Focus is a lie

A quick word from the author:

Ahoj děti,

Back with a hot-take: everyone who says you should focus on one thing to be successful is lying to you.

I love this quote by Robert A. Heinlein:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

In my industry (startups), you usually hear VC’s saying that the founders “aren’t focused”, especially if they’re involved in multiple ventures.

Yet nobody says that about the VC when they invest in 10 different industries with barely and connection to one another.

Taking a step back, even our schools are trying to help us specialize in a field, inventing narrower and narrower sub-niches of expertise. “Data-analyst for micro-services on the blockchain” is not the future.

If you visit any great personality of history’s wikipedia page, you’ll see multiple titles, divergent interests.

Let’s take for example Thomas Jefferson. U.S. president, lawyer, architect, writer, inventor, farmer.

Hedy Lamarr: Hollywood actress and inventor (helped pioneer spread-spectrum technology)

Or someone closer to our times: Bridgit Mendler, ex-Disney Channel star turned Musician turned CEO for a space startup company Northwood.

Point is, if you’re truly passionate about multiple topics, don’t stop yourself from pursuing everything that makes you alive just cause some random ass investor/financier told you they wouldn’t invest in you. F*ck them and follow your passion without looking back.

The truly exceptional people recognize each other, so stop pursuing money and investments and start pursuing the best version of yourself, even if it might look like a bowl of Borscht to everyone else. Money will follow.

Inspiration just for you (very personal, yes):

• Hype is a Business Tool

“m constantly trying out various LLM tools and find they often perform far poorer than promised. When I try to discuss this online the boosters come out in great force, often with a dismissive response about “you’re prompting it wrong”. For a UX designer, blaming the user is as close as you can get to a cardinal sin. But this boosterly vibe seems to have escaped social media and is infecting the C-Suite of many companies. Cory Doctorow said it well: “we’re nowhere near the point that AI can do your job, but we’re past the point where an AI salesman can convince your boss it can.” For such a young and still unproven technology, it’s shocking how quickly it’s being forced upon teams.”

• Mini products are everywhere—here’s why

“Miniature products aren’t exactly new in marketing, as sample sizes have long existed to give customers a taste of a bite-sized snack or a quick spritz of perfume. The difference now is that at a time of price-consciousness, many consumers are interested in buying smaller, more affordable items before committing to more expensive, full-sized purchases. According to data from market research company Circana, unit sales of mini beauty products grew 15% in the first half of 2025—almost four times the rate of other sizes.”

• Pull vs Push Marketing

“The buying dynamic is different depending on the customers’ state. They can be searching for a solution (pull) or in a passive state (push). When they’re in a “pull state”, they actively look for solution, experience internal buying triggers, and grow an intent to buy.”

• The founder’s guide to hiring designers in 2025

“So we hosted a virtual session to tackle the nuts and bolts of design hiring in 2025. Nearly 1,000 people signed up, which should tell you something about how high the demand is for design talent right now.

The takeaway: the problem isn’t necessarily a lack of talented designers. It’s that market dynamics have shifted. AI has raised the baseline for product quality, big companies and startups are competing for increasingly similar profiles, and the hiring playbooks that worked even two years ago need updating.”

• The art of prototyping

“In 1997, Stephanie Houde and Charles Hill wrote a paper called, What do Prototypes Prototype? Their framework remains one of the clearest ways to think about the practice. A common mistake in making prototypes is having an unclear intention of what questions the prototype is meant to answer. As a result, several prototypes are solution-oriented with a nice-looking demo but no clear learning objective.”

Startup Idea of the Week: Midjourney for fonts

What’s more divisive than politics at a family dinner?

Fonts.

Case in point: Apple’s big iPhone launch. Forget the specs—what really lit up X and design blogs was the font. A chunky new typeface on the Pro lineup. Some people loved it. Others said it looked like WordArt from 2003.

And that makes sense: typography isn’t decoration. It’s design. The right typeface makes something iconic. The wrong one ruins it instantly (and yes, Comic Sans should be illegal under international law).

But here’s the thing: finding and using fonts is a pain. You’re hunting through sketchy websites, fighting license agreements, downloading zip files, installing, testing, uninstalling. Designers waste hours just to end up with something that still isn’t quite right.

What if, instead of searching, you could just make the exact font you need in seconds?

How It Works

💬 Prompt a Typeface
Type “A bold, futuristic font for a tech startup” or “An elegant serif inspired by 1920s Art Deco posters.”

🎨 Get Options Instantly
The AI generates multiple variations. Refine, iterate, tweak until it’s perfect.

📝 Complete Character Sets
Not just pretty mockups—full alphabets, numbers, punctuation, and special characters ready to download.

💾 No Legal Headaches
Every generated font comes with full commercial usage rights.

Why This Works

Fonts are identity. They shape how we perceive brands, products, and even entire cultures.

But the industry is broken:

• Licensing is confusing.

• Choices are overwhelming.

• Custom fonts cost thousands to commission.

FontJourney.ai flips the model:

Instant creativity → Unlimited variety → Zero licensing drama.

Designers go from “settling” for whatever font’s available to creating the perfect one.

Go-to-Market

🎯 Freelance designers and agencies—sell direct with a freemium + credits model.

🤝 Partner with platforms like Canva, Figma, and Webflow.

📦 Monthly subscription for unlimited font generations.

Business Model

Freemium SaaS.

• Free tier: limited generations.

• Paid: subscriptions + credit packs for high-volume users.

Long-term play: acquisition by Adobe, Canva, or Figma at a 12–18× revenue multiple.

What’s going on for us (thanks for asking):

• Level-1.dev: We’re hiring!

Actively looking for a software architect with experience using Langchain. Join us, get equity and work on something truly amazing: making Lovable for Video Games.

Ah, we also dropped a slew of new features and added a free tier, so now’s the time to test level-1.dev if you want to test it.

• European Startup Embassy: Launching in a couple of days.

Look out for our HowToWeb launch this week.

• ReaktorX: Raising a $2M Fund

ReaktorX is turning from an accelerator into a VC fund, backing the most talented Under-25 first-time founders, flying them to San Francisco and letting them loose to destroy their competition.

Very tired and almost out of gas,

The author