Max Beauroyre

The most innovative products emerged without explicit customer requests. Nobody asked for the first iPhone, Airbnb, or Figma. These products came from vision and intuition.

The people who'd like to be boss of their company, to sit back in that comfortable chair with a lovely golden parachute—most of them couldn't make it. If you try to drop executive responsibility on someone who lacks executive-nature—on the theory that most people can do it if given the chance—then they'll melt and catch fire.

Valuation is all about all alignment. When we’re working on a round together we have to align each of four factors.

1. Capital : how much you’ll raise and spend


2. Valuation : the price you’ll raise it at


3. Inputs : what you’ve done to date


4. Outputs : what you will do with the money

When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three.

Creating for 24-hour cycles isn’t freedom, leverage, or legacy—it’s just renting out your time.

Light mode is fast and iterative, producing work that’s quick to make but just as quick to fade. It’s the mode of rapid experiments, side quests, and prolific posting. Heavy mode is slower, deliberate, and intentional (often hermit mode). It’s the mode of deep work that builds over time and carries lasting weight.

Light things shape culture, but rarely shape us.

AI now promises results without the reckoning, but frictionless creation leads to weightless rewards. No one dreams of merely pushing a button to generate their magnum opus. The struggle is what makes it count, what gives it weight.

We create more than ever, but it weighs nothing.