What Hearing “No” Every Day Taught Me About Building the Hard (Right) Way

TL;DR

Leading ERP.Aero meant hearing “no” every day. Not big enough. Not old enough, yet. Over time, those no’s stopped being a verdict and became part of the process. Trust was earned through execution, not asking. Progress replaced permission and craft mattered more than optics. Yesterday was conviction without consensus. Today is proof catching up. Tomorrow is steady confidence built on real outcomes. The work did not change but the belief followed.

The Part Nobody Warns You About

There's a version of building a company that gets talked about a lot. It usually starts with traction. Then momentum. Then belief. It sounds clean when people tell it later.

That's not how it starts.

It starts with hearing no. A lot of it.

Not just once in a while. Every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. No, you are not big enough. No, you are not old enough. No, we don't know your references yet. No, we already have something that sort of works. No, come back later.

Early on, those no’s feel heavy. I sometimes take them personally even if I tell myself not to. I replay conversations in my head. I rewrite emails that will never get sent. I wonder if I explained it wrong or if the value is not as obvious as I thought. But that's just me.

With ERP.Aero, we could see the problem clearly. Fragmented RFQs. Certs living in inboxes. Inventory that looked real until it was not. Audits that felt like survival events instead of processes. We lived inside those problems long before we tried to solve them.

But seeing something clearly does not mean the market is ready to see it with you.

That gap is where most things break. Not because the idea is wrong, but because belief takes longer than conviction. People want proof before they want promises. Especially in aviation, and especially when compliance, money, and reputation are involved.

I wish everyone saw the value the way we did. Or the way our customers eventually would. But that's not how it works. You don't get to skip the earning part. You build. You show up. You deliver. And you let time do its thing.

That part is quiet. And uncomfortable. And very real.

What “No” Actually Means When You Stay Long Enough

If you stay in it long enough, something changes. Not the no’s. Those still come. But your relationship with them does.

At some point, rejection stops feeling like a verdict and starts feeling like a condition of motion. If you're moving forward, you will hear no. If you're trying to change how people operate, you'll hear no even more.

A lot of people treat no as feedback on direction. Sometimes it is. Other times it's not. Often it's about timing, risk, or comfort. Not about value.

We learned not to pivot every time someone hesitated. We listened. We refined. We improved. But we did not abandon the core because belief was slow.

Trust is not something you ask for. It's something people observe over time. In our world, trust shows up in audits passed, and in quotes that go out clean. In certs that are there when they matter, as well as in systems that hold up on bad days, not just good ones.

Early ERP.Aero was conviction without consensus. That's a lonely phase. But it's also a clarifying one. You learn whether you actually believe what you are building, or whether you just liked the idea of it.

We grew and stopped measuring momentum by who said yes. We started measuring it by progress. Are we better than yesterday? Are customers doing things they couldn't do before? Are fewer things breaking? And are fewer people chasing information.

That internal scorecard matters when the outside world is still undecided.

Yesterday, Today, and the Discipline of Craft

Yesterday, ERP.Aero was mostly invisible. We were building while others were pitching. We chose craft over noise, even when noise would have been easier.

That choice wasn't always comfortable. It would've been tempting to oversell. To smooth over rough edges. To promise futures that were not fully earned yet.

Instead, we focused on making the system work, and work it does. One screen that actually told the truth. Data that stayed connected. MRO Rapid Intake while redefining how repair shops source the parts they need. Workflows that matched how people really operate, not how software thinks they should.

That kind of work doesn't show up well in slides. It shows up later, in real world outcomes.

Today, something has shifted. Not dramatically. Not overnight. But quietly. People come back months later and say they have been watching. Customers tell us they passed audits the first time around. Companies abandoning other commitments and choosing ours. Teams say they cannot imagine handling multi line RFQs the way they used to.

Those moments don't happen in the pitch. They happen after. After go-live. After real use. After stress.

That's when belief changes shape and becomes practical.

Looking back at 2025, that shift from theory to practice is what defined the year. It was the year the specific “no’s” began to fade, replaced by the quiet hum of systems that just worked. We spent the last twelve months proving that the conviction we held yesterday could survive the reality of today. The result wasn’t fanfare. It was stability.

As we look toward the new year, the mandate changes. It is no longer about proving we belong in the room. Tomorrow is not about scale for the sake of scale. It is about confidence. About knowing the foundation holds. About continuing to offer real value even when not everyone sees it yet.

The discipline is the same. Keep learning. Keep tightening the craft. Keep leading with action instead of explanation.

Doubt, Resolve, and Staying in the Work

There are days when this path feels heavy. And even heavier days when I almost rethink the strategy or the order of things. Even whether we're pushing in the right places.

That is normal. Doubt is not a sign we're failing. It is a sign we're paying attention.

The danger is not doubt. The danger is letting doubt erase resolve.

We questioned ourselves plenty. We just didn't let those questions stop the work. We used them to sharpen it.

Every no can either drain you or drive you. And that choice is not theoretical. You make it over and over again, often quietly, often alone.

Some days the reward is small. Someone listens. Someone asks a better question. Someone takes the next step. That is enough.

Other days, you get the thank you. The holy cow. The "we could not believe how much better this was than expected." Those moments matter because they confirm something deeper. That the work was worth it even when belief was scarce.

The Only Game That Matters

This was never about avoiding rejection. It was about not letting rejection decide the outcome, and about playing the long game.

Building something real takes time. Especially when the stakes are high. Especially when trust matters more than hype.

ERP.Aero did not grow by being universally understood. It grew by being useful. Then reliable. Then trusted.

Yesterday was about conviction. Today is about proof. Tomorrow is about compounding both.

The (long) game is simple, even if it is not easy. Keep your nose to the grindstone. Learn faster than you complain. Perfect the craft instead of chasing applause. Offer real value even when it is not fully recognized yet. and listen, listen, and listen.

If you do that long enough, people listen. First a few. Then more. And eventually, belief catches up.

Not because you asked for it. Because you earned it.

I am the CEO of ERP.Aero and have spent nearly two decades inside aviation supply chain (including A&D) technology, quoting, compliance, and operations. I know the problems ERP.Aero was built to solve, not as theory, but as daily reality. I try to focus on building systems that hold up under pressure, create a single source of truth, and help aviation teams operate with clarity instead of chaos.

2025 has also been a time for some fun, attending various tradeshows and meeting some wonderful people. I'm also very happy to have had the opportunity to launch the Skybound Ops Podcast. Thank you to all.