founder's mentality
insights, articles, musings and resources to help founders and builders cultivate a healthy mindset and get unstuck
sari and
founder's mentality
It is much easier to advise 1000 companies than build 1.
Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
David Bayles • 3 highlights
amazon.com
We all know “startups are hard,” but I think we tend to imagine that this difficulty is bounded, contained, modelable, a bit like running a marathon: yes, legs and lungs hurt, but that’s normal and appropriate, and we know the route, the distance, and that there’s a finish line. This is a kind of difficulty we can contend with without losing... See more
Chris Best • Principles and pragmatism
startups are hard in the way life is hard, not in the way a marathon is hard, via Mills Baker
Founders are taught to possess enough faith to will whatever they’re working on into existence but are rarely reminded to worship anything but themself. This creates a pressure cooker of responsibility that distorts reality to the point that they often find it hard not to confuse themselves for God — and we all know how that ends.
Molly Mielke • morals
a fundamental tension with being a founder
So but how do we build software that can be anything without falling into the Zombocom trap? I believe that Bezos interview shows us exactly how.
- You start from a systems-level insight ( the internet is growing rapidly )
- Then work backwards to a first best customer who has a burning need ( can’t find book ) that is related to your superpower (
Gordon Brander • The Zombocom Problem
I just talked to a founder whose startup is growing "only" 25% a year and thus felt he needed to get bought. I explained that if he did, he'd need to find somewhere to invest the proceeds, and he'd be unlikely to find any investments that grew at 25% a year.
Paul Grahamtwitter.com