iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 07/10/2026

Lose Yourself, builder version. Still a work-in-progress but what do you think? 😄 (turn sound on)

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 22/08/2026

I love e-ink devices! I’m building hackernews.ink for my Boox Go 7. Join the beta if you own one.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 30/11/2025

For Black Friday only I’m offering a Lifetime License for the first time in 3 years: - Lifetime update - 5 mac devices + 3 mobile - 5 GB cloud storage Limited - Black Friday only Grab it here boltai.com

boltai.com

BoltAI • A native, high-performance AI app for Mac

BoltAI is a native, high-performance AI app for Mac. It allows you to integrate AI assistances into your daily tasks.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 31/07/2025

It’s never too late to start building.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 31/07/2025

Thanks. What happened to FridayGPT? I’ve been building Bolt v2 and am putting 100% attention to it.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 09/05/2025

5 yo learned about credit cards today and made a Visa card with $1B balance 😂

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 30/04/2025

F*ck originality. If I find a great UX from another app, I will shamelessly steal it if it improves my customers' experience.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 29/04/2025

Running a startup is basically alternating between “it’s so over” and “we are so back”. There is no in-between.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 22/04/2025

Yeah probably more prosumer than consumer.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 22/04/2025

With cloud storage and sync, there are recurring costs. But that’s optional. I still keep the current one time payment model. Not changing.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 22/04/2025

I’m a competitive person and I think I can achieve it (without sacrificing my time) You probably don’t follow my journey from the start. I still work less than 30h/wk. I probably spend more time with my family than most founders.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

But it’s also pretty risky. It’s basically an entirely new product, serving different target audience with different problems and needs. It’s my new journey to find PMF, again. I hope it will work out. And this time I will continue to share my progress here.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

I think this dual funnel setup can work: - B2C: organic, word of mouth, low cost channels - B2B: paid ads, out reach, higher CAC Luckily, unlike KTool, there is a clear path for BoltAI to be a B2B platform.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

But if I want to hit $100k/mo, it’s clear I need a more scalable revenue model than $5/mo subs. So now the strategy is to win more business customers. Hopefully, I can use that revenue to keep supporting and improving the consumer app long term

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

I realized I could shift some focus to serving businesses too, without abandoning the consumer app (or worse, building an entire new product) The B2C version is already pretty solid and feature-complete. It’s still one of the best native AI client for Mac.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

Understandably as consumers hate subscriptions. I got super cynical and didn’t want to work at all. “It’s not worth it” Took me a while with lot of reflection to get out of it.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 20/04/2025

B2C is brutal. I’ve been super stressed with the pricing model for BoltAI v2. Even at $5/mo, many aren’t willing to pay, doesn’t matter if the product is good or not. 1/

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 13/04/2025

This is what freedom looks like to me. Have a great weekend everyone 🥰

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 06/04/2025

Was teaching my 5 yo son. - Me: Money is important but it’s not the most important - 5yo: I know - Me, surprised: What do you mean? - 5yo: Diamond is more important

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 04/04/2025

2 years ago, I was struggling with KTool trying to hit ramen profitability. 6 months later, I reached that goal. Now, BoltAI generates more revenue than my previous employment. If you’re struggling, keep going. A lot of (good) things can happen if you keep showing up I guess.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 02/04/2025

2025 is 25% complete. Time to launch your startup, sir.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 29/03/2025

Learn to code. Because it teaches you how to think. Learn to leverage AI. Because it helps you get ahead of competition. Learn to build. Because the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Learn to sell. Because even the best ideas don’t spread themselves.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 23/03/2025

I’m proud of BoltAI. One-person company, 2 years, 8,000+ customers, 100% bootstrapped, profitable. Thank you all for your support 🫡

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 23/03/2025

5 years old learned about price anchoring today 😄

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 09/03/2025

I want to reach $1M ARR :D

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 09/03/2025

Sorry I don’t check bsky often. Did you try completely uninstalling it. Back up your database and then plz follow this guide: docs.boltai.com/docs/trouble...

docs.boltai.com

How to completely uninstall BoltAI | BoltAI Documentation

Or where does BoltAI store data

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 09/03/2025

My kind of ambition: bootstrapping a profitable business while staying fully present for my kids.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 08/02/2025

BoltAI is the proof that you can build an OK business being a mediocre developer.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 07/02/2025

It’s getting better but the majority is still branded search. But I think I did well with free tool marketing. Many come from referrals :D

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 07/02/2025

I think I’m not good at any marketing channel. And still overly depends on my Twitter account.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 07/02/2025

My marketing is pretty meh. It’s a miracle I made any revenue at all 😂

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 06/02/2025

I taught my 5 yo son the Roman numeral and dude used it to impress the girl in his class lol

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 06/02/2025

Go with stripe directly or polar/paddle/creem

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 06/02/2025

F Lemon Squeezy. It’s the product where I recommended others, then stop recommending, then actively tell people to stay away. Nothing works: payment, licensing, email… It’s such a shame they went into 💩 after the acquisition.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 04/02/2025

- But also be pessimistic in the short term. Be prepared for platform risks, new competitors, market changes, co-founder conflicts...

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 04/02/2025

For entrepreneurship, I think it means: - Be optimistic about the startup in the long run. That if you're in a good market, with a decent product and good marketing, you will succeed.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 04/02/2025

Bill Gates calls this "Rational Optimism": be a long-term optimist but a short-term pessimist.

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 04/02/2025

TIL: The Stockdale Paradox The Stockdale Paradox states that when facing challenges and ambiguity, you must keep believing you will succeed, no matter the difficulties, while also facing the harsh realities of your current situation. 1/

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 03/02/2025

Lukas, I already had a full time job at BoltAI 😂

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 03/02/2025

💡 Solution Oh One Pro works around this by converting your documents to xml or images. 👨‍💻 How to use it? It's incredibly simple to use. 1. Drag and drop your files into the app 2. Copy as text (xml format) or images 3. Paste into ChatGPT app

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 03/02/2025

❓ Problem OpenAI's reasoning models are very powerful but it has limitations: - You need to add enough context to get the most out of it and - Model like o1-pro doesn't support document upload. You can't attach source code or PDFs

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Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 03/02/2025

I built something silly but useful ✨ Introducing: Oh One Pro Use o1-pro, o1 and o3-mini to analyze any document. 1/

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