<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[GeraldVDP]]></title><description><![CDATA[4,761 readers, Infinite Ideas on business growth, overcoming challenges, and embracing mindset shifts as a business owner.

"An honest account of what it's like to be an entrepreneur struggling and overcoming.



]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cXje!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb25900ae-3936-4127-8693-e39017983cb5_375x375.png</url><title>GeraldVDP</title><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:23:53 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.geraldvdp.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Gerald vanderpuye]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[gerald@hey.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[gerald@hey.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[gerald@hey.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[gerald@hey.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[The Vanderpuye Story]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why the Vanderpuye Family Exists in Ghana]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/the-vanderpuye-story</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/the-vanderpuye-story</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:53:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Where I Come From: The 250-Year Story Behind My Name</h1><p><em>What follows is a historically grounded narrative based on my family tree, the documented history of the Bruce-Vanderpuije family, and the known history of the Dutch Gold Coast. Some details are well documented. Others are informed reconstruction, where the records run thin. I have tried to be honest about which is which.</em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3076709,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/201873872?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!a-3L!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7cd59b65-a8cd-4fe0-94c6-b7462f099124_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div><hr></div><p>I have always wondered where my history was.</p><p>The name was a clue I carried my whole life. <em>Vanderpuye</em> is not a Ga name. I always knew there was a Dutch thread somewhere. But knowing a name points across the sea is not the same as knowing how it got to you.</p><p>So I went looking. I spoke to my dad. I used Ancestry and 23andMe. This is what the digging gave me back.</p><div><hr></div><h2>The world the name came from</h2><p>To understand why the Vanderpuye family exists in Ghana, you have to go back to the late 1700s.</p><p>Back then, the coastline of modern Ghana was one of the most important places in the world.</p><p>Europeans called it the Gold Coast.</p><p>The Dutch, British, Danes, Portuguese, Swedes and Brandenburgers all fought for influence there.</p><p>Along the shore stood massive forts:</p><ul><li><p>Elmina Castle</p></li><li><p>Fort Cr&#232;vecoeur</p></li><li><p>Cape Coast Castle</p></li></ul><p>Gold flowed through these forts.</p><p>So did people.</p><p>And tragically, so did enslaved Africans.</p><p>My family story begins at the intersection of all three.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Jacobus arrives from the Netherlands</h2><p>Around 1754, a boy named <strong>Jacobus van der Puije</strong> was born in the Dutch province of Zeeland.</p><p>His family came originally from a small town called Sint-Maartensdijk, and his father is recorded as William van der Puije.</p><p>Like many ambitious young Dutchmen with few prospects at home, Jacobus entered the service of the Dutch West India Company.</p><p>At the time, this was one of the most powerful corporations on earth. I think of it as a combination of:</p><ul><li><p>a government</p></li><li><p>a military</p></li><li><p>a trading company</p></li><li><p>a shipping empire</p></li></ul><p>all rolled into one.</p><p>As a young man, Jacobus was sent thousands of miles from Europe to the Dutch Gold Coast.</p><p>He did not arrive as a settler looking for land.</p><p>He arrived as a colonial administrator.</p><p>And he rose fast. By 1776, still in his twenties, h</p><p>e was governor of Fort Cr&#232;vecoeur at Accra. By 1780 he had become <strong>Acting Governor-General of the entire Dutch Gold Coast.</strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 848w, 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KfyA!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a2a2deb-f02d-44a4-9b7f-698926d9ce82_1672x941.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In modern terms, he was effectively running the Dutch colonial territory in what is now Ghana.</p><p>He was about twenty-six.</p><div><hr></div><h2>The part most families skip</h2><p>This is where my story becomes complicated.</p><p>Many family histories try to avoid this part. But it is impossible to understand mine without it.</p><p>The Dutch Gold Coast was deeply entangled with the Atlantic slave trade.</p><p>The forts that men like Jacobus administered existed for a mix of reasons:</p><ul><li><p>gold trading</p></li><li><p>military alliances</p></li><li><p>colonial administration</p></li><li><p>the buying and selling of enslaved Africans</p></li></ul><p>Jacobus was not merely living near this system.</p><p>He was one of the senior officials administering the colony while it operated.</p><p>I won&#8217;t hide behind &#8220;he was only an administrator.&#8221; Administration is exactly how that trade was run.</p><p>And the records make it personal. One of Jacobus&#8217;s children was born to an enslaved African woman named <strong>Asoewa</strong>. Their daughter, Anna, was born enslaved too &#8212; and freed for the price of one mark of gold.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!C4Ex!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F33d9b886-5904-4bd5-848e-85dc6a67b389_1122x1402.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!C4Ex!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F33d9b886-5904-4bd5-848e-85dc6a67b389_1122x1402.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!C4Ex!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F33d9b886-5904-4bd5-848e-85dc6a67b389_1122x1402.png 848w, 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class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Another of his children was born to a Ga woman of Accra named <strong>Ayeley Ablah</strong>.</p><p>So within my own bloodline there are, at the same time:</p><ul><li><p>a European colonial administrator</p></li><li><p>African women living under colonial rule</p></li><li><p>and, in Asoewa, a woman who was herself enslaved</p></li></ul><p>That reality is uncomfortable.</p><p>But it is also the truth of many Afro-European families on the Gold Coast.</p><p>My family story is therefore not simply a Dutch story.</p><p>Nor is it simply a Ghanaian story.</p><p>It is a story born from one of the most morally complex periods in human history.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Peter &#8212; the first of us born in Africa</h2><p>Around 1775, Jacobus&#8217;s son <strong>Peter</strong> was born in Ghana, to Ayeley Ablah.</p><p>Unlike his father, Peter was African-born.</p><p>Unlike his father, Ghana was his home.</p><p>Peter grew up between worlds. He inherited:</p><ul><li><p>a Dutch surname</p></li><li><p>European connections</p></li><li><p>African ancestry</p></li><li><p>ties to Ga society</p></li></ul><p>His generation became part of a new class often called the <strong>Euro-Africans</strong>.