Bhoga

Builder
Cofounder/CEO @ai_affogato (2M+ users)
YC S21 • Dad to twins

[Paul Graham @paulg]

A startup doesn't have to be your life's work, but if it is, you become much harder to defeat. You play the long game and you outlast everyone. Because practically everyone else is an opportunist by comparison.

[Haseeb ＞|＜ @hosseeb]

The two mantras I repeat most often to founders:

1. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you want to do X, just go straight to X. Don't waste your time with setup or pre-requisites or throat-clearing, just go do the thing you want to do. Launch the product. Sell to the enterprise. Make the big ask. Go do it and you'll learn by doing.

2. Optimize for the upside. Most of your expected value is in the universe where you succeed, so optimize for that universe. If you're going to fail, micro-optimizing your failures is a waste of energy. You might fail, fine--pick yourself up and do something else. But over the long run, optimizing for the upside is how you make good outcomes you will have defensible and self-compounding.

[Kunal Shah @kunalb11]

Any incredibly hard thing pursued diligently has an ability to feel like purpose. Those who chase hard problems often never struggle to find purpose in life.

[Bhoga @bhoga]

@jerryliu @rabois Built a similar thing couple of months back - Daymap. https://t.co/7VC339VjkZ

[Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee]

I’m gonna …. Is often a bad way to start a sentence .. for the 10% that will execute against that statement … RESPECT .. to the 90% who won’t -
Watch this video every morning

[Bhoga @bhoga]

@TVMohandasPai @_sankyy @narendramodi @NandanNilekani We can build some more statues and change the names of some more states . Will help us win the race

[Bhoga @bhoga]

This resonated.

"The user still only sees a dim sky."

A lot of product building feels like this. Founders can see the corona in their heads long before users can feel it.

That transmission gap is where most products get stuck.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

https://t.co/BA5kVYqcji

[Yoko @stuffyokodraws]

https://t.co/K5FtFSAFKt

[Mike Vernal @mvernal]

https://t.co/n7pVVA3uXu

[Elad Gil @eladgil]

The events of the last 6 months in technology are arguable amongst the most important in human history

The tools now increasingly exist for recursive self improvement of models & agents

We are likely in very early lift off & exponential

Largely unnoticed outside of tech

[Hubert Thieblot @hthieblot]

The biggest pivot you can make as a founder is building something that finally makes you feel like yourself.

[Esther Crawford ✨ @esthercrawford]

https://t.co/7HorPrGpW1

[Jeff Weinstein @jeff_weinstein]

This came up twice today, so figured I'd tweet it.

People, internally and externally, talk [read: complain] to me that their product isn't growing, or isn't growing enough.

100% of the time they are missing at least one of the following minimum requirements for success:

(A) A *burning* user problem [not a "it'd be nice if" problem]
(B) Users with that problem, each in a [Slack] room [I'll accept WhatsApp or iMessage, but it can't be email]
(C) Narrow the problem such that you can build a 10X better solution than the current alternatives [you are very likely biting off too much to early and then you can't quick make a wow-better solution]
(D) A chart with _daily_ counts of users using the product [do not kid yourself into measuring weekly or monthly]
(E) At least 2 people, but probably under 5, working on it full-time, that like each other and meet at least once per day [new things are just more fun together than solo]

In terms of order of operation: it's first (E), then (A) which begets (B), then you just have to daily iterate back and forth between (C) and (D) unless it's growing faster again.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Founders must stop trying to building 2010-era businesses with 2026-era technology.

Don't try to rebuild Foursquare or Yelp.

Don't try to recreate Basecamp by 37 Signals with $10/mo SaaS pricing.

Don't underprice! If it works it's worth a lot more.

Don't be tempted to become "Tech enabled PE" with revenue tricks.

The rules of tech changed with AI. Play the new game.

[@levelsio @levelsio]

POV building an AI startup

[Tom Blomfield @t_blom]

A founder I spoke to last week spent 3 years learning everything about their industry.

Now they want to pivot to “AI for Dentists”.

The grass only looks greener because you’ve not trampled through the shit yet.

[Hiten Shah @hnshah]

https://t.co/Rldn7R81Id

[Bhoga @bhoga]

The best builders don’t just move fast. They stay long enough.

Depth creates judgment.

[Aditya Agarwal @adityaag]

https://t.co/AoyPtuI9jx

[Paul Graham @paulg]

It's an unimpressive-sounding word, but one of the most powerful motivations is the motivation of the hobbyist. That's what keeps successful founders working on their companies long past the point when they've made enough to quit. It's their beloved project.