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Dan's Ikigai Journey

Inspired by Dan's journey?

Discover your own purpose and create a meaningful path forward with our AI-guided Ikigai framework.

Their Ikigai

Your Ikigai is building AI-powered tools that transform complex offline processes into seamless digital experiences for professionals—creating the technology backbones that help architects, designers, and builders close more deals, while you maintain independence, see direct customer impact, and build a portfolio of autonomous internet businesses.

Core Theme

You're an expert generalist who thrives in the 80% phase—rapid prototyping, high-leverage innovation, and turning cold complexity into warm, streamlined solutions. Your deepest satisfaction comes from building the engine, not running the service; creating tools that provide unfair advantage rather than delivering outcomes directly.

Unique Value

Your decade of agency experience taught you exactly what NOT to build (websites as deliverables) and revealed what you should have focused on all along—the transformative engine itself. Combined with your natural gift for in-person relationship-building and your architect-level systems thinking, you're uniquely positioned to build B2B2C technology backbones that sell outcomes (deals closed, revenue generated) rather than tools.

Key Strengths
Full-stack product building across engineering, design, and business strategyConverting offline processes into automated, high-leverage digital solutionsAI implementation and frontier model experimentationBuilding genuine relationships and turning cold prospects into warm connections through in-person engagement
Path Forward

Reframe Pocket World as 'the thing that closes more deals' and validate through coffee chats with your warm network of real estate contacts and sustainability-aligned architects. Your immediate unlock is customer discovery through casual in-person meetings—not formal video calls—leveraging your natural strength in building genuine connections.

"The website builder engine wasn't a missed opportunity—it was the lesson that prepared you to build Pocket World the right way: as the product itself, positioned on outcomes, with clear boundaries between your craft and customer-facing delivery."

What would your Ikigai look like? Find the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

