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Hultz Prize

I felt compelled to share an unsolicited plug for Education First and the Hultz Prize more specifically. A global competition (and accelerator) with a social or ecological impact criteria.

Thousands of universities participate, but only a few are selected each year to compete for a $1M prize. And your friend here was invited to speak, judge, and hang out with the selected startups.

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Trolling the FIRE movement

Let me just say, I’m a huge advocate for any type of hype behind saving/investing early and often.

But…to an extent. So I’ve been poking the FIRE bear and it turns out a lot people seem to agree.

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Why I Still Build In Public

I’m writing this to you from about an hour outside London, at a place called Ashridge House, a gorgeous old estate that used to host kings. Wild to think nearly three years ago, Habits all started with me hammering out an awkward little newsletter from my apartment. Back then, “building in public” wasn’t trendy. If someone did it, they’d already cashed out for $100M and were writing from a penthouse balcony, not a cheap desk in Boston.

Around that time, Veera and I were hopping on random Zoom calls. He’d just left a Web3/Crypto startup, and for some reason, he gave me the time of day. He was sitting in on sales calls, user chats, whatever. Meanwhile, I was doing consulting work for Puma by day and trying to piece together this idea called Habits by night.

The first newsletter was pure cringe. I’d just write whatever I was working on, as if my to-do list was life-changing. But I kept sending it because I didn’t know any other way to start. That newsletter became the first brick in this weird little house we’ve been building.

The TikTok Comment That Blew Up

A couple months ago, I left a comment on a TikTok video that exploded, 600,000+ views. My page blew up. The comment got thousands of likes and DMs, mostly from people saying they didn’t realize how far I was willing to go for Habits.

Because here’s the truth: in those early Boston days, I’d literally stand on street corners, wander into breweries, and stop strangers in Somerville to pitch them my idea. Not for clout because I was desperate to know if it was worth pursuing. I’d wait 45 minutes just to work up the courage to talk to an older couple. Or I’d be “that guy” in a brewery with a laptop and a beer, striking up conversations.

Those awkward encounters turned into our first 5,000 users, hundreds of advisors trying to join, and essentially the birth of Habits. But the butterfly effect from those moments is insane — the people we’ve hired, the investors who took a chance on us, the wins we’ve had.

Someone saw that TikTok comment, made an Instagram video (see below) about it, and that video got over a million views. Suddenly, people were laughing, DM’ing me, and sharing the ridiculous things I’d done to get Habits off the ground.

That’s why building in public works, not because it guarantees a sale or a client, but because it multiplies the odds that someone hears your story and passes it along.

The Doors You Never Expect to Open

The second story? It’s about the doors you never expect to open.

Building in public has led to new income streams, random strangers rooting for us, and even me sitting here in the UK, invited to speak about this whole journey. People can’t support you, invite you, or bet on you if they don’t know what you’re about.

Over the last year alone, we’ve stood on stage as winners of 1871’s pitch competition, won “Best in Show” at Morningstar’s investor conference, and averaged over a million views a month across LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. Sure, it’s not everything, momentum never feels like enough in the moment, but even a “small” video getting 10,000 views is the size of an arena. That’s worth thinking about.

Why We Still Do It

Do we need to do this now? Probably not. Habits runs on quality…quality advisors, quality interface, quality experience. We’re not trying to flood the platform with 100,000 people a day. A thousand high-intent users a month is plenty.

But building in public isn’t just marketing anymore. It’s part of how I think, how I make decisions, how I connect dots between the crazy scrappy stuff we did back then and the opportunities we’re getting now.

Three years ago, I was pacing around Somerville with a poster board, asking strangers to hear my pitch. Today, I’m writing this from an English estate because someone decided that story was worth sharing on a stage.

That’s the power of building in public. You don’t know who’s listening. You just keep telling the story anyway.

The conversations you’re too embarrassed to start now are the stories someone will invite you to tell later.

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What’s Coming Next?

Alright, I’ve been procrastinating on the approach to fundraising, building a data room, reaching out to investors and all things in-between next week. I promise!

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