[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Andrew Côté [@Andercot](/creator/twitter/Andercot) on x 103.9K followers Created: 2025-07-19 20:53:14 UTC Everyone flexes how much money they raise. My reverse flex is that I quit my stellarator design engineering job with essentially zero runway, without any real plan, but then grew a non-vc-backable business to ~$600k revenue in X year by throwing a conference called Deep Tech Week. This isn't a tech company at all. It isn't scalable, AI-enabled. It's not glamorous or sexy, topical, riding some wave in defense or manufacturing or whatever. I sell sponsorships, and tickets to parties that are cool but lose money. My "stack" is @LumaHQ , @figma , and @midjourney . My marketing is twitter threads and LinkedIn. There's no 'events team' behind this. It's literally just me. I mean, I hire contractors to run AV equipment. Get volunteers to help check people in during the week. Before this my job was designing superconducting magnet systems and running FEA calculations. I had zero events or conference experience. I've done three @deeptechweek's, SF twice, NYC once, expanding to Dubai in a few months. Some stats: ~ XXX unique events ~17,250 unique attendees ~ XXXXX different startups as rep'd by founders ~ XXXXX different investment funds, vc, family offices, etc tbh I didn't mean to start @deeptechweek. It came about by accident. I just felt stifled by my job and figured I'd join a VC fund or something within a couple months, but, the conference was a hit, people liked it, the first one ran over budget and I had to pay people back so I did writing gigs to make up the shortfall. By the point I got out of debt I had already suffered through the 'hard times' and figured, well shit, here's a niche no one is doing, or else doing in a grifty lame way, and deep tech deserves better. It sucks when people throw events or build community without understanding the technology, they say dumb shit like "infinite energy" that any technical person hates. Truthfully I just liked making midjourney art of sci fi stuff, writing about it, throwing parties. Tons of people said it helped their startup, find a cofounder, get a new job. That felt good. It's probably a good thing for the world and I figure its better than doing a job you don't like. The founders I respect most like @k2pilot built regular business before going for venture capital and it seemed like good training. walk before you can run. Now I've taken a couple angel checks in, nothing big, and not even because I pitched them a vision but because they just like what I'm doing. tbh I viciously hate the idea of *relying* on investment. It feels like failure, like I'm taxing the world, detached from reality, living in a fantasy land of selling narratives instead of selling products. Yes, I have a technology development roadmap, no, I don't feel like explaining it, and I'm going to own ~95% of it forevever. Yes I will make some people rich as hell, but only because they believed in me, as a person. Bless them. Revenue >> Investment When people pay you for a product you know for a fact you've produced value. When you're profitable you know for a fact you've created more value than you've consumed. I dunno, that feels good. I like that. Now I see the matrix in all this. A clear way to grow this thing into something massive, insane, good for the world. It's a niche I didn't even know existed and something I see exactly X people doing correctly. But I'm still an engineer. On the side I used excess revenue to setup a RF and materials science laboratory in my apartment. I worked out some novel concepts in the neurophysiology of visualization and presented it at an international conference. I came up with my own sci-fi universe and started a hilarious publication I call the Journal of Applied Magic. I did this while never having more than X month of runway nor paying myself a salary. Events, science fiction, radio-frequency engineering, materials science, community, the occult. It all fits together, perfectly, and its going to be awesome. "Whats your moat?" - I dunno. Magic? Consciousness research? Being insane? Tweeting? Who cares. Whatever you do, just do it as best you possibly can. Make something beautiful for everyone to enjoy. Push things in the right direction. Have fun with it. I had absolutely no idea any of this would work out like this and there was zero chance of coming up with this plan in advance. I just knew I felt stuck in my 'dream job' and could do more. Of course I could've raised money for some big venture - the only reason you're reading this is because I know how to tell a good narrative and hype up a technology in the long march of economic progress. But why? For what? For the 200th drone startup? 