Dilara Karabey

Follow along while we build Animus 🚀

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Today I’m having an MS flare-up & I feel terrible. I haven’t been this asymptomatic since my first MS attack during the diagnosis phase in June. This has 2 possible outcomes and nothing in between: I’ll either have the best updates on my startup, or I won’t have any at all.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 12 of building in public 🚀

- Filled out our YC profiles for the application.
- Filmed the YC founder video. Ended up doing a million takes. One video is 27 minutes long, and 20 of it is us laughing. We're really fun, and that's why I love building with my cofounder, Cansu.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 11 of building in public 🚀

- Shipped our waitlist page: https://t.co/bngx5IbHZz. Take a peek & sign up!
- Talked to 2 more founders.
- Read YC’s F26 RFS. AI is escaping the screen and entering the physical world; the way IoT once promised.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 10 of building in public 🚀

- Kept building the waitlist page, coming soon
- Landed on our headline: “Let the decisions that got you here keep working for you.”
- Thought business: what KPIs we'll pamper & how

My cofounder's working on the early brand guidelines.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Did I undeniably check flats in SF the other day? YES.

Will I deny my knowledge of retargeting as a Martech expert & take this as a sign from the universe that we’ll get into YC Fall batch? ALSO YES.

Delulu is the solulu, people.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 9 of building in public 🚀

- Mapped every bias we could fall into building this.
- Re-read every past interview, noted takeaways, and created a brief for prototyping.
- Interviewed 3 more founders, booked some more.

My cofounder started working on the prototype today. 🌟

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Here at Animus, we're a family. My cofounder, me, and all 3 employees (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude).

Jokes aside, we use all three because we make them hunt for each other's biases. This is sensitive business, people.

[Aleks @aleksliving]

it’s so obvious when software is made by people who don’t use it every day

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 8 of building in public 🚀

- Interviewed another founder, this time an old friend, who's now a creator I'm proud of
- Thought out 2 different ways we can make money with this

I also went on a walk, and overshared a nice memory from my Muggle Quidditch days on LinkedIn.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 7 of building in public 🚀

Biggest milestone yet.

After a few hours talking through the problem, the vision, and how we want to build…

Excited to welcome Cansu as my cofounder. ✨

Now the real work begins. 🥳

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Co-founder reveal coming soon! 🥳

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Just asked ChatGPT to end every reply with a random fact about whatever we’re talking about so I also do some deep dive on the topics I ask it about.

First one: Humans remember the last thing they hear disproportionately well. It’s called the recency effect.

Kinda genius, ngl.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 6 of building in public 🚀

I used to be the girl who never worked Saturdays. Today I forgot what a Saturday is.

- Wrote the doc that ends the "why won't a giant just build this" monologue
- Locked in meetings w/ potential cofounders
- Cleared my head to see straight again

[K @kahnfessions]

no dating until Series M

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

@ben_sage I’m building it because no one has so far & I could’ve used something like that when I had my first MS attack in June and couldn’t even make proper sense for a while due to the edema in my brain. 🥴

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 5 of building in public 🚀

Quiet day. Still counts.

- Screened potential cofounders on YC's platform
- Grabbed coffee with a fellow builder
- Started building the waitlist site
- Took myself on a solo date and made a strategic decision: I'm staying single until Series B 📈

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

I talk too much when I’m building something, so I went old school and got myself a version of “rubber-duck” to explain my code to. IYKYK 😅 Also, so cute 🥺🥰

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

@abhijithhh_73 Thanks!

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 3 of building in public 🚀

- I interviewed another founder & booked new rounds
- Finished my co-founder matching profile on YC site as they’re less likely to accept a pre-revenue solo founder
- Started documenting on Notion

Life’s good

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Oh, and I bought the domain. Three of them just in case. Gotta start building towards a waitlist at least.

[Dilara Karabey @doalkyone]

Day 4 of building in public 🚀

- Pressure-tested the idea with another founder
- Started mapping which workplace tools actually reveal decision-making
- Built the first draft of the data model
- Stopped negotiating with distractions

Less guessing. More evidence. 📈