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.
One small thing, done nicely.
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Hey Reader, I’ll be honest with you — my energy has been in the basement this week. Usually, this is where the "startup gurus" tell you to drink more coffee, wake up at 4:00 AM, and grind through the pain. I think that’s bad advice. Actually, I think it’s dangerous noise. Building a company isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon where the terrain keeps changing. If you redline your engine every time you feel a dip, you won’t just slow down — you’ll blow the motor. I’ve learned that when energy is low, the goal isn't to do everything poorly. The goal is to do one small thing, nicely. When you’re overwhelmed or exhausted, your brain starts treating every task like a life-or-death emergency. It's not. Instead of trying to "crush it," try this:
The Clarity Filter Insight Consistency beats intensity every single time. A startup dies when the founder quits, not when they take a nap. If you can only do one thing today, make it the thing that matters [Share on LinkedIn] | [Share on X] It is okay to move slowly. Just don't stop moving. Speak soon, P.S. Want to get to your first $10K MRR faster? |
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...