</p><p>These families became enormously influential along coastal Ghana. They worked as:</p><ul><li><p>merchants</p></li><li><p>translators</p></li><li><p>diplomats</p></li><li><p>intermediaries</p></li></ul><p>between Europeans and African kingdoms.</p><p>Peter is the moment my family stopped being Dutch visitors and started becoming Ghanaian.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Becoming Ga</h2><p>Over the next few generations, something remarkable happened.</p><p>The family became more and more woven into Ga society.</p><p>The Dutch bloodline remained.</p><p>The surname remained.</p><p>But culturally, the family became Accra.</p><p>Children married into local families. The <strong>Ankrah</strong> name appears again and again in my tree, alongside other prominent Ga lineages. The family became part of the social fabric of the city itself.</p><p>And the name itself evolved:</p><p>Van der Puije &#8594; Vanderpuije &#8594; Vanderpuye.</p><p>The spelling stayed European.</p><p>The identity became Ghanaian.</p><p>I want to be clear about <em>how</em> that happened, because it matters. The Ga pass important rights through the mother&#8217;s line. So the family&#8217;s standing in Accra &#8212; its place, its belonging, eventually its right to a stool &#8212; did not come down from the Dutchman.</p><p>It came through the women who married into it.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Chief John Nii Kodjoe Vanderpuije</h2><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png" width="1122" height="1402" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1402,&quot;width&quot;:1122,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2685108,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/201873872?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wXs6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70aa420-4ca7-4ef4-a862-66f481649df6_1122x1402.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>By the mid-1800s the family had transformed completely.</p><p>Then came one of the most important figures in our whole history:</p><p><strong>John van der Puije.</strong> Born 1848.</p><p>Unlike Jacobus, he was not a colonial governor.</p><p>He was a Ghanaian leader.</p><p>A merchant. A chief. A politician. A public figure.</p><p>His mother was <strong>Naa Karley Ankrah, of the royal house of Otublohum</strong> &#8212; one of the old ruling families of Accra. And that is <em>why</em> he could become a chief at all: not through his Dutch surname, but through his mother&#8217;s royal blood, by Ga custom.</p><p>He made the most of it:</p><ul><li><p>He traded in cocoa, the crop about to make the Gold Coast Britain&#8217;s richest West African colony.</p></li><li><p>In 1880 he helped found the <em>Gold Coast Chronicle</em>, one of the first African-owned newspapers.</p></li><li><p>In 1888 he was enstooled chief of <strong>Otublohum</strong>.</p></li><li><p>In 1894 he was appointed to the <strong>Legislative Council</strong> of the Gold Coast.</p></li></ul><p>His finest hour came in 1897, when the colonial government tried to pass a Lands Bill that would have let the Crown seize land held under indigenous tenure. John fought it from inside the Council. His newspaper fought it in print. A delegation went all the way to London.</p><p>The bill was withdrawn.</p><p>It is remembered as one of the first great victories of organised African resistance on the coast.</p><p>By this point my family was no longer being shaped by Europe.</p><p>It was helping shape Ghana.</p><p>The descendants of a Dutch governor and a line of Ga women had become leaders of Accra itself.</p><p>That is one of the most fascinating transformations I have ever read about &#8212; and it is mine.</p><div><hr></div><h2>The Bruce connection</h2><p>The next major chapter is the rise of the <strong>Bruce-Vanderpuije</strong> branch.</p><p>Through marriage &#8212; again, through a woman of the Otublohum royal house &#8212; the family joined with another prominent coastal family, the Bruces.</p><p>The result is the name that runs into my own direct line: <strong>Bruce-Vanderpuije.</strong></p><p>This branch produced <strong>James Kobla Bruce-Vanderpuije</strong>, who in 1922 founded the <strong>Deo Gratias</strong> photo studio in Jamestown &#8212; now the oldest operating photography studio in West Africa, holding an archive of some 50,000 images of Ghana, and still run by our family today.</p><p>Then <strong>Eric Baldwin Bruce-Vanderpuije</strong>, the generation that lived through independence in 1957.</p><p>Then <strong>Isaac Vanderpuye</strong> &#8212; my father, born in 1947, a boy of ten when Ghana became free.</p><p>And then me.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Gerald Vanderpuye</h2><p>I am roughly seven generations removed from Jacobus.</p><p>Which means my ancestry holds, all flowing into one line:</p><ul><li><p>Dutch colonial administrators</p></li><li><p>Ga women</p></li><li><p>merchants</p></li><li><p>chiefs</p></li><li><p>politicians</p></li><li><p>entrepreneurs</p></li><li><p>cultural leaders</p></li></ul><p>My family&#8217;s journey mirrors Ghana&#8217;s journey:</p><p>Dutch colonial period &#8595; Slave trade era &#8595; Euro-African merchant class &#8595; Ga chieftaincy &#8595; Colonial politics &#8595; Modern Ghana &#8595; Diaspora entrepreneurship</p><p>And in many ways my own work sits on the far end of that same arc. Impact Brixton, Brixton Culture Capital, my pull back toward Ghana &#8212; they all live at the intersection of:</p><ul><li><p>commerce</p></li><li><p>community</p></li><li><p>culture</p></li><li><p>identity</p></li></ul><p>the same four forces that have shaped this family for over 250 years.</p><div><hr></div><h2>The questions I&#8217;m still chasing</h2><p>The honest end of any search is a list of what it still doesn&#8217;t know. Mine has four big ones.</p><p><strong>1. Was William van der Puije really Jacobus&#8217;s father?</strong> My tree shows William. I haven&#8217;t yet seen primary documentation proving that link. It needs verification in the Zeeland records.</p><p><strong>2. Did Jacobus die at sea, or in Ghana?</strong> My family always said he died at sea, sailing home to Holland. The historical record says he died on the Gold Coast in 1781, and never left. I lean toward the record &#8212; but I want to settle it properly.</p><p><strong>3. Who exactly was Ayeley Ablah?</strong> This may be the most important missing piece of all. I know a great deal about Jacobus. I know almost nothing about the African woman who gave birth to Peter. And genetically, she contributes every bit as much to me as he does.</p><p><strong>4. Was the family enslaver, enslaved, or both?</strong> Given the period, the line may include people on both sides of that history. That deserves careful investigation, not assumption.</p><div><hr></div><p>Here is what I&#8217;ve landed on.</p><p>The most powerful version of my family&#8217;s story is not:</p><p><em>&#8220;A Dutch governor came to Ghana.&#8221;</em></p><p>It is:</p><p><em>&#8220;A family emerged from the collision of Europe, Africa, empire, trade, slavery, resistance, and Accra itself. Over 250 years, they went from colonial outsiders to one of the city&#8217;s established Ghanaian families.&#8221;</em></p><p>That story is far richer &#8212; and far more human &#8212; than the simplified legend most families inherit.</p><p>I went looking for where my history was.</p><p>It turns out it was never really in Holland.</p><p>It was in Accra the whole time.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>If you&#8217;re family and you remember any of this differently &#8212; a name, a date, a story you were told &#8212; please tell me. The next thing I want to do is sit down with my dad&#8217;s generation and record everything they remember, while they&#8217;re still here to remember it. That&#8217;s the part no archive can give back.