Hello!

Ok so I promise I am not turning these weekly newsletters into Hack-a-thon chronicles…. (yet).. KIDDING.
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But I need to tell you some things that have been on my mind since going to this hack-a-thon last week (in case you missed last week’s issue where I only told you 32 times)​
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​So the aftermath of that was a Whatsapp thread of 60+ women in Lisbon, most of whom were pumping out their links in rapid fire.
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Websites, apps, trackers, checkout carts. I couldn’t click on these links fast enough.

Celebrating EVERY deployment.
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The dopamine hit of watching your random “wouldn’t it be cool if…” to ACTUAL functioning website you’ve built in literally hours is truly addictive and I was reveling in their excitement.

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But by day 5, something shifted in me.

I found myself not excited (almost annoyed.) I’d preview a link and already be internally scrutinizing:

Who is this person?
Why are they building this?
Does anyone actually want this?
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​And then the asks started getting bolder.
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​“Sign up. Buy this. Be a beta user. Discount now…” ​
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​I told my co-founder Vee that if I see one more orange landing page with the same layout and mediocre copy I was going to lose my mind.
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And she says to me, there is a name for what you’re feeling.
​Huh?!
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​Welcome to the AI Gold Rush Syndrome​
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​So naturally I said, “meet you on LinkedIn Live baby!!!”

We’ve all heard about AI content slop…the generic blog posts, the soulless social media captions, the “elevate your brand” prompts that when enacted make your copy sound like it was written by a robot (because it was).

But now we’re entering a new phase: AI app slop.

Apps and tools being built at lightning speed.

Deployed before anyone’s even asked “does this solve a real problem?”

Everyone rushing to stake their claim because we CAN build now… so we SHOULD build, right?

Not exactly.
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Building is great. Getting messy with the tech is how you learn, and I’ll use myself as proof.
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Just this week I:
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✅ Built my investor deck in Claude Code…here’s 2 slides that no joke I do not have the creative brain to pull off and while it’s no Picasso it’s far better than anything I could’ve done on my own and Canva templates still take me ages.

✅ Made all new curriculum slides for my Founder’s Fire class in about an hour. Something that used to take me DAYS because I’m designed challenged and don’t know how to make charts🥴 I’d usually pay someone…but it adds up.

✅ Drafted an advisory agreement with formatted sections, colors, charts, and signature lines – custom to each person -in 15 minutes with Claude Code and MyStoryPro.
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I say this not to go on and on but truly I can go on and on how life changing it has been to know how to BUILD things…. But there is a fundamental difference in building to learn and building to “run a non validated business.”​
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And I’m seeing a lot of people fall off the cliff.

People skipping straight to “I’m an entrepreneur now!” without doing ANY of the actual work that makes something a REAL business.

Let me be clear:
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I WANT you to build.
I want you to experiment.
I want you to get messy with Claude Code and make weird stuff (hello remember our Tamagotchi lady from last week!?! #SWOON) just to see if you can.
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But there are too many people wasting time and taking our attention when it’s already fighting for sanity on most days.
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Because deployment isn’t the finish line… it’s barely the start.
And the hardest part about all of this is the minute AFTER you launch your baby out into the world.​

In the past year I’ve probably downloaded 20+ AI apps. And as of today I’m actively using 5 on a daily basis…One of which I built.
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If you’re curious, my business genuinely can’t function without, Granola, Claude Code, Wispr Flow, Google Notebook LM and MyStoryPro.
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​These are all apps that GENUINALLY solve a problem and I know all of their founders.

Not like KNOW KNOW but know them because they are visible, active, in front of their businesses.
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A business isn’t:

• A deployed app
• A domain name
• An LLC
• A Stripe account
• An Instagram handle

A business is:

• Solving a problem people will pay for
• Customers who come back
• Systems that work when you’re sleeping
• Quality you can maintain long-term
• Trust you’ve earned

And in this AI Gold rush there are a lot of people trying to hack their way to “business owner” status without doing the foundational work like knowing your customer really well and earning the right to ask for money.
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​They’re using AI to skip steps that actually… you can’t skip because you can automate the build but you cannot automate trust. ​
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​The MyStoryPro reality check​
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​When Vee and I launched MyStoryPro in fall 2024, we hit a nerve. (and we had great timing AKA we were early which is part of the success)

We’ve grown organically every month since.

Our churn rate is under 5% (industry average is 8-15% and I am super proud of that.)

But the hardest part hasn’t been the build or getting the MVP out the door.

The hardest part has been maintaining quality and ensuring our people don’t want to leave.
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At $97/month, you have to earn their stay -every single day. That means:

👉 Making sure the system actually works for people day after day.
👉 Staying on top of LLM changes (they change constantly which is why preloaded prompts even on a Claude Skills need ongoing tweaking or they degrade).
👉 Finding bugs before users do (doesn’t always happen but WE TRY!!)​
👉 Providing support. HUMAN support. (ok and kickass AI agent support but there’s always a human on our back end.)
​👉 Teaching people how to actually use the tool and other AI platforms through live trainings, workshops, and a community where humans help humans – not just dropping an AI tool and saying “figure it out.”​
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​Keeping people coming BACK.
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People can smell when something was built just to capitalize on the AI Gold rush versus built to actually SERVE them.
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Every single one of our 30 Beta testers paid for the product on Day 1, most paying over $1000 to do the yearly discount…and 100% of those people are still with us today.
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I’m incredibly proud of that.
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So if I had advice for ANYONE who is starting a business (Even if it’s not AI)

• Validate FIRST (are people literally asking you to build “the thing?”)
• Start small (Claude Code workflow → beta → full product but ONLY…if)
• You solve ONE problem really well
• Obsess over the customer experience (watch out MyStoryPro peeps because the tool is getting a MASSIVE facelift in 2 weeks…it’s soo good.)
• Maintain quality like your life depends on it (because it does for mine)

You can build an MVP in a weekend.
But can you maintain it?
Can you support users?
Can you keep it working when models update?

That’s the difference between “I built a thing” and “I run a business.”

Because at the end of the day, we still buy from people we trust — people who are genuinely solving a real problem in our lives. That hasn’t changed, and no Gold Rush will. The fundamentals (that are only human) still win.

Have a great weekend… I was going to promise that next week’s newsletter won’t start with a hackathon story, but I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.

XO
Patrice

P.S. Speaking of building with soul… if you’ve been curious about MyStoryPro, now’s actually the perfect time to jump in. Over the next month, we’re rolling out a series of Claude Code + MyStoryPro integration camps that will teach you how to use BOTH tools together to elevate your storytelling and marketing.

First session is free (because I want you to see what’s possible). The rest are included for members. Think: custom workflows that actually serve YOUR business not just random builds for the sake of building.

Details dropping soon – but if you want in, grab your MyStoryPro spot here and you’ll get first access.