too. And I just realized, you know, I was wrong on all three and that mistake has probably costed me two to three years.
growth today. I want to share with you guys about how to use content as leverage, no matter if you're a founder, entrepreneur, solopreneur, business owner, retail owner, whatever. Right. So I'm not saying becoming a content career and a creator as a career, right. But more about using content as one of the most important distribution channel you can build as a founder. Right. Because like I said, the theme of the show is that, you know, a lot of things have changed by the time when I started in 2019 as a founder and now in 2025, right. AI.
has commoditized everything. So even for content, right? Everyone can be talking about the same thing right now because of some script that I wrote. Everyone can be building the same software. Everyone can be researching the same plan for opening a new business or retail store, e-commerce or whatever. Right? So the only mode left, like I said, has been about distribution. So I thought about making an episode about exactly about my journey on content and why, if you're not building your content distribution right now, you're building on a rented land. So let me explain what I mean and take you through
it.
So personal story time again, right? So let's go back to 2019. So when I first started at simple direct, I was very excited, right? I'm, I was building something crucial and I was look around to what other successful founders are doing. Right. And at a time, you know, my competitor was called hearth, ⁓ financing is a company that is very similar to what we do. And they have raised about $50 million around, you know, series B time. ⁓ so that was like the big company that I sort of mired, right? They basically don't do anything.
about publishing publicizing, you know, their company details or whatnot. Their founder was basically talking about, you know, we need to be stealth and we're basically protecting our competitive advantage because if our competitors steal our stuff, our idea, then we will be put in a disadvantage. So that made me think, okay, is what simple direct is doing at a time also confidential because we're basically in very similar space. So I thought, okay, the wind, like the cases to win is to build in silence, right. And to announce something when you really have made it.
So that's when I was barely posting anything. I remember I had a LinkedIn account, I have a Twitter account, I have all the generic stuff. So I didn't really think about creating content. I was just basically grinding in a startup hell, right? And basically going through different things, sales marketing, growth, all that. So I've been doing that for at least three years. Fast forward to 2021.
My mentor at an accelerator told me about, um, you know, like founder brand was actually crucial. He pointed me to a book that was basically talking about how I can use my founder brand as a leverage to sell, you know, it's my business to other people, right? To like, let more people know about what we're building. So I started posting like once a week, I registered Twitter account. remember it was like sometime in 2021. I barely use it. It was very generic. I was, I posted something, you know, maybe 10 people saw it or something at a time. you know, we didn't have impressions back
then. So it was basically zero likes, one like something like that. So it wasn't really like hitting something. Right. So fast forward to 2023, I'm posting a little bit more. I'm posting once a week, sorry, once a day. So seven tweets for entire week. Right. But I wasn't really entirely sharing, right. I wasn't sharing about my story. was sharing some philosophical tweets about, you know, some lessons I have learned from building the business, but I wasn't sharing really about like what I'm building and being really honest about the journey. Right. And here's why I told my
I'm
like, okay, I'm a private person. I don't want to be an influencer. I don't want to be sharing like my lifestyle on Instagram or tech talk, just like what most people have been doing. Right. That's not me, which I think it is like largely true. You know, I am, you know, more private person. I don't want to share my lifestyle or where I go on a trip or whatnot. I don't think I care. I don't want to show up on anything like, and it's not just me to be creating those like Instagram photos or whatnot. Right. But I was confused. I think now looking back
about two very different things.
