SUMM

The creator reflects on their multifaceted career as a software developer, influencer, and startup founder.
Expresses the goal to transparently share the chaotic journey from college through Twitch and into startups.
Hopes the story will help engineers, aspiring founders, and those in similar positions make informed decisions.

Began programming through Minecraft plugins and had both a music and CS degree.
Early professional experience included a challenging Amazon internship with little mentorship and resources.
Landed at Twitch thanks to key advocates (Bill and Waba), who supported and mentored the creator through contract work and their initial struggles.
Worked on projects like the Bob Ross and Power Rangers marathons, and Clips TV, helping expand Twitch's non-gaming (creative) content.
Became deeply involved with Twitch's creative team, collaborating with musicians and artists, and learning from influential figures.
Prioritized user engagement—directly interacting with those using the products being built.

After the creative team dissolved, moved to the Safety org at Twitch, learning full-stack thinking and how to advocate for users within a large organization.
Built ModView, a platform for moderators, which was well-received but highlighted the contrast with the less-developed creator dashboard.
Switched from Safety to Creator org in hopes of making a bigger impact but found the new environment demotivating and political.
Pandemic-related remote work exacerbated isolation and job dissatisfaction, ultimately leading to the decision to leave Twitch.

Joined a music startup as a mobile and web developer, quickly taking over much of the user-facing product.
Faced difficult leadership and poor engineering practices; rewrote significant parts of the backend for efficiency but encountered management resistance.
Chose to leave after persistent frustrations, moving from a high salary at Twitch to a period of unemployment with no clear next step.

Explored ideas with several startups during this time, while developing a collaborative content tool, Round.t3.gg, as a side project focused on creators.
Positive feedback from key creators (notably from the VTubing space) led to considering this as a full-time venture.
Influential advice from peers and mentors pushed the creator to officially found T3 Tools, with a goal of developing creator-centric live and video tools.

Raised $300k from a network of colleagues and friends to fund development.
Struggled to communicate the vision to traditional investors and was initially rejected by some accelerators.
Accepted to Y Combinator after a unique pitch focusing on the insight that "all video is live," impressing the program's leadership.
Gained important mentorship and business acumen, reinforcing the need to "make something people want."

Hired additional team members and invested in branding and product development but faced challenges: slow financial growth and difficulty selling to creators.
The creator’s YouTube channel unexpectedly gained traction, offering a new outlet for technical discussion and personal motivation.
Began editing videos personally, which improved overall communication and public speaking skills.

By early 2023, faced the difficult realization that the company was overstaffed and not financially sustainable.
Carried out layoffs and worked hard to support affected employees through transitions.
Shifted focus from creator tools (which had low monetization potential) to developer tools, leveraging personal reach in the dev community.
Developed and released tools like Pick Thing and Upload Thing, with the latter gaining notable traction among developers but still not generating major revenue.

Continued building rapid prototypes and iterating; eventual breakthrough with T3 Chat, leveraging new AI models (Deepseek V3).
Utilized cloud credits from previous funding to make infrastructure affordable and set a competitive pricing strategy.
T3 Chat's launch rapidly outpaced all previous products in terms of profitability and adoption, achieving sustainability for the company.

Realizes that success was not predicted in advance but achieved by continuously pivoting, learning, and embracing failure.
Recognizes that removing external obstacles (like bosses or organizational blockers) provided personal agency—the only real "rival" to overcome was oneself.
Emphasizes the unpredictability of the journey, the critical nature of direct user empathy, and the importance of making products that the creator genuinely wanted and needed.
Credits success to past mistakes, persistent iteration, valued mentors, friends, and the supportive community formed along the way.

The journey was filled with unanticipated turns and challenges, showing that clear prediction and planning are often illusory.
Final realization: building and running a startup is less about foreseeing the “correct” future than about recognizing wrong paths and making changes accordingly.
Encourages others to recognize their own agency, embrace mistakes, and build for genuine needs—advising against mythologizing success as linear or fully planned.

Why I quit my job to make a startup