Built After 100 Crashes

The Story

In March 2022, while most people were watching the Ukraine crisis on their phones, I loaded my Toyota RAV4 4x4 with supplies in Nice, France, and drove straight into the chaos.

Solo. Self-financed. No NGO. No backup plan.

My wife's family fled Vietnam as refugees. "It's my duty," I told Nice-Matin before heading into the war zone.

I declined most journalist requests - they'd slow me down. One insisted on joining for photos. Got a speeding ticket in Germany. Kept driving anyway.

When something matters, I don't wait for permission.

The Real Story Started Earlier

Born: December 29, 1985 (Nice, France)
Education: High school dropout (found it boring)
Career: 20+ years of spectacular crashes

At 20, I sold a jeans brand for $5K. First win.

Then came the crashes:

• Raised $200K for a fitness startup (fiit.io/Jimi) in Hong Kong... total failure
• Esports bar: crashed
• Glitterbomb company: $100 in revenue (still laughing about it)
• Bitcoin mining rigs, Discord bots, custom keyboards, 3D printing, window cleaning, handyman work...

Dozens of projects. Most failed. Each one taught me something.

The pattern was clear: I never quit. Not once.

My autistic brain doesn't let me quit. Pattern recognition + resilience + "one more try" is hardwired. It's not determination - it's how I'm built.

The pattern was clear (once I understood it): Autistic hyperfocus would kick in → intense sprint → build something → burn out → crash. Recover. Repeat.

Most neurotypical founders quit after 3 failures. My neurodiversity meant I kept going, learning, adapting. The 100 crashes weren't despite my autism - they were part of the journey my brain needed to figure things out.

The Turning Point

At 40, with three kids and a custom printing business running with my wife (who's "supportive AF" through every crash), I decided to do something nobody expects from a high school dropout:

I took CS50 (Harvard's legendary computer science course) and crushed it in 2 weeks.

Not 2 months. Two. Weeks.

The final project took longer, but the entire coursework? Done. At 40. While running a business. With three kids.

Why? Because I finally wanted to know real code. Not just hustle and duct tape. Real fundamentals.

And that's when I saw it.

The Pattern (My Unfair Advantage)

During my time at Founder Institute Hong Kong, I helped dozens of new entrepreneurs. I watched them crash. I watched them succeed. I watched them make the exact same mistakes I made.

Then my autistic pattern recognition kicked in.

I noticed something others missed: There's an 80% overlap in every founder's journey.

The same paralysis at the start. The same scope creep. The same burnout. The same crashes.

Everyone thinks their journey is unique. It's not.

This wasn't intuition - this was my neurodivergent brain doing what it does best: finding patterns in chaos. While neurotypical founders saw individual struggles, my mind mapped the common architecture underneath.

What if there was a tool that knew the path? An opinionated co-pilot that didn't just "help you build anything" but actually guided you through the proven 80% path?

Not a generic project manager. A mini-incubator in your pocket.

That's Railgun.

Why Railgun

Most tools are built by people who succeeded once. Their advice works for them, maybe not for you.

I've failed repeatedly. I know where indie hackers get stuck. I know the burnout triggers. I know when you're over-engineering because you're scared to ship.

This isn't guru advice. It's pattern recognition.

Now I have the skills to build what I always needed:

An AI execution engine that helps you ship — built from real experience, not success theater.

Railgun's "Healthy Mode" isn't a trendy wellness feature - it's survival technology. When you've burned out repeatedly from hyperfocus, you learn to build safeguards. The anti-burnout nudges, scope limiting, and "ship before perfect" prompts come from lived experience, not market research.

The Founder

The Philosophy

I don't believe in "hustle porn" or "just ship it" platitudes.

I believe in:

• Transparent failures (I'll share my crashes publicly)
• Family-first building (3 kids > vanity metrics)
• Sustainable grinding (TRT, health, Harley rides, no burnout worship)
• Anti-bloat tools (freedom for solopreneurs, not enterprise garbage)
• Learning from scars (100 crashes = 100 lessons)
• Neurodiversity as superpower (hyperfocus wins, pattern recognition, building sustainably)

When Railgun launches, I'll build in public:

• Real updates - wins and failures
• MRR shared openly (Pieter Levels style)
• Honest about what works and what doesn't
• Dad realism (coding while kids "help")

No guru promises. No proven systems.
Just real patterns from real experience.

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