The first thing being being a content creator, right? So that was basically building an audience to monetize through advertisement and sponsors. So think about a really famous podcast. just listened to, right? They are famous because they are happy monetize, right? So they're probably have ads, they have right sponsors and that's totally okay. But I was thinking that, okay, I am going to be that person. It just feels like not me because I feel like I was a builder, not really a content creator, right? I was like, ⁓ am I going to be subject subjecting myself to be creating YouTube content every day now? Right? So that was kind of.
like my pushback at a time. But what I didn't see is that there is actually another route that's more commonly used that doesn't make you like a household name or be on YouTube, but it gives you a leverage that you can pull to make your product more well known, to make everything that you're building, you know, be fast way forward, right? So more people can see it, more people can use it. So if that sounds good, that's basically what I talking about. So using content, you know, as a founder, right? So basically what that means that building a distribution for your actual product
I
can services using you as a founder brand. So, you know, and also like one of the reasons why I made a mistake early on in my career is because I have this belief and this was like a killer about like, yo, you actually need authority before you can post. You need funding, you need VC money, you need customers, you need proof, you need revenue. So I thought, you know, we were really early at a time, right? We were both strapped. We don't have any VC money. What was I going to talk about?
I thought that, okay, where I was not a unicorn, we were not a unicorn. I haven't raised 50 million. I don't have 10,000 customers, right? Who's going to listen to me? So that was kind of a mistake I made. So I stayed quiet and I basically watch other founders with like less expert experience and frankly, built a massive audience just by talking about what they're doing and what they're learning. And I was like, okay, maybe that's not a way to go. And I have sacrificed a few years of making that mistake and actually not doing it while those funders got ahead. Right.
This is basically up until this year, around April 25, right? Literally like six months ago, that something clicked. realized just by doing some case studies and stuff, I realized that the most successful people in our space, right? In a founder space, right? Just in general, both staff founders, they're not successful because they're polished. They're successful because they are authentic, right? And look at like some of the people that are in tech and startups, like, you know, for example, like peer levels.
tweets like he texts his friends. DHH is more controversial and doesn't really care about what people think, which I think I love it. I wish I'm like that. And there are more founders that people realize are actually, they're the ones are talking out loud while everyone else is thinking, right? Nobody really wants a corporate account, right? Nobody wants a perfectly polished thought leadership, you know, something like that. It's useful, but once you really like, oh, great thoughts. And then everyone forgets and move on, right? Everyone wants to know that, you know, what are you actually building? What is actually working?
What's breaking and what did you learn? Especially if you position yourself as an entrepreneur, that's what people expect of you.
And great things because I've had six years of expensive lessons about failing and succeeding, right? Just sitting in my head. I've been remembering that I have those memories. have all the experiences and I wasn't really helping anyone. You know, I wasn't really helping in a distribution and not creating any leverage. And I thought about it, you know, like if I actually open source, a lot of my decision process, if I let people know exactly why and what I've done and I failed, right. It's actually a very good thing because maybe some people who are starting out now who saw the journey that I have been
through, they will stop at a mistakes that they would have made if they were just starting out on their own. So I made many mistakes on my journey. I basically basically mentioned about, you know, trying to force myself in like a, you know, know, shape of form that can read such a capital. I spent two, three years on that and it was just like not worth it at all. And I realized, okay, maybe some founders can find it useful. So that's why I wrote, you know, the ebook, which, know, now hundreds of people are reading it. And even though it's just a manuscript, so that is useful. So that was kind of my motivation about, know, not like a
I started deciding six months ago, I'll be actually started sharing. It's not about, you know, look at my office or you look at, look at my whole house. It's, it's actually, you know, very real and authentic, right? Because that's what it should be. I'm not going to share about like my morning routine, right? I don't want to be a lifestyle influencer because it's just not me. The real stuff I think comes really from, for example, like why I decided to walk out from a partnership. Like we all have going to have a lot of partnerships on the line. I share my framework so you can decide
whether you want to, you know, just take a partnership or analyze if it has any red flags. I shared about how we downsize our number of employees and our revenue went up, which is super helpful in the age for folks. And also like I lost $300,000 in quant trading shop and you know, what it taught me as well. Um, and why AI have made co-founders like complete, like optional for me. Right. And not, you know, not saying like solopreneurs are great. The journey is good and one that, but I do think that there are nuances, right. And you can always pick.
