Alec Fullmer

I scraped 570 YC-backed dev tool companies in just 15 minutes, for free. I needed that list for one of my marketing campaigns at Hackmamba. Usually, you’d pay for tools or credits to scrape this kind of data. I decided to build it myself instead. All I needed was Node.js and Puppeteer. I wrote a short script that: 👉 Collected company names, websites, and founders from the Y Combinator site 👉Extracted details using Puppeteer 👉Saved everything neatly into Excel It took me less time than 15 mins. I’ve documented the entire process in a simple Notion guide. Just something you can learn from and reuse. You’ll find: ✅ How to set up Node.js ✅ How to install Puppeteer and scrape YC companies ✅ How to export the results to Excel The free Notion doc is in the comments

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SMS isn't email. Stop treating SMS like your weekly newsletter. It’s lazy. And it destroys trust fast. Email is passive. It sits in a server waiting for someone to log in. SMS is different. It buzzes in their pocket. It lights up the dinner table. It interrupts. This kind of access is a privilege. You lose it the second you send generic fluff. Keep texts reserved for the moments that matter: → Time-sensitive alerts → Critical shipping updates → Exclusive VIP drops → Appointment reminders If you spam, you’re just noise. If you respect the channel, you win loyalty. Value the interruption.

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I’ve seen a lot of developers make the same expensive mistake: they "cheat" on their supply chain to save 2%. Here’s the reality: When you jump from vendor to vendor for every new project, you aren't just switching companies. You’re paying a "Learning Curve Penalty." Every time you start over, you’re re-teaching a new team: ❌ Your communication style. ❌ Your GC’s site requirements. ❌ Your specific "flavor" of brand standards. By the time the new vendor finally "gets it," the project is 60% done and you've lost 10% in administrative friction, RFI bloat, and site errors. At JSM Procurement LLC , we advocate for Professional Fidelity. When we work on your second, third, or tenth project, we aren't guessing. We’re replicating success. We know the elevator dimensions, we have the shop drawings on file, and we know exactly where the "gaps" usually hide. Stop chasing the 2% and start protecting the 10%. Your EBITDA will thank you. #HospitalityDevelopment #HotelROI #SupplyChainStrategy #JSMHospitality #ConstructionManagement

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The Business I Never Knew I Was Building: How Izzi's Gym Became Sioux Falls' Answer to Loneliness I've struggled with mental illness my entire life. Depression, loneliness, the whole nine yards. There, I said it. For years, I built businesses focusing on revenue, growth metrics, and market share. My previous venture hit $130M in revenue, and by all external measures, I was "successful." But success doesn't cure loneliness. Achievement doesn't fill the void that depression creates. Last week, I attended a talk by Sean Astin (yes, Mikey from The Goonies), where he spoke about loneliness being one of the largest mental health crises of our time. As he spoke, something clicked for me about what we're really building at Izzi's Gym. We price our products at MSRP when we could charge market rates. We run free learn-to-play events. We're planning Izzi's Con as a free community event in 2026. These aren't just business decisions – they're deliberate choices to remove every possible barrier between people and connection. The best businesses solve real problems. I used to think our problem was Pokemon card allocation shortages or competition from big box stores. But the real problem we're solving? The epidemic of loneliness that's quietly devastating our communities. Every tournament we host, every Beyblade we launch, every Gundam model someone builds at our tables – these aren't just transactions. They're connections. They're moments where someone isn't alone. Mental illness thrives in isolation. I know because I've lived it. But it struggles to survive in community. So yes, Izzi's Gym is a successful business by traditional metrics. But more importantly, it's become something I never planned: a gathering place for the lonely, a safe space for the struggling, and a community for anyone who needs one. If you're building a business, ask yourself: beyond the product or service, what human problem are you really solving? Because when you find that answer, you'll find your purpose. And if you're in Sioux Falls and feeling alone, our doors are open. There's always a game to play, a model to build, or simply a place to belong. Sometimes the most important businesses we build are the ones we never knew we were building. #MentalHealthAwareness #EntrepreneurshipJourney #CommunityBuilding #SmallBusiness #MentalHealthMatters #SiouxFalls #TradingCardCommunity #PurposeDrivenBusiness #IzzisGym

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Had a great time speaking this week! AI is coming into the workforce faster than people realize. There is such a huge gap between the hype talk and the reality talk. Leadership isn't just about pushing out new technology... it's also about having open and honest dialogue with your teams. The companies that will be the leaders in AI execution, adoption, and actual business results won't be the ones running the newest models... they will be the ones who's leadership had the most clear mission/vision/values, who injected transparency throughout their teams, and who created accountability to not just burning tokens but actually prioritizing what pilots to run, how to iterate them to be reliable/consistent/predictable, and who can re-imagine their processes to be AI first!

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The best remote dev teams have one thing in common... It's not the tools. It's not the standups. It's not the Slack etiquette guide nobody reads. It's trust in silence. The best remote engineers I've worked with don't need to prove they're working. They don't narrate their day in status updates. They go quiet for hours, then surface with something excellent. But here's the caveat: silence only works when the work comes back. Trust isn't blind faith, it's earned through consistent delivery. When someone goes quiet and nothing emerges, that's not deep work. That's a problem. And there's a line between productive silence and a silo. One person heads-down on a problem is focus. Three people heads down on the same problem without talking to each other is waste. Knowing the difference is the whole job of managing remote teams. The trick I've found across time zones: automate the visibility layer. Sprint progress, regular updates, post-sprint reports: these aren't micromanagement. They're the connective tissue that lets silence exist safely. Management needs to see movement, and that's legitimate. But keep it non-technical. Plain-English alignment, not implementation details nobody outside the team reads. If you need to see someone working to believe they're working, you've got a management problem. But if your team can't show what they've achieved without being asked, you've got a communication problem. Build the system that solves both. Then get out of the way.

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