Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
New Year, fresh start
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Hey Reader, Did you know that the word "decide" comes from the Latin "decidere" — literally meaning "to cut off"? As we close out the year, I see founders paralyzed by a familiar anxiety. They’re caught in the uncomfortable in-between:
They're in limbo. They haven't decided. That anxiety exists because you're trying to keep all options open. But when you keep all options open, you keep your strategy vague, your execution slow, and your project runway burning. You cannot achieve clarity until you are willing to cut off the possibilities that are not serving you. The toughest decision you will make in the new year won't be about features or funding. It will be the decision to stop tolerating your current, unsatisfying discomfort. Don’t confuse motion with momentum. You spent a year in motion. It's time to generate momentum. The Clarity Filter Insight A truly made decision cuts off all other possibilities and generates immediate, focused momentum. [Share on LinkedIn] | [Share on X] Your goal for the first quarter isn't a perfect product. It’s perfect clarity. Speak soon, P.S. If this idea struck a chord, chances are another founder needs to hear it before they start the new year in the same old pattern. Feel free to forward this email to them. |
Clarity Filter
Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
Hey Reader, Founders love to pitch an inevitable future. They see a clear shift in the market, build a product for that future, and launch. Then they get silent buyers and a dead pipeline. They assume the product is broken. Or the marketing is wrong. But the problem is usually much simpler: they are early. And in an early-stage startup, being ahead of your time is functionally indistinguishable from being wrong. A market can be directionally attractive and still be a terrible opportunity...
Hey Reader, In my last email, I broke down how Sam Altman’s relationship network literally purchased his first company's failure for millions. Most builders read that and thought: "Great, but I don't live in SF and I don't know any VCs." You are looking at networking all wrong. You don’t need billionaires. You need a net of adjacent peers who are 6 to 12 months ahead of you. If you want to know if your current network is there yet, here's a handy validator for ya: Look at your calendar for...
Hey Reader, Founders love the myth of the exceptional product. They believe Silicon Valley legends won because they built better software. Here is the reality. Sam Altman's first company, Loopt, had no real traction. It failed as a consumer product. It was acquired for millions anyway. Not because the tech was brilliant. Because Altman had well-connected VC relationships. When the app failed, his network caught him. The relationships were the infrastructure that literally purchased his...