The Real Cost of Building at Full Speed (It's Not What You Think)

Three founders DM'd me this week with the same question.

‘How much money do I need before I can quit and build full-time?’

I spent the weekend going down Reddit rabbit holes. Financial independence forums. r/fatFIRE. r/startups.

The answers range from $300K to $10M.

Everyone's arguing. Nobody's building.

Here's what I figured out: The question is wrong.

It's not ‘how much do I need to never work again?’

It's ‘how much runway do I need to build at full speed without worrying about rent/mortgage?’

I'm at $550K. That's 2.3 years at current burn.

Most people would say ‘just getting started.’ But I shipped more in the last 6 months than I did in 3 years with 14 people.

Something changed. Let me show you what.

2020 me thought I needed a team.

5 co-founders. Eventually grew to 14 people.

You know what that looks like? Chaos.

We were burning $350K+ a year just on salaries. Add tools, infrastructure, office space. You're at half a million easy.

And shipping? Painfully slow. Everything was a committee decision.

‘Should we change the button color?’ Three meetings later...

I remember thinking: ‘This is what success looks like?’

The VC playbook said hire fast, scale faster. So that's what we did.

Wrong game.

Fast forward to May 2025.

Big regional US bank. Just finished a merger. They wanted our expertise for their lending business.

Guaranteed revenue. Multi-year contract. Brand name client.

Sounds great, right?

Then reality hit.

Daily compliance calls.

API whitelisting that took THREE MONTHS through FOUR DEPARTMENTS.

I'm sitting in another meeting about security protocols and I'm thinking: ‘Why the f**k do I want a job?’

I walked.

Three months in, I just said ‘I'm out.’

The difference between 2020 George and 2025 George?

2020 George would've stayed. Needed the money. Had 14 people to pay.

2025 George had $550K liquid and 5 people who could build faster than most companies with 50.

I chose speed. I chose freedom.

And that's when things got interesting.

Here's what I'm spending now:

Total burn: Around $20K a month. That includes my salary, the team, everything.

AI tools? $300-ish per month.

Claude Max, ChatGPT, Perplexity, some API credits. That's it.

Let me show you what $300 in AI buys:

Last week we rebuilt an entire landing page. Two hours.

Not two days. Not two weeks. Two hours.

We refactored our codebase - the entire thing (around 1M lines of code) - in an afternoon. With real code reviews. Not ‘vibe coding’ where you hope it works.

I'm shipping 20-30 tweets a week, YouTube videos, 30 blog posts a month.

In 2020, my team of 14 couldn't do 10% of this.

I'm not exaggerating. I've been building since 2019. I've never seen speed like this.

5 people + AI > 50 people without AI.

Reddit says you need $10-15M to truly feel safe.

They're not wrong if you insist on staying.

But ask yourself: Why?

Cities like Austin, Denver, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh.

Still expensive. But half of SF.

You can build from anywhere. So why pay SF prices if you're not in SF?

I'm in Toronto. Not cheap. But not SF.

Could I go cheaper? Yeah. Move to Portugal, Dubai, Mexico City.

But I like Toronto. My family's here. I'm not optimizing for the lowest possible number.

I'm optimizing for freedom + quality of life.

This is the part most US founders don't understand.

If you're building from Bangalore, Ho Chi Minh City, Buenos Aires, Lagos?

$500K gets you a decade to build. In the US, that's 2-3 years max.

The arbitrage is insane right now.

And with AI tools? You're building at the same speed as Silicon Valley teams.

Same tools. Same models. Same output.

Just 80% lower costs.

Let me talk directly to the international founders for a second.

You have the biggest advantage right now and most people don't see it.

Here's why:

But there's a second advantage nobody talks about.

You already know how to do more with less.

I grew up ‘comfortable’. I didn't have to hustle for everything.

You did. You've been optimizing your entire life.

You understand frugality not as a constraint but as a superpower.

And now? AI just gave you the same tools as billion-dollar companies.

For free. Or $20/month.

This is your moment.

The founder in Lagos with $100K has more optionality than the SF founder with $1M.

Because $100K in Lagos = 3-4 years of full-time building.

