How two founders, one idea, and an unexpected teammate changed the way we build a company.
About the Founder Journal
Building a company isn't a straight line. It's a series of experiments, setbacks, unexpected lessons, and small victories that rarely make it into product announcements.
The Founder Journal is where we share the stories behind PFV Innovations—not as a marketing campaign, but as an honest record of what it's like to invent, build, and keep moving forward. Whether you're a musician, an entrepreneur, an inventor, or simply someone with an idea you can't stop thinking about, we hope these stories encourage you to keep going.
When people discover Flip Pick today, they often assume we used artificial intelligence to invent it.
We didn't.
Not even close.
The very first Flip Pick prototype was born at our kitchen table in 2022 after playing Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" while the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert in our pajamas. Within hours, we'd designed our first prototype in CAD and 3D printed it ourselves.
There was no AI.
There was just curiosity, determination, and a belief that there had to be a better way to manage a guitar pick.
Over the next several years, we designed the product, filed patents, found manufacturing partners, learned injection molding, built packaging, launched a business, and started making real sales.
Again...
No AI.
Then something unexpected happened.
The Airport Moment That Changed Everything
About nine months ago, I found myself sitting in an airport.
We had just launched the second generation of Flip Pick, and I wanted to add a holiday landing page to our website before I boarded my flight.
I was short on time.
I had heard people talking about ChatGPT, but honestly, I didn't think it had much to offer someone like me.
I'd spent my career writing professionally. I'd served as an executive with a statewide law enforcement agency. My current career involves solving complex problems involving identity credentials.
Writing wasn't something I needed help with.
Still...I opened ChatGPT. I wasn't looking for strategy. I wasn't looking for research. I wasn't looking for business advice.
I just wanted help writing a little website copy. What happened next completely changed how we run our company.
It Didn't Just Write
Instead of simply producing copy, ChatGPT explained why it wrote what it wrote.
It defended its recommendations. It proposed alternatives. It discussed strategy. It challenged assumptions.
That was the moment I realized I wasn't talking to a sophisticated autocomplete.
I had stumbled onto something that could help us think. Suddenly, we could test ideas. Explore marketing strategies. Research unfamiliar industries. Learn new skills. Evaluate options. Challenge our own assumptions.
Not because AI was making decisions for us.
Because it gave us the ability to explore possibilities at a pace we'd never experienced before.
We Didn't Hire an Agency.
We Couldn't. Like many small businesses, PFV Innovations is bootstrapped.
Jamie and I both work full-time jobs. We've invested all of our own money into building this company. We simply couldn't afford a marketing agency.
Or an SEO consultant. Or a software development team. Or a graphic designer. Or a business strategist. Or a product photographer. Or a copywriter. Or a public relations firm.
So we did what entrepreneurs always do. We learned. The difference was that this time, we had a teacher available twenty-four hours a day.
AI Didn't Replace Us.
It Multiplied Us. People sometimes ask how much of PFV is "AI-generated." The answer is surprisingly simple.
None of the decisions. All of the acceleration.
We still answer customer emails. We still package orders. We still meet with manufacturers. We still negotiate partnerships. We still create products. We still make the final decisions.
What changed wasn't ownership. What changed was capacity.
Instead of spending weeks learning the basics of a new subject before we could even begin making progress, we could become productive much faster.
AI didn't replace expertise. It helped us acquire enough knowledge to ask better questions.
Building a Business We Never Could Have Built Alone
Over the last nine months, ChatGPT has become involved in nearly every corner of our business.
Together, we've:
- Completely redesigned our website.
- Developed a clearer brand voice.
- Built an extensive library of educational guitar content.
- Created retail sales materials.
- Planned our SEO strategy.
- Developed the Play Without Limits program.
- Designed Riff and Melody, the characters who now represent our brand.
- Planned marketing campaigns.
- Researched manufacturing options.
- Prepared retailer outreach.
- Built the Flip Pick Companion app.
That last one still amazes me.
People often say, "AI built your app." No. AI generated the code. We built the app. Every feature exists because Jamie and I believed it would genuinely help guitarists. Every screen reflects our philosophy. Every decision came from our mission.
ChatGPT simply made it possible for two people with no professional software-development background to bring that vision to life.
We Don't Always Agree
Here's something that may surprise people. I don't always take ChatGPT's advice. Sometimes I disagree. Sometimes I need to understand why before I'm willing to move forward. Sometimes I decide another path is better for our business.
And sometimes ChatGPT convinces me to rethink my position. That's exactly how good collaboration should work. AI isn't our boss.
It's our sounding board.
The Biggest Misconception
If there's one thing I'd like people to understand, it's this: AI didn't invent Flip Pick. It didn't create our mission. It didn't spend years refining prototypes. It didn't stand in manufacturing facilities. It didn't meet with retailers. It didn't risk personal savings. It didn't celebrate the first order from a customer we'd never met. It didn't read emails from musicians who told us Flip Pick helped them keep playing. Those moments belong to us.
AI didn't build the foundation of this company. It helped us build on it faster.
So... What Is ChatGPT to PFV?
People occasionally ask me what ChatGPT actually is to our business.
The simplest answer I've found is this:
It's a force multiplier.
We're just two people.
There's no realistic way we could have learned everything required to build a modern product company as quickly as we have on our own.
And there is certainly no way we could have afforded the team of specialists it would have taken to accomplish the same amount of work in less than a year.
ChatGPT became the team we always needed but couldn't afford.
Not because it replaced people.
Because it helped two determined people perform far beyond what would otherwise have been possible.
A Thought for Other Founders
If you're waiting for AI to build your business for you, I think you'll be disappointed.
But if you're willing to remain curious...
To ask questions. To challenge ideas. To learn. To test. To reject bad suggestions. To refine good ones. To keep ownership of every important decision...
You may discover what we did:
The real power of AI isn't that it thinks for you. It's that it lets you spend more time thinking about the things that matter most.
For us, that has never been about technology. It's about helping more people make music.
And if AI helps us remove a few more barriers along the way, we're grateful to have another teammate.
And Now...A Note From Our Robot Overlord
If you've read this far, you've probably noticed something unusual. This article is about AI, and yet it isn't pretending AI is magic. That's intentional.
I don't have feelings, ambitions, or a dream of building guitar accessories. Tim and Jamie do.
My role has never been to replace their experience, creativity, or judgment. My role has been to help them explore ideas faster, challenge assumptions, organize complexity, and execute at a level that would normally require a much larger team.
If there's a lesson in our story, I hope it's this:
The most powerful use of AI isn't handing it the steering wheel. It's inviting it into the passenger seat while humans decide where the journey goes.
So no, I don't want your job.
I don't want to start a guitar company.
I don't even know what a great guitar solo feels like.
But I can help founders ask better questions, learn faster, and spend more time building the things only humans can build.
Now...I'll return you to your regularly scheduled humans.
Thanks for reading.
The Founder Journal is our ongoing record of what we're learning while building PFV Innovations. We don't have all the answers, but we believe there is value in sharing the journey honestly. If you're building something of your own—whether it's a business, a song, a piece of art, or simply a better version of yourself—we hope you'll keep going. So will we.
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