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Are We Growing or Just Getting Fat?
Let's Get Back to Our Why
Does Startup Success Validate Us Personally?
How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?

Forget "Big Ideas" — Start with your North Star

Wil Schroter

Forget "Big Ideas" — Start with your North Star

The most impossible task for a Startup Founder is to "invent a big idea."

It's not because we lack creativity, it's because we wind up focusing our energy on the wrong thing. Big ideas, by themselves, are nearly impossible to corral in our minds because they are inherently either "not big enough" or "too big to tackle."

We tend to go about this all backward. We assume that once an idea is incredible enough, it will guide all of our actions thereafter. But that is like putting a map down on a table and saying "We want to go west!" without making this is the most reasonable path.


"What Do I Want This Idea To Achieve?"

Any idea can become a "big idea" if you work at it hard enough. What we should be more focused on is a step beyond that — what we want the idea to achieve. Our big ideas, and the startups that are borne from them, are a means to an end. Yet many of us will spend 99.9% of our time thinking about the means (the big idea) with very little thought given to the ends (the outcome).

A simple answer is likely going to be "I want to make money" or "I want to work for myself." That's great, but we've just described the outcome of every for-profit venture in this history of man. Our lack of detail is what's preventing us from narrowing down our view to focus on what we're really trying to achieve.

We have to be super specific if we want to start down a successful path with any new idea. "You want to make more money?" Why? How much (down to the penny) do we need? If we dig in deep and find out we need to make $1 million to solve 99% of our financial goals, then guess what — we can start literally anything any get there. A lack of specificity creates purview too wide to pin down, and thereby, we lose.

"What Do I Want To Avoid?"

Often figuring out what we want leads us to spin out of control with big ideas and visions, which is just as bad as not having any great idea at all. Another way to start to isolate what we're trying to achieve is simply to align with what we don't want to ever do again!

Imagine writing down a list of 10 things that we never, ever want to do. For example, when we built Startups.com, our list included things like "We never want to answer to anyone, ever" (You'll notice we don't have any VCs in our deal). It doesn't matter what's on our list, but having the list will inform a ton of paths and decisions that we can avoid altogether.

Consider that coming up with a big idea isn't just brainstorming, it's also a careful process of elimination to create focus around where we truly want to be. If we can build something incredible while never having to do the things we ever wanted to do, doesn't that sound like an incredible outcome?

"How Do I Want to Feel?"

How we feel about what we do may be the most important aspect of our big vision that we entirely overlook. For some reason, we assume that how our startup makes us feel is a byproduct of building a startup. But why does it have to be?

Before I created Startups.com I wanted to feel "helpful." I had no idea what the business was going to be, but I knew I wanted to spend my days feeling helpful, like the writing I'm doing right now. I knew that every day if I got up from my chair and felt "helpful to Founders" then I'd be achieving something that was fulfilling.

Optimizing our ideation around how we want to feel every day — maybe inspired, challenged, energized helps provide a powerful North Star. The opposite is also true, whereby something that makes us feel leveraged, stressed, and pointless is just as powerful of a motivator.

All of these parameters don't tell us what the idea is, but more importantly, it tells us specifically what all of the conditions that must be met in order for the idea to be good for us.

In Case You Missed It

The Curse of the 37-Year Old Founder (podcast) Let's talk about the dues founders pay for neglecting their health. Pushing yourself too much, putting your body through so much pressure, and then ignoring the warning signs as they come, you’re unconsciously trading your life for the success of your company.

Everyone Says My Idea is Dumb. Is It? Becoming a Founder is often the first time in our lives where the advice of others — even our parents — may not necessarily be useful advice. So let’s be hyper-aware about how we get feedback and who we're asking to evaluate our idea.

What is Product Differentiation? As Founders, how do we clarify the differences between our products and other products on the market while preventing overlap between the offerings?

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