I’ve spent my life building software. I started coding at 12. Built startups for over 20 years. Sold one. Lost more money than most people will ever see. That experience taught me something most founders learn too late: Leverage through systems outlasts teams, hustle, and exits. Too many founders build for the shiny outcome. Big team. Big burn. Hope for a big payday. I’ve been there. I’ve had the exit. I’ve also watched it evaporate. Now I build differently. - Revenue over valuation - Systems over headcount - Freedom over optionality A business that generates revenue with minimal people and minimal ongoing effort isn’t a lifestyle business. It’s the smartest asset you can own. I don’t want to work for my business. I want my business to work for me. Currently doing all of this on the side of a full-time job, just like most of you. 🔧 WHAT I'VE BUILT - 20+ mobile apps, some serving tens of millions of users - Multiple SaaS products from idea to scale - Ad networks and location-based advertising platforms - Automated trading systems managing $100M+ running at NY4, the NYSE data center - AI-driven products and agent pipelines - Physical products with fully automated operations - A company I took public on three European stock exchanges, then sold the IP I’ve also led cloud architecture at a Fortune 200, where scale, reliability, and failure actually matter. Not demos. Not screenshots. Not hype. ⚡ WHY THIS COMMUNITY EXISTS Most AI and automation content looks good in demos, breaks in production, and never survives real usage. Here, we focus on building real products with AI, then replacing the roles around them with systems so they run without you. - Real builds - Real failures - Real trade-offs - Production-grade thinking No hype. No toy workflows. No “just prompt it” nonsense. If you want to build products that run without you and scale without hiring, you're in the right place. 🫡 USAF Veteran — Richard