Since last May, I have been working on a startup. I have experienced what many people would call pivot hell; four significantly different ideas, none of which inspired me enough to continue working on them. Most people would look at these past ten months as a total failure. But on reflection, I have come to appreciate the extent to which I failed. Most of my failures were a result of applying too many constraints, and thereby optimizing for a local minimum rather than a global minimum.
When you restrict yourself to just software, you miss out on some of the most ambitious and important problems in the world. I got caught in the trap that B2B SaaS is the only way (for some, it totally is), and that making something people want means catering to base desires because it is easy. What these decisions reflect is short-term thinking, the idea that the permanent class is eighteen months out so you may as well just get the bag. I was not thinking this explicitly, but it was definitely in the back of my mind. It is the thinking of many people in my generation. The trenches, sports gambling, looksmaxxing - it is a symptom of the same illness: people want excellence without struggle.
I was listening to Travis Kalanick's appearance on TBPN this week and he perfectly described what I have been feeling the last few months: "go all the way until it hurts. If you're doing something and it's easy, it's not valuable." The antidote to the slop and slot machines of the 21st century is to identify the tallest mountain and then climb it. In a world where you can now build anything, what matters most is deciding what to build. The opportunity cost has never been higher.
This is where I currently find myself: the curse of optionality. With so many important problems, I believe it is worthwhile to be patient and weigh the different options. David Lynch is a hero of mine, especially for his approach to the creative process. "Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful."
The greatest founders build what their unique life experience has led them to. They are, in some sense, chosen to build their company. So the best advice I can give to anyone, including myself, about how to start a company is this: know thyself. Become deeply self-aware, and when the right thing comes, you will know it. If you know yourself, your next thing, your new idea, your work soulmate will reveal itself.
So what's the plan for the next few months? I'll be in China for about a month this summer. I specifically want to see Shenzhen and understand what we are up against. During this time, I'll be messing around with biology and robotics. I'm hoping that doing those two things will help me see a larger opportunity space, with the intent of running with whatever unique insights come my way.
So to respond to the question posed at the beginning of this essay: are these past ten months a failure? Absolutely not. They are part of a much bigger journey, one where I am sharpening an axe before cutting down the tree.