Adventure
Backed

Why I'm doing this

I spent my childhood in the worlds of fantasy and sci-fi books, always dreaming of exploration and some grand adventure.

But then I grew up. I got a job. It was stable, salaried. Safe.

It was also stale. And eventually, suffocating.

I was closing ticket after ticket on my boss's boss's five-year roadmap, a replaceable cog in a Fortune 600-something. Hell, there wasn't even a chance to be wrong. We were making this year's version of last year's bestseller. Where were the new lands to discover? Where were the dragons?

It dawned on me that there was one last place you could still struggle, where you might be able to write your own story: the world of startups.

So I studied up and started building. A front desk app for dog daycares. A podcasting app. Neither one launched.

I joined a few VC-backed startups as an early employee, learning the ropes so I could start my own company one day. But I watched the same thing happen every time. The relentless rat race of raising the next round. The burnout, the "pivots," the vanity metrics pumped up for the next board meeting.

I began to question the whole idea. These founders weren't free to do what they thought was right for their company or their customers. They answered to whoever wrote the biggest check. They'd traded bosses for boards. Did I really want that?

But the itch to build never went away. I kept tinkering on nights and weekends. Front desk software again, this time for gyms. A jiu jitsu training app. Never launched.

Finally it clicked. I still want to be a founder. Just not venture backed.

Adventure backed. 😉

So here's the plan. The main goal is freedom: enough revenue to quit the day job. But I want to go on every side quest I can: building small, scrappy businesses that solve problems for real people, learning new skills, and documenting each step along the way. And this time, I'm launching them.

If you want to come along, join the party.