</em></p><p><em> Gerald@hey.com</em></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bitcoin is Tanking]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why?]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/bitcoin-is-tanking</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/bitcoin-is-tanking</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:38:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Every few weeks, one of my friends sends me the same message. &#8220;Gerald, what&#8217;s going on with Bitcoin? Is it going to zero?&#8221;</p><p>No. It&#8217;s not going to zero. Sit down, pour some of my delicious Brixton culture rum  &#8212; and let me walk you through it. Because this is my favourite time to write about crypto. Not when everyone&#8217;s a genius at the top. Now. When it hurts.</p><p>Bitcoin is tanking. It&#8217;s not the first time, and it won&#8217;t be the last. That&#8217;s the whole point.</p><h2>&#8220;But Saylor sold&#8221;</h2><p>Here&#8217;s what spooked everybody. Michael Saylor &#8212; the man who built an entire company around <em>never selling Bitcoin</em>, the guy whose whole personality is &#8220;we will never sell&#8221; &#8212; sold some Bitcoin. So that&#8217;s it, right? If even Saylor is out, it&#8217;s over.</p><p>Except look at the actual numbers. His company sold <strong>32 coins</strong>. Thirty-two. They still hold <strong>843,706</strong>. That&#8217;s 0.0038% of the stack, sold to cover a dividend payment &#8212; and Saylor&#8217;s own pledge is to buy <em>10 to 20 coins for every one he sells</em>.</p><p>So yes, technically, the man who said never sell, s&#8221; sold. It&#8217;s a symbolic moment. But it&#8217;s not him giving up and running for the door. It&#8217;s a guy selling one tree and telling you he&#8217;s about to plant ten more. Don&#8217;t confuse the headline with what actually happened.</p><h2>The thing nobody wants to remember</h2><p>Bitcoin moves in a roughly <strong>four-year cycle</strong>. Every four years, it rips up to a new all-time high &#8212; that&#8217;s just the highest price it has ever traded at. And every four years &#8212; without fail &#8212; it falls off a cliff afterwards. This is not a bug. This <em>is</em> the asset.</p><p>Here&#8217;s every cycle so far:</p><p>Cycle peak All-time high (the peak) Biggest drop after Bottom </p><p>2011 ~$32 <strong>-93%</strong> ~$2 </p><p>2013 ~$1,150 <strong>-85%</strong> ~$200 </p><p>2017 ~$19,800 <strong>-86%</strong> ~$3,200 </p><p>2021 ~$69,000 <strong>-77%</strong> ~$15,500 </p><p>2025 ~$126,200 <strong>-50% so far</strong> ~$64,000 (today)</p><p>Read that bottom row again. We topped at about <strong>$126,200</strong> in October 2025. Today we&#8217;re around <strong>$64,000</strong>. That feels brutal. It feels like the end.</p><p>It&#8217;s a 50% drop. By Bitcoin&#8217;s standards, that&#8217;s <em>mild</em>. Every single previous cycle fell at least 75% from the top. We&#8217;re not even there yet.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png" width="1456" height="777" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:777,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1431682,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/200605503?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LmmA!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa09cec64-3547-4ed0-9920-f159ee5b0c66_1717x916.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>So where could this go?</h2><p>If history rhymes &#8212; and with Bitcoin it always rhymes &#8212; a deeper fall from here wouldn&#8217;t surprise me at all. From the $126k peak:</p><ul><li><p><strong>-70%</strong> &#8594; about <strong>$38k</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>-75%</strong> &#8594; about <strong>$32k</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>-80%</strong> &#8594; about <strong>$25k</strong></p></li></ul><p>Could we see the low- to mid-$30,000s? Absolutely. It would be painful. It would also be completely, boringly normal.</p><p>But here&#8217;s the thing: even though a 75% fall <em>could</em> happen &#8212; it has every other cycle &#8212; most people don&#8217;t actually think it will this time. Something&#8217;s changed. Big serious money is in Bitcoin now &#8212; banks, funds, the kind of investors who used to laugh at it. There&#8217;s more real money holding it than ever before, and that tends to cushion the fall. A lot of smart people think this cycle stops at a 60-70% drop instead of the usual 80%-plus. The flip side: that big money can also panic and rush for the door fast, and lately some of it has. So I&#8217;m not pretending I know the exact bottom. Nobody does.</p><h2>What I&#8217;m doing</h2><p>I&#8217;m walking, saving my Uber money and spending every penny buying.</p><p>The whole game runs backwards from how it feels. It feels safest at the top when everyone&#8217;s rich and confident, and most dangerous right here when it&#8217;s red, and the group chat&#8217;s gone quiet. But the top is where you overpay, and the bottom is where you load up.</p><p>I&#8217;m not telling you to buy &#8212; I&#8217;m not your financial advisor, this isn&#8217;t advice, it can absolutely go lower, only ever risk what you can afford to lose. I&#8217;m just telling you what <em>I&#8217;m</em> doing. Waiting. Watching. Buying :-) </p><p>Let&#8217;s go. &#128640;</p><p>GVDP </p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[I’ve spent two years learning AI and applying it to my businesses. ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Finally! it&#8217;s actually working &#8212; so I&#8217;m opening it up.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/ive-spent-two-years-learning-ai-and</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/ive-spent-two-years-learning-ai-and</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:03:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cXje!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb25900ae-3936-4127-8693-e39017983cb5_375x375.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me be honest about where I&#8217;ve landed.</p><p>AI is moving too fast. It&#8217;s a minefield. Every week there&#8217;s a new model, a new tool, another thread promising it&#8217;ll change everything &#8212; and a lot of it is noise. Filtering the hype from what actually matters has been one of the hardest parts of this.</p><p>And I do it full-time.</p><p>For the last two years, more than half my time has gone into learning by applying AI to real business problems. &#8212; not just reading and watching videos but <em>using</em> it across Impact Brixton, Brixton Culture Capital, and the SaaS products.</p><p>Plenty of it went nowhere. Some of it quietly changed how the whole business runs.</p><p>Now I&#8217;m at the part I was waiting for: it&#8217;s working. Real results, not slideware. Rebuilding our sites with AI drove roughly a 1,000% jump in search visibility and 500% more traffic &#8212; that&#8217;s not a demo, that&#8217;s the business.</p><p>And the thing that made the difference wasn&#8217;t a tool. It was a shift in how I think about it: from &#8220;AI as something I reach for&#8221; to &#8220;AI as the way the business is designed.&#8221; Yes, we all use ChatGPT or Claude, and we are still on the first side of that line. The gap between the two is bigger than it looks &#8212; and crossing it is where the results actually live.