Startup Advice

When you’re anxious, there is no quicker relief than checking things. Checking your Substack subscriber stats, refreshing your inbox and order confirmations.

Scott Belsky coined the term insecurity work to describe work that does not move the ball forward, but is quick enough that you can do it multiple times a day without realizing.

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We are in an age of noise.

The frameworks that got us here, of jobs-to-be-done or product-market fit, will be insufficient going forward. For founders to have extraordinary outcomes, they will have to find alpha in markets that aren’t easily understood.

Which is to say, technology alone won’t be enough. The other essential ingredient will be taste.... See more

• How valuable is what I’m doing?


• What makes this hard for others to do?


• Could this get dramatically easier because of what others launch or how the industry evolves?


• If this does get easier, do I have a “Plan B” to create differentiated value?
  
  Note: An early version of this post appeared in my personal blog (still a work in progress). Decided to

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