By Nicholas Dylewski · November 5, 2026 · 4 min read
The problem we kept seeing
My business partner understood the manufacturer side of sales: finding companies that might need a particular component can take a lot of time, and the usual lead lists don’t always show whether a product actually uses that part. We started talking about whether there was a better way to find those companies and prove why each one was a relevant prospect. That became the starting point for Artemin.
We began working on the idea about three months ago. My partner brought knowledge of the lead-generation problem, and together we began shaping a solution. Artemin is a B2B prospecting web app for sales teams at companies that make components such as casters, latches, and leveling feet. The goal is to find manufacturers whose products already use a component, then give the sales team evidence it can review.
That evidence matters. A lead is more useful when someone can see why it appeared in a search. Artemin can provide a product photo with the component marked by an arrow, or a page from a manual that names the part. We wanted the output to help a salesperson understand the lead, not just add another company name to a spreadsheet.
From idea to a working product
I’m Artemin’s co-founder and co-owner. I built most of the software, led the majority of product development, and helped shape the business strategy. My work has involved turning the initial idea into a web app with features that support different parts of the prospecting process.
The app includes a review mode, a manuals search, prospect lists, and a Niche Finder. Each feature has to serve a real step in finding and assessing leads. The search needs to identify relevant manufacturers; the evidence needs to make sense; and the user needs a way to review and keep the results. Thinking through the product this way helped me focus on how the pieces fit together, rather than treating each feature as an isolated tool.
One caster search found 20 out of 20 manufacturers, and it took 48 seconds to return 10 verified results. That is one search, not a promise that every search will have the same result. Still, it gave us a concrete example of the speed and verification we want the product to provide.
Building Artemin has meant making decisions about both the user experience and the underlying process. I have had to think about what a sales team needs to see, what counts as useful proof, and how the app should present the results so someone can act on them.
The hardest part of the build
The hardest technical challenge has been making the different parts of the system work together reliably. Artemin relies on multiple pieces of existing infrastructure. I think of it like putting together a puzzle: a search can ask the product to find different components, and the pieces have to connect properly for that particular search to produce useful results.
That creates a practical challenge. A system can have promising individual parts and still fail as a product if the handoffs between them are inconsistent. We had to pay attention to how the components interacted and make sure the process worked for the component the user had asked about. The focus was not only on getting a result, but on getting a result that could be reviewed and backed by evidence.
Working through that challenge has changed how I approach product development. I’m learning to look beyond whether one feature works on its own and ask whether the whole experience works from the user’s point of view. It also requires patience: when a result does not look right, I need to trace the process and understand where the pieces stopped fitting together.
This is still a product we are developing. The challenge has taught me that building software often involves coordinating systems and decisions that depend on each other. A solution becomes valuable when those pieces work together consistently enough to solve the original problem.
What building Artemin taught me
Working with my co-founder has taught me the value of dividing responsibilities based on experience. We have built things together before, but Artemin has made that lesson especially clear. We get better results when we understand what each person brings to the project and assign work accordingly. That does not mean working in separate silos; it means using each person’s strengths while staying aligned on the product we are building.
I have also learned that entrepreneurship involves moving between different kinds of work. One day I may be focused on software, and another day I may be thinking about product priorities or the business strategy. The original problem is the anchor through all of it: help sales teams find manufacturers that use their components and give them evidence they can evaluate.
Artemin is a work in progress, but building it has already taught me to stay curious when something is difficult, adapt when the first version needs changes, and take responsibility for getting the details right. I’m ambitious about what the product can become, but I know that progress comes from making the pieces work one step at a time. That is the kind of builder I want to be: curious enough to keep asking better questions, adaptable enough to solve what comes next, and ambitious enough to keep building.