I had an absolute blast at the Create With conference in Brighton, UK this year ❤️

I opened the "Create With" conference last week with the most honest thing I know: if I can do it, you can do it. Between 2017 - 2020, I lost $300K on my first startup. I followed the playbook at the time: find a technical co-founder, raise money, and find PMF. However, being a non-technical founder back then meant that I only had a few strikes at the target before resources ran out. Eventually, all of the money had run out from our investors, and we still hadn't found PMF. Each feature took too long to build, cost too much money, and we simply had too many "misses". I needed a way to build the company myself so I could keep going but I kept coming back to the idea of "I'm not smart enough". I think we've all said that to ourselves a few times. But I eventually reached the point of either admitting failure to my investors, or actually giving building a shot. So in 2019, I enrolled in a udemy course and found a no-code tool called @bubble that I was immediately hooked on. Twelve months later I rebuilt the entire platform and sold it (for less than $5,000). What took me a course in 2019 now takes a weekend of prompts in @cursor_ai or @claudeai. The wall keeps dropping. And after teaching thousands of people how to build, I can confidently say that the biggest thing preventing people from getting started is the "fear of not being smart enough". And I'm here to tell you, that you are. So here's what I'd tell anyone still on the sidelines: - The time is now. Not "once you learn to code," not "once it's less intimidating." The tools finally meet you where you are. Waiting only widens the gap. - The smartest people you admire are just getting started too. I've watched founders and execs you'd assume had it all figured out open these tools for the first time. Nobody is years ahead. You are not behind. - You are not alone. Every age, every background, big companies and one-person shops, the same look crosses every face when it clicks: "wait, I can actually build this." - Leaning how to build with AI is the skill of our generation. Learn it now and you compound for a decade. - Start with something for you. Don't wait for the perfect business idea. Build the small tool that makes your own day better. That's how the skill sticks. The skill isn't being technical. It's asking "could I build that?" and actually trying. You've been waiting for a nudge. This is it. Open the tool you've been avoiding and start the thing you assumed wasn't for you. And remember, you can do it too. A big thanks to the @CreateWithHQ team for having me 💙