Scattered convictions

Convictions that have been on my mind lately through interactions with my team and a variety of founders.

• Company culture and company values don’t mean anything until they’re tested.

• Startups without existential urgency don’t win.

• Startups don't fail due to running out of time or money. Startups fail because they scale before they find product-market fit, or because they never find product-market fit.

• Startups should be built by generalists and scaled by specialists. Aside from founders, few get to experience the full ride. Most often you either outgrow the company or the company outgrows you.

• Successful founders fail to view their current limitations as their ultimate limitations.

• Expect disaster. Startup founders should get mentally comfortable with micro failure. When you expect it, and you should, it's less exhausting, you can better react to it.

• Output takes care of outcome.

• Failure will always feel better than regret.

• When the user’s story doesn't align with the data, believe the story.

• Don’t confuse a clear view for a short distance.

• Everything that is innovative or makes a difference in the world is not practical in the moment.

• Hire trajectory-changing people and give them more responsibility than they know what to do with.