Founders

The Idea Maze is certainly not wrong, but there are also countless examples where successful startups did not start by going through it. e.g. Uber and AirBnb

Measuring things at @spindl.

My FID is lower than all but 52 of you.

Perhaps we’re talking about different time scales. Uber figured out the medallion system and scaling with X vs black cars, but none of that was accounted for out of the gate

Idea Maze paper implies founder know about every possible path and obstacle before pressing go

What? They absolutely went through it. Those products today are not what they started as, and there was struggle to get there. 

The time in the maze gets retconned out of the story in favor of one of effortless, providential success.