Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co.

Enabling business owners in my community with modern tools.

Also teaching builders how to run their own business so they can do the same for their communities.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@Doublerightvc It’s the hard truth! Took me longer than I thought it would to figure that one out.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

Seems everyone wants to call themselves a founder but nobody wants to actually “find” clients.

Just keep building, y’all! Build til the wheels come off! It’ll work eventually! SaaS is definitely not commoditized!

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@Jacobmalherbe21 Oh, it’s a product! I’ll have to check it out later. Thanks for sharing, I love new ideas

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

Something I'm learning about sales: a quick free consult is top of funnel, not a giveaway and DEFINITELY not a waste of time. At least when you're just starting out.

You solve one small problem for someone, they see something work, and the bigger offer later stops feeling like a cold pitch.

And your pipeline grows as your trust signal strengthens.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@ericbuildsio I promise what we’ve learned is worth something!

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

Spent years at enterprise software companies getting good at explaining how things work.

Turns out when you run your own business nobody cares how it works. They just want to know what it fixes.

Still unlearning this one.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@b4dgerr It made me realize I can trade 40 hrs a week at a day job for 60 hrs a week running my own business.

Solid trade, honestly.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@Jacobmalherbe21 Yeah something like that! I like that framing.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@SamVale29 It's been this way. Not sure when 90% of my feed is gonna realize their ability to build stuff has been commoditized.

Sales skills is the moat now. Can't just sit behind the keyboard anymore.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@acadictive I mean really there's a big chance you're even worse off. Nobody is gonna buy what you make if nobody knows it exists.

Also, unlimited tokens does help you stop using "still building" as an excuse for skipping marketing.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@LeoBuilds_ Business, definitely. Saying this as an engineer. Mostly because the engineers who skip it end up building the wrong thing really well. But what really matters is the business's bottom line.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@KevinNaughtonJr Makes sense to me. Working for yourself means owning sales, quiet weeks and every decision, and plenty of great engineers would rather just build. It's a trade, not a level up.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@georgeorch First conversations with a potential client. I run most of my business with a team of AI bots, but that part only works if it's actually me. They pay me because they want a human to form a relationship with.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@lukepierceops The heads down building one hits home. From my perspective, clients judge you more on how often they hear from you than on how clever the build is.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@DanielSmidstrup For me the shift was less a number and more when I stopped polishing and started talking to people (potential clients) every week. Curious whether hitting an MRR milestone actually changed how you spent your time.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@b4dgerr Depends how much money you're making. But honestly, probably not good to be working that much if you truly are. Especially if you have a family. Balance is important.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@Kedeodev Local business meetups

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@contextconor yeah feels like the building part is quite commoditized at this point.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@AndruEdwards I'd bet most of that is builders running agents on their own work, not small businesses yet. The gap between what's possible and what a typical local business actually uses still feels huge.

[Tom Reilly | Deerpath Co. @tomreilly_ai]

@Snowflake @DenisePersson @OpenAI @colinjfleming This is a big shift for small sellers. If an agent does the first pass, your pricing page and docs have to answer the real questions plainly, since there's no sales call to rescue a vague page. Are buyers trusting agent shortlists yet?