Founders spend most of their time planning, deciding, and selling. In my experience, all of these abilities get 100x better – not just 2x or 10x better – when you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Perhaps one of the most important skills to develop as a founder is the ability to sleep well. Exercise. Get … Continue reading Be a professional sleeper
For founders, storytelling is one of the most important skills. I’ve noticed that there are generally two ways to tell a startup story: Top-down: Start with the big vision, then show how today’s product is the first step toward that future. Bottom-up: Start with the specific problem you’re solving today, then expand outward to the … Continue reading The “Days of the Week” Analogy
During Spring Break, I took my daughter to Taiwan. We visited the world-famous original location of Din Tai Fung. The wait was 45 minutes, which was actually considered short (By the time we finished eating, the wait had grown to 170 minutes!)Since we had some time to kill, we walked around the neighborhood. One thing … Continue reading The Din Tai Fung Story
I had a great time speaking at the The Korea Society’s AI and startup forum with Dorothy Chang and Kirak Hong. Here are a few random recaps and musings: 1/ A successful community is built by dedicated givers We all need a community we can belong to. For Koreans, many of us want a thriving … Continue reading The Korea Society talk
My friend Celina Lee said that, after 10 years of coaching, she’s learned that people who don’t achieve their dreams fall into one of three categories: 1/ Those who don’t know what they want to achieve2/ Those who know what they want, but don’t pull the trigger and start3/ Those who start, but try to … Continue reading Three reasons why people don’t achieve their dreams
BlockIt vs Viktor – in the AI era, do less but better. (Disclaimer: I have zero interest in either company. This is just my personal observation as a user.) If there’s one AI product I’ve been telling – or bugging, rather – all my friends about, it’s BlockIt.BlockIt does one thing and only one thing … Continue reading Do less but better
I’ve noticed two types of founders in the AI space. The first has a North Star. They know their life’s vision and mission. They have clarity on what they want to build and why. For them, the product is a means to an end, not the purpose itself. The second is more opportunistic. No firm … Continue reading Knowing your North Star
I was catching up with a founder friend in the CPG space recently. His business is doing well now with real revenue and profits. I congratulated him. He appreciated it, then told me something I didn’t know: just a couple of years ago, he was $2 million in debt. That’s crushing weight for a first-time … Continue reading Just keep going
I was listening to a 20VC podcast featuring Alan Chang, founder of Fuse Energy and an early employee at Revolut. When Revolut launched, they weren’t the only player in the market. Similar services existed with comparable feature sets. But only Revolut became a massive success. Why? People tried to find a logical explanation. But it … Continue reading Working weekends and evenings
Being back in zero-to-one founder mode, one of the biggest challenges I’m facing is needing two completely different lenses: Focus only on day-to-day execution (the microscope)? You lose your true north. No sense of mission.Focus only on the big vision (the telescope)? You can’t advance the business. Dreams alone can’t ship products. I find most … Continue reading The telescope and the microscope