Starting Here
Why I finally built a home for my thinking — and what you'll find here.
For two years I've been writing in other people's spaces.
LinkedIn posts. Conference talks. Slack threads in communities I don't control. Some of those posts got traction. Some conversations I still reference. But nothing was mine. Every piece I published on LinkedIn is gone from the algorithm's memory by Thursday evening. The slide deck from a keynote lives in someone's Downloads folder.
That's the deal with rented platforms: high reach, no roots.
The Problem I Kept Describing to Other People
I help companies think about this constantly. The SaaS founder with great LinkedIn engagement and no email list. The operator who's been publishing on Medium for three years and realizes all that content is building SEO for Medium, not for them. The CEO with 8,000 followers on a platform that changes its algorithm quarterly.
I always say the same thing: owned is durable. Rented is borrowed reach. Build the asset, not the engagement metric.
It was time to stop giving that advice and start following it.
What This Site Is
yannicdesch.com is where the longer thinking goes.
LinkedIn posts are useful — 400 words, one idea, sharp. But some ideas need more room. A framework that took six months to test in a real business doesn't compress into three bullet points without losing the parts that make it actually work. A case study about rebuilding a commercial process around AI agents needs context that a post can't carry.
This site is that context.
What you'll find here: essays on AI-native building, operator case studies, and frameworks I've tested on real P&Ls. The writing sits between a LinkedIn post and a business book — long enough to be useful, short enough to finish on a Thursday morning.
I write about three things:
AI-native building. What it actually means to restructure a company around AI from the ground up — not layer tools onto existing processes. Most companies are doing the second thing and calling it the first. The structural difference matters, and it shows up on the P&L.
Operator practice. What works when you're running a business under pressure. Not frameworks from consultants who've never had accountability for a number. Practices from someone who has — 23 markets at €1B+ revenue at Stepstone, fastest promotion in 20 years at SMP AG, and now a product portfolio at a PSG-backed company where the P&L doesn't lie.
B2B growth. How you build revenue in a market that's moving faster than any annual planning cycle can track.
Why Now
I've been putting this off. The usual reasons: too busy, not enough written yet, want to wait until the design is perfect, need three more posts before launching.
Classic delay dressed up as prudence.
What actually shifted: I got tired of my best thinking living on someone else's infrastructure.
Every piece I publish here will still be here in five years. Indexed. Linkable. Each essay connecting to the next, forming something that builds on itself instead of disappearing. That's a different relationship with your own ideas than posting into a feed. The LinkedIn posts capture the core idea. The site has the layer underneath.
I publish every Thursday. New essays here. LinkedIn posts that carry the core idea. For the people who want more than the core idea — this is where to come.
Start with The Leaner Stack Paradox or AI-native vs. AI-enabled. Those two posts say the most about how I think.
Welcome.