What They Love
  • • Working with AI tools, especially high-leverage applications
  • • Seeing people use my apps and tools
  • • Turning difficult processes into streamlined, delightful experiences
  • • Building scalable apps and features
  • • Home automation and smart home technology
  • • Building AI-powered tools (e.g., Pocket World)
  • • Building tools and engines that provide unfair advantage
  • • Cooking
  • • Walking my dog
  • • Spending time with family
  • • Gaming
  • • Problem-solving
  • • Turning cold prospects into warm relationships
  • • Deep thinking and research
  • • Testing ideas and building solutions
  • • High-leverage, close-to-money work with tangible impact
  • • Context-switching across multiple projects simultaneously
  • • The 80% phase—quick visible progress and high leverage
  • • Flow state during deep engagement
  • • Euphoric highs from new projects
  • • Building with V0 (Vercel's AI tool)
  • • Dramatically simplifying codebases (e.g., 150k to 8.5k lines)
  • • Saying no to unrealistic client demands and toxic business relationships
  • • Building productized processes and engines—turning manual, complicated work into repeatable systems
  • • The profitability and efficiency gains from systematizing service delivery
What They're Good At
  • • Technical skills with AI application experience
  • • Sales
  • • Engineering
  • • Design
  • • Marketing
  • • Full-stack software engineering (web, mobile, backend)
  • • AI implementation and leveraging frontier models
  • • Making genuine in-person connections
  • • Building relationships
  • • Agency operations and management
  • • Broad generalist across design, development, business, and client problems
  • • Process orientation—systems, workflows, planning
  • • Architect thinking: repeatable, scalable processes
  • • Experimentation and front-end innovation with AI
  • • Expert intuition from years of business experience
  • • Rapid AI-assisted development using tools like V0
  • • Setting boundaries with demanding clients
What the World Needs
  • • Tools that help individuals run businesses without big overheads
  • • More approachable and accessible AI
  • • B2B visualization tools for architects, designers, and contractors
  • • Automation for real estate, construction, and building processes
  • • Tools to help agencies work more efficiently
  • • Creating stability through better leverage
  • • Empowering and enabling happier people
  • • Solutions that build independence, not dependency
  • • Reducing manual processes through automation
  • • Solutions for the landscaping industry
  • • Solutions for the events industry
  • • Go-to-market and RevOps tools for marketing agencies
What They Can Be Paid For
  • • Web and mobile app development
  • • Technical consulting and CTO services
  • • AI strategy and implementation consulting
  • • AI tooling and automation development
  • • Website builder engine/platform for agencies
  • • Interior design visualization tools for customer acquisition
  • • Marketplace plugins for Monday.com, Asana, Jira ecosystems
  • • Construction and building industry tools
  • • Credit-based AI tools
  • • Portfolio of bootstrapped internet businesses
  • • SDK-based apps with platform billing
  • • Affiliate model with furniture companies
  • • B2B2B agency tools—higher in value chain than website delivery
Passion + Vocation
  • • Building AI-powered products that solve real B2B problems
  • • Creating tools with immediate visible impact for professionals
  • • Experimenting with frontier AI to push creative boundaries
  • • Coaching agencies to adopt AI workflows while building tools they'll pay for
Vocation + Mission
  • • Building Pocket World: AI visualization for architects/designers
  • • Creating scalable B2B SaaS solving high-value professional problems
  • • Building a portfolio of autonomous internet businesses
  • • B2B2C model: building technology backbones for outcome-focused providers
  • • Fast production → prove traction → sell for €10-20k → recycle capital
  • • White-label opportunities with existing SaaS platforms
Mission + Profession
  • • Digitizing and automating offline processes for professionals
  • • Helping architects and designers visualize and sell high-value projects
  • • Enabling sustainable and smart design through accessible technology
  • • Teaching professionals customer discovery skills through your own product journey
Profession + Passion
  • • Full-stack product builder: engineering, strategy, and customer discovery
  • • AI tooling specialist creating compelling user experiences
  • • Customer discovery through in-person relationship-building
  • • Rapid prototyping consultancy—validating ideas for others while building your portfolio
Ikigai Discovery
  • • Building scalable AI-powered B2B products
  • • Serving high-value markets (architects, designers, builders)
  • • Digitizing offline processes into seamless experiences
  • • Working independently
  • • Seeing direct customer impact
  • • Expert generalist: excelling at vision and strategy
  • • Delegating detailed finishing work
  • • Clear work-life boundaries
  • • Working with a smaller team
  • • Product focus over service delivery
Discoveries
  • • First holidays as a new parent—challenging but rewarding milestone
  • • All hanging agency revenue ended December—law firm terminated after unrealistic demands
  • • Pattern identified: need forcing functions to take action
  • • Interior design AI tool losing momentum—hit image generation model limitations
  • • Risk of building too close to model provider capabilities—disruption by next model versions
  • • V0 reduced codebase from 150k to 8.5k lines (18x smaller) with same features
  • • Self-sabotage pattern identified when approaching market validation
  • • ADHD-related difficulty with structured scheduling creates resistance to customer discovery
  • • Complacency from comfortable situation contributes to inaction
  • • Strategies: set clear agendas, time-box calls (15-20 min), trust gut on call quality
  • • Considering re-engaging agency space for B2B2B RevOps opportunities
  • • Processing and synthesizing 10 years of agency learnings through distance and reflection
