The tl;dr: Same blog name, new vibes (now with pixelated meerkat) Hello, and welcome (back) to Hard Mode First, a blog all about lessons learned from a lifetime of doing things the hard way, the first time.
I’ve recently decided to move my newsletter distribution from Paragraph to Substack. If you’re a longtime email subscriber, you’ll now get emails from Substack directly. If you’re a wallet subscriber, nothing should change.
In case you’re new here or just tuning in fresh, let’s catch you up.
Hi, I’m Bethany. I’m a longtime startup operator. But this past year was the first time I considered myself a builder.
In just 12 months, I’ve gone from learning AI to teaching AI to building with AI.
Along the way, the paradigm of how I worked has turned on its head completely. For example:
When pitching a new idea… I used to write long proposals and memos; now I just create a frontend landing page or use AI to get a first draft out in the world.
When there’s an emergency… I used to have to wait for human help to arrive; now I go to AI first, which literally saved my life when it mattered the most.
When I want something to exist in the world… like, when I wanted to make museums more accessible for me and my kids, I used to have to wait for someone else to build “perfect” app for that; now I just build it myself
In other words, I Build First.
And I’ve started to share this builder mindset and mentality with others, too.
Build First is a mindset and a method.
It’s about using AI in a hands-on way, not just to make something flashy, but to reshape how we work, think, and learn. Whether you’re a teacher, a marketer, a program manager, or a researcher, AI is now accessible enough that you can build real, usable tools without being a so-called “classically trained engineer.”
What I’ve learned is: You don’t have to start with some masterpiece idea. In fact, the smaller, the scrappier, the better.
Don’t think you’re ready for that yet? Good. Push publish, anyway.
Building First gives you agency to fully express your ideas in way that feels truest to your original form. But it also helps you move faster, get out of your own head, and rapidly iterate with real-time feedback. Show, not tell.
Over the next several years, this Build First mindset is going to shift the way we collaborate and work together on teams.
Here’s a sneak peek at what that might look like:
I’m excited to continue to share out lessons learned in my own builder journey, and also to invite folks to join along through free events, paid corporate workshops, and yes, even company-wide hackathons.
So what is this blog now? It’s still personal. Still reflective (but I promise no more 9,000-word tomes…at least for awhile!)
It’s still me, doing things the weird / chaotic thing, probably the hard way.
But now, it also includes:
[Build First Logs]: Stories from the trenches of teaching, building, and learning with AI
Case studies from real people and real organizations
Frameworks and playbooks I’m using with teams
Narratives and ideas about this next phase of work and life
If you're interested in learning by building (or reimagining how to work with AI before it becomes "just another tool") you’re in the right place.
I’m glad you’re here. Can’t wait to see what you Build First.
If you’re looking to upskill yourself or your team in the Build First foundational framework this fall, let’s talk. https://buildfirst.ai/