A Builders Expedition
An expedition describes an exploration journey by a group of people into unexplored territories.
What's "A Builders expedition"?
"A Builder Expedition" describes an exploration journey of us - Alex & Max - into the unexplored territories of deciding what company to build and its process.
📝 This newsletter is a weekly journal where we document this expedition.
Why did we decide to go on this expedition?
One might think it's stupid to start working on a company without concrete ideas. Especially during a time of economic uncertainty (as we are "basically" unemployed).
For us, it's the only logical thing to do for the following reasons:
Fewer commitments
We are both in our 20s.
That means lots of time & energy - at the same nearly no commitments.
We can heavily focus on building cool stuff.
As you grow older, you may lack the time and flexibility to put your complete focus on building a company.
So why not take a shot now?
Creating our lives the way we want
We want to explore and learn.
We value freedom (like working from Portugal) and making our own decisions.
We want to work with people we enjoy spending time with.
We want to challenge ourselves and grow personally.
We want to become financially independent.
We want our work-life to be fulfilling.
Who do we think benefits from reading about our expedition?
Everyone aspiring to build a company or in the process of building a company
Everyone interested in reading mildly thoughtful and funny startup stories
Friends and family (who usually don’t get what we do)
What's in it for you?
There's tons of generic and polished content on building startups, which isn't giving a candid picture of the reality of the messy phase when going from 0 to 1 and even before.
"A Builder Expedition" is about the raw (unedited & radically honest) documentation of the journey we are undertaking, from having no clue about what to build to (hopefully) building a sustainable company.
—
A lot of content wants to give you a shallow "5-step playbook" on how to build a company. We acknowledge that this content has value, but there’s more depth to it.
"A Builder Expedition" challenges us to think for ourselves. It aims to provoke you to question your thought process, get into the journey's details and highlight its uniqueness. As well as providing you with the best content, advice, and memes we find during our expedition to ease your trip and make it more enjoyable.
—
It's hard to find thoughts on how people felt and acted during unsexy times of their startups. You hear about successes. But no one shines a light on the personal development needed to build a sustainable company.
"A Builder Expedition" helps you learn how to deal with uncertainty and setbacks, build mental models, prioritize personal development, and deal with productivity while not ignoring the other fun parts of life.
"Nobody is born knowing how to be a CEO great founder. It's a learned skill, and unfortunately, you learn it on the job." - Stolen and adjusted from Ben Horowitz
Introduction to the builders
Alex (introduced by Max)
Hey everyone, I am Max 👋
And I am pleased to introduce Alex - one of the explorers you'll get to know better during this expedition.
He was born and raised in Essen and spent the last few years studying product management @ CODE University & building companies in Berlin (MVP Match, tokenstreet).
When I first met him, I couldn't believe there was a person with such energy and a good mood at all times (…and so can't most people that get to know him either).
That's not even the worst ;)
He also tries to make you feel that way, which my "grumpy morning self" sometimes doesn't appreciate as much as I should.
Next to being a real man of service, Alex is one of the most competitive people I know.
I highly appreciate his drive for operational excellence, which I see in all the small things, he loves doing that I hate (like rigorous documentation of processes).
Fun Fact: We always have heated discussions about competing in sports, especially during our Wednesday evening football sessions at Berlin Startup League.
What he loves
A good read in his favorite coffee place on Sunday
Sports - especially football, surfing & snowboarding
Watching Jerks - to challenge himself and embrace uncomfortableness
Listening to HÖR Berlin, Cercle, or Boiler Room sets
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn
Max (introduced by Alex)
Yo, it's Alex ✌🏼😊
And I am delighted to introduce Max - my trusted friend on this expedition.
He was born and raised in Eberswalde (1-hour drive from Berlin) and not in Berlin, as he usually tells everyone. ;)️
He also went to CODE, studying Product Management & so far supported early-stage companies as a growth lead (Upper & Trana) or built products himself (Xoala & Pitchlane).
Max and I spend a lot of time in Berlin together, exchanging ideas, doing sports, or going on the occasional techno rave on the weekends.
I realized Max could party until 6 in the morning and not miss his 8 am daily reflection. He pulls through & commits to his goals.
What he loves
Playing football or going for a run
Reading The hard things about hard things by Ben Horowitz or Meditations by Markus Aurelius (he loves to quote quotes he doesn't understand)
Watching True Detective & Stromberg
Listening to the Afterlife crew, Obstinsel crew, Chris Luno or going crazy on old Nelly Furtado and Britney Spears songs
Connect with Max on LinkedIn
Documenting our expedition
You might ask yourself now - why are we spending time writing content when we could use it to explore and work on our primary focus - deciding what kind of company to build?
We had long discussions on whether it made sense to write and share our thoughts publicly.
We agreed that we see more benefits in doing it than not.
Here's why:
Creating clarity of thought
Writing is a mental purification process. When you write, it forces your mind to make associations between concepts and consider their ramifications. This process exposes illogical reasoning and helps build mental clarity.
Writing is expressing one's thoughts verbally on paper, helping you slow down your thinking to experiment more thoroughly with ideas.
Honing Human connection
We think the easiest way to meet exciting people is to share your work publicly.
If you build or write about exciting things and do so publicly with an authentic voice, like-minded people want to connect with the person behind that voice. Writing, like coding, can be seen as a natural extension of oneself that creates leverage.
Besides connecting with strangers, we also write to keep our friends and family posted about our time in Lisbon.
Maybe this format can bring clarity to them about what we are doing. 💡
Outlook
We aim to publish every week.
Next week we will recap the first 2 weeks of our expedition.
Until then, we hope you have a great week ⭐️
Cheers from Lisbon,
Alex & Max
Bin gespannt!