Welcome to Crouton Creations: Building the Future with AI
Introducing Crouton Creations, an AI-powered software development lab where startup experience meets cutting-edge AI development.
I've spent two decades building companies - TechStars, multiple exits, the whole journey from venture-backed to bootstrapped. And then the economics of building products shifted.
What used to require 10+ people and 18 months can now be accomplished by a small team with AI in weeks. That's not hyperbole. That's the new reality. I started asking myself: why keep playing the old game?
Crouton Creations is what happens when two decades of building meets this new reality.
What we believe:
✓ Build products we'd actually use ourselves. Scratch our own itch first.
✓ Stay bootstrapped and profitable by design. Control matters more than scale.
✓ Keep the team small. No coordination headaches, ideas flow instantly, test and adapt in days.
✓ Ship fast, iterate faster, learn from real users. Each product is an experiment.
✓ Document the wins, fails, and lessons as we go. Some experiments will bomb, but that's fine as long as we learn quickly.
The tools have changed. The leverage has shifted. Here's how we think about building products now.
How We Approach Building
Start With Real Problems
We build what we need. I'm the first customer for every product we ship. That means the problem is real, the solution gets tested immediately, and we stay engaged because we're solving something that matters to us. If we wouldn't pay for it, why would anyone else?
Build To Learn, Not To Impress
Profitability isn't a milestone. It's a design constraint. We're not burning cash hoping for a hockey stick. Every product needs to generate revenue or get shut down. That forces clarity on what actually works.
Stay Close To Users
Small team, fast feedback loops. We can test and adapt in days, not quarters. No layers between the builder and the person using the thing. That speed is our advantage.
Know When To Stop
We're not trying to build a venture-scale unicorn. We're building a portfolio of useful, profitable products. Some will succeed, some won't. We learn from both.
We're documenting everything as we go: the wins, the failures, the patterns that emerge when you build this way. Think of it as a real-time experiment in how small teams can move faster and stay profitable in the AI era.
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