06/02/2026
I started my first business while homeless and took it to six figures in its first year, and for a long time I really downplayed that.
That was 2k Diffuser Beads, built fully bootstrapped through cold calling, in-person trade shows, and Instagram.
Then I did it again with GraphXCreations, a custom sticker and t-shirt company that also hit six figures in year one, and again with Monkey Boy Arts, a glassblowing business I ran from 2014 to 2019. Three businesses, three completely different industries, all built from nothing.
For years I underplayed all of it. I would name one piece and skip the rest, or call myself a marketer when the truth was bigger than that. I think a lot of people do this. We quietly decide that our own work does not count for as much as it actually does.
I am done doing that.
What I actually do is build the operating system underneath a brand, the thing that lets it grow and keeps it running as it scales. I have built that operating system from nothing across enough different businesses to understand the patterns that hold no matter the industry. It is the same work I do for others now.
Yair Klyman BFA™’s fund went from $70M to $136M in AUM in two years, and that did not come from louder marketing. It came from rebuilding the operating system underneath it.
I am also entering a new chapter in my entrepreneurial journey, one where I am being intentional about going deep instead of just wide. The area I am most excited to go deep in is supporting Jewish businesses, brands, and organizations. I am really excited by the work I have just started doing with OpenDor Media, the team behind Unpacked, and we are building something really big.
So I am stepping fully into it, into my full potential. I build the operating system underneath brands and businesses so they grow into theirs, and the same thing works for any values-driven brand. Myself included.
Where in your own work have you been giving yourself less credit than you have actually earned?