The Self-Aware Founder

It’s hard to achieve goals when you don’t even understand how you think.

Why is there often a disconnect between what people say and what they do, especially in startup land? I have interviewed hundreds of founders and hosted numerous community events over the past year, providing me with insight into their behavior in both private and public settings, from Silicon Valley to Minnesota. After all those conversations, I found a disconnect between what the founders said was important and how they actually spent their time.

Many founders said finding product-market fit was the highest priority. They spoke passionately about validating their core hypotheses before pushing for growth. I heard stories of startups doing hundreds of customer interviews, rapidly iterating products based on feedback, and obsessing over cohort retention rates.

But they quickly contradicted themselves. Instead of focusing on testing and iteration, they prioritized meeting new people (often not their target audience) and participating in startup programs (as if an additional badge could help them sell). When I asked them what they were optimizing for, they would repeat ‘product market fit’ and then ask, “By the way, do you know this investor?”