Letter The first letter to the board
August 2026
August 9th, 2026
Hello,
Thank you to everyone that has said yes. This is the first board "meeting" for dkBuilds and it exists because I'm going to give this thing — whatever it turns out to be — a real shot. And in doing so (1) I have a lot to learn, to which (2), you all are smart + have opinions I value on the various business (and life) matters. So thank you.
Just being on this thread means that you're already someone who has helped/supported, so thank you, again.
The way this works is that I'll be meeting internally (myself + AIs that act as different personas) every Sunday to reflect on the past week and plan the week ahead. And then this recap email will be sent out to myself and whomever else wants to get it.
It will also serve as a means of accountability. I know that one day twenty years in the future this will be a fun thread to look back upon. And you all will have been a part in shaping it.
Therefore, your presence is valued and meaningful even if you put in no other effort beyond archiving the email each week (which is cognitive debt, so at any point feel free to unsubscribe/block if you no longer find this valuable yourself). I'd love to hear your thoughts/opinions/feedback as you have them, to which you can just respond to that week's report. If nothing, then nothing.
Colin has already said "he'll take" Vice Chair — and since he's been asking for a few years now — he can have it. I'm not 100% sure what that entails but I do know organizational structures need to be rethought when intelligence is abundant and the 'system' can update itself. Creating that system in of itself will be a fun experiment. So we can revisit this matter later.
The hope is that we learn things together. Really. And if that's all that's achieved by this thread, then it's still a success. But I know much more will happen along the way.
So here's to one 'first' of many, cheers!
Declan
Recap
Highlights
- "Impressed": the word the VP used, a lot, at the Aug 6 demo. I think he felt really seen: the tool accurately represented the work he and his team do during the quote bidding process and value of tool was clear
- One demo → a ~$20,000 quote in play. The first contract ever drafted.
What was accomplished
| objective | status | results |
|---|---|---|
| Platform updated to demo-grade | done | 60+ git commits during week: durable quote workflows, resumable uploads, client's real data seeded the night before etc. |
| Demo to first potential client (Aug 6) | done | Ran on their own quote data; full workflow walkthrough; proposal requested on the spot |
| First contract drafted → revised → scheduled out | done | "platform free, only this module deployment" |
What I learned
- Lots of questions only more demos can answer. At one point I thought I'd wait until the end of the three-week deployment before demoing to the next person... that'd be so stupid. The most important thing is talking to customers; the problem + solution shape already seem strongly validated enough given one demo = $ (although there was warm referral), but we won't know for sure unless we talk to more people. And all the hypotheticals in the future are just hypothetical until more of that happens.
- Paper and whiteboards. When feeling overwhelmed on what to do this week, I wrote things out on paper + whiteboarded this week. It helped me step back to ask what the actual questions were I was trying to answer. More of that.
What's next
| thing | due date | expected result | why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure out how I talk to more customers faster — outreach, and what that looks like | this week (before Aug 18) | a way to get more demos | one demo produced a quote; I want to test how valuable/universal this problem + solution is |
| Set up the LLC to collect payments directly (insurance, W9) | this week | able to invoice + collect | i should probably do this bc legality |
| Encode demo learnings into a running demo-feedback tracker | this week | platform answers the questions JB already asked; a log that iterates with my understanding after each demo | so i can stay dialed on what the problem is, update solution as i learn, and try to win more |
| True multi-tenant support | Sun Aug 16 | JB's account set up before kickoff | tentative kickoff call Tue Aug 18, then three weeks of delivery |
Thoughts from the week:
- The first contract that was ever drafted this past week is for a product that doesn't even have a name. I think that says a lot to what actually matters in business (and how I would've felt that was something critical / needed to happen before value can be exchanged hands).
- The inspiration for doing so comes from seeing some other people do similar things (Claire Vo) and in the "omg that is so smart i didn't think about that but definitely should be" moment after catching up with Nick this past week. He suggested a much stronger path to providing a "sticky product" for the construction thing; closing the full bid-award loop can therefore help clients optimize for profits when picking products/prices/vendors for their bid packages (as a function of margin x bid acceptance rate)
- I found the best remote working spot in the city. Close to how I'd design one myself — comfy/cozy booth seating, cool and slightly dark, music down, diet cokes served in glass, and smash burgers so cheap and good I'd willing pay more so they can fix the leaky ceilings — The Long Room.
- I've been reflecting a lot on what it took to get the point of the first commercial contract — "what was different". Commitment stands out as one of those things. Commitment — picking one thing in a sea of options and sticking with it — isn't something I've been good at in the past. There was moment in the middle of December where I remember thinking like "am i really going to do this thing?", knowing that it had to be the main thing and I was going to have to stick with it (scary), but the answer was yes. It took 8 months of that thing being the main focus outside of day-job work to get to the first contract.
- In a point to how much I have to learn, especially in the "business world", I referred to this as a "board of directors" not knowing exactly how a board actually operates. I thought a board was literally just a sounding board where people with invested incentive can exchange thoughts and feedback on a particular business. To learn together. Well, apparently in some structures a board can fire the CEO. I hope that doesn't happen here!