Ash Maurya

A series · 6 parts

Building LEANSpark

Building an AI co-founder in public, from the idea spark to a shipped product, starting November 2025.

  1. Part 1 Why I Waited Three Years to Build an AI Co-Founder · 4 min read ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and I spent three years saying no. What changed my mind was not a better oracle. It was a loop.
  2. Part 2 Why I Stress Test Business Models Before Talking to Customers · 4 min read An advisor once killed my business model in five minutes, nine months too late. Now I run that conversation first, across seven dimensions, before any customer hears the idea.
  3. Part 3 Why I Plan in 90-Day Cycles · 3 min read Your 3-year goal is too far away to drive daily decisions, and your task list does not add up to a strategy. The missing middle between them is a 90-day cycle.
  4. Part 4 How I Signed 209 Customers Before Building the Product · 3 min read The Demo-Sell-Build campaign from the inside: a concierge MVP, a demo of software that did not exist yet, and 40 days from zero to 209 customers.
  5. Part 5 Why I Stopped Building an AI Coaching Tool · 3 min read Two months of problem discovery interviews revealed that founders were not starving for frameworks. They were drowning in tools with amnesia.
  6. Part 6 Why I Build for Wants, Not Needs · 3 min read Features are needs and outcomes are wants, and customers care far more about their wants. How that one distinction shaped an entire MVP.