Why I Prefer Hanging Out With Non-Tech Bros Over Tech Bros

Seattle, 2022.I was working at Amazon, surrounded by some of the smartest software engineers in the world. Everyone could code. Everyone talked AI, blockchain, or how they were optimizing their personal Jira board.

But no one was building anything that mattered outside of tech.

That realization hit me hard one weekend.I flew to San Francisco. Same vibe. New York? More of the same.

I had built a network of brilliant minds, but we were all solving the same theoretical problems. We could spin up SaaS products in a weekend, but no one had a paying customer.

So I made a decision.

I’d start hanging out with non-tech bros.

Because Business Isn't Just Code

Here’s what most tech bros miss: Code is cheap. Context is everything.

When everyone around you can build the same software stack in a few days, you stop asking the most important question: Who actually needs this?

Non-tech folks run the real economy.

They own warehouses. They manage trucking fleets. They ship millions of dollars’ worth of goods every month.

And guess what? They’re still running their businesses on Excel. They’re tired of being pitched tools they don’t understand.They don’t care how elegant your code is. They care if it works.

From Code to Cartons: How Stepping Outside the Tech Bubble Helped Build a Real Business That Saves Real Dollars

The Tech Bro Bubble Is an Echo Chamber

Hang out only with tech bros long enough and this happens:

• You build tools for Hacker News karma, not customers

• You optimize for cleverness, not clarity

• You forget how the rest of the world operates
  

The bubble rewards shiny features, not usefulness. You end up shipping products that impress other engineers… but not a single buyer.

Meeting Andrew Changed Everything

When I finally stepped outside the bubble, I met Andrew, a warehouse owner in New Jersey. He wasn’t looking for the next AI unicorn. He just wanted to stop bleeding money on shipping.

That conversation became Perseuss, a cartonization and packing optimization tool used today by real fulfillment centers saving real dollars.

If I had stayed at another founder brunch or tech meetup, that would’ve never happened.

From warehouse floors to fulfillment breakthroughs, the meeting where real-world problems met real-time solutions. Tomas with Andrew Haner of Medusa Distribution and Danish Iqbal, building smarter operations together.

Where to Meet Non-Tech Bros (and Why You Should)

If you're a technical founder looking for your next big idea:

• Go to logistics or food service trade shows

• Talk to your mechanic, your barber, your neighborhood grocer

• Volunteer at small business events

• Listen more than you talk

  
  

You’ll find problems that aren’t sexy, but they’re expensive and solvable..

The Irony? They Need You More Than VCs Do

There’s a quiet goldmine in small and mid-sized businesses across America.

They’re drowning in paperwork.Their systems don’t talk to each other.They’re running million-dollar operations with duct tape and spreadsheets.

"They don’t want 'Uber for X.' They want someone who understands APIs, automation, and systems, and is humble enough to ask, 'What’s not working for you?'"

You Don’t Need a Billion-Dollar Idea

You need:

• A real person with a real problem

• A solution that saves them time or money

• The courage to actually ship it

So go make friends who don’t know what “refactor” means.They might just hand you your next business.

About the Author

Tomas David Ye is the Founder and CEO of Perseuss, a logistics software company bringing Amazon-level fulfillment intelligence to the rest of the supply chain. With a background in software and a bias for action, Tomas builds for warehouses, not whiteboards, and focuses on solving real problems for real operators..