Rob Norris

The majority of startups in the U.S. are launched by people over 45. You've solved everybody else's problems for so long, haven't you earned the right to solve your own?  The most direct route off the corporate merry-go-round is you. Launch Key🚀 #olderpreneur

At 50+, you don't need to master every new technology. You just need to understand what it can do for you.

I know Silicon Valley startups don't want to hear this..... But the combination of someone in the trades with deep domain expertise and Claude Code will run circles around your generic software. I talked to Cory LaChance this morning, a mechanical engineer in industrial piping construction in Houston. He normally works with chemical plants and refineries, but now he also works with the terminal He reached out in a DM a few days ago and I was so fired up by his story, I asked him if we could record the conversation and share it. He built a full application that industrial contractors are using every day. It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code. Work that took 10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes, saving days of time. His co-workers are all mind blown, and when he talks to them, it's like they are speaking different languages. His fabrication shop uses it daily, and he built the entire thing in 8 weeks. During those 8 weeks he also had to learn everything about Claude Code, the terminal, VS Code, everything. My favorite quote from him was when he said, "I literally did this with zero outside help other than the AI. My favorite tools are screenshots, step by step instructions and asking Claude to explain things like I'm five." Every trades worker with deep expertise and a willingness to sit down with Claude Code for a few weekends is now a potential software founder. I can't wait to meet more people like Cory.

@brockpierson Smaller than small - appreciate it!

I am blowing all super small accounts Reply if you're under 5k and I will boost you 🚀

Pre-sales beat surveys every time. Test your idea with real money changing hands. x.com/compose/articl…

New Launch Key 🚀merch from @SafariSunShirts! Highly recommend ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@kloss_xyz I'm too old for this - downshifted to Claude helping me build python/ollama/sqlite rig on Mac Mini instead. Very capable and low cost

@launch_key you too?

me: buys a mac mini and installs openclaw to improve quality of life also me: debugging every day, running on 4 hours of sleep for months, $1000/mo in API bills, and 69 productivity apps with $0 in revenue

@beyoumf hello

No account should be under 1K followers Say hello, I will boost you

Watch this

I was only talking about agentic AI. Now I started to eat my own dog food. Get in there and read this week's Launch Key ⤵️ thelaunchkey.com/p/eat-your-own…

Most people spend 18 months overthinking and 6 months executing. Flip it. ✓ Approve

The psychological preparation nobody talks about: Your identity shift from employee to entrepreneur starts now, not after you quit.

🚨 Do you understand what happened in the last 12 hours? > A CEO of a $200 billion company said on camera that 35% of new grads won't find jobs. He didn't even flinch saying it. > Meta made $165 billion last year and is still firing 15,000 people because apparently record profit isn't profitable enough. > Some random guy in Florida sold his entire house in 5 days using ChatGPT. No real estate agent, no commission, no experience. Just vibes and a $20 subscription. > A man in Australia cured his dying dog's cancer with AI after every single vet told him there was nothing left to do. Built a custom vaccine from his couch. > The guy who created Uber and left 300,000 taxi drivers broke is back. Building robots now because apparently ruining one industry wasn't enough. > Tinder wants access to your camera roll. Your drunk photos, your 3am notes app meltdowns, your deleted selfies. They're calling it a "vibe check." > Naval, the man who made hundreds of millions investing in software, just said software is dead. Four words and the entire industry felt it. > And Anthropic removed the limit on how long their AI can think and then doubled everyone's usage for free. Because when the product is addictive enough you give the first taste away. All of that happened today. Not this week, not this quarter. Today. A random Saturday in March. This is worse than you being on meth.

You're not too late to start. You're too loaded with experience not to.

For those who made the corporate exit: What was the hardest part of the transition?

Poll: What's your biggest barrier to leaving corporate? A) Financial runway B) Idea validation C) Fear of failure D) Analysis paralysis

Your 18-month exit plan just became 6 months. Here's the exact timeline for The Minimum Viable Exit — including what to do in each phase and how to leverage AI to move faster. This week's Launch Key: thelaunchkey.com/p/the-minimum-…

If you could build anything with your corporate expertise as the foundation, what would it be?