A question I get asked often, usually with a skeptical undertone: how do you actually manage to work on so many companies at the same time? The honest answer is no secret trick. It is a combination of a clear role, the right people, and a system that carries most of the work.
I am not the doer everywhere
The most important point first: I do not build every company on my own. Each one has a strong team or a co-founder running the day-to-day. My role is a different one. I set direction, open doors, make the big calls, and bring in experience where it is missing. Anyone who believes they have to sit at the wheel everywhere cannot do two things well, let alone five.
More on this topic: AI in the Founder's Working Day – background, practice and every article in one place.
In practical terms that means I am not in the day-to-day of any of the companies. I do not read individual support tickets, I do not build campaigns myself. What I do is make the one decision a week the team cannot make on its own, and put the right person in the right seat. That posture, direction instead of control, is also the core of my handshake mentality: I trust the people I build with, otherwise the whole model would collapse on day one.
An agentic operating system behind me
The second point is the one I write about most: AI agents take over the repetitive work across all the companies. Reporting, research, data upkeep, a large part of support, all of it runs automatically in the background. That leaves me and the teams time for what really matters: strategy, customer relationships, the next decision. How this principle works in detail I described in The Autonomous Organization.
This is not a luxury, it is the precondition. Without this system, building in parallel really would be chaos. With it, many construction sites turn into a manageable overview, because the companies deliver their numbers to me instead of me having to collect them by hand.
That there is real leverage here is not just a gut call. In its much-cited study The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey estimates that generative AI can automate activities that today absorb 60 to 70 percent of employees' time. You do not have to take that number literally to grasp what it means: most of what fills a working day is recurring and delegable. That is exactly what I offload to agents systematically, so that the scarcest resource, human attention, lands where it makes the difference.
Focus despite variety
The third point is discipline about focus. Even though I hold stakes in several companies, there is always a current priority. Right now that is The Agentics and Slabhit. The others are running, they are looked after, but the energy flows to where there is the most leverage right now. Everything at once, at equal intensity, does not work.
Concretely it looks like this: for each quarter I define exactly one company as the priority and one clear question that has to be answered there. For Slabhit, the most recent one was simply this: how do we make the first live show trustworthy enough for buyers that they come back? Every other company gets only what keeps it running that quarter, no big new initiatives. This deliberate imbalance is uncomfortable, because you constantly feel like you are leaving something on the table elsewhere. But it is the difference between real progress in one place and mediocre standstill everywhere. A short weekly look at every company's numbers is enough to see whether one of them suddenly needs my attention.
So anyone who wants to build several things in parallel should not ask how to get more done, but how to do less themselves without losing control. Clear roles, good people, a system that carries the load, and honest focus. That is the whole recipe, and it can be learned.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you build several companies in parallel?
Not by doing more yourself, but less: a clear role (setting direction instead of doing everything yourself), strong co-founders, and a system that carries the routine work.
What is an agentic operating system?
AI agents that handle reporting, research, data upkeep, and support automatically across companies, so time is left for strategy and relationships.
How do you keep your focus?
With one clear current priority, often one company and one guiding question per quarter. Not everything at once at equal intensity, the energy flows to where the greatest leverage is right now.
Does building in parallel even make sense without AI?
It is far harder. Since, according to McKinsey, a large share of working time is made up of recurring activities, it is exactly that routine you have to hand to agents in order to free up attention for several companies.
Warm regards,
Dennis Weidner
Note: AI tools supported me in writing this article, and some images were edited with AI. I stand behind its content and every statement with my name.
