I quit my big consulting job to go solo 4 years ago. Here’s an update. Last year we were just shy of $5M in revenue. 74% gross margin. Over 50% EBITDA. Nearly $10M in cumulative bookings all time. 98% CSAT. No website for the first year. Started on Upwork. Built through an aggressive partner channel and by finding overlooked but world-class consultants before anyone else did. My superpower is recruiting. Year 2, we grew 4.5x. Year 3, growth normalized to 74% YoY — the base was just a lot bigger. We came into 2026 and booked $2.4M in Q1 alone — ahead of plan. We hired a VP of Sales in February and we’re targeting 60% growth this year. Lots to execute against, but it’s been an awesome ride so far. I’m not planning to add headcount anytime soon beyond that. The next hires will be AI talent focused on automating work we used to do manually. Every hire has to have an excellent client-facing personality — gone are the days of boring, grumpy, stuffy consultants. If you don’t have a personality, you don’t have a chance. That’s the new reality in professional services. How we deliver today looks nothing like six months ago. That’s because we built our own internal operating system — purpose-built for how we actually work, not how software vendors think we should. We did this inside the privacy tech market, which gives the playbook real depth and repeatability. We’re also considering the next chapter: finding good tech services businesses, acquiring them, and installing our operating model and AI tooling on top. Bootstrapped, profitable, good people — that’s the profile. There are a lot of well-run firms leaving margin and growth on the table because they never built the engine. They can’t quite figure out AI. We did. Now we want to use it.

SV and tech has poisoned our minds. Spoke to a junior at Princeton interested in entrepreneurship. Her first question was how much money we raised. Raised money? For a consulting business? Ha no way. We’ve been profitable since day 0. She said they don’t talk about bootstrapping in school. Only teach about fundraising.

Recruiting and marketing are the very last two things I think a founder should give up. Who you hire and how you talk about your services is the whole business.

Three profiles for hiring: 1. The Young and Hungry: voracious appetite for learning, want to solve hard problems. Age is just a number. Manage them by giving responsibility that’d take five years to earn elsewhere - help them learn skills way above their age. 2. The Escaped Expert: mid-career, deep in their field, done with red tape and admin overhead. Manage them by getting out of their way, removing blockers, taking unnecessary admin off their plate. 3. The Handcuffed Builder: stuck in a mature org, unable to build a better way and what they see fit. When they join, point them in the right direction and give them the keys to the kingdom.

Grok Bot bought my wife flowers and wrote a card.

I couldn't figure out the hate on this post. Don't we all want working wifi on a plane? 'Should have done your work before flying - loser!' Huh? I love working on planes. No interruptions! I finally realize the hate on this post is not coming from Delta die hards or anti wifi propagandists. But from Anti-Elon wackos.

For the younger professionals out there, this is what you want. Not the job - some of you will want that - but the communication. Nik is being a professional here and letting the candidate know what the job entails. The candidate is being professional and letting Nik know that's not what he's looking for. The candidate sounds like he handled it well, but the comments are offended that a job not to their liking (too many hours) would ever be offered to anyone and everyone should grab a pitchfork and go get Nik. "Not for me" is a perfectly fine answer and it allows everyone to move on. And it doesn't provide a reason for a future employer who really likes you to reconsider when they do a social media check. And they will.

I kid you not the WiFi just crapped out for 30+ minutes on my flight

I am an Atlanta Delta loyalist. My last flight from Atlanta to Vegas, the Wi-Fi died for two hours. Couldn’t send a contract out for signature. About lost my mind. I’ll be doing the United status match just to see.

Just did a phone screen with a 24-year-old. Great pedigree. Would’ve crushed the seat. Asked what kind of life he wants a9 -to-5, or to really grow his career fast. “Log off at 5 and be done.” Thanked him. Told him if he ever changes his mind, let me know. I’m building a world-class business. Need people who want to put in the work and grow.

Start your own company so you can post stuff like this to your LinkedIn without getting a letter from management.

Officially cancelled Monarch

Our water bill is typically to be $40–60 a month. It slowly crept up over the last year. Then this summer it skyrocketed. Latest bill: $800. Ok something is wrong. Called a plumber. Shut every faucet off. Meter still spinning. He walked around the house and heard something near the foundation so he started digging. Turns out a main line was busted underground, dumping water into the dirt before it ever hit the house. $2,500 to fix. Had Grok draft the dispute email to the county for the leak credit. Was an eventful Thursday!

Muse is cool But it was negotiating a Verizon bill and the browser dropped twice Might need some more power behind the infrastructure?

Who do I complain to about Grok @bot performance? Voice loses context and is slow to reply. Bots are not saving the selected voice. Reasoning has gone way down hill. Total 180 from last weeks performance.

Is anyone doing high volume content posting off their LinkedIn business page? I just have a feeling if you do way more volume on business that will stand out more. @HarrisFanaroff any thoughts? I’m not able to ‘collaborate’ yet off business pages. Hoping I get that feature

There was like a 2 week period where I wasn’t busy and thought I should keep tweeting. July and August always seems slow in consulting. We are in the mad dash to close out the year. Everyone wants to spend budget so they get more for next year. We are happy to oblige!

I would buy a @bot phone made by SpaceX. Just saying! cc @elonmusk @mattyp

I setup my Grok @bot with Stripe Link today. It shops websites for me, fills out the checkout flow, and securely inputs credit card details. Just bought a Georgia State polo from Dick’s without ever clicking on the website. Agentic commerce is coming fast!