A Company Is an Extension of Its Founder
Why I think of companies as social actors — and the question I ask myself whenever I'm unsure about a decision.
Why I Write Posts Like This
For a long time, I had ideas like this floating around in my head, but I rarely wrote them down. Turning scattered thoughts into a coherent article simply took too much time.
One of my favorite things about AI is that it has completely changed that.
Now I can simply think out loud. I talk through an idea almost exactly as it comes to me, and AI helps organize those thoughts into something other people can actually read. The ideas are still mine. The experiences are mine. The conclusions are mine. AI just helps me communicate them more clearly.
I also think this fits one of the values I want AllNutrition.info to represent: openness.
If I'm asking people to trust this project, I think they should know the person behind it. Not just what I believe about nutrition, but how I think, how I make decisions, and the mental models that influence those decisions.
So every now and then, I'll write posts like this.
They're not nutrition articles. They're simply reflections. Some ideas may turn out to be wrong. Others will probably evolve over time. That's completely fine.
This is simply how I currently see the world.
Companies as Social Actors
Lately I've been thinking about a mental model that has helped me make sense of companies.
I'm not claiming it's objectively true. I just find it useful.
The idea is simple.
A company is an extension of the people who build it.
When we interact with a company, we often think of it as a legal entity. But that's usually not how we feel about it. We trust companies. We lose trust in them. We admire some and avoid others. If a company lies to us, sells our data, or consistently makes decisions that don't align with our values, our relationship with it changes. That's exactly how relationships between people work.
That made me wonder if companies are better understood as social actors rather than just legal entities.
At least in the beginning.
An Extension of Me — For Now
Right now, I'm the only founder of AllNutrition.info.
That means the company is, in many ways, an extension of me.
If I become more thoughtful, I hope the company becomes more thoughtful.
If I learn something new, I want the company to learn with me.
If I improve, I want the company to improve too.
The relationship goes both ways. Building the company changes me just as much as I shape the company.
Because of that, the values that guide my own life should naturally guide the company as well.
The ones I keep coming back to are joy, openness, usefulness, learning, and energy.
Money Follows Usefulness
Money is important. A company has to survive. Financial independence matters because it allows you to stay true to your principles instead of constantly optimizing for someone else's incentives.
But I've never found it helpful to optimize for money itself.
Looking back, the best career decisions I made came from learning skills that I genuinely enjoyed and that solved problems people cared about. People were willing to pay for that value, and everyone benefited.
Money followed usefulness.
I'd like AllNutrition.info to work the same way.
Knowledge Grows When It's Shared
Another belief I keep coming back to is that knowledge usually becomes more valuable when it's shared.
Some people believe information should be hidden because it creates an advantage.
I've never really felt that way.
Sharing what I know doesn't reduce what I know. If anything, it has connected me with people who taught me even more.
If more people openly shared what they've learned, I think we'd all move forward a little faster.
That's a big part of why I started AllNutrition.info.
I don't just want another nutrition website.
I want to build something genuinely useful. A place where evidence is easier to explore, where people can ask questions, follow the references themselves, and hopefully make better decisions because of it.
Partnerships, Personal and Otherwise
This way of thinking also changes how I see partnerships.
In my personal life, I'm happily married. I could have stayed single, but I don't think life is about doing everything alone. Having the right partner makes both people better.
Maybe companies aren't that different.
Not every long-term partner has to be a co-founder. Sometimes it's another company, a researcher, or an organization that shares similar values.
The strongest relationships, whether between people or companies, are built on trust, openness, and a desire to grow together over many years.
A Compass, Not a Conclusion
Maybe this mental model is incomplete.
As companies grow, they're shaped by employees, contributors, users, and communities too. At some point, a company becomes much bigger than its founder.
But I still find this way of thinking helpful.
Whenever I'm unsure about a decision, I can ask myself a simple question.
If AllNutrition.info were simply another version of me, would I still make the same decision?
I don't know if that's the right question.
But so far, it has been a pretty good compass.
And if one day this mental model turns out to be wrong, that's okay too.
Learning and changing my mind are part of the journey.
I'd actually be disappointed if ten years from now I believed exactly the same things I believe today.