50th fusion startup? Fuck that. Do something original. Invent your own game and play it. The only thing more common than real people feeling stuck doing something they don't like is fake people selling bullshit that doesn't work. It's really easy when you're used to doing honest work, like engineering stuff, to see someone selling a some big vision and thinking "wow, how can I ever get there" because you assume they're not lying through their teeth, making shit up, because you know you never would. Or the things you make wouldn't work. You'd get fired. Engineers sell themselves short because they're not used to lying. Businesspeople and salespeople never know the difference because to them, the measure of success isn't a functional product but a transaction closed. So you feel stuck, in a job you don't like, thinking everyone else has it figured out, but they don't. They're selling a narrative, not knowing if its real, or if it'll work, leaning into the wind, playing house, seeing who else they can convince. Whats real? Whats fake? Is @hyperstition_x real? It's as real as you believe it to be. It's science fiction. It's a narrative. It's a conference. It's - whatever. It's a niche. It's April 1st. Superconductors are on their way. Here's a shitty VIP bracelet, its worth $1000. Believe in yourself. The point being - the fastest way to find a niche is to throw yourself off a cliff and embrace chaos. Embrace pain and suffering. That is the road to strength. You don't need a master plan, you don't need X months of runway, you just need to try things until something sticks. Jobs are a dime a dozen, but so are shitty startups doing nothing original, fleecing unsophisticated investors who have fomo over missing the ones that are actually going to work. Be better than that. Suffer not the AI slopiverse. Don't be the next anybody. Be the first you. Maximize your learning rate and exposure to serendipity. Have fun. Find your cosmic destiny, to smoke weed and play roblox. Or just get a cool job and have hobbies on the side. Don't take it all so seriously and stop trying to be a 'disruptor' or some BS. Faking it till you make it only convinces other fake people and next thing you know you've outsourced original thinking because you never learned to do it for yourself. Learn to live with an open heart and an open mind and even if you don't have a dream, a dream will find you. After that all you have to do is fight for it. XXXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [tech company](/topic/tech-company) [$600k](/topic/$600k) [reverse](/topic/reverse) [money](/topic/money) [Post Link](https://x.com/Andercot/status/1946674718355968339)
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Andrew Côté @Andercot on x 103.9K followers
Created: 2025-07-19 20:53:14 UTC
Everyone flexes how much money they raise.
My reverse flex is that I quit my stellarator design engineering job with essentially zero runway, without any real plan, but then grew a non-vc-backable business to ~$600k revenue in X year by throwing a conference called Deep Tech Week.
This isn't a tech company at all. It isn't scalable, AI-enabled. It's not glamorous or sexy, topical, riding some wave in defense or manufacturing or whatever. I sell sponsorships, and tickets to parties that are cool but lose money.
My "stack" is @LumaHQ , @figma , and @midjourney . My marketing is twitter threads and LinkedIn. There's no 'events team' behind this. It's literally just me. I mean, I hire contractors to run AV equipment. Get volunteers to help check people in during the week. Before this my job was designing superconducting magnet systems and running FEA calculations. I had zero events or conference experience.
I've done three @deeptechweek's, SF twice, NYC once, expanding to Dubai in a few months. Some stats: ~ XXX unique events ~17,250 unique attendees ~ XXXXX different startups as rep'd by founders ~ XXXXX different investment funds, vc, family offices, etc
tbh I didn't mean to start @deeptechweek. It came about by accident. I just felt stifled by my job and figured I'd join a VC fund or something within a couple months, but, the conference was a hit, people liked it, the first one ran over budget and I had to pay people back so I did writing gigs to make up the shortfall.
By the point I got out of debt I had already suffered through the 'hard times' and figured, well shit, here's a niche no one is doing, or else doing in a grifty lame way, and deep tech deserves better. It sucks when people throw events or build community without understanding the technology, they say dumb shit like "infinite energy" that any technical person hates.
Truthfully I just liked making midjourney art of sci fi stuff, writing about it, throwing parties. Tons of people said it helped their startup, find a cofounder, get a new job. That felt good.
