Fresh Perspective: Over 12 years of building products & services, I have learnt that as a founder, you have only 2 goals:
1. Build Systems
2. Tell Stories
And replace yourself.
Everything else is a waste of your time.
When you tell stories, you “create context”. Not made up stories. But clear explanation of your vision, your goal and the actions that will lead you to that goal.
You “create context” when you answer a simple question for your customers, employees, co-founders & investors: What’s in it for me?
When you build systems, you “create leverage”. A system is everything you build around your products & services to successfully deliver it to your customers.
Good systems keep working long after you are gone. If you are the least useful piece of the entire business, you have succeeded as a founder.
This leads to a compounding flywheel.
Systems create leverage. Leverage creates value.
Stories create the context. Context creates valuation (perceived value).
Both feed each other. It’s a loop.
Better systems help you tell better stories. Better stories, help you build better systems.
The reason great products are under valued is because not enough work is done on crafting the narrative, setting the right “context” and building clarity.
And the reason bad products are overvalued is because enough effort was put into crafting the narrative, but not enough in building good systems.
Now you could argue that a bad product will eventually fail. But the question is, does that guarantee the success of a good product?
Do you become a product-first founder or an story-first founder? The answer is, they are not mutually exclusive.
If you are a product-first founder who dislikes story-first approach, you might want to re-visit your beliefs. It is not serving you.
And if you believe with story-first approach you can sell even a bad product, you are in for a surprise.
Your job as a founder?
– Craft your narratives
– Build your systems
Replace yourself.
What is your take?
