Founder Journal

Every Startup Has That One Employee...

July 2026

The Entrepreneurs app officially entered beta this week.

That was a milestone I’d been looking forward to for a long time.

While my beta testers have been exploring the app, I’ve been experimenting with something completely different: using AI to help create my marketing videos.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to build a startup with AI...

Let me introduce you to my most entertaining employee.

His name is Gemini.

He’s incredibly talented.

He’s also the employee most likely to make me question my sanity.

Every Team Has One

Every startup has that one person.

The one with endless ideas.

The one who says, “What if we just...” right before creating six more hours of work.

The one who occasionally delivers brilliance.

The one who also sometimes forgets what the assignment was.

For me, that person is Gemini.

I have been using Gemini to help me create short marketing videos for IterNest.

And honestly, some of the results have been really good.

Then there are the other results.

The ones where I ask for something simple and get a deeply dramatic scene that looks like it belongs in a completely different company.

Or the ones where the hands are doing something no human hands have ever done.

Or the ones where the expression is almost right, but just unsettling enough that I have to close the tab and take a breath.

It is impressive.

It is useful.

It is also occasionally unhinged.

“I Can’t Make Videos.”

What makes this funny is that I have never thought of myself as someone who could make videos.

That was one of the things I used to immediately put in the “not my skill set” category.

I can write.

I can think through systems.

I can build structure.

But video?

That felt like a completely different world.

Something polished people did with lighting setups and editing software and confidence I did not have.

Now I’m making marketing videos with the help of AI.

They are not perfect.

Some of them are strange.

Some of them are surprisingly compelling.

All of them are teaching me something.

And that feels important.

The Creative Department

This whole process has reminded me that building IterNest is not just about building software.

It is also about learning how to communicate what the software is for.

How to show the feeling behind it.

How to explain the problem without overexplaining.

How to help someone recognize themselves in the story.

That is harder than I expected.

The app itself is grounded in workflows, clarity, and practical support.

The marketing needs to carry the same feeling.

Not hype.

Not pressure.

Not “optimize your life until you become a machine.”

More like:

You are carrying a lot.

There may be a gentler way to hold it.

That is the tone I keep coming back to.

Even when Gemini is over in the corner generating emotionally intense office scenes with questionable furniture.

The Funny Part

The funny part is that AI has become part of my startup team.

Not in a polished, futuristic, seamless way.

In a very real, messy, experimental way.

I give it direction.

It gives me options.

Some are useful.

Some are bizarre.

Some make me laugh out loud.

Then I revise, adjust, rethink, and try again.

Which, honestly, is not that different from any creative process.

The tools are new.

The work is still the work.

Maybe That’s the Real Story

This week, the Entrepreneurs app entered beta.

That is the headline.

But behind the headline, there is all this other work happening.

Testing.

Writing.

Learning.

Marketing.

Making videos I never thought I could make.

Laughing at the weird outputs.

Keeping the good ones.

Trying again.

That is the actual shape of building right now.

Not sleek.

Not effortless.

But very alive.

Thankfully, Friday quietly fixes everything while Gemini is busy being creative.