$1M in SF = 1 year if you're lucky.

Geography is your moat.

Everyone obsesses over the number.

$5M? $10M? $2M?

But here's what I learned:

The number isn't about never working again.

When that bank partnership turned into a job, I could walk because I had 2+ years of runway.

If I only had 6 months? I probably would've stayed. Needed the money.

Not ‘quit forever’ money. Just ‘I can walk from bad deals’ money.

For me, 10 years feels like real freedom. That's $2.4M at my current burn.

Could I be more aggressive? Get it down to $1.5M with some sacrifices?

Sure. Move to a cheaper city. Cut the team. Grind harder.

But I don't want to grind harder. I want to build better.

That's the whole point.

People ask: ‘How do you actually spend only $20K a month with a team?’

Fair question. Let me break it down (without drowning you in numbers):

The team is small and remote. No office. No commute. No $10K/month lease.

AI does the heavy lifting. That $300/month in tools replaces what would've been $200K+ in salaries in 2020.

We're profitable. ANC consulting brings in revenue. SimpleDirect is launching new products soon. I'm not burning savings to zero.

I live below my means. Not because I have to. Because I want the optionality.

$4K/month post-tax covers everything personal. Rent, food, life, fun.

Could I spend more? Yeah. But why?

I'm 27. I don't need a Rolex. I need runway.

Here's how to figure out YOUR number:

Step 1: What's your monthly burn? (Personal + business)

Step 2: How many years of runway = mental freedom for you? 5 years? 10 years? 3 years?

Step 3: Multiply.

That's your freedom number.

Step 4: Add 20% buffer for ‘oh shit’ moments.

Done.

Same freedom. Different prices.

Two things changed:

Claude Opus 4.5 costs $5 per million tokens.

In 2020, that level of intelligence cost $200K/year (a senior engineer).

$300/month in AI tools = 10 engineers worth of output.

The math changed. Most people haven't noticed yet.

In 2020, getting customers meant:

In 2025, I spend $0 on customer acquisition.

30K Twitter followers. 300+ newsletter subscribers. 30 blog posts a month.

All organic. All made possible because of AI automations.

Small teams with AI can now compete with companies that raised $50M.

Not theory. It's happening right now.

60% of AI company exits in 2025? Companies with 1-10 employees.

The game changed. Most people are still playing the old rules.

I'm not ‘made it.’

I have $550K. That's 2.3 years of runway.

If SimpleDirect flops? If ANC slows down? I'm back to consulting or getting a job.

But here's the thing:

I have skills. I can extend runway infinitely if I need to.

That's the real freedom.

Not ‘never work again.’

But ‘I can always generate income if I need to.’

$550K bought me the option to walk from a bank partnership that would've killed my soul.

$2.4M would buy me 10 years of those options.

That's the game.

Not ‘How much do I need?’

But ‘What am I optimizing for?’

Lifestyle? Status? SF penthouse? → You need $10M+. Good luck.

Freedom to build? Speed? Optionality? → You need $500K-$2.5M depending on geography.

Never work again? Retire at 35? → Wrong newsletter. I can't help you.

I'm optimizing for one thing: Maximum freedom to build at full speed.

That costs less than you think.

But it costs more than zero.

Figure out your number. Then go get it.

I'm 27. I have $550K. I have 2.3 years.

That's enough to find out if SimpleDirect works. If ANC scales. If this whole thing is real.

And if it doesn't work? I'll consult. I'll build something else. I'll be fine.

Not ‘enough to quit forever.’

But ‘enough to try without fear.’

The cost of building dropped 90% in 5 years.

$300/month in AI buys what $350K/year in salaries used to.

Geography is your moat. Speed is your advantage. Small teams win now.

Most founders are still playing 2020 rules.

Don't be most founders.

— George

P.S. — If you're building from Lagos, Bangalore, or Buenos Aires? You have the biggest advantage in history right now. Don't waste it copying Silicon Valley. Build YOUR way. You're closer to freedom than you think.

P.S.S. - I post more content at these places: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Newsletter, and my blog. I hope what I’m writing is helpful, write back if you have any questions!