Two weeks ago, a marketing manager from Volkswagen reached out and asked if I was still at Productive Formula. He had some budget and wanted to toss it into an “AI” project. I mentioned I shuttered the company in 2021 when our funding ran dry. It’s been years, but every so often someone will bring it up, and for a short period afterward, my brain gets caught in that loop of what if.
Not in a “the one that got away” kind of way. More in the sense of: how would this product have played out in today’s market?
I launched Productive Formula in December 2019. It was COVID season, and like many, I was looking for a new problem to solve. The idea: a marketing platform to automatically generate written content for vehicle listings online. Think smarter, cleaner, consistent content for the automotive industry that’s literally a few clicks and minimal costs versus staffing or contracting writers.
We built it with an early adoption of ChatGPT-2 when literally no one heard of OpenAI and they were handing on keys to API’s and SDK’s for free. I had a small team of three or four R&D devs focusing on creating natural syntax models trained specifically for automotive. I secured and ran MVPs with Volvo Canada and Mitsubishi Motors, and I was in long conversations with FCA (before they became Stellantis). I was in full pitch mode. Sleeves rolled up and living the hustle again. I loved it.
I like to think I’m pretty self aware or maybe it’s the pessimism in me to recognize hindsight makes everything look cleaner. If I’d launched a little later, when the significantly more advance ChatGPT-3 model was out, I would’ve saved SO MUCH money on R&D. Instead of burning cash on custom NLP development, I could have thrown it into GTM: marketing, customer acquisition, partnerships, etc.
The industry today is also far more educated on “AI.” Back then, I spent too much energy just convincing every single stakeholders this wasn’t smoke and mirrors. Now? Everyone’s already leaning in. Had the timing been different, maybe traction would have come faster.
On a personal level, success might have forced me into a specialist’s lane. I would’ve spent the last four years refining the hell out of one product and one industry niche. It would’ve been nice for me to focus on one key area and be recognized for it within the industry rather than being a generalist today and that’sappealing on a personal level.
But I’m also not going to kid myself. Even if I’d launched later, with a bigger runway and friendlier tools, Productive Formula still could’ve failed. Timing alone doesn’t fix GTM friction, investor skepticism, or market adoption cycles. Startups die for reasons that look obvious only in the rearview mirror.
It reminds me of Marvel’s What If… series. Fun to imagine alternate outcomes. But at the end of the day, it’s a fantasy. Nice as a thought exercise, but pretty meaningless once you close the book. Forgotten soon after.
I don’t know where I’m going writing this. Maybe I am itching to start something new. I think failed projects have that effect. It left this mark that’s half scar tissue, half spark. I don’t romanticize them as missed opportunities. I see them as live-fire drills in timing, resource allocation, and sheer adaptability.
Productive Formula might have been ahead of its time, or just not the time. But every time someone asks me about it, I go through this whole thought cycle.
My (ongoing) lesson as a business leader
September 7, 2025