Hey there, digital warriors! ⚔️

In a world obsessed with shortcuts, the myth of AI as a silver bullet is the most seductive of all. VC boardrooms, founders, and tech leads are clinging to the hope that GenAI can save time, cut costs, and solve the deep dysfunctions plaguing software teams.

But let’s be real for a second.

“We had this promise that AI is going to solve all our woes… but I think it’s only accelerated things candidly.” — Andy Will, Willpower VC

AI isn’t the savior. It’s the amplifier.

If your culture is broken, your delivery’s shaky, and your engineers are burnt out? AI won’t fix it. It’ll just reveal the cracks faster. Tech doesn’t heal dysfunction. It scales it.

This week’s Forge of Unicorns deep dive dissects this myth with the help of Andy Will, and the contrast couldn’t be clearer. On one side: startups high on hype, vibing with GenAI, burning investor money on “move fast and break things” codebases. On the other: companies like Esusu, quietly scaling with purpose and precision.

Their secret? Not a tool. Not a blueprint. A mindset.

“They named it Esusu — an African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. That’s how they scale.”

Let that sink in.

While others copy-paste solutions and run vanity OKRs, Esusu builds from the ground up. They foster collaboration. They design for longevity. Their engineering hiring practices reflect it: they look for ownership, system thinking, sw craftsmanship and modern sw engineering—and they offer the kind of purpose that retains A-players.

But let’s be honest, hiring A-players isn’t scalable anymore. The market is toxic.

According to Gergely Orosz, technical interviews in 2025 are more broken than ever. Toxic loops, unqualified interviewers, artificial gatekeeping… the hiring market has become a minefield.

So what’s the alternative?

You farm them. 🌱

You grow your own talent inside the company. You engineer belonging. You create conditions where potential becomes performance. And you do it systematically, with behavioral engineering—not blueprint thinking.

This is where the SW Craftsmanship Dojo® comes in. It’s not training. It’s not another agile playbook. It’s a system for evolving people, culture, and code—all at once.

And guess what? It works.

Because engineering culture isn’t just about tech. It’s about humans. It’s about how they behave under pressure, how they fail and learn together, how they solve meaningful problems with joy instead of fear.

And if you think vibe coding and GenAI hacks will save your margins… brace for the spiral:

• ❌ Tech debt will spike.
• ❌ Customer complaints will flood in.
• ❌ Sales will stall.
• ❌ And then? Boardroom war. Burnout. The best people leave.

You’re not scaling unicorns. You’re summoning zombies 🧟.

So here’s the question:

Do you want to sink surrounded by disengaged survivors? Or rise with a crew of engineers who believe in your dream?

You can chase blueprints and keep failing… or engineer environments that grow unicorns.

Behavioral-engineered technical excellence isn’t a luxury—it’s the new baseline. 🦄

🎧 Tune into the full podcast with Andy.

Discover how tomorrow’s unicorns are being grown—inside cultures engineered to scale. 🦄

🚀 Want to evolve your team into a high-performing, unicorn-building force?

The SW Craftsmanship Dojo is open to founders and leaders ready to build cultures that scale.

Let’s talk about how to make your organization the kind of place top talent never wants to leave. 💡

📨 Take a look and reach out — you’re not alone in this journey.

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