Automate Everything—Except What Matters
How I built a business that runs without me, returned to trading, and what kind of projects I'm looking to join next
Every once in a while, someone asks me how I manage to have so much free time without having sold my company, without being "retired," and without outsourcing my entire life.
The truth is: I built it that way on purpose.
These days, my business takes less than two hours of attention per day. I usually handle everything in the morning while having breakfast—check some tickets, reply to emails, schedule follow-ups. The rest is fully automated. And if something unexpected comes up, I have a small team that handles it within 24 working hours.
That level of freedom wasn’t luck. It wasn’t a "hack." It came from 25 years of doing things the hard way first—and then deciding I wanted something better.
This is the story of how I got here, what I’ve learned, and who I’m looking to connect with next.
The Startup Rollercoaster (and What It Cost Me)
I became an entrepreneur at 20.
My first company was everything a startup is supposed to be. We had employees, offices, media attention, investors, growth, stress, and a never-ending to-do list. We were part of the game: working late, burning out, chasing metrics that looked good in a pitch deck but didn’t always translate into real value or real life.
That company lasted nearly 15 years. It taught me almost everything I know about business. But it also taught me something deeper: I didn’t want to live like that.
The late nights, the feeling of constantly being behind, the glorification of hustle—it gets old. Especially when you realize that no amount of external success can compensate for a lifestyle you secretly hate.
The Turning Point: A New Philosophy
When I started my second (and current) company, I made a promise to myself:
If it can be automated, I will automate it.
If it can be simplified, I will simplify it.
If it doesn’t improve my quality of life, I won’t do it.
That mindset was the seed of what would become FiveML—a company built on the exact opposite principles of my first venture. Not because the first one failed. It didn’t. But because I wanted a different kind of success.
FiveML wasn’t about building the biggest company. It was about building the right company. One that gave me the lifestyle I wanted. One that made time, not took it away.
And that changed everything.
Freedom as a Business KPI
Most companies optimize for growth, revenue, headcount, or market share.
I optimized for freedom.
I didn’t want to manage a big team again. I didn’t want meetings unless they were strictly necessary. I didn’t want to build something that required me to be available 24/7 or chained to a desk.
So I made a different set of choices.
Every process we set up at FiveML was designed to scale without adding complexity. Every tool had to earn its place. Every manual task was either automated or delegated. We didn’t grow for the sake of growing—we grew only if it made our lives easier.
By the time the company turned five, it had already changed my life. I moved to another country. I adopted a healthier lifestyle. I started spending more time outdoors, more time reading, more time thinking, more time being. The business worked, and it worked without me being at the center of everything.
That was the point.
Coming Back to Trading—with a New Mindset
With so much of my time freed up, I had the chance to go back to one of my old passions: trading.
I first got into the markets during the subprime crisis. It was messy, emotional, and time-consuming. Like most retail traders, I spent hours glued to charts, chasing setups, managing positions manually. It was exciting… and exhausting.
But now, I approached it differently.
I’d already seen what automation could do for a business. Why not bring the same logic into trading?
So I did. I started manually again, just to reconnect with the craft. But as soon as I understood what worked, I started automating everything I could.
The result was a framework called Black Tie Report—a fully systematized trading model that combines daily bias, structural levels, automatic alerts, and strict entry logic. Every line is drawn by script. Every signal is an alert. If I don’t get a valid signal, I don’t trade. And that’s fine.
In fact, it’s perfect.
Sometimes I go entire days without taking a single trade. Not because I’m not “working hard enough,” but because there’s simply nothing to do—and I trust my system enough to let it tell me when it’s time to act.
Full Automation vs. Semi-Automation
Today, I run both fully automated and semi-automated systems.
I could probably make everything 100% hands-off. But I don’t want to.
Why? Because I believe in automation with human judgment. That’s where the real power is. The machine does the heavy lifting. The human adds context, subtlety, and decision-making.
In trading, just like in business, full automation is seductive—but it can be dangerous if you remove too much of the human element. Some of the best results come when you let systems filter 90% of the noise, and use your own brain for the 10% that really matters.
I call it semi-automated excellence—and it’s how I run almost everything now.
What I’m Looking for Now
I’m not done building.
I’m always thinking about the next thing. Not out of ambition, but out of curiosity. Out of a desire to keep learning, keep refining, and keep helping others do the same.
Right now, I’m looking to build or contribute to projects that share this same philosophy:
Predictable income
Minimal stress
Leverage through systems
Time freedom
Real-life enjoyment as a goal, not just an afterthought
If you're a startup founder, entrepreneur, solo operator, or just someone building something smart—you already know if this resonates with you.
I’m not looking to be a formal partner in new ventures. But I’m open to collaborations, advisory roles, or helping you set up a smarter way to run what you’re already doing.
If that sounds like something we should explore, reach out. Tell me what you’re building. Let’s see if there’s something we can do together.
Because There’s a Bigger Point Here
We don’t talk enough about what it really costs to chase success.
The stress. The burnout. The missed moments. The health consequences. The quiet voice in your head that says, this isn’t how I thought success would feel.
That’s why I built FiveML the way I did. That’s why I trade the way I do. That’s why I design systems that work without me being online 10 hours a day.
Because if your business only works when you’re working, you don’t have a business. You have a job—with more risk.
The goal is leverage. The goal is freedom.
The goal is to make money and have a life.
Life Happens Outside
This whole journey—from building a chaotic startup to designing an automated company, from manually trading to creating an alert-based strategy—has taught me one thing above all:
Freedom is a decision. Not a reward.
You don’t earn it after you’ve “made it.”
You earn it by building with intention from day one.
So here’s my invitation: if you're building with that same mindset—if you're focused on freedom, leverage, sanity, and systems—I’d love to hear from you.
Let’s build smarter. Let’s help each other do more with less.
Let’s stop glorifying hustle for its own sake, and start optimizing for living.
Because life isn’t happening behind a screen.
It’s outside. It’s now. And it’s yours to design.
