#001 : The accidental birth of The Rift

Six months ago, I was a guy who'd finished his time in the corporate world with no clue what came next. I knew I wanted to get involved with AI somehow, but honestly? I wasn't ready for it. So I did what any uncertain ex-corporate person does—I tried everything. Advisory work, trading markets, random experiments with tools. I was scattered, unfocused, just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck.

Fast forward to today, and somehow that chaotic exploration led me to build The Rift. Looking back, it's wild how the dots connected.

After Microsoft, I honestly wasn't sure what direction to take in tech. I was experimenting with tools, watching the AI hype unfold, and doing some consulting on AI adoption on the side. It took me a while to break out of the big corporate mothership mindset and start recognizing that there's a whole world of technology out there I'd barely been exposed to. That realization was both intriguing and nerve-wracking. So I started exploring—subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, signed up for newsletters, and dove in headfirst.

Mid-2024, AI was still 'THE' buzzword. Everyone wanted to "say" and "do" AI... whatever that meant. There was a lot happening, and it was hard to keep up with all of it. I kept engaging and exploring through different channels—my network, LinkedIn, wherever I could find interesting conversations. It was all fascinating. With the advisory work I was doing, I started using GPT-3.5 more and more. Initially it was just basic summaries and conceptual questions, but within a few weeks it began feeling like a thought partner. Granted, it was a thought partner with the memory of a toddler and a harsh knowledge cutoff with no web searching capabilities. Still very capable, but limited in what it could actually do. I was excited enough to stick with it though, so I kept using it to learn—about things that would help my advisory clients, about markets (I traded options for a year... that's definitely a story for another day). Before long, I found myself having deeper and deeper conversations with it.

In fall 2024, one of my advisory partners suggested I should create a "storefront" for myself—something to showcase my story to clients and establish my credibility in the industry as a self-employed consultant. It was brilliant advice that made complete sense. So I started brainstorming what it should look like. A consulting services website? A personal brand site? I wrestled with that question for weeks, unable to settle on a direction. The truth was, I couldn't decide what I actually wanted to do.

While I was pondering all this, I was having a blast exploring AI, decentralization, and Web3. By then I had a Claude subscription and was running comparison tests between Claude and GPT, diving into complex concepts, just enjoying the exploration. That's when I started writing—random thoughts at first, which gradually evolved into blog posts. Then came the lightbulb moment: maybe this could be the website. A place where I share my thoughts and experiences with AI, strategies for working with these tools, insights about adoption... why not? I brainstormed names and branding with ChatGPT, and the first version of The Rift was born in October 2024. No grand strategy, no business plan—just pure exploration of the ideas bouncing around in my head.

This approach worked great until I realized I needed to stay current with the rapidly evolving AI landscape, both for my advisory work and my writing. So I started hunting for solutions. I discovered countless newsletters and social feeds, but most were just recycling the same information. Deep in that rabbit hole, I stumbled across a LinkedIn post about someone using Make.com to build data automations without any coding. The UI immediately caught my attention—I loved the open canvas design and the vertical flowchart experience. I was completely hooked.

I started simple with basic data sourcing pipelines, then began incorporating AI modules for content curation. Within three weeks, I'd built my first prototype of what would become Pulse... though I hadn't named it yet and had no idea what it would eventually become. While learning to use AI and Make.com together, I realized there was a serious gap in the market. There wasn't much practical, short-form content available for professionals who wanted to implement AI in real use cases. Sure, there were YouTubers and TikTokers creating content, plus plenty of social feeds and newsletters. But when I asked my clients and other professionals in my network about resources like what I was envisioning, I got blank stares.

