The story behind my startup venture
Leveraging low-code technology to create an AI-driven resource hub designed specifically for founders
The story behind my startup venture
Leveraging low-code technology to create an AI-driven resource hub designed specifically for founders
The story behind my startup venture
Leveraging low-code technology to create an AI-driven resource hub designed specifically for founders
The story behind my startup venture
Leveraging low-code technology to create an AI-driven resource hub designed specifically for founders
The story behind my startup venture
Leveraging low-code technology to create an AI-driven resource hub designed specifically for founders
Addressing First-Time Founders’ Ambiguity and Complexity with AI-Augmented Teams
Product
Simpli UX
Skills
Integrating AI-technology
Marketing strategy & execution
End-to-end Research & Design
My Role
Co-Founder
Timeline
Launched 2023
Addressing First-Time Founders’ Ambiguity and Complexity with AI-Augmented Teams
Product
Simpli UX
Skills
Integrating AI-technology
Marketing strategy & execution
End-to-end Research & Design
My Role
Co-Founder
Timeline
Launched 2023
Addressing First-Time Founders’ Ambiguity and Complexity with AI-Augmented Teams
Product
Simpli UX
Skills
Integrating AI-technology
Marketing strategy & execution
End-to-end Research & Design
My Role
Co-Founder
Timeline
Launched 2023
Addressing First-Time Founders’ Ambiguity and Complexity with AI-Augmented Teams
Product
[Currently In Build]
Skills
Information Architecture & UX Design
Traveler Interviews & Insights Gathering
Development Handover Specifications
Competitor & Category Benchmarking for Journey Mapping
My Role
UX Lead [End-to-End]
Timeline
Platform set to launch mid 2025
Addressing First-Time Founders’ Ambiguity and Complexity with AI-Augmented Teams
Product
Simpli UX
Skills
Design Strategy
UX/UI Design
Human-centred thinking
Competitor & Category Benchmarking for Journey Mapping
My Role
UX Lead [End-to-End]
Timeline
Platform set to launch mid 2025
Background & The opportunity
First-time founders struggle to utilise their time and prioritise the right tasks for sustainable growth. Requiring a massive-learning growth in a range of bespoke areas.
My first major startup was a journey fraught with ambiguity, confusion and moments of outright agony. Attempting to launch a new service and product into market, with little to no experience–and zero idea of what the "right" process even looked like–you could imagine the learning curve was incredibly steep. Like many hands-on founders, I naturally gravitated toward a "build it first, figure it out later" mindset. While I knew how to build the product from scratch, I had no idea how to handle the rest—marketing, speaking with consumers, or understanding the broader business landscape—skills I only developed later in my UX career.
This mindset often contributes to market failure for many early-stage founders, myself included. As of 2024, approximately 90% of startups still fail over time, with the leading cause being a misreading of market demand—accounting for 42% of failures.
Recognising this widespread challenge, and inspired by the rapid advancements in generative AI, I felt driven to tackle this problem head-on. My goal: to transform widely accessible information into actionable insights, contextualise it for the unique challenges of founders, and deliver it in a way that gives them a real edge. By decoding ambiguity, offering tailored advice, and guiding founders through the complexities of the early startup journey, I aim to empower them with the confidence and tools needed to achieve market fit.
Sparked by a pivotal question: What if early-stage founders had access to an AI-augmented team? Driven by a core purpose: Empower creators to innovate and build meaningful products that positively impact the world.
Background & The opportunity
First-time founders struggle to utilise their time and prioritise the right tasks for sustainable growth. Requiring a massive-learning growth in a range of bespoke areas.
My first major startup was a journey fraught with ambiguity, confusion and moments of outright agony. Attempting to launch a new service and product into market, with little to no experience–and zero idea of what the "right" process even looked like–you could imagine the learning curve was incredibly steep. Like many hands-on founders, I naturally gravitated toward a "build it first, figure it out later" mindset. While I knew how to build the product from scratch, I had no idea how to handle the rest—marketing, speaking with consumers, or understanding the broader business landscape—skills I only developed later in my UX career.
