Henry Tirla

I’ve been away from the job market for a while because I was seriously ill. Coming back to it was a shock. Not just because the market is hard, but because job searching today can make you feel like you are constantly being measured against standards no one fully explains. You start questioning your value, your experience, your direction, even yourself. The stress is not only in finding jobs, it is in carrying the mental weight of uncertainty every single day. That experience is what pushed me to build Career Owl: Job Copilot. At first, I wasn’t trying to build a product. I was trying to build support for myself. I needed something that could help me make sense of where I stood, assess my CV honestly, show me the hidden requirements behind job descriptions, identify the gaps I could actually work on, and help me focus on opportunities where I had a real chance. But I also needed something else, something less technical and more human. I needed something I could turn to on the hard days, when the process felt discouraging, lonely, or overwhelming. That’s why one of the most meaningful parts of Career Owl is Owly, the AI career coach I can talk to when I need perspective, clarity, encouragement, or just help thinking through what to do next. It can help assess your fit for a role, surface what matters most in an application, help you understand a company more deeply without hours of scattered searching, and make the whole process feel less chaotic. What started as something personal has become something I believe could genuinely help others navigating the same pressure. I’m opening a limited beta for early testers, and I’d love thoughtful feedback from people who know what this process really feels like. TestFlight: testflight.apple.com/join/8bSkhpFV Web version coming soon.

First offices of 6 companies worth a combined $21 trillion.

Stan just hit $40M ARR. I grew up with nothing - and started with $0 in my dorm room. I failed through multiple ideas before I found Stan. But through Stan, we got really good at building distribution + a product that genuinely helps people. Here's exactly how we did it: 1) Built in Public ($0 > $100K) You need to recognize that if no one knows your business exists, they will never buy from you. I posted dozens of cringey TikToks about my company building journey. Most people won't get through that level of cringe. But you will, because you recognize that if you don't put a stake in the ground for your business, no one will. I posted 3 times per week: - My wins - My ups and downs - My learnings This taught me a ton about: - What people found interesting about my company - How to talk about my product in a way that resonated - How to persist through embarrassment 2) Sending 10,000 Cold DMs In parallel, I sent 10,000+ Cold DMs to land our first 100 customers. Most people won't do this level of unsexy, manual work. Every night, I would follow back anyone that looked like a potential customer and try to get them on a call. On the call, I would do everything I could to help them, and see if they were a good fit for Stan. I'd do 10+ hours of back-to-back calls, and then post TikToks until I passed out. I would get rejected on 4 out of every 5 calls. Then I'd finally land one. Then, they'd backtrack. Or something else would go wrong. But eventually - through sheer willpower - you land your first 100 customers. 3) Do Everything for your First 100 ($100K > $1M) We did everything we could to help our first 100 customers become wildly successful. I would personally: - Make their first product to sell - Consult them on how to make more money - Draft them content ideas to help them go viral That level of client-service slog was insane. But it ended up being so worth it. As a result, we made multiple people in our first 100 customers millionaires. 4) Building the Flywheel ($1M > $10M) And what do people who you made a million dollars do for you? They shout your name from the rooftops. Every successful customer of ours became our best distribution channel. Your job is to build a flywheel for your business: For us, we built a "success story" flywheel. For every new customer, our job was to make them as successful as possible. Those customers would then shout us from the rooftops. Then, we added a marketing team / engine on top that amplified those success stories via: - Paid ads - Email campaigns - Documentaries - PR Our Flywheel: New Customers >>> New Success Stories >>> Amplify those Success Stories >>> More New Customers 5) Compounding that Sh** ($10M > $40M) From here, your job is to build a compounding competitive advantage. That way, for every turn of the flywheel, you get to play a higher level game. A year ago, I raised the largest Creator round ever done: - The Hormozi's invested - Steven Bartlett invested - GaryVee invested I did this because at the time, Distribution was our top bottleneck (and one of the few things that matter in the age of AI). Your job at this level is to constantly ask yourself: "What is the top bottleneck in my business?" Then evolve your time, identity, and skillset to get that job done. Eventually, that bottleneck becomes things like: hiring, culture, strategy, new bets, org structure, or operating efficiency. What I've learned is: whatever the topic, you will eventually figure it out if you just stack days and have a growth mindset. 6) My Final Lessons Learned This journey will kick your a**. It will constantly humble you. It will make you doubt yourself in ways you didn’t think possible.  But the person you will become will be so worth it. So just persist, have a growth mindset, and you will succeed. You've got this. (and btw - follow me if you want more free advice like this!! I'm going to be posting here a lot more)

Building all of my apps ideas this year from previous years in my notepad just for the fun of it.

if you're ever feeling down bc someone left a negative comment about your startup... just remember 8 years ago, hundreds of Redditors CREATED AN ACTUAL PETITION to cancel me. I ended up being just fine.

Whatever you do in life, do not lose your sense of urgency.

Dumb people are impressed by complexity. Smart people are impressed by simplicity.

You are your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Since nothing seems urgent to you, you are only half involved in what you do. The only way to change is through action and outside pressure.

Never underestimate how much time and effort you can waste by trying to automate a process you do not understand manually.

@adamlyttleapps When online meetup 😅

Meetup at my place Melbourne indie devs dm me Let’s have lunch at my place on Wednesday I just got the starlink setup. Getting a new bbq. Want to make local friends My shout 🥪

It’s a real thing

“Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. All else is a waste of energy and time.”

You're under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously.

@KevinNaughtonJr What an engaging tweet

365 days ago i made the worst decision of my life

“The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere. — Ralph Waldo Emerson”

I made $47,500 in April 2026. 🧠 Feynman AI — $19k (↓20%) 🩺 MedDeep AI — $6k (↑20%) 🐶 KaloPal — $10 (not marketing yet) 💪 MusclePal — $0 (not release yet) 🐦 X (Twitter) — $2.5k 🕵️ Stealth products — $20k Expenses: 🧾 Tax (7%) — $3,325 🏠 Rent — $700 💪 Living — $1,000 📱 Store fees (15%) — $6,750 ⚙️ Operating — $1,495 🎥 Marketing — $1,800 💸 Net Profit: $32,430 No VC. No Co-founder. No paid ads. Just B2C apps + organic distribution. Build → ship → repeat. Keep going 💪

"Take feedback from nature and markets, not from people." @naval

I feel naked if I'm working on a computer that doesn't have Codex or Claude Code installed.

Displaying anger and emotion are signs of weakness; you cannot control yourself, so how can you control anything?

The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.