It’s critical that when you get to the point when all your confidence and swagger is gone and you want to scrap everything, you or someone close to you HAS to ask the simple question of why. If it’s only because you’re not getting users, ask why again. WHY aren’t you getting users?
So much of the world of startups is about celebrating being wrong. Whole books, loads of whole books, have been written about the virtues of failure. Yet every founder I know has the hardest time admitting when they are wrong, because often what they are wrong about fundamentally underpins their business.
As a founder, your most precious resource is time. This is true whether you just raised a huge seed round and have enough runway for the next year, or if you’re starting to worry about how you’ll make payroll next week.
Without knowing how that process currently works, chances are high that whatever you build will suck. Not because it’s a process that doesn’t need some updating, but because you have idea of how it works or what success looks like.
What happens when, one day, you wake up and realize the cost of continuing to support those customers is more than they are truly worth? What if the things they’re asking for aren’t helping your larger market, or aren’t lining up with where your product is heading?
The more you’re talking about or thinking about doing something, the less you’re actually doing anything. Sure, there’s a time and a place for thinking and talking, but at the end of the day, the only way to get work done is by doing.