Spectral v1 is here!
++ plans for Q4
Hey everyone—thanks for sticking around! The last few months have been intense, but also extremely meaningful. There’s something very ego-shattering about stepping into a new domain as an adult.
For me, its software.
With agencies, I know what I’m doing (most times). It’s because I’ve put in the time. Lessons have been learned the hard way, and all these experiences have coalesced into loosely held intuition.
With software, I’m a complete beginner. The time and experience needed to build intuition is..well, absent. I will learn lessons the hard way. I will get burned. It’s just part of the process. Sometimes I wonder why I subject myself to this self-inflicted pain and embarrassment.
The goal of course, is to achieve what I said in my last note:
From Agency Angst to AI Experiment
Spectral was at odds with one of my highest values as an individual — Freedom.
According to me, freedom (in the material realm) has two deterministic variables: time and money. Money, because you can say no to things you don’t want to do, and time because all the $$ in the world is meaningless if other people have control over how you spend your time. So basically:
We spend our time to make money to reclaim our time.
The obvious goal then, is to work on projects that make more money while spending the least amount of time doing so. Easy right?
The way Spectral was structured (the agency model) was terribly ill-suited for this. In my mind, exponential monetary growth without exponential time spent can only be attained via software-enabled products. Of course, unlike agencies, these products need upfront time and capital investment, so a steady cash flow stemming from an agency business is important. Especially if you’re bootstrapping like I am.g and a much longer note explaining why I’m doing it. The short note. What am I doing? I’ve been running Spectral - an agency that helps founders and VCs craft compelling stories. This could mean writing a newsletter, producing a podcast, or writing thoughtboi threads …
What’s up with Spectral?
v1 is finally ready! You can sign up here. A few notes:
The version you're using is a prototype. Excuse the spartan UI, bugs, and hallucinations - we're working on making the product look beautiful, and generate high quality output.
At this stage, your feedback is extremely valuable. You can do so by responding directly to this email, scheduling a call with me here, or DMing me on Twitter. We're pre-PMF, so your small input or offhand comment could have an outsized impact on what the product eventually looks like.
I see a few podcast networks on our waitlist. For those of you who need something more hands on, we also run a full-service podcast production agency that may be of interest!
What's next?
Q4 will be formative for us. Currently, I'm focussed on two fronts:
Cofounder Dating - I've been using YC's co-founder matchmaking tool and scouring my personal network to find someone to build this with. We've worked with an excellent product studio (shoutout to Tanush and Wereon) to build out v1, but we lack the momentum that a CTO could bring.
Raising $$ - I've come to realize that using my agency revenue to fund Spectral is not sustainable. Moreover, to have great talent by our side, we have to pay them what they’re worth. We're actively speaking to investors to raise a small seed round and hope to close it by the end of this year or earlier.
OKRs for Q4
Here are my OKRs for this quarter. I should write a separate note about Cartel—fun stuff happening on that front too.
If you’re still reading this, you must really believe in me. Nobody has the patience to read granular details about a founder’s journey. It feels like I’m death wrestling ogres here, but of course, the reality is sliiiightly different.
Appreciate you following along over countless bumps and digressions - it really means a lot. Onwards!
Yash