</p><p>A few people have asked me to walk them through it. So I&#8217;m opening up a small session for business owners who are already using AI and can feel there&#8217;s a deeper level they&#8217;re not reaching.</p><p>If you&#8217;re in London, you fancy passing through Brixton, and you run a business/creator/builder &#8212; this is for you.</p><p><strong>Friday 12 June, 15:30&#8211;17:30, at Impact Brixton.</strong> Twenty people, dcocktails after.</p><p>Come for the ideas, stay for the network and drinks. </p><p>&#128073; <a href="https://luma.com/yc2fxv2z">https://luma.com/yc2fxv2z</a></p><p>Gerald</p><p></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shit! I’m spending £520 a month on AI. ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s what i am paying for and why I&#8217;d double it tomorrow.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/shit-im-spending-520-a-month-on-ai</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/shit-im-spending-520-a-month-on-ai</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:16:14 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Everyone&#8217;s asking me the same question lately: how are you using AI, and why do you look like you haven&#8217;t slept? </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png" width="1456" height="813" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:813,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:7328243,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/190715324?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!67_M!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe194b0a2-ed11-4ddc-acef-be8aa8880aae_2752x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Like so many of my friends, I have caught the Claude bug!.</p><p>I&#8217;m a non-technical founder&#8212;no coding background. I studied computer science, but I sucked at developing. So no, I am not a developer!</p><p>Last weekend, I built three websites. I&#8217;m running a coworking space, launching a members bar, building a SaaS product, and writing a newsletter that now has 16,000 readers in 1year.</p><p>Here&#8217;s exactly what I am using.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong><a href="https://wisprflow.ai/r?GERALD329">Wispr Flow</a></strong></p><p>Start here. It lets me speak, instead of type, accurately everywhere. Every prompt, every message, every doc. I use it all day, every day. If you&#8217;re still typing everything, you&#8217;re already behind before the AI even gets involved.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Atlas Browser + ChatGPT Max</strong> <em>Top tier</em></p><p>Atlas is my main browser &#8212; it&#8217;s built around ChatGPT and runs underneath my entire day. It can submit my HMRC tax returns while I am working on something else. Email: I can&#8217;t figure out how to word it. Something I need to think through fast. It&#8217;s always there.</p><p>ChatGPT, powered by Deepresearch, powers the research behind my Brixton newsletter BCC &#8212; which I started a year ago with AI and now has <strong>16,000 readers</strong>. ChatGPT surfaces what matters, what&#8217;s worth writing about, and what the community needs to know.</p><p>90% of my working context lives here. I&#8217;m not moving it. What&#8217;s crazy is I have typed 100,000+ words in ChatGPT since I started.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Brave Browser</strong></p><p>For anything security-first, I switch to Brave. It has its own built-in AI and is my default whenever privacy matters&#8212;two browsers, two distinct jobs.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Claude Max</strong> <em>.</em></p><p>Everyone is going crazy about Claude this week, especially as it&#8217;s in the news. The US government decided not to use Claude, but all my developer friends, everybody who&#8217;s building anything, is using Claude. Claude will blow your mind this weekend. Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve done. This is where I build things.</p><p>This weekend, I built three websites that would have cost me 30k + a few years ago. Have a look and give me feedback.</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://impactbrixton.com/">impactbrixton.com</a> &#8212; my Brixton coworking space</p></li><li><p><a href="https://bccmembersbar.com/">bccmembersbar.com</a> &#8212; private members bar, I am launching soon</p></li><li><p><a href="https://thisandthat.chat/">thisandthat. chat</a> &#8212; DoBox, the SaaS I&#8217;m building</p></li></ul><p>Three brands. Three sites. One weekend. No coding background.</p><p>Claude is my project studio. I come here with the intention to make something. It&#8217;s also the reason I&#8217;m awake at 2am &#8212; because when something is working, stopping feels wrong.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Grok</strong> <em>Free</em></p><p>When I need the truth, I go to Grok. No filter, no hedging. It&#8217;s my verification layer. I dont do politics with AI, so I dont have to like Elon to use this :-). At least I don&#8217;t give my money to Elon :-). Yet :-)</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Gemini</strong> <em>Through Google Workspace</em></p><p>Already in my Impact Brixton Google Workspace subscription, so it costs me nothing extra. First stop for image generation &#8212; blog visuals, quick concepts, anything visual that needs to happen fast.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Midjourney</strong> <em>Free for now</em></p><p>When the image actually matters &#8212; cinematic, atmospheric, brand-level &#8212; Midjourney is still the standard. I use it selectively. Nothing else comes close when quality is the point. But I&#8217;ve not used it for a month, so maybe it&#8217;s time to ditch Midjourney.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Read AI</strong></p><p>Joins every meeting I&#8217;m in. Records every conversation on my phone. Sends me a summary and action list afterwards. Nothing falls through the cracks. It&#8217;s like having a chief of staff who never misses a word.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>DoBox</strong> <em>Free(for now) &#8212; I am part of the team building it</em></p><p>DoBox pulls commitments from across all your communications &#8212; messages, meetings, conversations &#8212; and turns them into trackable actions. I built it to solve my own problem. I use it every day inside this exact stack.</p><p>Using your own product is the fastest way to know if it&#8217;s real. <a href="https://thisandthat.chat/">thisandthat.chat</a></p><div><hr></div><p><strong>The total: ~&#163;520/month</strong></p><p>Three websites in a weekend. AI is helping me build and manage all my businesses. </p><p>I&#8217;m not losing sleep because I&#8217;m stressed. I&#8217;m losing sleep because I can&#8217;t stop building. There&#8217;s a difference. One is anxiety. The other is momentum.</p><p>The tools exist. The gap between people who use them and those who don&#8217;t is widening every single week. That&#8217;s not hype. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m watching in real time.</p><p>Get in it. And maybe set an alarm for when to stop.</p><p>I know you are wondering? Did Gerald actually write this ?</p><p><em>&#8212; Gerald</em></p><p><em>Running <a href="https://impactbrixton.com/">Impact Brixton</a>, building <a href="https://bccmembersbar.com/">BCC</a>, and shipping <a href="https://thisandthat.chat/">DoBox</a>.