I make money from apps, not from selling opinions

Sometimes I see people calling me a grifter, saying I’m just trying to squeeze as much money as possible from my audience. And honestly it hurts to read because it couldn’t be further from what motivates me. We’re in the middle of an AI gold rush. Startups are raising millions, and if you have an audience in tech right now, there’s an insane amount of money to be made. People don’t realize how many offers I turn down from companies willing to pay $5K for a single tweet promoting their product. I could probably make a ridiculous amount of money doing this. But I’ve always refused because I don’t want my opinions to be for sale. And I’ve seen firsthand how much brands are willing to spend on visibility with my HYROX sponsorship experiment. If money was my goal, I’d just double down on that. The last few years have completely changed my life. I’m financially free, I have everything I need, and I genuinely don’t care about making more money just for the sake of it. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE making money from my apps. Not because I need more of it, but because someone paying for something I built is the ultimate validation. It means I’ve created something valuable enough that someone is willing to pull out their credit card. And if one person is willing to pay for it, maybe others will too. That’s what makes building businesses so exciting to me. But what actually gets me out of bed is making weird stuff, experimenting with ideas, and seeing people use things I’ve built. From 2015 until 2022, I was building apps alone, with barely any entrepreneur friends. I felt lonely. Now I’ve finally found my people, made enough money to live comfortably, and get to do what I love every day. I don’t need more. I just want to have fun building stuff with people who love it as much as I do. ❤️