Solo Founder = Serial Expert

When people hear the term solo founder, they often think of someone with an idea, some grit, and a laptop. But in reality? You're not just a founder — you're also the accountant, lawyer, marketer, strategist, and yes, the dev. All rolled into one. Over the past few months building ReplyFabric, I’ve truly come to realize: being a solo founder means becoming a serial expert. And honestly, that's not easy, it's heavier than i thought.

The past few months have been incredible — great feedback, lots of momentum, but also intense. Sometimes with doubts, sometimes euphoria.

In June, I was deep in the code. Then I hit pause in July to focus on other critical tasks. By the end of the month, I was knee-deep in website building, positioning, and marketing. And today? I want to put my developer hat back on. But, wow. That flow is already gone. It’s crazy how fast the coding mindset can fade.

So here I am, re-reading docs, refreshing my memory, retracing my steps like it’s day one. I can probably do this one last time, but after launch — it’s over. Once ReplyFabric is live, things will move fast: investor conversations, pitching, blog posts, LinkedIn outreach, product demos... There will be zero time left for deep dev work. So i will need help, that's for sure.

Over the past months I’ve already played the role of:

• Accountant — building a full financial plan and modeling cashflow
• Tax advisor — figuring out Belgium’s innovation deduction
• Lawyer — GDPR, Terms of Use, cookie policies, ISO and SOC 2 prep
• Strategy consultant — positioning with Customer-First, Security-First, Sustainability-First, GTM planning
• Marketer — brand voice, copywriting, website, content plan

The crazy part? You can't afford to cut corners on any of these things if you want to make good decisions.

But remembering why you ultimately made which decision is not that easy either. That’s why I’ve started documenting everything. For each domain, I’m writing a short note: what were the options, what choice did I make, and why? With sources, so I can hand it off later.

it is clearly "work in progress" 😉.

Let’s go.

A Note to Every Founder

If you’re building a startup — solo or with co-founders — I see you. The juggling act is real. But every hill you climb becomes part of your map. Whether you’re doing it solo or with co-founders — knowing the terrain makes you a stronger founder, and a better leader.