My Founder Story and the AI Tools I Wish I Had

Hey Friends,

This one got personal. I was recently a guest on the Cipher Talk podcast, and for once, I wasn’t the interviewer, I was the subject. We dug into my journey as a founder, especially the ups and downs of building a company that tried to take on Eventbrite in the ticketing space. We built a solid product, even got investment from the late Tony Hsieh. But in the end, we didn’t listen closely enough to the market, and we were out-engineered by a bigger team. Still, that failure shaped everything I do now.

Looking back, I can’t help but think how differently that story might have gone if we’d had the AI tools we have today. I’m talking about products like Cursor or Gemini 2.5 that let a small team iterate like a giant one. Back then, we were four scrappy developers trying to build against companies with 50 engineers. Now, one person with the right prompts can deploy backend logic, clean UI, and intelligent QA in hours. That’s not hype, that’s the new normal.

Today, I’m in the gaming world, working behind the scenes to build real-time slot mechanics and interfaces that still rely on human creativity, but move way faster with AI support. My partner brings the vision; I bring the structure. And I still run my YouTube channel not because it’s my job, but because it’s the best outlet I have for making sense of this incredibly fast-moving space. Every week, I learn something new, and usually, that learning starts with a failure.

So whether you're an entrepreneur, a coder, or a creator, here’s my takeaway: your failures matter. They’re feedback loops. And with the rise of these new tools, you’ve got a second shot, only this time, you’re not building alone.

Warmly,

Dylan Curious