What specific it works for you. So those are all the real numbers. Those are the real decisions and frameworks. And it's basically just coming from my personal experience. It's not something that just invented out of the blue. So, and what happened was basically like, you know, six months in and, people I wanted to reach out, started reaching back, right? You're listening to this podcast right now because I finally started sharing. Otherwise you have never known about me, right? My book manuscript I just mentioned, I was published a few weeks ago. It's being read by hundreds of people because I talk about it. Right. So.
my brand, my businesses and put it like ANC, they're getting followers. They're getting people to reach out because of the frameworks, because of the philosophy, right? Because of different things that I'm sharing. So none of this is, is going to be available if I'm still in stealth mode, just executing and requiring permissions to talk. And if I do need something, I talk, you know, it's just going to be something that, you know, people are not going to ever going to see. It's going to be shouting in the wind, right? In the mountains. That's the analogy I like to use. So yeah, so now let's talk about.
why exactly matters to be creating content in 2025 than it was in 2019, 2020, or frankly any other time, you know, before 2023, right? So we all know that AI has changed a lot of things and back in the days it was like, oh, can you code? If you're really good at coding, you can get a job at Amazon.
I can keep working there until you become a VP and then you go become a director and then you'll become, you know, Going higher and higher in the chain. like skillset is like very different, right? Skillset is basically you master one skill. And when I went into college, it was computer science. So, and then it became like, okay, can you execute? Can you code? Can you do it? Can you, you know, climb out the ladder just based on your abilities today? It's very, very different. No matter if you're an employee, no matter if you're a business owner, no matter if you're a founder, entrepreneur, right? Anyone can basically be building anything nowadays. Right?
Let's say you are a CS engineer who are currently working at like say Amazon or JP Morgan or Google. There's nothing actually stopping someone who doesn't have a formal leverage of education, but self-taught using AI and actually have real experiences to actually be acing those interview questions and interview challenges that Amazon asks, for example. And as a founder, there's nothing stopping someone building the same product as I'm building. I just came out of the gate and storming and basically burning ad dollars into it.
And your competitors in the past, I'd say, mean, if I'm in the U S and if I'm in New York, I'll be, oh, you know, I'm already afraid another New York entrepreneur is going to do it. now, but now it's different, right? Your competitors can be in any country and it can be someone you have never heard of. And it could be building exact same features that you're building at the same time with similar quality. Right. So what's left, honestly, it's just distribution. Right. Who knows that you exist, right? Who trusts you? Who's going to pick your product with full
47 or 50 other people do exact same thing The answer is simple, right? It's the people who have been following your journey actually trust you the people who read what you post your frameworks or read your story who trust your philosophy because you've been sharing your genuine thoughts for month and for years Right and content today is not just optional. It is the infrastructure, right? And here's the thing a lot of founders miss like you you might be listening to this podcast. You're like, yeah, sure This is something I can catch up later. I can do it later
But here's the thing, you can't just turn on content like a button, right? When your content product is ready, because content takes time to compound into work, right? Every post I make today gets maybe like a thousand to 2000 views on Twitter, right? It's not huge. It's not crazy, but those people do remember, right? Some people do follow back. Some people do engage. Some people just subscribe. And in six months, that is a warm audience who have been hearing about my thoughts quite often. And that's good, right? In a year, that's authority. In three years, it's a moat. If you wait until your product is perfect,
You're going to start from zero distribution when you launch and that will be actually too late. Then you'll be conditioning yourself to Facebook ads, Google ads, all that different things, right? Which is like expensive and it might not work, right? And versus if you have been talking about a problem for a year, you built an audience of people who actually care, right? You launch and 500 people are already on it on day one. And I personally think that is a huge difference between a launch that dies and a launch that compounds, right? And even like a personal situation, it's like we've been chasing customers.
who require sales calls for so many years and we haven't really been investing in content, which is one of our biggest mistake perhaps, right? And how we invested in content, how we invested in how to actually, you know, target more people more effectively, how we started doing founder trends, founder brands a little bit earlier, maybe we would have caught a lot more customers than we are now, right? And that is a mistake. I want you to know that we've been, you know, paying back for quite some time just because we don't have distribution, we don't have leverage, right?
