Every once in a while I’ll write a note to our founders or my team that doesn’t get published publicly. The goal is to summarize a moment and time, but some of the concepts or advice are enduring. An aerospace founder reminded me of one such post recently, and mentioned that he references it quite often, that alone feels like enough to publish the post.

Two years ago, we were deep in Covid, and I sensed founders hesitating at every decision, so I wrote this in January 2022:

Subject Line: Perfection is the Enemy Here.

Founders,

It's been amazing to kick off the tribe and get to know you the last week. It's been awesome.

I wanted to hit on something hard and fast that I'm noticing as a theme. And I really want you to think about it in reference to yourself and your product and then I want you to go do something.

There's a disease in the air, and it's Perfection and Hesitation.

IF YOU WANT TO BUILD AN ENDURING STARTUP, YOU CANNOT BE A PERFECTIONIST. I SAY THIS HAVING LOST SO MUCH MONEY ON PERFECTIONISM AND HESITATION.

These three months. I'm just going to be pushing all of you to press the button. Launch. Call the person. Do the thing. Run faster. Jump higher. Stop thinking and start doing. If I sound frustrated with you, its because this disease will kill your company. This disease of perfectionism will not let you press the button. It will make you hesitate to try things, to close doors, to open new ones.

If you want to build a company. Just build it, stop asking for permission. Stop thinking that you need someone else' final say. Or the approval of someone else. Just build it and do it.

The best company learn the fastest from their process by pressing the go button. They don't press the red button because something "might" happen. Launch, learn, implement, repeat.

Make money as fast as you can.

Adam

People seem to think there is a road map to building a startup, but it’s just an enduring punch to the face. The universe is lazy and doesn’t want to change, so you have to make it change with constant movement.

Hope this helps someone out there.

*Originally published on Adam’s Substack - https://www.adamdraper.vc/

Do The Thing.

Subject Line: Perfection is the Enemy Here.