This is for my future self, to look back at. Like everything else on this tiny site.

‍

It’s hot in the kitchen, and people are coming with plates out - they gotta be fed. It’s 5 days to Christmas. Our family bank accounts are starting to look slim. Verbu is not where I want it to be. People trust us, believe in us, use Verbu, and give feedback...thankfully! I know the potential, and what it could and will be.. And Verbu will become so, so much better. And that’s my only focus for weeks and months on end: 10 to 16-hour days, 6 days a week. Sometimes 7 days a week.

Right now it’s 7 pm Friday. My wife put the kids to bed for God knows what day in a row. It’s dark out. I’m in the kitchen, thinking about whether I can even afford to give her a Christmas present this year, because… finances are already slim and will be in the near future as well. At least until Verbu’s quality gets where I want it to be. And when it is, we’ll be damn near unstoppable in Denmark and the EU.

The customers and prospects who tried us today are mystified. Mystified at how the fuck we managed to beat platforms like Vapi & Retell on quality/experience in Danish. Bootstrapped vs $20m in funding. Customers try to build their own agents and then show up at our doorstep after calling our AI from our website. They ask… how the fuck is your quality so much better? That’s the secret sauce. The ace in the hole. The secret ingredient.

So with Christmas coming like a roaring freight train, I know my mind will twist, turn around Verbu alongside this ever-lingering sense of guilt. Guilt that I can’t be there enough for everyone as much as I wish I could. I wish I saw my kids, wife, parents, family more. Gave more. Loved more. Showed more. THANKFULLY, I have all the support I could ever wish for from my dear wife, but the guilt is my inner proudness and provider speaking when I feel bad for not having “enough” time and gifts to show. Especially at the end of the year.

Time these days feels very real. Vivid. It’s cooking, steaming, hands are in the fire, and next year will mark my 3rd year since I first started to build a company. And the third year will be the first year where we’ll be able to harvest just a little of everything we’ve sown. Just enough to keep our plates full and maybe, just maybe, a tiny box under the big green tree. And then a much bigger, better Verbu.

Yeah. It’s hot in the kitchen.

‍