Pot8o - an AI venture studio
Pot8o - an AI venture studio

The only true wealth is freedom

We build bootstrapped, profitable AI companies to help founders achieve financial freedom.

Dear Founders,

Having walked the entrepreneurial path myself, I wanted to share some perspectives that might prove valuable as you build your ventures.

Freedom

Entrepreneurs are passionate and optimistic individuals willing to take significant risks to achieve their dream of freedom—the freedom to live their lives as they wish. However, many fail to understand the founder's game, instead opting to play the VC game, and ultimately do not achieve the desired freedom after years of hard work and sacrifices.

VCs engage in a probability game by investing in numerous startups, while entrepreneurs place all their eggs in one basket—the basket VCs are willing to sacrifice if it means some baskets will yield a return of 10x their funds. It's noteworthy that only about 0.5% to 1% of startups secure VC funding, and among those, 75% fail to deliver any return to investors. Furthermore, from the perspective of the founder's return, 95% of startups fail to provide any return to the founders. VC funding represents a significant liability for founders.

So, what should be done?

Entrepreneurs need to protect their downside in the same manner VCs do. Your downside is ensuring you make enough money to not have to work again, allowing you to do whatever you wish in life, including taking bigger risks to earn substantial returns.

Philosophy

The best approach for first-time founders is to build a bootstrapped, profitable startup within 3–4 years, gaining solid experience and earning enough money to achieve financial freedom. You earn your salary, quarterly profit, and eventually sell the company to cash in your equity.

There are many stories of large successes like MailChimp, Craigslist, PlentyofFish, 1Password, Atlassian, Zoho, GitHub, and countless medium to small success stories. However, unfortunately, the media is more obsessed with funding news than with someone building a solid company without external funding. That's why we don't hear about them as often, but they are the ones that provide the best returns for founders.

AI Wave

We're witnessing the biggest technology wave since computers, the internet, and smartphones—and it's transforming every sector. From healthcare and finance to manufacturing and retail, AI is reshaping how businesses operate, compete, and deliver value. The enterprise AI market is projected to reach $300+ billion by 2030, creating unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurs who can build practical AI solutions that solve real business problems.

With AI, you don't need large teams to build and run a tech company. It's now possible to run a $100M revenue company with just 10–15 people. This level of automation and efficiency has never existed in human history.

This is our moment—creating highly profitable AI companies that small teams can build and achieve life-changing outcomes.

Building

I am an experienced entrepreneur who raised $20M and scaled my first SaaS company to $10M ARR while remaining profitable. I made numerous mistakes and learned a great deal, and now I want to help fellow founders build their companies faster and more efficiently.

I'm looking for founders to build profitable AI companies with me. If that describes you, let's get in touch.

Best regards,

Rakesh

About Rakesh

Rakesh knows exactly what you're going through as a founder —because he's lived every stage of the journey himself. As Founder & CEO of LoginRadius, he built a global SaaS platform serving over one billion users, successfully raised $20M from Silicon Valley investors, and scaled it into a profitable software company competing directly with tech giants.
Rakesh has walked the complete path from zero to scale —from scrambling for product-market fit to closing enterprise deals and navigating multiple funding rounds. His company emerged as a category leader in one of the most competitive B2B SaaS spaces by building a world-class team and out-executing established players.
Beyond his own company, Rakesh founded ISM Angels, actively deploying $3M annually across early-stage startups and helping founders. He also founded HopeBasket, a nonprofit helping underprivileged communities in India, demonstrating his commitment to using business success for meaningful impact. Rakesh is author of the book The Power of Digital Identity. He has an engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and MSc from the University of Alberta.
Now, Rakesh is channeling his passion for AI into helping founders build highly successful AI companies.
Rakesh Soni

Rakesh Soni

Founder & CEO, LoginRadius Inc

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