I kept coming back to the same kind of software: tools that helped a business get more out of its people without making everybody miserable.
The category was broad. Management tools counted. So did software for business processes, hiring, interviews, and the everyday work of keeping a team moving. I liked products such as Trello, Slack, Greenhouse, and Codility because each one took a part of work that could be clumsy and made it easier to handle.
That interest was becoming more specific. I had been working on a small utility for one-on-one meetings and active management. The further I got, the more I thought there was something there. The idea was early and loose. I kept pulling at the problem.
I wrote a friend after a long conversation and tried to make the direction plain. I wanted to build in this space. I asked for other companies worth studying and for the basic questions a useful pitch should answer. I was still doing the research and trying to sharpen the idea.
A few days later, I described the practical version to another friend. I could keep working at Reonomy while building the app and learning whether people wanted it. I was also starting to think the first version should spread person to person instead of depending on a top-down company sale.
That was still only a theory. The product needed a clearer shape, and I needed to understand why somebody would use it before asking a whole organization to care.
My notes ended without a polished company plan. They did leave me with a useful list: one-on-ones, hiring, management, and the small systems that make work feel less wasteful. That was enough to keep building around.