Hello World

My name is Patrick Cahill, and this is my blog.

I am learning and experimenting every day, and as I do, I am grateful for the opportunity to share the experience with you. I sincerely hope that something here will help you achieve your objectives faster and to a level you didn't think was possible.

Let me share a bit about what you can expect to see here.

Entrepreneurship

I am an entrepreneur who, along with my co-founder, Aaron White, has successfully built, scaled, and sold a SaaS workflow automation platform.

As I write this, we are launching our second company. I will share insights on startups and entrepreneurship in general and do deep dives into product and engineering (My areas of expertise as a CTO).

In my experience with building startups, I have had successes and failures. I have gained a lot of knowledge through time-consuming trial and error. I will share the lessons so you can discover new mistakes instead of repeating mine.

Why? I have benefited a lot from other people's wisdom over the years and wouldn't be where I am without the help of others; this is a small way I can pay it forward.

Software Engineering

The content here will approach software development from two points of view: the developer or architect solving specific problems and that of Engineering leadership, building teams and systems where developers can do the best work of their lives.

I can speak to both of these perspectives based on my past and current experience.

Before launching a company, I worked as a software engineer. My primary language was Java, and I spent time implementing functionality for the systems I supported.

As a founder, I begin by acting as a solo developer building out an MVP of our idea; then, I move to build software and product teams full of unique and talented people that do the bulk of the heavy lifting.

Even then, I continue to commit code, comment on pull requests, and facilitate robust debates around requirements, design, and architecture.

Expect a mix of technical deep-dives or "Why we went with" type articles and more organization and SDLC-focused content.

Fitness, Health, and Family

At first look, this may seem like it is out of step with my professional site, and to be honest, I thought about setting up a separate area for this content. However, after some thought, I realized that my methodology for building the best companies and teams includes taking care of yourself. Read on to understand why.

While building Script, my first startup, my first child was born. At the time, I weighed 270 pounds and ate whatever, whenever. I worked 80 hours a week and got 4 hours of sleep per night. I was constantly working, tired, burnt out, and using junk food as a coping mechanism (We all have our vices).

It was so bad I was on my laptop coding in the delivery room during the early stages of my wife's labor. I took a brute-force approach to work, and as a result, I had gone way past the point of diminishing returns on the effort I was putting in measured against the outcomes I was generating.

As you might expect, I am not proud of that story. However, my son's birth made me realize I needed to re-examine my approach to work.

I have a lot of thoughts that I will explore in future blog posts; however, the short story is this.

After making many adjustments, I now maintain ~10% body fat, can see my abs for the first time in my life, exercise daily, work around 40 hours a week and get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights, regularly eat 2-3 meals with my family and read to my kids before bed.

Oh, and I'm more productive with work than ever.

Here are the pics so you know it happened.

Before Good Choices

After Good Choices

The first image is me in the peak of our expansion; the moving boxes are for moving from our co-working space to our first full office. The second image is me on April 1, 2023, after three and a half years of prioritizing my health.

Between these photos we continued to scale and eventually sell the company. I did some of my best work during the period where I started to prioritize my health.

This was a multi-year process that required incremental changes and continuous optimizations in time management, nutrition, exercise etc. I stopped my 3am coding marathons and have prioritized sleep and waking up early and my productivity and decision making continue to improve because of these changes.

I hope these before and after photos demonstrate why these posts are included. I am not successful in business despite the time and effort put into my health and family; I am successful because of it.

Closing Thoughts

I have more to say (and plan on writing about it), but in the name of keeping this post an introduction and not a book, I'll try to summarize: If you take away anything from this first post, I hope it is the two thoughts below:

1. Material possessions and being busy are not indicators of success. If the people you look up to as successful are burnt out, actively damaging their bodies through lack of sleep, exercise, poor nutrition, neglecting relationships, and having no time to enjoy what they are doing, I would think long and hard before emulating their behavior.
   
   That lifestyle is not how I would define success and you should reject it as well.
   
   I come from a hard-working family (read long hours and hustle). I used to think it was all about how hard I worked and how busy I was, but now, I know there is a way to build a successful business, take care of yourself, and have good relationships with your family, all while going to bed at a reasonable hour.
   
   There is no reason to accumulate money and possessions if you have no time to enjoy them and no one around you to enjoy them with.
   
2. If you can't care about your health and relationships, you won't build systems that allow you to care about those who work for you. Your team will burn out, and you will be wondering why. Lead by example; the best leaders do.

Wishing You the Best,

Pat