I spent $15k on a four-day mastermind. Here’s why it was worth it.

I’m coming down from a wild trip that my past self would have never believed I’d actually do.

I just spent $10k on a four-day mastermind by Tyler Denk in Costa Rica (Tyler is the CEO of beehiiv and has a super inspiring newsletter, Big Desk Energy). I increased the insanity by purchasing business-class tickets from Berlin for another $5k. Four years ago, I bought a telescope for $1,500 and was literally shaking when handing over the money—it was the most expensive thing I’d ever bought. Now I’m spending ten times that amount for just a few days with founders I didn’t even know.

But damn, was it worth it.

Since this is my first newsletter, here’s a quick intro: I founded neural frames, a platform to create AI animations, two years ago. It started more as a fun project than a company, but it slowly matured into a business. We’re a team of five, we did $500k in revenue in 2024, and we’re profitable without any outside funding.

I don’t come from an entrepreneurial background at all—quite the opposite. Almost none of my friends are business owners; my circle has always been somewhat left-wing and anti-capitalistic, and that’s how I was raised. I did a PhD in Physics mostly because I never really knew what else to do with my life. Physics can be everything and nothing at once, which seemed perfect for someone with zero clarity about the future.

My true calling

It took building a company to realize that this was my true calling.

I can shape a world the way I want. I have growing leverage to build something I believe should exist, exactly the way I want it to exist.

Back to my crazy trip to Costa Rica.

There were six other founders—one more inspiring than the next—all building incredible things and further along than me in both revenue and experience. Some had sold previous startups, others raised a ton of money and were well on track to become billion-dollar companies.

What was good to see, though, was that we all faced similar problems, just with different solutions. It was inspiring to see how others tackled certain hurdles. Tyler, for instance, introduced us to the entrepreneurial operating system from Traction, which involves defining metrics and goals for three years, one year, each quarter, and even week by week, to check if they’re on track to meet their quarterly or yearly targets. It’s intense, but super helpful.

In particular, I realized everyone else on that trip had a clear vision of where they wanted their company to go. I really didn’t. neural frames just appeared out of nowhere, and my approach so far has been a bit of a random walk—waking up each day, deciding what customers might appreciate that week (I’ll write about our origin story in the next newsletter).

But where will we be in a year? No clue. Will we still be around? Frankly, each day we don’t collapse due to competition, server bugs, or dwindling interest feels like a miracle—everything could end so quickly.

This is it, boys.

But I think that’s business. Or life, really—because everything can be over the next day. Pura vida, as they say in Costa Rica.

After a Mezcal Sour on my last evening there, I concluded: It’s time to level up.

neural frames is already a working product with a growing base of people who love it. We have a crack team I’m thrilled to work with. But one thing needs to change: we need a vision—a North Star. A clearly defined goal that we’re going to become a serious company with serious revenue, delivering real benefits for our users.

Ryan Shank from ShareWillow showed us a Jesse Itzler clip where he said, “We’re millionaires; they just haven’t paid us yet,” and “Words matter.”

In that vein, I’m declaring: I will take neural frames from $60k monthly revenue to $600k by the end of 2027. And I’ll document the journey right here in this newsletter.

I’ll share what works, what doesn’t, and take you along on this startup roller coaster. Maybe you’ll pick up a few insights—or at least get some entertainment. And each week, I’ll spotlight an AI video piece.

If you’d like to come along for the ride, please subscribe.💜🫡

Video of the week

This week’s video comes from Jenny Maybee, who used neural frames to generate an awesome music video for her single Holy Holy. I’m not sure what I love more: The song or the video 🐿️

Have a great week!

Nico