Boston bros building agents: Stateful, formally verified orchestration with eBPF observability, deterministic CRDT replay, Bayesian-gated tools, and program synthesis self-healing loops on our Lincoln Lab stack. We shipped this on real traffic systems. SF/NYC bros: ‘Yeah I’m on OpenClaw/Hermes.’ Go Sox.
Core point is solid — money won’t create product-market fit.
But as someone burned by punishing VC terms while scraping by and outworking my team, this can feel reductive. Founders need runway to survive, not just ‘make the fire.’
Lesson: Build real demand first, then demand better-aligned capital. No one should choose between starving and getting screwed.