Blaine Vess

Entrepreneur, Investor, and Philanthropist. Founder of Student Brands (acquired by NYSE:BNED) and Solve (YC S17).

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

I love this. One of the best life lessons for any founder.

Doesn't matter if you’re bootstrapped, VC-backed, family business, or a creator.

Please tape it to your wall. Make it your phone wallpaper.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

Literally every founder I see is adding AI to their product right now without a single thought about whether it actually makes sense.

It’s one thing if you’re building an AI-first product from scratch but if you already have something people love: Stop adding AI out of FOMO.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

It’s crazy how founders don’t quit bad jobs, they quit good ones.

$300K a year. Health insurance. Weekends. Peace of mind.

Then one random night they think: “What if I built something of my own?”

Suddenly, they’re running a startup making almost no money:

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

Hahaha just saw this and honestly why does it make so much sense!

When you start a company, everyone tells you it’s “freedom.” but there's literally no “off switch.”

The crazy part? You start loving it.

The chaos that breaks most people is exactly what keeps founders alive.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

Open Letter to OpenAI (and every AI platform):

Make AI brutally honest.

We don’t need affirmations.

Tell us when our idea sucks.

Tell us when we’re overcomplicating stuff.

Signed,
Everyone who’s tired of being told they’re “on the right track” when they are clearly not.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

Marketing might bring you attention but only quality brings you back.

It’s easy to get caught up in storytelling, launches, and social proof.

But none of it matters if the product doesn’t deliver quietly!

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

The best marketing is still a happy customer.

Steve Jobs said: “You never see Japanese companies advertise quality. They just build it.”

Customers don’t form their opinion of a product’s quality from marketing.

They form it from experience.

Great companies understand👇🏻

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

As someone in his 40s, this is too amusing.

Every week I see teenagers on social media saying things like: ‘I hit $1M ARR at 17 in 14 days’

But I hope they also realize: for every one of these stories, there are a thousand quiet failures that never make it past the MVP stage.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

And that’s all you see on social media, and get jealous about.

My advice after building multiple successful businesses: Keep building.

The quiet ones always outlast the loud ones.

[Blaine Vess @blainevess]

100,000 people have ideas.

10,000 think of making a product.

1,000 build the MVP.

900 give up if that fails.

100 build the second one.

50 get few paying users.

20 pivot after revenue plateaus.

10 build something useful.

5 turn it into a business.

1 product blows up.