So that's the lesson I want you to take away. So let me address a few common.
misconceptions about why you think you cannot do this or why you think you shouldn't do this. So the first objection is simple. It's like, Oh, George, I don't have time for content. So I used to think of them as well. Right. But, you know, now looking at my journey, if you go, if you go to my Twitter account, you'll see the two companies I've been running. Simple direct and ANC. So I have customers, I have a team. Right. And as the founder, I basically have a lot of things to do. So how am I supposed to add content creator to my job description? Right. But here's what I have learned. You're not actually adding a new job.
You're basically just documenting the job that you are doing. So a lot of content content creators, let's call it. ⁓ they have to think about new ideas in order to, you know, write about it, right? Because they're, maybe, they might be not be living through something necessarily. For example, like if Mr. B's has to think about something that's like five, $10 million of budgets to make, because it has to be novel. It has to be mass market. But for you and me who are listening on this podcast, it's actually simple, right? It's basically just like whatever you have built, whatever you have learned, right? As business owners ⁓ are sort
our stories might not be the most incredible stories, but it is important stories because we're sharing our lessons and failures that other people can learn from, right? And also just something they have learned that, you know, other people might not know. So you can be sharing those things as well. So for example, like I personally spend about three, four hours per week on content in total. So nothing crazy, right? I would have loved to say I spent more time than that. And sometimes, sure, I do go over it a little bit, but most of the time I think three to four hours is like kind of what I spend.
and my team actually helps me put the podcast together and everything else. So it's not basically that crazy, right? Even if I do it myself, probably at most eight hours, six hours, 10 hours, I can get everything done.
And just because I'm sharing my own stories, I'm not writing from scratch, right? I'm not researching topics. I'm extracting about from my knowledge about what I have already been building, right? And publishing about it. So those are the great things. I think, you know, that, that made my tweets more relevant. I make my podcasts more relevant, my newsletter more relevant. Right. So I think you have time. you just have to think about content, not as a full time second job, but it's, you know, as something that you're already doing, you're just sharing. Right. So that's a good thing. So the second, ⁓ objection is like, my
competitors are stealth, so I should be here too. So quick thing about it is like, I've been thinking about the same thing for years and it's completely backwards because the competitor I've had, they are basically struggling as well, right? I don't know the details, but they're not doing as well just because they also spent a few years thinking that they have the secrets until that everyone has the same secrets. now it becomes, you know, so now it becomes like, you know, they're not doing that well anyway. So I don't think that objection three is that, George, I need to be
everywhere. need to be on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, tech talk and Instagram. So that's a very valid concern. And my reply is that no, don't. Right. So I'm personally on Twitter.
And that's basically it. My podcast goes on Spotify and Apple, right? My blog, it's just on a blog. My newsletter is on email, but I didn't start out that way. Right. I'm not trying to be everywhere. I started off on Twitter and I spent basically my past four years pat posting very passively on Twitter. So if I'm posting more often, I can probably be on the same level in just like about one or two years. So for me, that's Twitter for you. could be something different. It be about LinkedIn. could be about YouTube, right? It could be even be about, for example, if you're talking to specific audience, if you're targeting Chinese.
speaking
audience, could be WeChat, right? If you go as South Asian audience, it could be WhatsApp. So it could be any different things, right? Every culture and, you know, every
customer segment that you're targeting is very specific. So be sure that you're targeting the specific audience. You don't need to be present on every platform. And I strongly suggest don't, you just need to be present. So the fourth objection is basically that, I need to be polished and professional. So that one is interesting because I think it's a generational thing. Older founders think you need a PR firm, a brand, a polished image, but younger founders do realize that authenticity is actually your brand.