</em></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Inbox Zero Is Bullshit]]></title><description><![CDATA[I am working towards a DoBox Zero]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/inbox-zero-is-bullshit</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/inbox-zero-is-bullshit</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:58:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I read Getting Things Done a few years ago. I actually live by the whole &#8220;inbox zero&#8221; life.</p><p>I&#8217;ve been fooling myself.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2072421,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/189361253?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r8gv!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73f6ea58-404e-4dde-90c2-0398ce81d29d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Not because GTD is wrong &#8212; but because the world it was built for doesn&#8217;t exist anymore.</p><p>This morning I woke up to 46 WhatsApps, 9 Telegrams, 200 Discord, 40 LinkedIn messages, 160 emails across seven accounts&#8230; and 28 Slack messages.</p><p>Why do we pretend this is normal?</p><p> Everyone&#8217;s juggling multiple projects, roles, and communities. I run a coworking space, build SaaS products, and make rum. But this isn&#8217;t really about me &#8212; it&#8217;s about how we all work now. Every single project comes with its own channel. There is no single place where everything lands. There never will be.</p><p>Most of what we call &#8220;productivity&#8221; today is just dealing with messages. Reply, skim, archive, snooze, move stuff around. The numbers go down, and it feels like progress.</p><p>It isn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s input management.</p><p>The real work is always hiding inside the messages:</p><p>&#8220;Can you send that?&#8221; &#8220;Let&#8217;s meet tomorrow.&#8221; &#8220;Can you approve this?&#8221;</p><p>Those aren&#8217;t messages. They&#8217;re commitments.</p><p>A friend asked me to meet on WhatsApp three weeks ago. I said yes. Forgot to calendar it. Missed it.</p><p>Maybe I&#8217;m careless &#8212; but a meeting agreed in chat shouldn&#8217;t rely on memory to become a calendar entry. The system is broken.</p><p>Commitments are buried everywhere. Slack. Email. LinkedIn DMs. Telegram. One &#8220;quick message&#8221; that quietly becomes a real obligation.</p><p>So GTD&#8217;s first step &#8212; capture &#8212; becomes a full-time job. You end up retyping your life from one app into another: copying Slack into a task app, forwarding emails to yourself, screenshotting threads, leaving messages unread as fake reminders.</p><p>Modern productivity isn&#8217;t doing work. It&#8217;s moving work around.</p><p>Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s actually broken, simply:</p><p>Most tools show you what&#8217;s new. What you actually need is what you need to do.</p><p>The real question isn&#8217;t &#8220;what&#8217;s unread.&#8221; It&#8217;s: what do I owe the world right now &#8212; and who&#8217;s waiting on me?</p><p>That&#8217;s why inbox zero is a fantasy. Even if you clear one inbox, the commitments are still hiding in five others.</p><p>We need a new layer. Not another inbox. Not another task app. An action layer &#8212; one that sits above all your channels and surfaces the commitments buried inside them.</p><p>That&#8217;s exactly what I&#8217;m working on with <a href="https://assistant.thisandthat.chat/signup">DoBox at this+that.</a></p><p>One place. Every channel. Just a clear view: here&#8217;s what you need to do.</p><p>Agents will eventually do more of this automatically. But I don&#8217;t live in the future. I live in this morning, and this morning, I need important things to stop getting dropped just because they showed up in the wrong app.</p><p>Where do your commitments get stuck most &#8212; and have you found anything that actually helps?</p><p>Gerald </p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Make Them Come First. Then Build It.]]></title><description><![CDATA[In the Age of AI, Code Is Cheap. Attention Is Not.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/make-them-come-first-then-build-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/make-them-come-first-then-build-it</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:11:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The old startup gospel was <em>&#8220;build it, and they will come.&#8221;</em></p><p>That was always wrong. But now? In the age of AI? It might be startup-failing advice.</p><div><hr></div><p>I see it constantly. Brilliant founders, heads down, shipping features into the void. Iterating on UI no one has seen. Debating architecture for a product with two users. Building, building, building &#8212; convinced that the right product, polished enough, will eventually find its people.</p><p>It won&#8217;t.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the uncomfortable truth about startups: <strong>building a good product is hard. Finding people who love it is harder.</strong> And yet, founders split their time as if the first problem is the only one worth solving.</p><p>It isn&#8217;t.</p><p>My framework is simple, and I&#8217;ll defend it anywhere: <strong>put 80% of your energy into finding the people who will love what you&#8217;re building. Put 20% into the build.</strong></p><p>Not forever. Just at the start &#8212; when nothing is proven and every week of silence is a week of drift.</p><p>Why? Because the moment you find even 100 people who genuinely love what you&#8217;re building, the product roadmap writes itself. Your customers tell you what to build. Your energy goes where it should. Everything sharpens. Before that moment? You&#8217;re guessing in the dark and calling it conviction.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2412731,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/188601056?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NOfw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e8533a-d793-4ad9-aadb-ff06a4d1575d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div><hr></div><p><strong>Now add AI to this.</strong></p><p>We are entering an era in which building is becoming cheaper. You can spin up a website in an hour. Full applications in a day. In a few years &#8212; maybe sooner &#8212; the most technically complex software in the world will be within reach of a single focused person with the right tools.</p><p>If that&#8217;s true, then the <em>build</em> is no longer the moat.</p><p>The code is not the asset. The customer relationship is. The trust is. The resonance is.</p><p>The smartest start-ups I&#8217;ve watched recently aren&#8217;t marketing their product &#8212; <strong>they&#8217;re marketing the problem</strong>. They&#8217;re building an audience of people who feel the pain deeply before a single line of code is shown to them. They&#8217;re releasing to tiny cohorts. They&#8217;re creating believers, not just users. And they&#8217;re doing it with a team that&#8217;s heavy on storytellers, brand thinkers, and community builders &#8212; not just engineers.</p><p>That is the shift.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>The new moat isn&#8217;t your product. It&#8217;s that people trust </strong><em><strong>you</strong></em><strong> to solve the problem.</strong></p><p>And trust isn&#8217;t built by shipping more features. It&#8217;s built by showing up, naming the problem clearly, and making people feel like you know how to solve it before asking them to buy anything.</p><p>So if you&#8217;re a founder right now &#8212; especially one riding the wave of AI-powered building &#8212; stop and ask yourself honestly:</p><p><em>How much of my week was spent building? And how much was spent finding people who would actually care?