/ Why I wrote 'Pocket Winners'

Every now and then, you find yourself in a team where you just know. No org charts, no noise, no distractions – you can feel it. Conversations are sharper, questions go deeper, trade-offs make sense, and, most importantly, everyone is solving the same problem, not adjacent ones. When that happens, something shifts. A successful product is no longer something you chase – it becomes the almost inevitable outcome.

I've been lucky enough to be part of a few of those teams across the many mobile products I've worked on: in my own startup, in scale-ups, and in enterprise environments. Almost without exception, they built defining products in an unreasonably short amount of time (yes, even in enterprise…).

And many of those apps had something in common. They found their way into people's daily lives and stayed there. In a world where hundreds of thousands of apps are launched every year, only a handful end up in everyone's pocket and rise to the top of the charts. They create new behaviours and redefine business. These are the ones I call Pocket Winners: apps so valuable they become indispensable.

A few years ago, after finishing one of those projects, two people said something that stayed with me: “You should write this down.” I assumed they were being polite, but I started anyway.

Looking back across the mobile teams I'd worked with, I noticed something curious. Different companies, different people, different contexts — yet the same patterns kept appearing: similar ways of thinking, deciding, and working together. Maybe this wasn't luck. Maybe it was something you could describe.

There's a persistent myth that high-performing app teams are magical accidents – a rare mix of brilliant individuals that somehow just works. I don't believe that. In my experience, great teams emerge when the conditions are right: when talent is trusted, clarity beats noise, communication thrives, and people are genuinely enabled to do their best work.

Get that right, and you unlock something rare: speed and quality, ambition and focus, high standards and happy teams.

At the same time, we're entering a world where building apps has never been easier. AI is lowering the barrier at an extraordinary pace. More people can build, more ideas can be tested, more products can ship. That's exciting – but it changes the game. If everyone can build, standing out becomes much harder. The tools won't differentiate you. The mindset will.

Pocket Winners is my attempt to capture that winning mindset. It's shaped by years of working with exceptional people who challenged me, corrected me, and consistently raised the bar. Many of the ideas in this book aren't mine alone – they're the product of teams who simply refused to build average things.

If it helps a few teams think a little clearer, move a little faster, and build something that truly matters, then it will have been worth writing.

The book will be out in April 2026. If you are interested, please register your details here.

I hope you will enjoy it.