Had I found a genuine market gap? Or had the AI hype cycle moved on and professional upskilling wasn't needed anymore? It wasn't the latter—my clients were still investing heavily in AI training, they just weren't finding the right resources. This insight led me to experiment with creating guides. I wrote some basic ones initially, using Claude and ChatGPT to help with the writing, but the results were mediocre. So I tapped into my background as a technical trainer and really started leveraging the tools at my disposal in creative ways, then documented those processes as guides. I used AI to polish them, and suddenly I was getting much better results. Maybe I was onto something significant here. Blogs, guides, and a news aggregation engine? This was starting to feel like a real product. A few weeks later in December 2024, Rift V1.1 came about. Pulse was born—not fully automated yet, but substantially more sophisticated than my initial prototype.

It was beginning to feel like a genuine product, but it needed serious refinement. At the end of January 2025, I shared it with a small group of friends to get their honest feedback. Nobody was impressed with the hero image—too dark and ominous, they said. Pulse wasn't quite hitting the mark either. But everyone found real value in the guides and explorations. That validation gave me the confidence to go back to the drawing board—or in this case, back to the Make canvas.

What followed were countless hours wrestling with AI, absorbing data concepts, and battling the quirks in Make's platform. I launched into an intense two-week sprint while my wife was traveling for business, powered by copious amounts of coffee and plenty of late nights. During this focused period, I fully automated Pulse, created dozens of comprehensive guides, and built a sophisticated writing system using GPT-4 and Claude. The AI tools were getting more capable, and I was becoming much more skilled at using them effectively. March 2025 marked the birth of Rift V2—this was my true MVP.

Pulse was now fully automated and performing well, though it still needed fine-tuning. I had developed a substantial library of foundational content that could serve various functions and use cases. At this point, I'd conducted extensive market research that validated the problem I was trying to solve. It felt like I had built a solution, but I still hadn't clearly articulated the problem statement.

Eager to test whether this was worth pursuing seriously, I shared the MVP with 200 people in my network. 100 signed up, and 48 actually explored the platform. I spoke with nearly all of them and received valuable feedback. The content was solid, the website looked professional, but what exactly was I trying to sell or communicate? People felt somewhat lost navigating the value proposition. Additionally, the technical foundation wasn't strong enough—member onboarding was clunky, outreach capabilities were virtually nonexistent. It simply wasn't scalable.

I recognized I was reaching the limits of my expertise in web development and marketing-focused design, so I decided to bring in help. Fortunately, I connected with two talented individuals who understood their craft and immediately grasped my vision during our first conversation. I remember the wave of relief I felt—finally, we could move forward properly. The designer and developer collaborated to rebuild The Rift from the ground up on a scalable platform, with clear messaging and capabilities that would enable real business growth. While they handled the frontend, I continued refining Pulse and creating more content. By this time, I had hit my stride with GPT-4o—it understood every aspect of my vision for The Rift, had become a true collaborative partner, and I was making meaningful progress across all areas.

April 2025—The Rift was reborn, better than ever.

It's been an absolutely wild six months, but this journey is just beginning. Ten days ago we had our public launch—we're still in the very early stages, but the trajectory ahead has me incredibly excited.

What gets me up every morning is the technological landscape that's unfolding before us. The tools of tomorrow will be capable of things we can barely imagine today. The next version of the internet will be written at the intersection of AI, Web3, and eventually quantum computing. That future will be absolutely fantastical as it unfolds right in front of our eyes. But in all of this rapid change, it's more important than ever to remember what being human means and to lean into this revolution. To participate, to build, to ask the bold questions. Everyone has a real chance at building a successful future for themselves using the tools of tomorrow. Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's overwhelming. But that's exactly why The Rift exists—to bring people together, to explore and learn and build as a community.

This feels like one of those pivotal moments in history that people will look back on and say "that's when everything changed." I want to capture this transformation as it happens—not just my story, but our collective story of how we navigate this shift together. So I'll keep sharing my thoughts here: the wins, the struggles, the late-night breakthroughs, and the inevitable setbacks. We're all figuring this out together, and maybe these chronicles will help light the way for someone else forging their own path through this revolution.