Why Founders Should Build an Opinionated Culture

This is partly why I find Lean Startup Evangelical Fundamentalism a little weird. Just in case you’re not familiar, “lean startup” is the meme-ified idea that entrepreneurs should build “Minimum Viable Products”, expending the least amount of resources to build the things that are most perfectly adapted to the ‘market fit.’

The "80/20 principle" for founders

Traction: 80% distribution, 20% product

Growth: 80% retention, 20% acquisition

Revenue: 80% existing customers, 20% new leads

Pricing experiments: 80% positioning tweaks, 20% actual price changes

Brand building: 80% customer experience, 20% logo design

Sales: 80% listening, 20% pitching

Community building: 80% empowering... See more

We are in an age of noise.

The frameworks that got us here, of jobs-to-be-done or product-market fit, will be insufficient going forward. For founders to have extraordinary outcomes, they will have to find alpha in markets that aren’t easily understood.

Which is to say, technology alone won’t be enough. The other essential ingredient will be taste.... See more