Navigating Founder Journey Tradeoffs: Community vs Execution
Week 5 with Antler! Here are some conflicting thoughts and no-filter reflections on my founder’s journey.
๐ญ. ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐
Last week was buzzing with Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) and the many events with Garry Tan.
It was interesting but it was too much and became a distraction. I feel we wasted some precious time and next week I’ll be a lot more careful.
On the positive, it felt really great to “come out” as a founding team with Junus E. and reconnect with many founder friends. It was an important seed to plant and i realized the trust and pride I have in our founder relationship.
๐ฎ. ๐ง๐ฎ๐น๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐บ
We talked to about 200 people in the last 3 weeks and it continues to be incredibly valuable. It’s important for us to 1) deeply understand the market 2) be recognized as a part of the ecosystem and 3) start building our pipeline.
The discovery interviews were great but we now need to be laser focused on our B2B target market and start selling more explicitly.
๐ฏ. ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฝ๐ ๐๐. ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐
We’re good at building those relationships and make crazy fast progress there, I feel.
Now is the time to build our MVP and iterate on a weekly basis to get data and traction.
Looking at 3 points above, it’s all a balancing act and it will never stop. So I’d better get good at walking this fine line!
We have a massive amount of work to solve this problem in the next 20 years. Weirdly enough, I find this challenge incredibly exciting.
Couldn’t thank enough the hundreds (sic!) people who reached out to support, and to have Winnie Khoo and Jay Teo by our side to challenge and guide us.