</em></p><div><hr></div><p><em>Build it, and they will come is long dead. Make them come. Then build it.</em></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Crypto “Died” Again. ]]></title><description><![CDATA[So Why Are 741 Million People Still Using It?]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/crypto-died-again</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/crypto-died-again</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 12:29:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cXje!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb25900ae-3936-4127-8693-e39017983cb5_375x375.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Every few months, a friend calls me and declares crypto &#8220;dead.&#8221; Usually, after prices drop, headlines turn sour, or some loudmouth personality starts shitting on Bitcoin. But if you look at what matters &#8212; adoption, utility, and conviction &#8212; crypto is anything but dying. It&#8217;s quietly becoming normal.</p><h2><strong>Adoption hasn&#8217;t stopped &#8212; it&#8217;s compounding</strong></h2><p>Crypto.com estimates global crypto ownership rose to about 741 million people in 2025, up from 659 million the year before. Bitcoin ownership alone sits at roughly 365 million: the user base keeps expanding. On-chain, Bitcoin addresses with nonzero balances are in the tens of millions. That&#8217;s not what a &#8220;dead&#8221; system looks like.</p><h2><strong>Stablecoins are having the WhatsApp moment for money</strong></h2><p>Chris Dixon recently described stablecoins as the &#8220;<a href="https://cdixon.substack.com/about?utm_source=subscribe_email&amp;utm_content=learn_more">WhatsApp moment&#8221; for money&nbsp;</a>&#8212; it used to cost my mum hundreds of pounds to talk to her mum in Ghana, and it currently takes a long time and costs a lot of money to move money around the world: stablecoins moved over $12 trillion last year. Moving money across borders is still expensive and slow, with multiple middlemen(Banks, Visa, Mastercard&#8230;) taking a cut. Stablecoins are proving there&#8217;s a cheaper, faster and fairer way &#8212; and adoption tends to follow cost and convenience.</p><h2><strong>Bitcoin doesn&#8217;t go to zero when people won&#8217;t stop buying it</strong></h2><p>The &#8220;it could go to zero&#8221; argument treats Bitcoin like a stock that can simply be abandoned. But Bitcoin isn&#8217;t just a ticker symbol. It&#8217;s a tool &#8212; a permissionless, globally transferable value you can custody yourself.</p><p>And then there&#8217;s something even simpler: <strong>belief with a bid.</strong></p><p>I would keep buying Bitcoin if it fell to $1. Not because I&#8217;m blind to risk, but because I value what it represents. And I&#8217;m far from alone. When millions treat something as long-term savings technology, you don&#8217;t get zero. You get volatility. You get cycles. You get headlines declaring death every few years.</p><p>And underneath all of it, you get growth.</p><p>So yes &#8212; I&#8217;m buying.</p><p>Not because it&#8217;s guaranteed. Not because it can&#8217;t fall further. But because adoption continues to rise, infrastructure keeps improving, and the long-term thesis hasn&#8217;t changed.</p><p>This isn&#8217;t investment advice. It&#8217;s simply how I&#8217;m positioning myself.</p><p>Crypto isn&#8217;t dead. It&#8217;s maturing.</p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[I’m Back in the Startup Game—Here’s Who and Why ...]]></title><description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve joined this+that - Using AI to tackle the hidden productivity killer affecting every team.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/im-back-in-the-startup-gameheres</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/im-back-in-the-startup-gameheres</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 13:02:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Over the past few years, I've dedicated significant time to teaching customer development&#8212;specifically the Mom Test methodology&#8212;at universities, incubators, and accelerators across Europe. While running a coworking space can be time-consuming, I realised my passion remains deeply rooted in customer development and sales, particularly early-stage sales for tech startups navigating the challenging journey of bringing new ideas to market.</p><p>Through these experiences, I've observed how entrepreneurs often struggle with premature attachment to their initial idea, leading to difficulties in objectively validating if anyone wants it, acquiring those crucial first 10&#8211;20 customers, or pivoting quickly when necessary.</p><p>I'm excited to share that I've been helping an AI startup called <a href="https://www.thisandthat.chat/">this+that</a>. I initially helped them build an MVP and secure initial funding, and now we have a MVP to show.</p><p>In my role at this+that, I'm focused on validating key assumptions around a productivity challenge we believe affects virtually every organisation: <strong>unplanned work.</strong></p><p>Imagine an AI that ensures you never miss a task! It scans project conversations across email, Slack, meetings, and other platforms to come, identifying both issues and unplanned tasks, and connects them to your project management tool. From Trello, Jira, monday.com, Asana and many more. </p><p><a href="https://assistant.thisandthat.chat/signup?utm_campaign=GERALD">Sign up while it&#8217;s free </a>to trial it here. </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png" width="1456" height="1456" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/fc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1456,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2137960,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.geraldvdp.com/i/165114899?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Vjef!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc0952ec-ab45-441a-8cb7-38265e67e57b_1706x1706.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h3>The Hidden Challenge of Unplanned Work</h3><p>Most organisations have become proficient at managing and optimising planned work in business productivity. Tools like ClickUp, Monday.com, Asana, Trello, and Jira excel in helping teams break down structured projects into clear tasks, timelines, and accountability checkpoints. Yet, despite these tools' sophistication, is there a critical productivity leak affecting nearly every organisation? &#8212;<strong>unplanned work?</strong></p><p>We categorised unplanned work into two distinct types. The first type includes tasks that haven't been captured and integrated into project management tools. These are tasks that teams are aware of but fail to document properly&#8212;perhaps forgotten, not updated, or buried in emails and communications that don't translate into clear, actionable items. This type of unplanned work is estimated to represent 30-40% of overall unplanned tasks.</p><p>The second type, estimated at roughly 50% ? is the more disruptive "silent disruptor." Bottlenecks in the company. These are critical, unforeseen issues that emerge spontaneously through communication channels such as Slack, meetings, and emails. This category encompasses urgent regulatory changes, unexpected customer requirements, emergent market conditions, or internal conflicts&#8212;complex problems that don't neatly fit into predefined task lists and typically remain hidden until they cause significant disruptions or project failures.