I'm a copywriter, endurance junkie, and hell-bent on building stuff that sells.

Hi, I’m Jef van de Graaf

In 2014, I sold everything and bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo. I spent the first four years cycling across Asia. I taught English for a while and built my own school, which I grew from zero to 65 students in eight months.

After Japan I moved to Taiwan and taught myself copywriting and web design. I earned $60K off Upwork and lived a poor but happy life. Everything since has been chasing bigger and better work. These days I’m “vibe coding” from a fourth-floor condo in Chiang Mai and training for an Ironman or my next trail running event.

Here you’ll find my crazy stories and business experiments (the wins and the fuck ups). I write about bootstrapping a business alone, the loneliness of being “friends” with other transient strangers, and the days when chasing your dreams feels like another big mistake.

Right now I’m trying to stop pouring everything I’ve got into other people’s businesses and start building something of my own. I don’t know what that is yet. Most of what I write is me figuring it out — you can read about that in my latest articles.