Blog

About building, entrepreneurship, and learning.

How we run a baseline measurement, before anything changes

6 min read

Before every rebuild we record where a site actually stands. This is the method: five angles, no number without a source, and a second pass that decides what stays.

What a lean agency actually costs: four years of books

10 min read

I thought my subscriptions were the saving. They were not. Here is what actually changed in the books at Oase Creative, in percentages, over four years.

How our marketing system works, from research to publish

12 min read

I am opening up the whole marketing system behind Oase Creative: how the research runs, which gates an article has to pass, and where it goes afterwards.

Why Oase Creative Is No Longer an E-commerce Agency

6 min read

For six years we were an e-commerce branding agency. That label is gone, because the work changed: agentic systems, automation, and brands beyond e-commerce.

My agent turned a signed proposal into a running project

7 min read

First my AI agent could only read my software. This week it could act: I sent it a proposal, and two minutes later the running project was there.

Six years of Oase Creative: what I learned

12 min read

On 4 June 2020 I registered Oase Creative. Six years, 200+ brands, and a lot of mistakes later: the honest story of where I started, what I learned, and where it goes next.

I gave my AI agent a live line into my own software

8 min read

Today my agent made its first real call into Oase and got live data back. The first thing it saw was a project in free fall. Before I saw it myself.

Why I build what I build

12 min read

An agency, a SaaS platform, an onchain layer, and an AI chief of staff. Four projects, one pattern: the tool that should have existed when I needed it myself.

What descout is and why we built it

5 min read

Discovery infrastructure for blockchain ecosystems. Why Lam and I built descout — the discovery layer for foundations, not another content shop.

How it feels when six years of work clicks for someone in 30 minutes

11 min read

A demo with a Squarespace designer half a world away confirmed what I'd been building for six years. No pivot, no corrections. Recognition.

How I Built an AI Chief of Staff to Run My Agency

9 min read

I have five AI agents running my design agency 24/7. Research, content, communication, publishing -- all automated. Here's exactly how it works, what went wrong, and what I learned.

Louie Valkhof: why this site and who I am

3 min read

I'm Louie Valkhof, 29-year-old entrepreneur from Arnhem, Netherlands. Founder of Oase Creative and Oase Software. This is my story.