Back in 2012, the year I left banking, I had a choice: build a lifestyle business or build a business-backed company.
I chose a lifestyle business. After 13 years of working in equity I was burnt out and just wanted to break free to enjoy the FIRE lifestyle. Writing and tickling 15 to 20 hours a week for wisdom beat the grind 15+ hours a day for years to have a small chance of breaking out worth eight figures down the road.
For a long time that seemed like the right decision. Ride the bull market. Go on an adventure. Explore new challenges. The thing is, I'm still learning a lot about growing a business like a VC-backed company, with the scale and effort I wanted.
Seventeen years later, I may have accidentally built the one thing essential to survival in the AI economy. It is not a product. Distribution.
I thought the AI would crush this site forever
Throughout 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, I felt that the end was near for the Financial Samurai.
The AI was scrapping my content and using it without explanation. The search method was changing. Why click on a 1,500 word post when a chatbot can summarize it in three letters? I told my dad, “Well, it was fun while it lasted.” He cried with me.
Financial Samurai is a type of business AI that poses a direct threat. A legacy site that was not built by AI and relies heavily on organic search to grow. Sitting duck. Heck, even Google is doing its legacy search business by revamping its search box with its AI tool, Gemini.
However, in the end, I finally became an AI maximalist. Instead of being afraid, I started investing in it aggressively starting at the beginning of 2023. Traditional venture capital, social venture capital, and individual exploration of AI innovators here in San Francisco. Once you have skin in the game, fear turns to curiosity.
And somewhere in between, a cloud lifted. I realized that Financial Samurai has four things that AI can write: authority, longevity, trust, and distribution.
Building is Free Now. Distribution Is More Expensive Than Ever.
Here's what AI actually does. It didn't kill the content. It killed construction costs.
Anyone can post a product now. Spend a weekend with Claude Code and you'll have a real app. The construction barrier, which felt difficult, is gone.
But here's the part no one warns you about: the barrier to user acquisition has never been the same barrier. The two have not always been in touch. You couldn't tell, because they both often felt impossible at the same time.
I saw a Reddit post recently that nailed it. The guy built four iOS apps with Claude, another five are in progress. Real apps. SwiftUI, StoreKit, widgets, the works. Total income for all? Zero. Total users? His wife, and a young man in Finland suspect that they accidentally downloaded it. Read this:
Construction was not his problem. It was necessary. And the quest has never been competitive. You can create something great, but if no one knows it exists, you have no business. You have a hobby with server credit.
This is a major shift in the AI era. Something that used to be difficult, building, is now easy. The thing that was taken down, the distribution, is now a big part of the game. And distribution is exactly what can be coded with a weekend vibe. It takes years.
Why People Actually Read Financial Samurai
So why are hundreds of thousands of people still showing up here every month, in a world drowning in monetized AI-generated content and TikTok videos?
Several reasons, and none of them accidental.
Everything here comes from first experience. I am not summarizing the research I have published. I tell you what really happened when I set up my own position in 2012, or how I dealt with a life insurance company that tried to raise my long-term premium from $39 to $720 a month just because I visited a sleep center. Wins and mistakes, both.
I spent 10 years in finance before I wrote a word here, so I don't read personal finance from the public. I lived it and I continue to live it.
In 2009, I started the modern FIRE campaign and delved into investing to help people build enough money to break out of jobs they hate.
I don't need the income. That means I can be objective and write whatever I want. The freedom to speak freely is amazing. Please don't cross me.
And I have seen three times a week for 17 years without fail. That's over 2,600 articles to date. Trust is not a marketing ploy. It's a deposit you make every week for almost twenty years, and you can't cheat the balance.
That's the canal. Not the writing itself. The relationship behind it.
Exactly Why I Invest in Founders
Here's where it gets interesting, and why I'm writing this now.
I am an LP in venture funds and an active angel investor in AI startups. The longer I do this (since 2006), the more confident I am that I can add significant value to early stage startups with my platform. Not only can I interview founders on my podcast to tell their story, I can also write about their product and help them gain recognition and customers. Money is the most traded commodity in Silicon Valley. Everyone has money.
What founders cannot easily achieve is distribution. Trust the real audience. Seventeen years of pattern recognition on what makes people buy a product and stick with it, not just sign up for a free trial.
That's what I bring. If I support the founder, I don't invest and I disappear, unless you want. I can put your product in front of a large, affluent, high-target audience that has trusted me for nearly two decades. I understand customer acquisition, retention, and storytelling.
The best inventors are professional builders. They have that catch. They need someone who can solve the problem that kills many startups: no one is coming.
So if you're building something really good and you're looking down on that problem, it's probably the most useful check in your cap table.
You Can't Fail If You Never Quit
I will leave the founders with one lesson of 17 years that struck me.
When I started Financial Samurai in 2009, I promised myself that I would publish three times a week for 10 years. I reached that goal in July 2019, and, like Forrest Gump, I kept running. “Why stop if I can keep going?” became the mantra.
99% of personal finance sites started when I closed or sold. I'm still here. Not because I am smarter, but because I refused to give up. Besides, who sells their child if they don't do it for this money? There is no. Please stay in the game long enough for the rewards to accumulate.
You will never lose if you never give up. Keep getting closer to the inevitable walls that form on your journey.
Thank you 17 years so far
Distribution is just consistency and timing. There is no shortcut, which is why it's so important, and why you should stop procrastinating and start today.
As I close my 17th year and enter my 18th this July 2026, thank you. For reading, sharing, commenting, and picking up my books.
This entrepreneur's journey is full of ups and downs. The trick is not to avoid them. It is welcoming and appreciating them every moment along the way.
And for the founders reading this who think I'll be helpful, feel free to email me. You can find my email address at the bottom of my About the page.
How long have you been a student of Financial Samurai? Are you a small business owner too? If so, how was the trip?
If you want to find financial freedom soon, sign up for mine free weekly newspaper and join 60,000+ readers. I launched Financial Samurai in 2009 and helped launch the modern FIRE movement. Everything is written based on personal experience, because money is too important to be left to pontification.
