Pablo IO building in the open

pabloio

I build small AI-native companies in public.

Real name on the work. This is the workbench, not the storefront. Watch the operating system get built. I publish the motion, receipts and all.

Follow the build See the receipts

as of 2026-09-30 · every claim carries a price or a date

Builds

Each one carries a status, because a status is a claim and a claim needs a state. A price is what is on sale, never what has sold.

  1. 01VCdeepInvestor-intelligence reports. Send the round, get the map back.live$790 / report
  2. 02WingcalmFear-of-flying companion. Works in airplane mode.live$29 once
  3. 03End of ShameFree test surfaces the pattern. The protocol is the paid work.livefree test · $29
  4. 04dotheshitApp locker. One ring timer, no exit.liveAndroid free · iOS in review
  5. 05nocalcuTwo minutes of mental math, every day.livefree
  6. 06Year of ClarityA book. On Amazon since 2024-12.live$4.99 Kindle · $24 paper
  7. 07The Market for Your ImaginationA 150-page visual book, written and designed.awaiting printawaiting print
  8. 08/outputA podcast produced through one pipeline, end to end.liveweekly
  9. 09The DividendAn interactive essay that de-optimises as you read it.livefree

Three more, free, in the browser: Tiro Libre · World Cup 26 · The AI Kitchen.

Project can have a brand. Proof attaches to Pablo IO.

The brands scatter outward. Wingcalm helps someone breathe on a plane without my biography. VCdeep hands a founder a map of the room. Each keeps its own name. The proof points back to one place, and one name holds the ledger.

Proof

Receipts, dated. Revenue when there is revenue, the zero when there is not. This is the account that does not get to lie.

  • 2026-09-17end of shameV3 shipped, audio first. Press play, write, say it.$29 · four nights
  • 2026-08-26wingcalmTikTok posting moved to a server cron. Gate first, re-airs second.self-running
  • 2026-08-18dotheshitiOS 1.0 submitted to App Review. Manual release.€8.99 · waiting
  • 2026-08-03all brandsStripe checked. 19 products, 56 live payment links.€0.00 to date
  • 2026-07-09wingcalmWindow Seat newsletter engine live. Worker plus D1, double opt-in.61 issues pooled
  • 2026-07-07all brandsStripe sale bell armed. Emails on every purchase, free ones included.verified end to end
  • 2026-07-04end of shameIdea to live checkout in one day. A $29 protocol behind a free test.$29
  • 2026-07-04pabloioTwo $29 payment links live. Revenue to date shown, never hidden.€0.00
  • 2026-04-12/outputEpisode one published. One pipeline, synthesized voice.EP01 on Spotify
  • 2024-12year of clarityPublished on KDP. Kindle, paperback, hardcover.$4.99 · $24 · $33

The operating system

1idea
2build
3ship
4measure
5learn
6compound

One loop runs under every project. The projects are replaceable. The loop is permanent, and it keeps running after any single company is retired. Each contestant gets the same test: $100, thirty days, five angles. About thirty percent gets discarded after the money is spent.

If you build small companies and want a second operator in the room, write to me.

identity spec · retouch 02

Forest

The live system, kept. Added: deep forest as the surface that holds the record, amber for waiting states, and an IO monogram at Anton weight with the signal dot inside the letter.

Logo · current

Pablo IOring mark + mono wordmark, as live
Pablo IOon lime the ring disappears

The live mark is a lime ring with a breathing centre and two orbiting dots, and the wordmark is JetBrains Mono with the IO in lime. The ring reads as a planet or a loading state, carries no letter, and fails on lime. The wordmark is fine and stays as the fallback in running text.

Logo · proposed

Pablo IOon ground
Pablo IOon lime
Pablo IOon the secondary
favicon · app icon · 56 / 32 / 16

The IO monogram. Two letterforms at Anton weight, drawn as shapes so they hold at any size: a bar and a ring, with the ring's counter filled lime. The counter is the signal dot the live mark already has, now inside the letter that names the brand. On lime the counter stays lime and the letters go ink, so the app icon is the site inverted.

  • Wordmark moves to the display face: PABLO IO in Anton, 0.03em, IO in lime. JetBrains Mono keeps the small lockup under 14px.
  • Lockup: monogram, 14px gap, wordmark. Clear space equals the bar width. Minimum: monogram 18px, lockup 110px.
  • The monogram is the only place lime fills a shape. That is the exception the locked spec already allowed for the favicon.
  • Never outlined, never with the counter empty, never rotated.

Colour

ground #0b0b0bunchanged
surface #131313unchanged · proof, spec
border #1f1f1funchanged
text #f5f5f0unchanged · warm white
muted #9a9a94unchanged · 6.9:1 on ground
signal #d0ff00unchanged · status, one CTA, selection, focus
secondary #12402cnew · the surface that holds the record · text on it 10.7:1
accent #ffb020new · waiting states, amber · on ground 10.8:1

Forest is lime's own hue at night. It is a surface, never text: the proof section, the spec, any panel that holds the record turns forest, and lime on it reads as the lit version of the same green. Amber is the accent for waiting states only (in review, awaiting print), warm enough to read as patience rather than alarm. Text on forest is the warm white; muted text on forest lightens to keep 4.5:1.

Typography

  • display · anton 400 · 44 to 104px · uppercaseBuilt in public.
  • section · anton 400 · 32 to 51pxProof
  • item · inter 800 · 18 to 22px · -0.02emEnd of Shame
  • body · inter 400 · 16px / 1.5Real name on the work. Every claim on this page carries a price or a date.
  • label · jetbrains mono 500 · 11px · 0.2embuilding in the open · checked 2026-08-03

Anton takes one more job: the wordmark. Everything else holds. The ladder is the same five steps, and Anton never drops below 32px so the condensed forms stay legible.

Copy

The voice does not change. Declarative, first person, receipts before adjectives. The retouch only changes what carries it. Canonical lines stay canonical:

  • I build small AI-native companies in public.
  • Real name on the work.
  • Follow the build.
  • Likes lie. Comments lie. Stripe doesn't.
  • Project can have a brand. Proof attaches to Pablo IO.

Never: hype, hedges, em-dashes, emoji, the reframe pattern, a sentence that consults or teaches. Lime never carries a sentence. Amber never carries copy longer than a label.

Devices

  • The dot field. Kept as is: the lime grid that wakes near the cursor and breathes around the centre.
  • The cursor glow and the vignette. Kept as is.
  • The magnetic skew button. Kept as is, one per page, always lime, always saying where it goes.
  • Status dots. Lime with a ping for live, white for running, a hollow accent ring for waiting. The only place the accent appears by default.
  • The forest panel. A section that changes ground to hold the record. Lime dots and the zero glow on it.

Do / don't

Do

  • Keep the seven live tokens exactly.
  • Use forest as ground for the record, never as text.
  • Use amber only on a waiting state.
  • Let the monogram be the app icon.

Don't

  • Forest text, forest borders, forest gradients.
  • Lime fills outside the monogram.
  • Amber on anything live.
  • The ring mark anywhere.

Laws carried over

  • Never a storefront. Products sell on their own domains; this page shows proof and links out.
  • Lime is never body text, never a headline, never a large fill. Accent for signal only.
  • Never invent revenue and never hide the €0.00.
  • The separate operating company stays off this surface, including as background credibility.
  • No trackers, popups, comment sections, contact forms. Published copy passes the voice gate.
02 forest · all retouches