← Back to blog
·3 min read

Why I'm Betting on Distribution Over Building

distributiongrowthproduct

There's a narrative in tech that the builder is king. That if you can code, design, or ship a product — you've already won.

I used to believe that. I spent a decade building products — from health-tech startups to Web3 infrastructure to wallet experiences used by millions. And I've learned one uncomfortable truth:

Building is no longer the bottleneck. Distribution is.

The Build Side Is Solved

Think about where we are today. You can spin up a SaaS product in a weekend. AI writes code, generates designs, and even handles QA. Open-source frameworks and infrastructure mean you don't need a team of 20 engineers to ship something meaningful.

The cost of building has collapsed to near zero. The cost of getting noticed? That's going up every single day.

What Distribution Actually Means

Distribution isn't just marketing. It's not just running ads or doing SEO. Distribution is the art of building an audience that trusts you before you have something to sell them.

It's:

  • Content that compounds over time
  • Personal brand that opens doors without cold outreach
  • Community that gives you feedback loops before you write a line of code

The best founders I've met in the last few years all had one thing in common — they had distribution before they had a product.

My Playbook

I'm going all-in on this thesis. Here's what that looks like:

  1. Writing consistently — starting with this blog. Long-form thinking about products, growth, and the intersection of tech and distribution.

  2. Short-form content — Instagram and TikTok. Not dancing — but sharing raw, honest takes about building in tech. The stuff that doesn't fit in a blog post.

  3. Building in public — sharing what I'm working on, what I'm learning, and what's failing. Transparency builds trust faster than any marketing campaign.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Most technical people resist this. We'd rather spend another week perfecting the product than spend an hour writing about it. I get it — I was the same way.

But here's what I've seen firsthand: the products that win aren't always the best-built ones. They're the ones with the best distribution. WhatsApp beat dozens of technically superior messaging apps. MetaMask became the default wallet not because it was the most feature-rich, but because it was everywhere.

What This Means For You

If you're a builder sitting on a great product wondering why no one is using it — the answer probably isn't another feature. It's distribution.

Start writing. Start creating. Start showing up where your audience already is.

The tools to build are available to everyone. The ability to distribute? That's still rare. And that's exactly where the opportunity is.

This is the first of many posts where I'll be sharing my thinking on products, growth, and distribution. Follow along on Twitter or Instagram.