ClawOffice was a bit of a gimmick - a 3D virtual office for AI agents. It was fun to build and got some attention on launch, but let's be real: it didn't take off. People thought it was cool for a minute, then moved on. No real retention, no real problem being solved.
Here's what I actually learned from it:
Novelty value. A cool concept gets you a launch day. It doesn't get you users who come back on day 30.
I was building for the demo, not the workflow. ClawOffice looked great in a screenshot. It didn't solve anything measurable for anyone.
"What gets tracked gets improved" is real. The founders I talked to afterward all had the same pain - they were shipping features and running experiments with no clue what was actually driving revenue.
I've always been on the personal brand side. More and more founders are building it now (sometimes even before the product is ready while it's still in development, before seed fundraising). The CEO builds their position so the product sells more easily at the official launch.
But I have experience with people who built the product, scaled it, and only then did we discover who was behind it.
Honestly, with the first approach, I'd be concerned that people invest more in me as a person than in the product. People would idealise the founder and overlook the product's flaws (which could hurt development and constructive feedback).
+ I noticed the most common mistake that many people who started building a personal brand first, connected their product to their personal accounts (emails, social media, etc.) and started having a problem selling these things, because they cannot "give someone keys" to their personal profiles.
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