</p><h3>How Businesses Currently Address (or Don't Address) Unplanned Work</h3><p>Most productivity platforms are designed for planned work, assuming clear task identification from the outset. Hoop recently raised an astonishing $5 million to address part of this by scanning for tasks that inadvertently get missed in standard project management software. Yet, Hoop's approach is primarily transactional, identifying isolated tasks rather than contextual, communication-driven issues.</p><p>On the other hand, enterprise search platforms like Glean offer powerful solutions to retrieve organisational information when a user actively queries it. However, their reactive, search-based approach assumes awareness of an issue's existence&#8212;something unplanned work frequently lacks.</p><h3>Hot Topics: Where Communication Meets Action</h3><p>A deeper, more disruptive aspect of unplanned work exists: critical issues and decisions hidden within everyday communication. These issues we are calling "hot topics" are not merely overlooked tasks&#8212;they represent vital insights, challenges, or opportunities that require collective attention and swift resolution. This is where <strong><a href="https://www.thisandthat.chat/">this+ that</a></strong> AI is validating. Our platform uses AI-driven technology to proactively surface these "hot topics" by continuously scanning your organisation's communications, helping you identify and prioritise critical issues before they escalate or derail your projects. Rather than passively awaiting queries, this proactively alerts managers and leaders about these significant hidden matters, empowering teams to tackle challenges head-on and enhance organisational agility.</p><h3>Looking for Early Adopters and Researchers</h3><p> We believe deeply in collaboration and co-creation. We understand that the best solutions are built when real-world users provide active feedback, shaping the tool based on genuine organisational needs. We're seeking early adopters, beta testers, and researchers passionate about productivity, organisational efficiency, and communication effectiveness.</p><p>We are inviting leaders, project managers, product leaders, and sales executives who face daily inundation from communications and wish to unlock insights buried in their emails and messaging platforms. We want to learn about your current challenges, existing solutions, and ideal outcomes when addressing unplanned work.</p><p>If this problem resonates with you, feel free to email me, chat or explore it further<a href="https://www.thisandthat.chat/"> here</a>.</p><p>Gerald </p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Calling Creatives: Want to Test a Game-Changing Art Tool?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Craftsmanship vs. Code: The Surprising Power of Human Creativity in an AI World]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/calling-creatives-want-to-test-a</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/calling-creatives-want-to-test-a</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2025 14:43:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b514c8f1-3129-409a-bf1d-a66c3a59212d_1024x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[
      <p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Creative Economy's Hidden Potential ]]></title><description><![CDATA[What 420 Applications for 50 spaces Taught us at Impact Brixton.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/the-creative-economys-hidden-potential</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/the-creative-economys-hidden-potential</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:02:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Si!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe163418c-da0d-48b6-b2c8-d97af681af27_2160x1215.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When we launched <a href="https://impactbrixton.com/ib-create/">IBCreate</a> at Impact Brixton, our coworking space, we were taken aback by the response. We received a staggering 420 applications for just 50 spots&#8212;nearly eight times what we had anticipated. This unexpected success underscored a crucial aspect of the creative economy that I had long suspected but hadn't seen quantified: there's a massive&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to write cold emails that get up to 70% response rate. ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Looking for new mentors/advisors/Investors/customers? If you have to use cold email here is a simple framework.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-to-write-cold-emails-that-get</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-to-write-cold-emails-that-get</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 29 May 2024 15:24:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png" width="1024" height="1024" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1024,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1448749,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Tev1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54e6b100-6f2b-46d9-957e-7b2eb5caca84_1024x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>For years, one of the biggest tools I have used to help me with my personal and business growth has been growing my network with cold and warm emails to super mentors and connectors. Thought leaders in the industry that could help you with strategy, connections, money, etc. They are too busy, and so unless you know them or know someone who knows them, y&#8230;</p>
      <p>
          <a href="https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-to-write-cold-emails-that-get">
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dont Network! Cowork instead]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why everyone needs a coworking space thats for them.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/dont-network-cowork-instead</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/dont-network-cowork-instead</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 08 Mar 2024 09:26:14 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/32b0aec9-436e-4965-85aa-28a2f01e1125_1024x576.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I joined a coworking space in 2013, and six months later, the community helped me raise nearly half a million pounds in funding to launch my first business, ShoDeck. I always knew networking was powerful and could be the difference when starting something as challenging as a new business. The problem is that I hated "networking", especially the old-scho&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to tell if your business Idea is any good?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Don't ask what people think about the Idea. Do this instead .....]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-to-tell-if-your-business-idea</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-to-tell-if-your-business-idea</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:43:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a5de2d56-4f4e-4cd5-9c5c-68c54fc8e473.avif" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last weekend, I had the exhilarating opportunity to stand before a  group of sixty entrepreneurs, each brimming with ideas and ambition, ready to shake off the chains of procrastination. These incredible individuals decided that the time for dreaming was over &#8211; it was time to turn those dreams into reality. With the support of<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/phaseone-ventures/"> Phase One Ventures</a>, they t&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Three critical mistakes I made launching my coworking space Impact Brixton CIC. ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lessons from my four-year Journey in the Coworking Industry.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/five-critical-mistakes-i-made-launching</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/five-critical-mistakes-i-made-launching</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 22 Dec 2023 17:04:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/558d70f1-cdf7-453c-8cf8-349a923f7f97_1024x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Starting a coworking space can be challenging, and I learned this firsthand through my experiences with Impact Brixton. In this blog, I'll share my journey and the mistakes I made so you can avoid them if you are considering opening a workspace.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>There has probably never been a better time to start a coworking space! Just avoid these mistakes, and you wi&#8230;</strong></p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Welcome Impact Brixton community.]]></title><description><![CDATA[A Newsletter by Gerald Vanderpuye Impact Brixton's founder and CEO]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/welcome-impact-brixton-community</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/welcome-impact-brixton-community</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:16:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb25900ae-3936-4127-8693-e39017983cb5_375x375.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am so excited to welcome all my subscribers from Impact Brixton to my newsletter. As the CEO and founder of Impact Brixton, I spend a lot of my time writing about community building, the challenges I face running Impact, and how the space is shaping up. I&#8217;ll be sharing all of this on my new blog "I Found My Pen," where I will also write about entrepre&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why WeWork's Bankruptcy Might Actually Be a Good Thing!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Finding the Silver Lining: How WeWork's Bankruptcy Could Signal Positive Change]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-weworks-bankruptcy-might-actually</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-weworks-bankruptcy-might-actually</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 23 Nov 2023 13:09:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1523815462886-2487223ab7b9?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw5fHx3ZXdvcmt8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzAwNjUyOTUzfDA&amp;ixlib=rb-4.0.3&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Are you Serious, Gerald?</strong></p><p>Hey, I get it. You're probably thinking, "Gerald, come on, a company going bankrupt is serious stuff. People will lose their jobs and livelihoods!." You're right; bankruptcy should be the last resort for any business in trouble. But hear me out. Sometimes, a company needs a shake-up. With WeWork's<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/11/07/wework-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/?sh=73c4c51d7324"> Chapter 11 Bankruptcy</a>, they can &#8230;</p>
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          <a href="https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-weworks-bankruptcy-might-actually">
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Should I Change the Blog Name to "I found my pen : A Wantrepreneurs journey"]]></title><description><![CDATA[Are you a Wantrepreneur?]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-i-changed-the-blog-name-to-wantrepreneurs</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-i-changed-the-blog-name-to-wantrepreneurs</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 12 Oct 2023 16:18:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F20e09bf9-0b47-45a2-a3a4-5ccb5e7a0e61_400x267.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You've probably noticed a little change if you've been around here for a bit. Yep, the blog has a new name: "Wantrepreneurs."</p><h2><strong>Why <a href="https://www.geraldvdp.com/">"Wantrepreneurs"?</a></strong></h2><p>I've got to be honest; I've always wanted to be a proper entrepreneur. But the truth is, I'm still there. I'm a "wantrepreneur&#8221; who's always buzzing with ideas, buying up domain names, and registering companie&#8230;</p>
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          <a href="https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/why-i-changed-the-blog-name-to-wantrepreneurs">
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How can we best support the growth of early-stage founders in the UK?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Introducing Problemhunters.com and a conversation about Innovation at Plexal]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-can-we-best-support-the-growth</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/how-can-we-best-support-the-growth</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 06 Oct 2023 18:40:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1494059980473-813e73ee784b?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw3fHxwcm9ibGVtc3xlbnwwfHx8fDE2OTU5MjYzNTF8MA&amp;ixlib=rb-4.0.3&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" 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fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@sloppyperfectionist">Hans-Peter Gauster</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>I've been invited to join a panel with some pretty cool people: Russell Gundry (host) &#8211; Director of Innovation Strategy, Plexal; Andrew Roughan &#8211; CEO, Plexal; Matt Corbidge, Head of Barclays Eagle Labs, Nanyamka Brown, Deputy Director for the Tech Sector Team in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to tell if your business idea is any good.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Let me teach you how to pass "The mom test"]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/free-session-on-how-to-tell-if-your</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/free-session-on-how-to-tell-if-your</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 09 Sep 2023 14:41:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c9b307ed-3126-4973-9416-08726a278c32_600x400.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In 2013, I founded a software company called ShoDeck, which helps B2B salespeople collaborate with their buyers. I interviewed over 120 people as part of my research to see what they thought of my Idea, and nearly all of them responded that the idea sounded great and would buy once it was ready. 12 months later, none bought and avoided my phone calls on&#8230;</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Let's register your company together.... ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Are You a First-Time Entrepreneur? Here's Your 60-Minute Lifeline with me.]]></description><link>https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/start-by-validating-your-idea-with</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geraldvdp.com/p/start-by-validating-your-idea-with</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Gerald Vanderpuye]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 07 Sep 2023 15:30:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a47fb19c-b776-4a8a-aa62-bbd045adf3a1_2880x1920.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h4>Let&#8217;s Start!  by doing!</h4>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>