This mindset often contributes to market failure for many early-stage founders, myself included. As of 2024, approximately 90% of startups still fail over time, with the leading cause being a misreading of market demand—accounting for 42% of failures.
Recognising this widespread challenge, and inspired by the rapid advancements in generative AI, I felt driven to tackle this problem head-on. My goal: to transform widely accessible information into actionable insights, contextualise it for the unique challenges of founders, and deliver it in a way that gives them a real edge. By decoding ambiguity, offering tailored advice, and guiding founders through the complexities of the early startup journey, I aim to empower them with the confidence and tools needed to achieve market fit.
Sparked by a pivotal question: What if early-stage founders had access to an AI-augmented team? Driven by a core purpose: Empower creators to innovate and build meaningful products that positively impact the world.
How I tackled it
Adopting a "build-measure-learn" approach, I leveraged low-code solutions to gather early insights from founders. This began with surveys and impromptu conversations to establish a baseline understanding of their needs and challenges. These insights informed a series of iterative low-code prototypes designed to test and validate hypotheses.
Key questions emerged to shape the direction of the project:
What are the most significant pain points founders face during the early stages of building a startup?
How can AI tools provide meaningful value to founders navigating ambiguity?
What kind of experience would resonate most—interactive, conversational, or something entirely different?
What do founders consider critical to building confidence and achieving success?
Each experiment was tested using metrics like customer feedback, landing page bounce rates, sign-up conversion rates, churn rates, and engagement and return rates. These metrics formed the foundation for refining subsequent iterations. Marketing efforts included a launch on Product Hunt and promotions on platforms like Reddit, Facebook groups, and other founder-focused communities.
What began as a UX education hub with interactive learning modules evolved into a generative AI-driven experience. Initially, it was an AI-powered customer feedback tool but eventually transformed into a comprehensive AI-augmented team—offering founders the expertise of a multidisciplinary team at their fingertips.
How I tackled it
Adopting a "build-measure-learn" approach, I leveraged low-code solutions to gather early insights from founders. This began with surveys and impromptu conversations to establish a baseline understanding of their needs and challenges. These insights informed a series of iterative low-code prototypes designed to test and validate hypotheses.
Key questions emerged to shape the direction of the project:
What are the most significant pain points founders face during the early stages of building a startup?
How can AI tools provide meaningful value to founders navigating ambiguity?
What kind of experience would resonate most—interactive, conversational, or something entirely different?
What do founders consider critical to building confidence and achieving success?
Each experiment was tested using metrics like customer feedback, landing page bounce rates, sign-up conversion rates, churn rates, and engagement and return rates. These metrics formed the foundation for refining subsequent iterations. Marketing efforts included a launch on Product Hunt and promotions on platforms like Reddit, Facebook groups, and other founder-focused communities.
What began as a UX education hub with interactive learning modules evolved into a generative AI-driven experience. Initially, it was an AI-powered customer feedback tool but eventually transformed into a comprehensive AI-augmented team—offering founders the expertise of a multidisciplinary team at their fingertips.
How I tackled it
Adopting a "build-measure-learn" approach, I leveraged low-code solutions to gather early insights from founders. This began with surveys and impromptu conversations to establish a baseline understanding of their needs and challenges. These insights informed a series of iterative low-code prototypes designed to test and validate hypotheses.
Key questions emerged to shape the direction of the project:
What are the most significant pain points founders face during the early stages of building a startup?
How can AI tools provide meaningful value to founders navigating ambiguity?
What kind of experience would resonate most—interactive, conversational, or something entirely different?
What do founders consider critical to building confidence and achieving success?
Each experiment was tested using metrics like customer feedback, landing page bounce rates, sign-up conversion rates, churn rates, and engagement and return rates. These metrics formed the foundation for refining subsequent iterations. Marketing efforts included a launch on Product Hunt and promotions on platforms like Reddit, Facebook groups, and other founder-focused communities.
