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Moving to Germany was the single biggest mistake I ever made in 12 years of running a business. I genuinely have no idea how this country even runs. My advice for people thinking of running a business from Germany? Run and never look back.

Germans: "Becoming a tax advisor in Germany is really tough and requires passing rigorous exams" My German accountant: - Keeps misspelling my name - Accidentally declared a gift under the threshold as taxable, almost costing me 1.6k - Keeps addressing everyone (including women) as "Dear Mr [Company Name]" - Told me he would do something and did the opposite - Does everything with months of delay Seriously starting to wonder if I'm living in a Kafka novel.

A day in the life of a startup founder in Germany. - I email my unresponsive accountant for the third time to check the status my business registration - He informs me that what he advised me to do 8 months ago is not possible and completely wrong - I go to the tax office. They tell me they can't check the status of my application because there is no centralised system and I need to find the responsible person and talk to them - I go to the post office to send a document because "email is not secure". They tell me they only send packages. - I go to another post office. They tell me their card machine is "temporarily broken" - I look for a bank and withdraw cash I come home. Apparently I need to send more paperwork. Time to go back to the post office.

UPDATE: It did not work. At all. Not a single person replied asking to sign up. Turns out building an email list based around offering free content wasn't the best way to acquire customers.

I don’t get why so many people are complaining that this is just a ffmpeg wrapper. So what? If you prefer to use ffmpeg directly, go for it. But the reality is that many people will happily pay for a tool that makes their life easier.

Another day in the life of an entrepreneur in Germany. Needed to send something abroad quickly so figured I would use DHL Express. There is no DHL Express in the centre of Düsseldorf so I took a car to the suburb where the service centre is. The door is closed. I ring. They tell me I need to book it online. I do it, come back, show them the QR code. They can’t scan it, look confused. After what feels like an eternal wait in a soviet-looking room with a poster saying “trust the future of your business to DHL”, they finally come back. They look confused but assure me it’s done. This premium express service only costs 65 euros for a letter, what a steal!

Just accidentally canceled 50k/year worth of subscriptions to my SaaS. I think it's time to take a break.

I need a logo designer for the upcoming rebranding of French Together. Who do you recommend?

I'm shutting down Lorelight. Here is why: A few months ago, I launched Lorelight—a GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform to help businesses improve their visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. The tool worked. Some customers saw results. But I'm shutting it down anyway. Why? Because I realized something that probably should have been obvious from the start: there's no such thing as "GEO strategy" separate from brand building. For the large majority of brands at least. Here's what actually gets brands mentioned in AI responses: - Quality content - Mentions in authoritative publications - Strong reputation - Genuine expertise Sound familiar? It should. It's the same stuff that's always worked for SEO, PR, and brand building. After analyzing hundreds of AI responses, the pattern was clear: AI models are trained on the same content that builds your brand everywhere else. There's no shortcut. No hack. No specialized tool that can replace the fundamentals. Which made me ask: why am I building a tool for something that doesn't need a tool? The truth about GEO: What works for GEO is what works for overall brand building. That's it. You don't need a GEO platform. You need good marketing. So I'm refocusing on French Together, where I've spent 10 years building a brand the old-fashioned way: creating quality content and providing genuine value. The lesson for me: Sometimes the smartest business decision is recognizing when you're solving a problem that doesn't actually need solving. Back to focusing on what actually matters: building brands.

I have been running an experiment to see the impact of removing my monthly plan and going annual only with my SaaS. I expected less signups but lower churn and higher LTV. Instead I got...44% more signups! An amazing result because annual subscribers are worth 3 times more!

Moving to Germany was the single biggest mistake I ever made in 12 years of running a business. I genuinely have no idea how this country even runs. My advice for people thinking of running a business from Germany? Run and never look back.

A day in the life of a startup founder in Germany. - I email my unresponsive accountant for the third time to check the status my business registration - He informs me that what he advised me to do 8 months ago is not possible and completely wrong - I go to the tax office. They tell me they can't check the status of my application because there is no centralised system and I need to find the responsible person and talk to them - I go to the post office to send a document because "email is not secure". They tell me they only send packages. - I go to another post office. They tell me their card machine is "temporarily broken" - I look for a bank and withdraw cash I come home. Apparently I need to send more paperwork. Time to go back to the post office.

Germans: "Becoming a tax advisor in Germany is really tough and requires passing rigorous exams" My German accountant: - Keeps misspelling my name - Accidentally declared a gift under the threshold as taxable, almost costing me 1.6k - Keeps addressing everyone (including women) as "Dear Mr [Company Name]" - Told me he would do something and did the opposite - Does everything with months of delay Seriously starting to wonder if I'm living in a Kafka novel.

I need a logo designer for the upcoming rebranding of French Together. Who do you recommend?

I don’t get why so many people are complaining that this is just a ffmpeg wrapper. So what? If you prefer to use ffmpeg directly, go for it. But the reality is that many people will happily pay for a tool that makes their life easier.

I'm about to start building my new SaaS. I have the domain names, trademarks, social handles etc. I also generated a simple logo made of brand colors + Font Awesome icon. Should I get a professionally designed logo before launch or launch as is and get a better logo later?

UPDATE: It did not work. At all. Not a single person replied asking to sign up. Turns out building an email list based around offering free content wasn't the best way to acquire customers.

Has anyone built a SaaS based entirely on Rails + Hotwire? I keep thinking I should use React or other frontend framework for more interactive parts of French Together like drag and drop quizzes or chats. But do I really need to?

Anyone knows a good logo designer that's not too expensive (as in maybe $200 max)?

I have been running an experiment to see the impact of removing my monthly plan and going annual only with my SaaS. I expected less signups but lower churn and higher LTV. Instead I got...44% more signups! An amazing result because annual subscribers are worth 3 times more!

Another day in the life of an entrepreneur in Germany. Needed to send something abroad quickly so figured I would use DHL Express. There is no DHL Express in the centre of Düsseldorf so I took a car to the suburb where the service centre is. The door is closed. I ring. They tell me I need to book it online. I do it, come back, show them the QR code. They can’t scan it, look confused. After what feels like an eternal wait in a soviet-looking room with a poster saying “trust the future of your business to DHL”, they finally come back. They look confused but assure me it’s done. This premium express service only costs 65 euros for a letter, what a steal!

I'm shutting down Lorelight. Here is why: A few months ago, I launched Lorelight—a GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform to help businesses improve their visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. The tool worked. Some customers saw results. But I'm shutting it down anyway. Why? Because I realized something that probably should have been obvious from the start: there's no such thing as "GEO strategy" separate from brand building. For the large majority of brands at least. Here's what actually gets brands mentioned in AI responses: - Quality content - Mentions in authoritative publications - Strong reputation - Genuine expertise Sound familiar? It should. It's the same stuff that's always worked for SEO, PR, and brand building. After analyzing hundreds of AI responses, the pattern was clear: AI models are trained on the same content that builds your brand everywhere else. There's no shortcut. No hack. No specialized tool that can replace the fundamentals. Which made me ask: why am I building a tool for something that doesn't need a tool? The truth about GEO: What works for GEO is what works for overall brand building. That's it. You don't need a GEO platform. You need good marketing. So I'm refocusing on French Together, where I've spent 10 years building a brand the old-fashioned way: creating quality content and providing genuine value. The lesson for me: Sometimes the smartest business decision is recognizing when you're solving a problem that doesn't actually need solving. Back to focusing on what actually matters: building brands.