Blow winds and remove anchors

I want you to give better support to your founder friends. Here’s why:

95% of products fail within their first year.

Almost all of the ones that make it have been at it for months and years. People always look at the rare “Lovable”s of the world and think that’s how a startup arc should be. But in reality, it’s the companies and people putting in work day after day, month after month, and a lot of times year after year. Look at Rob Hallam’s complete flat line before any sort of traction:

But this isn’t anything new, and the advice (if you can call it that) that I’m about to give is not even for founders. The advice is for everyone around founders, even if you’re a founder yourself.

Blow winds in people’s sails

The reason companies and founders will make it out of that 6 month stretch where MMR mostly flat-lines is because they continue believing and they keep pushing. And while it’s important to get critical feedback on the 1242 things that can go wrong, it’s equally as important to feel you’re working towards something meaningful, achievable, and to feel supported.

A lot of founders talk about how lonely the journey is and how difficult it is. But what do they do after, they thank the people that helped them at their lowest, told them their ideas were "worth it” even when the haters said no.

Every single company has a million flaws. Our role as founders is to literally tear apart these flows and fix these problems on a day by day basis. Your role as a founder friend isn’t to constantly point them out. Hell, it takes a lot of ego to pretend you know exactly what’s wrong with something 5 minutes into a conversation and without context. The best advice I got was not from someone shitting on my app. The best advice was from people that said: “Hmmm interesting. This is a tough space and I’ve seen people struggle in it. But send me what you have and maybe I can chime in with some feedback.” The feedback I got after was thoughtful and gave me difficult problems to actually solve, not non-contextual criticism.

Finally, if you can’t blow winds, remove anchors.

If you can support your friend by doing their laundry once a month during a stressful launch month, do it. That may sound ridiculous, but you’re doing your own laundry anyways, why not give your friend one less thing to worry about? It can be really small things and it can be bigger, but think about how you can remove things slowing them down or bothering them.

A lot of this doesn’t just apply to your founder friends. It applies to friends, family, and even people you’ve just met. Be a person that shines light in this world and progresses ideas forward.

Every idea sucked on day one, including all of yours. So next time a friend asks what you think about their idea, think about the ways in which it can impact the world and how you can contribute to that. Otherwise, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing or take some time to think and give back thoughtful feedback.

Happy founder-friending.