Conor Buckley

It's unbelievable how daily morning stand ups where disrupting my mornings. Now few months into freelancing i can't look back

I asked Claude to build my daughter an app that plugs into our piano, can read live key strokes, can show her sheet notes and key view and ends with a Guitar Hero style game. All while giving progressively harder songs. Today she’s using It and crushing It.

Founders need to call their shot or get out of the Arena I thought being a founder & raising venture dollars was my pre-destined birthright. I didn’t realize that it was actually a line of credit against my reputation. A few weeks ago I was on call with a long time friend who was going back out to raise for a new co. He had a thesis on an interesting product he wanted to build, but he had no plan. I asked him some basic questions - who’s going to use this, how much would they pay for it, who are you going to hire to build and sell this? “A lot, …hedgefunds?, I don’t know.” I explained to him that as a credentialed second time founder, he will get a chunky seed round, but that’s the last round of funding he’ll ever raise it he raises on his potential instead of his plan. Outside of institutions like YC, we are in a time where you can’t just start a company to follow your curiosity and “figure it out”, that’s reserved for the 18-22 year olds from Stanford. No, as a founder in 2026, you must call your shot. You need to know what you’re going to build, who you’re going to sell to, who you’re going to hire to build/sell it, and the exact roadmap you’re going to execute against to reach $1b ARR in 7-12 years. A lot of founders who are in network and know they can raise take advantage of it, but they’re don’t realize that they’re 12-18 months away from being unfundable & dying when they run out of cash. Don’t raise on potential. Don’t take a line of credit against reputation. Call your shot and swing hard for a homerun, or get out of the arena until you know what you’re playing for.