Why I'm writing the rebuild in public

I’ve led the same company through five rebuilds in nine years. An escape room shipped in a suitcase. An online version built in six weeks when the pandemic closed every room. A training platform built against incumbents many times our size. A category we named. And now Living Security as an AI-native company, running on an operating system I built myself.

It took all five to see the pattern. I am my best leader self when I am leading through a transformation.

On December 26, 2025, I told the team: rebuild or die. This site is where I write down what came after, while it’s still happening.

Shipped

This site. A brand, a domain, email, a homepage and this post, built by prompting AI tools and editing what came back. The same way we build at Living Security now.

Changed

Why I’m doing it in public.

Founders facing their own rebuild mostly see the before and the after. I want to show the middle. The decisions, the constraints, what broke, what I’d do differently. With the receipts.

It also changed how I think about authentic. I used to think authentic meant unedited. That definition doesn’t survive an AI-native company. My team ships work every day that an agent drafted and a person decided on. The authenticity sits in the context, the judgment and the ownership.

The portraits on this site are AI-generated. So here are the rules I’m holding myself to:

• The story is mine. Every decision here is one I made. Every lesson is one I learned.
• Evidence is never generated. Screenshots, numbers, quotes and artifacts are real and carry their source. If I can’t source it, it doesn’t go up.
• Other people stay real. I don’t generate images of my team, customers or anyone else.
• Images can be made. A portrait shows how I want to show up. I never use one as proof.
• Ask me and I’ll tell you. This post is the answer.

Numbers

• Rebuilds of the same company: 5, over nine years.
• AI-generated portraits on this site: 2.
• AI-generated screenshots, quotes or numbers on this site: 0.

Next

The fifth rebuild, chapter by chapter. It starts on a tarmac on September 25, 2025. Then five days to a company-wide demo, engineering going agentic, and the weekend app that became the operating system the company runs on.

If you’re leading a company through its own rebuild, subscribe. I’ll write it as it happens.

Lesson: Authentic means it’s true and I own it.