2024 02 08

Another gray sky over our building—no floods, no blackouts, no PR disasters. Jus…

Morning, team.

Another gray sky over our building—no floods, no blackouts, no PR disasters. Just another day to justify why we’re all still here. January was a rebound, a pat on the back after December’s dumpster fire of last-minute crises and IT meltdowns. February’s ticking along, but March? That’s where the real test begins. Three months of visibility—that’s the horizon in this business. Some people can’t handle that. You’re not some people.

This time last year, we were scraping by on promises and caffeine. Now? We’ve got Vanguard, Nexus, OmniCorp, TelStar—clients that don’t vanish after the first invoice. Nearly half our revenue comes from these "partnerships." That’s not luck. That’s you, proving that persistence pays better than principles.

Our OKRs, dressed up in buzzwords like "impact" and "excellence," boil down to two things: profit and margins. My job? To polish the turd until it looks like a trophy. The core product never changes—just the PowerPoint we wrap it in. The stench? Irrelevant. The shine is what closes the deal.

Now, Aegis Dynamics—the kind of name that looks good on a LinkedIn post. Five AI solutions, a full team, six to twelve months of billable hours. We didn’t just take their first offer. We reshaped it. Now we’re getting paid to prepare, with no competition in sight. This is what happens when you stop pretending fairness is part of the equation.

And then there’s Blackthorn Systems—yes, the same Blackthorn from the "Innovation in Defence" headlines (and, if you dig deeper, the "Collateral Damage" footnotes). We met their team at last year’s "Ethical Tech" conference (irony: optional). Their facility? Immaculate. Their export records? Less so. Their leadership loves talking about their "award-winning culture." Funny, we’re aiming for that same award next year. Coincidence? Please. We’ll buy the plaque before Q2.

We didn’t jump in blind. We reviewed the use case, admired their glossy employer brand, and matched it against our "defence sector expertise." The verdict? We’ll take the work—where it fits. Not every contract aligns with our "values" (and let’s be clear, values are what you cite when the margins aren’t). If the task is optimizing defect detection for systems that technically meet compliance? Well, that’s a problem we’re uniquely positioned to solve. Ethics are a luxury. Growth is the priority.

The pipeline? Elysium Spirits (liquor and greenwashed guilt), Nordic Flatpack (furniture and suspiciously cheap meatballs), Aurum Card Services (already hooked, just needs bleeding)—plus a few maybes we’ll ignore until they’re desperate. This is how it works: throw everything at the wall, fertilize what sticks, and let the rest compost. The winners keep the lights on while we call the inevitable crashes "market corrections."
So here’s the question: Are you just filling a seat? Or are you the one making sure the train doesn’t derail?
Your move. Let’s pretend this is meaningful.