#82 | 2025 Recap: AI Hustle, Lessons Learned, and the Power of Agency

I just realized this newsletter is over 10 years old. The first one was published on June 2014 after I joined SOSV/HAX (fka HAXLR8R). This year felt like a condensed version of the last decade: volatility, learning, and leverage.

MENU

1. ROSES: Events, Boy, AI Hustle
2. LEMONS: Stitches, Scam, Startup
3. THOUGHTS: Agency & People

1. ROSES

Work

This year’s events not only continued but scaled:

• Our Climate Tech Summit drew thousands globally with ~100 speakers. I interviewed the Climate Envoy of Kenya (after Ministers from Singapore and Iceland), showcasing how to drive sustainable and resilient economic growth while supporting sovereignty.

• Five sector-focused virtual matchups (e.g., robotics) expanded investor-founder connections across deep tech, bringing together thousands of investors and founders for free.

Family

• A baby boy joined us, bringing a fresh eye to home safety, the edibility of objects, and polyphasic sleep.

• He’s now crawling fast and standing by himself for long seconds.

AI Hustle

What started as online courses expanded into a multi-channel approach to AI upskilling.

• A course on Udemy from March (4,000+ participants),

• Cohort-based courses from July (200+ participants),

• A B2B version from December.

Altogether, this led to ~$150k in sales.

I also gave talks on Building 100 AI Projects, Vibe Coding with AI for Non-Coders, Vibe Coding for VCs and was interviewed on AI automation.

In 2026, I’ll be testing additional markets (France in Feb 2026) and micro-SaaS based on some of the 100+ projects I shipped so far (a few examples here).

BONUS: As a loyal reader, I offer you a FREE code for my Udemy course (valid until Christmas).

2. LEMONS

Health

• A fractured septum during BJJ sparring, one week before our baby’s birth.

  The ER doctor said “just wait two weeks” — I went to see an ENT specialist immediately and had surgery within days. On the upside: better airways.

• A rainy-day motorbike fall led to my second surgery of the year, and my first stitches.

• With all this, my BJJ and gym practice mostly shifted into maintenance mode.

Wealth

• I was the victim of a well-oiled local scam while selling an e-bike and am pursuing legal action over security failures.

• Separately, a startup position that once looked like a seven-figure outcome went through a severe recap. A reminder that paper value during ZIRP is not liquidity.

• Fortunately, public equities performed well and some other startups are doing fine. Still, the experience reinforced my motivation to build durable, skill-based income streams.

3. THOUGHTS

Agency

My core takeaway this year was to bias toward high agency:

• Trust first-principles judgment (even over authority),

• Act to regain control when it’s lost,

• Increase the surface area for luck through building and sharing.

Responsibility doesn’t erase pain, but it accelerates recovery.

People

The most valuable compounding asset remains people.

• Giving first has generally worked for me, especially over a long enough timeframe.

• Teaching, investing, and building in public continue to create unexpected collisions: free workshops leading to deals, side projects to clients, conversations to partnerships.

Here’s to carrying that momentum into 2026!
— Ben