After a Sunday of mapping my learnings from discovery calls to my initial hypothesis and feeling like my idea is shit, I sat down with my roommate Rome and shared the update. He congratulated me for invalidating the idea without having to build anything. He reiterated that the journey to figuring out the problem worth starting a company for takes time and that you need to go through the process with a scientific approach.
We also discussed that there is no rush. I have until next July on my visa so I should work backwards from that instead of pressuring myself to come up with something in a month. Think big. Don’t rush.
I got connected to a YouTuber with millions of subscribers and an MBA from Stanford. He shared that he is currently thinking about starting something and is also exploring a few problem spaces. I was surprised but comforted to hear that someone so successful is also figuring out what’s next and is slowly but surely building conviction.
The CEO of Greenko group emphasized the importance of a clear vision at the Stanford India Dialogue Conference. A vision excites people and makes them want to join you. It is important for leaders to paint a clear picture of the future and to energize people around them.
I ate dinner as I watched an SPC interview of Instacart’s founder. He advised founders to think about ‘Why now’? What has changed in the world that makes pursuing the opportunity in your mind the right time to pursue it? This reminded me of Jeff Bezos quitting his job at DE Shaw, because he believed the internet has enabled a new kind of commerce that wasn’t possible before. If you are starting a company, you need to have a clear answer for ‘Why now’.
I reconnected with a college friend and spent a couple of days in his apartment after work going through some ideas. The experience was productive and more fun than just sitting at my desk and grinding away by myself. It’s been a week now and it has been fun to collaborate. If I ever to start over my explore journey again I would get a co-founder earlier