Something to Latch Onto

Three weeks is a short amount of time. It’s a tiny amount of time when it’s the total time you spend employed at a job. And it happens to be the exact amount of time I spent at my most recent job.

April 2025. A post about a new app landed on my Bluesky via repost from a friend. The app was for something that I’m very into. I used it for a few days. While it was in early stages, it was fun and promising. I immediately thought; “This is something I would love to help build.” After a quick search I saw it was a single person startup. Too early for them to be growing a team, but that would come later. I emailed the founder to tell them how much I was liking the app, and a general intro to plant the seed for a conversation to grow in the future.

At the time I was working at Summer. I started there in November 2023. Things were going well. We were building good product, customer conversations were moving, and we all worked well together as a team. I wasn’t looking to make any moves. My plan was to keep helping build the product and company. But, that exciting new app and company, that seemed like it would be a perfect fit for me, was quietly in the back of my mind.

Then, in June 2025, I saw the company put up their first job posts. There were two. One was for a role that was not for me. The other was for a role that was exactly me. I responded to the email thread I had with the founder and told them so and asked if they wanted to meet to talk it through. They did. So we did.

My first day at the company was July 21st, 2025. Within 48 hours I was fairly certain I’d made a mistake. I tried to chalk it up to normal discomfort around starting something new. Told myself to give it time. Two weeks went by. It was not only clear that it wasn’t normal new job jitters, it was crystal clear that I’d made a mistake. Because I was the first hire, it was critical that the founder and I be able to work well together. We did not. This wasn’t gonna work. My last day was August 11th, 2025.

I’ve left out specifics because they’re really not interesting or important to this story. Specifics about the company. What may have been done or not done. What may have been said or not said. What’s important is what I decided to do in response to it. If you really wanna know, buy me a beer sometime, I’ll spill all the tea.

Now What?

In the days leading up to me leaving, a question kept popping up in my head: “Why do I keep working for these people?!” That sounds a bit petulant. Let me expand.

Going into any work situation with the attitude of: “Why don’t they just listen to me?”, “If they would just do what I say…”, “I know more than them.” etc. etc. is never a good approach. That’s not what I was thinking here. I’ve been lucky to work with smart and talented people throughout my career. Including the short stint in this case. My question was prompted by a career of building other peoples’ ideas. Realizing other peoples’ visions. What I was really asking was: “Why don’t I build my own ideas?”, “Why don’t I realize my own visions?”, “Why don’t I work for myself?”

This wasn’t the first time I’ve asked these questions. In the past, I’ve always gotten hung up on what I thought should be the first step. I’ve always thought: “Once I have a good product idea, then I’ll start a company to build it.” Well, that clearly hasn’t happened. So, I decided to flip it. Start a company first and then work out what to build.

That’s what I did. Within a week of leaving, I’d decided on a name, formed a C Corp, bought domains, set up most of the various SaaS tools I’d need, and started the process of researching and prototyping what I might build first.

A lot of that was busy work. Which is exactly what I needed at the time. Having the job fall apart was a blow. I was bummed. I was pissed. It was important that I not just sit and stew, but instead get busy doing things I knew I’d eventually need.

How’s That Going?

My corporation is Latchbolt Inc. I let myself nerd out on a holding page at latchbolt.tech. Latchbolt isn’t a single product. It’s a place where I can build anything I’m inspired to. What I’m inspired to build right now is software for niche audiences. Software that’s made with care for caring people. Software that, hopefully, brings a smile to at least one person’s face. We need that right now. That does describe the side projects I build when left to my own devices. The difference is, I’ll charge money for things under the Latchbolt banner.

Latchbolt’s first product is an iOS app for modern collage. It’s moving along slow, but it’s moving along. I’ll have details and a build out for initial testing next month.

If you have thoughts about this post, send me an email at me@tylergaw.com.