  • • Origins of 'if I don't try, I can't fail' belief: childhood modeling from risk-averse parents + ADHD executive dysfunction = protective pattern that now costs more than it saves. The pattern feels safer than trying but creates a different kind of suffering—unrealized potential and zero access to reward.
  • • Natural resilience around failure: I naturally respect and celebrate people who try and fail, internally frame setbacks as progress (like steps on a mountain), and am comfortable with failure as a learning mechanism—this is authentic to my personality, not something I need to learn
  • • The real limiting belief may not be fear of failure, but fear of others' judgment or lack of support during the attempt—concern about what risk-averse people think rather than doubt in my own ability to handle failure
  • • Natural resilience around failure: I naturally respect and celebrate people who try and fail, internally frame setbacks as progress (like steps on a mountain), and am comfortable with failure as a learning mechanism—this is authentic to my personality, not something I need to learn
  • • The real limiting belief may not be fear of failure, but fear of others' judgment or lack of support during the attempt—concern about what risk-averse people think rather than doubt in my own ability to handle failure
  • • Distinguishing between being open to feedback (wisdom) and being governed by others' approval (exhausting)—I can take good feedback when it comes and resist bad judgment when it comes
  • • Every conversation, every card I put out there, every step I take—I'll miss seeing how they're interconnected, but they're collectively moving me closer to something bigger. I just need to show up: customer calls, meet new people, put myself out there, take valuable learnings, resist negativity and comparison
  • • Distinguishing between being open to feedback (wisdom) and being governed by others' approval (exhausting)—I can take good feedback when it comes and resist bad judgment when it comes
  • • Reframe around outreach: not about being more extroverted or schmoozy, but about designing relationship-building in a way that fits my natural style—intentional, authentic, one-on-one connection over large-scale networking
  • • Strategy: Set clear agendas upfront for coffee conversations so everyone knows what we're exploring; be willing to cancel or decline calls if the agenda or person doesn't align with current discovery focus
  • • Strategy: Avoid overscheduling by respecting my natural limit and energy capacity rather than pushing to burnout; quality conversations over quantity of meetings
  • • Evidence of genuine relationship-building strength: 10 years of business relationships I personally built, fostered, and kept alive; respect from wife and peers for making new connections; ability to turn cold prospects into warm relationships
  • • Natural relationship-building style: selective, intentional, authentic one-on-one connection over large-scale networking. Effective when boundaries are clear upfront, conversations are curated for relevance, and there's permission to end early without guilt or explanation
  • • Reframe around outreach: not about becoming more extroverted or schmoozy, but about designing relationship-building in a way that fits natural style—respecting energy capacity, setting clear agendas, being willing to decline misaligned calls
  • • First holidays as a new parent—challenging but rewarding milestone
  • • Successfully wrapped up agency in tax-efficient way despite it being emotionally tortuous
  • • Supported pregnant wife through pregnancy and birth
  • • Baby born 3/10/24—extremely present as a new father
  • • Explored fractional CTO service—learned it wasn't a good fit
  • • Significant time invested upskilling in AI
  • • Built and released two apps through vibe coding
  • • Built relationship with Baseline community
  • • Made investment in Tipple
  • • Closed an investment
  • • Remodelled home office
  • • Remodelled baby's room
  • • The agency wasn't aligned with what I loved—the process energized me, but the clients and output didn't. Closing it may have been recognition of misalignment rather than 'throwing it away.'
Short-Term Goals
  • • Schedule 3-5 customer discovery calls with architects/designers this week
  • • Fix critical stability issues in Pocket World within 2 weeks
  • • Validate B2B angle through coffee chats with existing network
  • • Develop customer interview skills
  • • Learn market research techniques
  • • Achieve revenue within 6 months
  • • Secure design partners within 3 months
Long-Term Goals
  • • Build Pocket World into a sustainable, profitable B2B SaaS
  • • Develop 2-3 additional internet products in automation/visualization
  • • Create a portfolio of businesses generating passive income
  • • Explore acquisition opportunities for portfolio companies
  • • Build ventures compatible with being a new father
  • • £10m net worth by age 50
Resources Needed
  • • Existing network: Maurice Cowhey, Jason Woods, Aaron Doonan
  • • Clay.com for finding and contacting prospects
  • • Access to frontier AI models (Claude, Gemini, Nano Banana)
  • • Warm network of real estate agents for customer discovery
  • • Clay.com tables for architect/interior designer prospect generation
  • • Potential partnerships: You Furnish, Visualist App, Blueground
Accountability Plan
  • • Show Pocket World to architect/designer and get direct feedback
  • • Document go-to-market findings and decide positioning by month end
  • • Reach out to warm contacts for casual coffee chats
  • • Complete 2 warm calls and 2 cold outreach calls
  • • Focus on discovery calls over sales/feature pitching
  • • Upcoming discovery calls: Sherry (scheduled), Kyla and Winnie (emails to schedule)
  • • Be explicit and ruthless with time: say no to calls that don't align with current discovery needs; set clear agendas upfront for all coffee chats to ensure mutual clarity
  • • Set 15-20 minute time boundaries on coffee chats and customer calls; extend if energy and conversation quality justify it, but close decisively if it's not a fit