I record my podcast with a basic mic and we quick edit and I post videos with my head in it, talking to camera. As you can see, there's no fancy production or anything else. So that's what people like. It's about the raw stuff, the unpolished stuff. if you become too polished early in your career, it loses out to authenticity. People just think you're the same as like this. Like the reason why people are not even watching CNN anymore, just because it's too polished. People prefer podcasts, which is not polished. And the last objection, think,
about.
I thought, okay, I need to build an audience first before it can become valuable. So I think this is backward. don't really need that audience and then sell, right? You sell first and then your audience will compound together. So starting from day one, I have probably a few followers on my day one on Twitter, right? and I posted about some problem I was solving and it was like, like I said, it's like shouting into a mountain, right? No one's hearing you and that's okay. And that is something that you have to keep doing for a while. could be even be a few months, right? You just need to not give up and keep doing it. So I, my last episode talk.
about learning and this is about content, right? The theme about these two are actually the same thing. You just need to be consistent, right? And by day like 180, you have 300 followers or a thousand followers, right? You launch a new feature, 30 people try it and five can actually become customers or subscribers. So the audience is a by-product of useful content. It's not a prerequisite. You don't have to have thousands of customers, sorry, followers in order to make a successful content, right? So I think...
Like talking about next section, I really think like, don't be a content creator, right? Because content creator, basically they build an audience and they start monetizing it by selling advertisements and sponsorships to other brands. So they're kind of losing, I'm not saying they're losing the authenticity, but basically you're creating just because you're getting ad advertisements and other things. And I think that's not a way to go. if we took a look at like, you know, successful founders, they are successful because they have built a product.
of their offerings. It could even be a course, even though I personally think it's not a good idea. But it could even be a course, it could be a book, it could be something that you're selling, right? If you're just like...
be an Instagram influencer and selling basic impressions. I think that's the wrong game to fight. And I think that's not something I would do. Right. However, if you are a content enabled founder, right, be this, ⁓ you can actually build distribution to sell your specific product and services. You could be in SaaS, you could be consulting, you could be in equity, you can be a real business and the risk is significantly lower as well. Right. For example, like, ⁓ Twitter recently have just changed their algorithm and a lot of people are actually scrambling.
Right? So Twitter changed the algorithm, big accounts, people like with a hundred K, 200 K, 500 K followers, or even millions of of followers. They saw their reach drop by 70 to 90 % overnight. And you know what happened? Most people panicked, right? Founders who build their entire business on Twitter, engagement, suddenly they have no pipelines anymore. And I'm not going to name names, but some people are posting about lifestyle content, like, know, like their lives in Portugal, their lives in Spain and, know, getting a driver's license and such, such as that, but they're changing the way.
that they portrait themselves, they're deviating away from what they're posting, They're desperately trying to get the algorithm to notice them, to try again.
And unfortunately, I think that is what happens when you are a content creator instead of a content enabled founder. If your business is your content, algorithm changes are basically ex, ex, the financial, right? We also have Twitter changes, just Twitter, but also Google changes their algorithm quite a lot as well. YouTube changes that algorithm quite a lot as well. So everything is like a rented platform. You were basically essentially just betting on these platforms and you're living off these platforms, right? If these problems change the rules, you're screwed. And that is the last thing you want to do. So I talked about.
a few episodes ago, why I want Simple Drive to be a product where we control the end-to-end experience. Same thing for content, emails, newsletters, email lists, they are end-to-end. Everything else like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, they're not end-to-end. So it's good to be on them. think we call it rented platforms. You're renting an audience from the platform, which I think is okay to start, but eventually definitely try to shift them to a way to own platforms, is like newsletters, emails.
big things that should be pretty important.