What began as a UX education hub with interactive learning modules evolved into a generative AI-driven experience. Initially, it was an AI-powered customer feedback tool but eventually transformed into a comprehensive AI-augmented team—offering founders the expertise of a multidisciplinary team at their fingertips.
Outcome
The final product, was an AI-driven resource hub that contained a variety of AI specialists, each trained on large volumes of publicly available data to provide specific guidance and way-finding for early stage founders. Focused marketing strategies, resulted in a influx of 1.2k unique customers with a conversation rate of 18.7%.
Unfortunately, this launch coincided with OpenAI's major release of "Create Your Own GPT," which undermined the core value proposition of the service. After careful consideration of whether to pivot or continue building, I ultimately decided to wrap up the venture. The experience was invaluable, as I gained significant insights and refined my craft along the way.
Outcome
The final product, was an AI-driven resource hub that contained a variety of AI specialists, each trained on large volumes of publicly available data to provide specific guidance and way-finding for early stage founders. Focused marketing strategies, resulted in a influx of 1.2k unique customers with a conversation rate of 18.7%.
Unfortunately, this launch coincided with OpenAI's major release of "Create Your Own GPT," which undermined the core value proposition of the service. After careful consideration of whether to pivot or continue building, I ultimately decided to wrap up the venture. The experience was invaluable, as I gained significant insights and refined my craft along the way.
Outcome
My first major startup was a journey fraught with ambiguity, confusion and moments of outright agony. Attempting to launch a new service and product into market, with little to no experience–and zero idea of what the "right" process even looked like–you could imagine the learning curve was incredibly steep. Like many hands-on founders, I naturally gravitated toward a "build it first, figure it out later" mindset. While I knew how to build the product from scratch, I had no idea how to handle the rest—marketing, speaking with consumers, or understanding the broader business landscape—skills I only developed later in my UX career.
This mindset often contributes to market failure for many early-stage founders, myself included. As of 2024, approximately 90% of startups still fail over time, with the leading cause being a misreading of market demand—accounting for 42% of failures.
Recognising this widespread challenge, and inspired by the rapid advancements in generative AI, I felt driven to tackle this problem head-on. My goal: to transform widely accessible information into actionable insights, contextualise it for the unique challenges of founders, and deliver it in a way that gives them a real edge. By decoding ambiguity, offering tailored advice, and guiding founders through the complexities of the early startup journey, I aim to empower them with the confidence and tools needed to achieve market fit.
Sparked by a pivotal question: What if early-stage founders had access to an AI-augmented team? Driven by a core purpose: Empower creators to innovate and build meaningful products that positively impact the world.
Outcome
My first major startup was a journey fraught with ambiguity, confusion and moments of outright agony. Attempting to launch a new service and product into market, with little to no experience–and zero idea of what the "right" process even looked like–you could imagine the learning curve was incredibly steep. Like many hands-on founders, I naturally gravitated toward a "build it first, figure it out later" mindset. While I knew how to build the product from scratch, I had no idea how to handle the rest—marketing, speaking with consumers, or understanding the broader business landscape—skills I only developed later in my UX career.
This mindset often contributes to market failure for many early-stage founders, myself included. As of 2024, approximately 90% of startups still fail over time, with the leading cause being a misreading of market demand—accounting for 42% of failures.
Recognising this widespread challenge, and inspired by the rapid advancements in generative AI, I felt driven to tackle this problem head-on. My goal: to transform widely accessible information into actionable insights, contextualise it for the unique challenges of founders, and deliver it in a way that gives them a real edge. By decoding ambiguity, offering tailored advice, and guiding founders through the complexities of the early startup journey, I aim to empower them with the confidence and tools needed to achieve market fit.
Sparked by a pivotal question: What if early-stage founders had access to an AI-augmented team? Driven by a core purpose: Empower creators to innovate and build meaningful products that positively impact the world.