What 4 Years of Building Taught Me
Feb 24, 2024
Four years ago, I was debugging code alone in my room, wondering if anyone else would ever care about what I was building.
I didn’t have a team. I didn’t have funding.
I had an idea, a prototype, and a problem I couldn’t let go of.
Today, Kodezi is used by millions of developers across the world.
We’ve raised funding, shipped products, grown a team, and taken our infrastructure from a simple prototype to something people depend on.
But this wasn’t built in a weekend.
It happened slowly, through every version, every late night, every user conversation that told us what needed fixing.
Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
1. You won’t feel ready. Build anyway.
There is no moment where you suddenly feel like a founder.
You become one by doing the work, not by waiting to be labeled.
Everything I’ve done has come from starting before I had permission, before I had a roadmap, and before I had proof.
2. Speed is a skill. So is patience.
We shipped fast because we had to.
But the more we grew, the more I learned when to slow down.
Speed got us noticed.
Patience kept us alive.
You need both. And you only learn when to use them by getting it wrong a few times.
3. You grow with the product or it grows without you.
Kodezi started as an automated debugger.
Now it’s a multi-layered AI infrastructure platform that governs and evolves entire codebases.
If I hadn’t grown with it, I would have become the bottleneck.
I had to let go, delegate, rethink everything, and keep stretching my own limits.
Founders don’t just build products. They build themselves.
4. Being early means being misunderstood.
People questioned our vision.
They didn’t think developers needed this.
They thought AI for code would stop at autocomplete.
We heard no more times than I can count.
But our users said yes. And that’s all that mattered.
Now the same people are starting to see it.
5. The only unfair advantage is consistency.
There were quiet months where nothing dramatic happened.
No press. No virality. No spikes.
Just product. Just listening. Just showing up.
That’s what stacks up over time.
And that’s what keeps us here while others fade.
Talent matters. Timing matters. But consistency is what actually compounds.
Looking Ahead
After four years, I’m more focused than ever.
I’ve made mistakes. I’ve grown a lot. And I know there’s still more to learn.
But if building Kodezi has taught me anything, it’s this:
Real products don’t happen overnight.
They happen over years.
And the best ones are just getting started.