I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 covering crazy cool businesses I spot, updates on what we're building and buying, and lessons from the journey of an entrepreneur.
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For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
One thought from my week.
One interesting find/tool from my week.
One image from my life.
Let's dive in 👇
I respect the endurance.
Recently I’ve talked to a few founders who spent years in the startup desert.
No product-market fit, no salary, no exit in sight.
Just vibes and ramen.
One founder I met had been grinding in the EdTech space for 4 years, living off fumes and FlexSeal-ing their finances together with credit cards and sketchy personal loans.
Every month was a financial Cirque du Soleil act.
Then, just when the tide started to turn… it took another 4 years before the business actually started humming.
Eight years total. That’s two presidential terms.
I respect that kind of conviction.
I admire it. Mostly because I’m not built like that.
At this stage of the game, I give a project 12 months. No signal? No momentum?
I’m out faster than a WeWork IPO.
I treat new projects like Tinder dates.
If it doesn’t give me butterflies by month three, I ghost.
But some founders are out here in arranged marriages, turning slow-burn ideas into billion-dollar breakouts.
Real talk: this strategy can work.
Take Canva. It’s now a $25B+ design juggernaut, but did you know it spent the first five years pitching and building with barely a pulse on VC radars?
Melanie Perkins started with a niche yearbook design tool.
It wasn’t sexy.
It wasn’t fast.
But she believed.
She iterated.
She got the right people on the bus. And then… boom.
The thing is: I don’t think there’s one right playbook.
For some of us, it’s “fail fast, move on.” For others, it’s “grind slow, stay weird.”
If you’re in that second camp, the long-haulers, the quietly obsessed, I have nothing but respect and remain inspired.
Keep it up!
The old school is in session.
I think I’m launching a newspaper.
Yeah, like… a real one. Ink. Paper.
The stuff your grandpa read with a black coffee and a grudge against technology.
Why? Because why not.
It turns out there are companies that make launching a newspaper stupidly cheap and testable.
So we’re doing it. Fire hazards, paper cuts, and all.
Is this a genius distribution move or a midlife crisis in disguise? TBD.
More soon on whether this strategy prints money… or just prints.
Summer concert season is here! Leon Bridges this past Sunday.
