living in sf is wild. you can casually sit in on a fireside chat and get more validations than my therapist ever gave me the whole conversation was pretty interesting, but @echen's (founder of @HelloSurgeAI) philosophy on bootstrapping hit me the hardest: - for him, choosing not to raise wasn’t a constraint, it worked more like a filter. no silicon valley status games, no fundraising theatre, just the freedom to build for the long term - without hype or PR rounds, they built a product so good that researchers spread it through pure word of mouth - their team has a 99 percent retention rate over five years because people joined fundamentally for the mission, not the logo. you can't really fake that - bootstrapping is not simply a financial strategy, it is a cultural choice too. it forces clarity, attracts true believers, and keeps you close to the craft his story also reminded me of my own path with @AirfoilStudio my cofounder and i were dropouts with no shiny logos behind us, never relied on a hype cycle to prove ourselves. the only thing that ever spoke for us was the design work itself. no outbound sales, no cold outreach, only clients telling other clients until the reputation started compounding hearing Edwin talk about the power of building quietly and deliberately made me feel seen and reminded me why staying grounded in the craft is still the strongest move

thank you @southpkcommons for hosting a great talk!