It's probably a good thing for the world and I figure its better than doing a job you don't like. The founders I respect most like @k2pilot built regular business before going for venture capital and it seemed like good training. walk before you can run. Now I've taken a couple angel checks in, nothing big, and not even because I pitched them a vision but because they just like what I'm doing. tbh I viciously hate the idea of relying on investment. It feels like failure, like I'm taxing the world, detached from reality, living in a fantasy land of selling narratives instead of selling products. Yes, I have a technology development roadmap, no, I don't feel like explaining it, and I'm going to own ~95% of it forevever. Yes I will make some people rich as hell, but only because they believed in me, as a person. Bless them.
Revenue >> Investment
When people pay you for a product you know for a fact you've produced value. When you're profitable you know for a fact you've created more value than you've consumed. I dunno, that feels good. I like that.
Now I see the matrix in all this. A clear way to grow this thing into something massive, insane, good for the world. It's a niche I didn't even know existed and something I see exactly X people doing correctly.
But I'm still an engineer. On the side I used excess revenue to setup a RF and materials science laboratory in my apartment. I worked out some novel concepts in the neurophysiology of visualization and presented it at an international conference. I came up with my own sci-fi universe and started a hilarious publication I call the Journal of Applied Magic. I did this while never having more than X month of runway nor paying myself a salary.
Events, science fiction, radio-frequency engineering, materials science, community, the occult. It all fits together, perfectly, and its going to be awesome. "Whats your moat?" - I dunno. Magic? Consciousness research? Being insane? Tweeting? Who cares. Whatever you do, just do it as best you possibly can. Make something beautiful for everyone to enjoy. Push things in the right direction. Have fun with it.
I had absolutely no idea any of this would work out like this and there was zero chance of coming up with this plan in advance. I just knew I felt stuck in my 'dream job' and could do more. Of course I could've raised money for some big venture - the only reason you're reading this is because I know how to tell a good narrative and hype up a technology in the long march of economic progress. But why? For what? For the 200th drone startup? 50th fusion startup? Fuck that. Do something original. Invent your own game and play it.
The only thing more common than real people feeling stuck doing something they don't like is fake people selling bullshit that doesn't work. It's really easy when you're used to doing honest work, like engineering stuff, to see someone selling a some big vision and thinking "wow, how can I ever get there" because you assume they're not lying through their teeth, making shit up, because you know you never would. Or the things you make wouldn't work. You'd get fired.
Engineers sell themselves short because they're not used to lying. Businesspeople and salespeople never know the difference because to them, the measure of success isn't a functional product but a transaction closed. So you feel stuck, in a job you don't like, thinking everyone else has it figured out, but they don't. They're selling a narrative, not knowing if its real, or if it'll work, leaning into the wind, playing house, seeing who else they can convince.
Whats real? Whats fake? Is @hyperstition_x real? It's as real as you believe it to be. It's science fiction. It's a narrative. It's a conference. It's - whatever. It's a niche. It's April 1st. Superconductors are on their way. Here's a shitty VIP bracelet, its worth $1000. Believe in yourself.
The point being - the fastest way to find a niche is to throw yourself off a cliff and embrace chaos. Embrace pain and suffering. That is the road to strength. You don't need a master plan, you don't need X months of runway, you just need to try things until something sticks. Jobs are a dime a dozen, but so are shitty startups doing nothing original, fleecing unsophisticated investors who have fomo over missing the ones that are actually going to work.
Be better than that. Suffer not the AI slopiverse. Don't be the next anybody. Be the first you. Maximize your learning rate and exposure to serendipity. Have fun. Find your cosmic destiny, to smoke weed and play roblox. Or just get a cool job and have hobbies on the side. Don't take it all so seriously and stop trying to be a 'disruptor' or some BS. Faking it till you make it only convinces other fake people and next thing you know you've outsourced original thinking because you never learned to do it for yourself.
Learn to live with an open heart and an open mind and even if you don't have a dream, a dream will find you.
After that all you have to do is fight for it.
XXXXXX engagements
Related Topics tech company $600k reverse money