"I believe my anxiety around commitment and busy calendars prevents me from doing effective customer outreach"

Reframes

  • • I can be selective and intentional: respect my natural capacity, set clear agendas upfront, and be willing to decline calls that don't align with my discovery focus. This isn't limiting—it's protecting my energy for conversations that actually matter.
  • • Natural strengths in authentic one-on-one connection (10-year track record proves this). The limiting belief isn't the anxiety—it's trying to force a networking style that doesn't fit. Solution: be intentional about whom to meet, set clear agendas upfront, respect natural energy capacity, and be ruthless about declining misaligned calls. Timeboxing (15-20 min with permission to extend) provides structure without forcing artificiality.

Actions

  • • When scheduling calls, set clear upfront agenda so both people know what's being explored. Use 15-20 minute time boundaries as permission to close early if conversation isn't a fit—extend if energy is good, but decline decisively if it won't go anywhere.

"I believe I lack domain knowledge in construction/real estate and am doing guesswork rather than building from real customer problems"

"I believe my past business successes were flukes and I can't replicate them"

Reframes

  • • I can make things happen when I put my mind to it and truly lean into it. I have a consistent track record of evidence supporting this—multiple successful business iterations, successful fractional CTO role, thriving contracting business. I have no evidence contradicting this pattern of competence.

"I believe I'm a poor people manager"

Reframes

  • • I'm not a poor manager—I'm a decisive, capable manager who's learning to have hard conversations earlier. Management isn't about being universally liked; it's about representing the business, making tough calls, and accepting that some friction is inherent to the role. You're the avatar for external economic realities. It's not personal—it's structural. Sometimes people need to be let go, and that's okay. I can be both forgiving and uncompromising.

Actions

  • • Have hard conversations earlier instead of delaying; make decisive action when someone needs to be let go; accept the risk of hard feelings rather than letting things fester
  • • Practice having hard conversations at the first sign of misalignment rather than hoping things improve. This is both kinder to the person (clearer feedback earlier) and better for the business.

"I believe I move goalposts before reaching them and never acknowledge my progress"

"I believe my interior design idea excitement was overoptimism and I don't have enough real customer data to justify pursuing it"

"I believe I underestimate challenge sizes and overestimate the uniqueness of my ideas when I'm in a high state"

"I overcommit when euphoric and become paralyzed when reality sets in"

"I believe my ADHD makes structured scheduling and customer discovery calls particularly difficult for me"

"I believe my comfortable financial situation creates complacency that prevents me from taking necessary action"

"I believe that as a parent, I no longer have the time, intensity, or fire needed to build a successful business again"

"If I Don't Try, I Can't Fail"

Reframes

  • • I can be open to feedback without being governed by approval—take good feedback when it comes and resist bad judgment when it comes. I don't need to be the only person in the market or the only winner; I just need to win enough
  • • "The real limiting belief may not be fear of failure itself, but fear of others' judgment or lack of support during the attempt—concern about what risk-averse people think rather than doubt in my own ability to handle failure" "The mountain climbing metaphor: each step forward is progress, even if others watching from below don't understand or support the climb. What matters is that I'm moving, not that everyone cheers" "I can be open to feedback without being governed by approval—take good feedback when it comes and resist bad judgment when it comes. I don't need to be the only person in the market or the only winner; I just need to win enough"

"I haven't done anything meaningful since my employee left on 31/1/24—that's when the 'real' progress stopped, and everything since then doesn't count"

"I threw away years of business-building quickly and flippantly when I became overwhelmed—I destroyed something valuable that I should have preserved"

Reframes

  • • I didn't destroy something I loved—I closed something that had become misaligned. The skills, processes, and wealth-building capabilities I developed are still mine. The closure may have been necessary discernment rather than reckless destruction.

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Created with the Ikigai Discovery Framework