Founders

Being an entrepreneur is hard

You're given two opposing directives:
1) Manifest your vision, even when nobody else believes in you
2) Listen to the market and adapt to what it tells you

When do you choose option 1 over 2? 

Nobody can tell you deterministically -- it's an art. Respect to anyone who takes this path

really good classic talk by reid hoffman on founding as being about navigating paradoxes:

really good classic talk by reid hoffman on founding as being about navigating paradoxes:

https://youtu.be/pkAum45ubWc?si=dZESadtmEvlan5zn&t=840

Creator of @harmonybot @yoinker /bot-or-not | /blitkin | /orange-dao | IRL: Building spatial computing for construction @ Resolve YC W15

How do you do prevent capitulating on your vision via a series of small accommodations for the market?

Sometimes what the market wants in the near term is antagonistic to your long term vision

I don't think you ever get to choose #1 over #2. Your company's survival is contingent on at least one market choosing you. That could be VCs, customers, or users.

If you can't get buy in from any market to keep you alive then the time runs out on #1.

You can sometimes sell cereal boxes like the airbnb guys but that only buys you a bit of time and you do need to eventually hit an inflection point even if just a local maximum.

what i love about being in crypto is that it has given me enough money over time (through random things that end up happening just for being part of farcaster) to be pursuing 1) relentless, despite the world telling that the "entrepreneur way" is to do 2) and do what customers want

1/2 spending time with my dad over the past 24 hours, I got an unexpected and pleasant refresher on what it means to be a founder.

dad is 67, a first-generation entrepreneur, has been running his business for the past 45 years. like him, I'm quite the 'old school' founder at heart.

here's a few things that jumped out seeing/hearing him as he navigated his day:

- you gotta show up every day. building something that lasts takes real hard work. there's a thrill in tackling new problems every day; you never feel settled. It's a curse, but mostly a good one.

- do at least two things well: have conviction about where you want your business to be in five years, and be right about what to execute in the next year. essentially, solve today's obstacles while heading in the right direction. all other things will figure themselves out, iteratively. 

(some more in next cast)👇

the art is in managing the ebs and flows for 1 and 2.
market tells you what part of the vision is acceptable today. many other factors go in prioritizing - team, runway, gtm..
at the end of the day, 'sequencing' the right things to work on is imp.
wrote on something similar few weeks ago :)

the art is in managing the ebs and flows for 1 and 2.
market tells you what part of the vision is acceptable today. many other factors go in prioritizing - team, runway, gtm..
at the end of the day, 'sequencing' the right things to work on is imp.
wrote on something similar few weeks ago :)

https://warpcast.com/sahil/0x2f372c30

> Being an entrepreneur is hard

yet we do it anyway

building reel.farm and farcasterstudio.com

Feels too rigid

Sometimes even the general things aren't what the market wants, and your customers might be wrong in a way that compromises the vision if you capitulate to them (faster horses, etc)

1 for general things but 2 when it specifically affects your customers

grey

noting 3 questions I recently found, help me narrow down quickly, when asked sequentially in context to 1 conversation.

1. What is the goal, LT or ST? (don't get hung up on details, just state them)
2. What are current problems? (don't get hung up on why, just name them)
3. How are current resources allocated? (time, money, activities, etc)

I think related. 

https://warpcast.com/les/0xf55d3be9

Super hard! 

Vision is the constant. 
“T” and “t” are the variables that determine the outcome.

“T”emp (what’s hot, what’s not?)
“t”ime (how long do you have?)

my rule of thumb is, keep going as long as you have ideas that can move the needle, pivot when you are out of ideas and stuck without a good way forward

foundations built on 1 , realize it with scale.

but to get to scale you need to focus on 2.

 with right vision, foundations won’t change.

going through this now and it *seems like market is catching up to vision

with respect I think this is a false dichotomy. you have to do (1) *via* (2)

The issue with both 1 and 2 is nicely encapsulated it Betamax though

Option 1, Always I have never been good at PMF and honestly anything truly innovative is too early to nestle comfortably into the markets current state - Sleep and money are overrated anyways. And you get to say I told you so to the three people who listened.