The Journey Thus Far
The First Bet: An App to Help
Back in early 2024, my mission was simple: help small businesses with their marketing. In a country like brunei there are so many people trying to start side businesses, doing freelance work, or starting up an ecommerce store, but because marketing isn't their forte they were struggling to be consistent...
So, I built a mobile app. It had AI-powered content generation, a post scheduler, and an AI chat assistant for ideation, and the features I thought a small business would need to "do" their marketing more efficiently. Leading a team of 2 developers and 1 designer, After months of work, it launched on the App Store and Google Play.
The Whispers of a Pivot
Then came the feedback. I talked to users, friends, and mentors. A consistent theme emerged: the app helped with the how of marketing—how to schedule a post, how to write a caption—but their real, burning pain wasn't the how. It was the what and the why.
"What should I actually be posting this week?"
"Why is my competitor growing faster than me?"
"I'm posting consistently, but is any of this actually working?"
It turns out that these strategic questions were the greatest reason for the lack of clarity in many businessowners
The New Bet: From Tool to AI Strategist
I decided to evolve Mixplate from a simple "AI social media tool" into an "AI Marketing Strategist & Analyst."
The new mission is not just to help you do marketing, but to give you the strategic direction to do the right marketing. The core is a data engine that analyzes your performance against direct competitors and surfaces a single, non-obvious, deeply actionable insight every week. It’s designed to be the AI strategist you can’t afford to hire—telling you exactly where the biggest opportunity is and what to do about it.
It’s a data product, delivered in a simple, beautiful report. Early feedback from the first pilot users has been electrifying.
Why I'm Building This in Public
I've decided to share this journey—the wins and the messy middle—for a few key reasons:
- Accountability: Putting goals and progress out in the open creates a powerful forcing function. It’s a promise to myself, my users, and my followers that I will keep moving forward.
- The Feedback Loop: The smartest people I know aren't on my payroll; they're on the internet. By sharing what I'm building, I open myself up to feedback, critiques, and ideas that will make the product better.
- To Find My People: The founder journey can be lonely. Building in public connects me with other builders, makers, and potential customers who resonate with this mission. If this story sounds familiar, I'd love to hear from you.
Closing
Life's full of unknowns, maybe what I'm building today will be something completely different tomorrow. But the end goal stays the same: building something to empower founder-led brands everywhere.