Bonan Kou

Founder of EarthOnline — an engine to find any audience from their real public posts, and talk to it as one. Currently a CS PhD student at Purdue.

Recent activity

The Hostage Trap: Why "AI-Generated" Apps Feel Like Borrowed Tools

Most AI browsers hide what the agent is doing. I wanted to see it happen live, and run it locally. So I built one.

Looking for Founders Who Don't Know Where Their Customers Come From

How did you grow on X?

Are we entering the era of solo founders?

AI is not good enough for content

I thought building AI agents would be the hardest part. I was wrong

I thought building AI agents would be the hardest part. I was wrong

I thought building AI agents would be the hardest part. I was wrong

We launched EarthOnline on ProductHunt this week!

I thought building AI agents would be the hardest part. I was wrong

We launched EarthOnline on ProductHunt this week!

Stop researching tools. Start building.

Stop Looking for Startup Ideas. Start Looking for Pain

Lesson from building a budget host solo: free tools earn trust where sales links get ignored

A stranger used my product today and didn't sign up. I'm counting it as progress.

I wasted 2 weeks building on the wrong channel because I never questioned one assumption

I thought I was building a news visualization tool. Users thought it was a catch-up tool.

I Rejected a $15K Acquisition Offer for My Multi-Agent IDE — Here's the Full Breakdown

I thought building AI agents would be the hardest part. I was wrong