So now I hope that you're convinced, and you're going to start building content as a founder. So here's, know, what it actually looks like. And I, I'm my recommendation about how to start. The first is like pick one platform, right? For me, it's Twitter for you could be whatever, but pick one. Please don't spray yourself then go deep on one and try to post three to five times per week consistently, right? Not 20, not once a month. It's just like consistently three to five times a week, right? Quality matters more than quantity, but consistency matters more than perfection.
So that's the second thing try post three to five times a week and three is basically share what you're actually building right and learning. So you might be like, George, I don't have a product. can share what I'm building. share what you're learning. Right? So today you've learned from me about content. Can you repurpose this and share to your followers, right? About what you have learned from this podcast, right? If you read a book, share what I have read from this book. If you have learned something from share what you have learned, I think that's actually crucial. So every time I open something, I always, there's a lot of like rage baits, which unfortunately,
some people fall into, but I just try to like be focused and focus on exactly what I can learn, right? I don't want to focus on the outside world, the angry political content and whatnot.
That is like what you can do. So post anything, there's always something to share, right? And eventually like create one piece of content per week. That's long form. So for me, it's like a podcast, but it didn't start out that way, right? So it didn't start out being like three times a week, which is like once a week. So now it's a little bit more and eventually engage like a human, right? So reply to comments, DM people who share insights and build actual relationships and don't just broadcast, which is like a mistake I made as well. Don't just broadcast, like, you know, converse and talk to your followers, engaging.
conversations and share your actual insights. think those are pretty important. and the most important thing I think, to note is that don't try to be someone you're not. if you're not a lifestyle influencer, don't post about lifestyle content. If you don't care about morning routines, right. Don't post about morning routines, saying your lane and saying exactly who you are. Talk about things that you actually care about and don't chase trends that are just like unrelated to your business.
Right. If, some examples being like, if you're a B2B SaaS founder, don't need to be, you don't need to be dancing on Twitter. ⁓ sorry, on tech doc. If you're building AI tools, you don't need to post about crypto. So focus is the key, right? Depth. It's more important than breadth. So don't sell in every post. This is also another big one. if every post is promotional transactional, well, check out my product people tune out. I hate it as well. You hate it as well. I'm sure. So 90 % of your content should be valuable with no ask. Right. And 10 % can be, Hey, I built something interesting.
for this problem, do you want to check it out? Right? That's about building trust, trust compounds, right? Selling in every post basically just breaks trust. So, know, I also want to talk a little bit more about, you know, how you can know it's working, but I would say like, definitely just be consistent. Don't care too much about the results. I think even including me, I think I don't check the results that often. I check maybe once a week. That's it, right? And when you're starting out checking it could actually be demotivating. So I just try to recommend if you're just starting out for the first three months, four months,
Don't check, don't look, right? And just basically keep doing it, keep doing it. And once you're in a few months, you're there. just to close it out, I think I personally wasted six years of being afraid to share because I thought I was not there. I thought I needed permission. I thought I needed authority. I thought I needed to be someone I'm not. And I'm very wrong, right? And if you're sitting on knowledge or lessons or frameworks, or you're just a student who are learning new things that you want to share with the world, right? If you're building something real and not talking about it, you're making the
the same mistake that I had made. So start now, start small, pick one platform, post three times to five times a week, share one thing you learned about your business or otherwise, and six months from now, you'll have distribution, you'll have leverage, and you'll have people who actually care about what you're doing. So, or you can wait, and six months from now, you'll still be at zero. So that's your call. So if this was useful, share this podcast, this episode with one founder who's still in stealth mode. And if you want more of this, like frameworks, lessons, real numbers, I'm on Twitter as the George pu.
on
Twitter. also write a weekly newsletter at newsletter.founderreality.com for more newsletter where I go deeper on stuff and go behind the scenes. And also if you want to see the show notes and podcasts and stay tuned, follow on wherever you're listening to this podcast, as well as going to founderreality.com for blog posts and frameworks where I don't publish on podcast. So I'll see you then. Thanks.