This past week marked two consecutive years of sharing my thoughts publicly. On March 9, 2020, I began posting because of a friend’s challenge. That sixty-day challenge has continued for over 730 days. Today I spent some time reflecting on what I’ve learned from doing this every day for two years. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Compounding knowledge – Posting daily forces me to stop and reflect daily. Reflecting and taking in new information daily has a compounding effect and has accelerated the rate at which I’m learning. More thoughts on this here and here.
• Unexpected benefit – When I started, the goal was to share what I’d learned as an entrepreneur with other entrepreneurs. It was a way to give back. I didn’t expect to get much from it personally, but I have.
• Difficulty – It was hard to establish the habit at first. It’s in place now, but there are still days when it’s harder than normal to create a post.
• Frequency – Posting daily is the right rhythm for me. If I’d started off doing it weekly or monthly, it wouldn’t have lasted past the initial sixty days. The habit is second nature now.
• Topics – I’ve likely shared most of the lessons I learned as a founder. This year I want to focus more of my posts on where I’m headed and new things I’m working on.
• Reach – Over the past two years, I’ve been consistently surprised by my posts’ reach and audience. Whenever someone tells me a post was helpful, it’s usually when I least expect it and from someone I’m not expecting it from.
• Mental exercise – The brain is an organ that needs to be exercised just like any other. Doing this daily makes me feel like I’m giving my brain the exercise it needs.
• Quality – With a daily frequency, every post isn’t going to be a Pulitzer piece. That’s OK. The process of reflecting daily is what I get value from. Some days are less eventful than others.
• Public diary – I’m excited to have a diary of thoughts that I—and others—can go back and review.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about doing something like this for such a long time. It’s been challenging and fulfilling at the same time. As with anything else, there are pros and cons, but after two years I can see that the positive far outweighs the negative. I’m looking forward to continuing the habit. Year three here we come!

Over the last year, I’ve chatted with a few founders who are relocating to Atlanta. I’m bullish on the city and believe the best is yet to come, so I’m glad others are recognizing its value and moving here. I sat down with one of these founders, who just solidified his move date. I wanted to better understand his decision.

This founder shared a lot of things, and one of them especially resonated with me: he’s too comfortable. He doesn’t feel challenged and isn’t growing. He isn’t around people who are pushing the envelope, so he hasn’t been pushing as hard as he could, either. He’s hungry and knows he can go further as an entrepreneur but isn’t in the right environment.

During his visits to Atlanta, he found the community welcoming, and entrepreneurs were willing to share their experiences and relationships. The variety in the types of industries entrepreneurs operated in was refreshing.

Atlanta isn’t the only place founders are migrating to. Miami, Austin, and other cities are also attracting great founders. I do believe that Atlanta is unique, though, in that many founders who relocate see themselves putting down roots and calling Atlanta home for the long term. I’m excited about this movement and can’t wait to see what’s in store for Atlanta. I hope it will be known as—among other things—the place entrepreneurs call home.

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-second week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred two:

• In person – I attended a few in-person meetings this week. People are full of energy and excitement. I think this spring will be high energy and high activity. We will likely see a lot of pent-up demand released.  
• Behind – I wanted to complete some priority things this week. I was productive, but I didn’t get everything on my to-do list done. Things are busier than I expected—but I’ve got to get more stuff done.

Week one hundred two was busy, but I was disappointed I didn’t move the needle as much as I’d planned. Looking forward to next week.

Today I had a great chat with founder friends about being unapologetic about asking for opportunities, even if the requests are somewhat outlandish. If someone is going somewhere you want to be, ask if you can join them. If someone is working on a project you want to learn about, ask if you can work on it too. If someone knows a person you’d like to meet, ask if they’ll give you an intro.

Some people might call it being pushy or overstepping. I disagree. I think it’s the sign of a hustler. Hustlers get opportunities others don’t. One of many reasons for this is that they ask when others won’t. Of course, you should be respectful in how you ask. But I don’t see anything wrong with making the ask. The worst that could happen is they’ll say no. In fact, people will say no most of the time, and that’s OK. But the one time someone says yes, it could change your trajectory. Sometimes it’s as simple as they like the fact that you asked when others didn’t—they like the hustle and reward you with an unexpected yes.

As one friend put it, “The answer is no to 100% of the questions you never ask.”

Hearing no doesn’t really bother me. When I was an early founder, I was aggressive about asking for opportunities because I had to be. Over the years, I’ve lost a little of that edge. Today was a reminder that I need to get it back and be unapologetic about asking for opportunities.

I recently listened to two founders announce that they’re going their separate ways. They shared the news with me over a video call. They explained what each of them plans to do next and why they’re splitting. When they talked with each other about their long-term visions, they realized they’re headed in different directions. So they decided to “divorce” now, before their disconnect causes big problems. The split is amicable.

Building a company from the ground up is hard. Founders put so much of themselves into it that the company becomes their baby. When you have to separate from it, it can be hard and emotional. But founder splits don’t have to be horrible experiences.

If you’re looking for a cofounder but you’re worried about it not working out, or you’re considering splitting from your current cofounder, remember that friendly splits are possible.

I enjoy hearing how founders became aware of the problem their start-up is solving. Sometimes it’s a shower moment. Other times, it’s an aha moment while they’re working on something else. A founder recently shared his story, and it was something I hadn’t heard before. While he was pitching a product, he realized the audience wasn’t feeling it. Translation: the pitch was bombing. He stopped mid pitch. He acknowledged that his pitch wasn’t resonating with the audience. He asked them to share their most pressing problem in exchange for ending the meeting early (i.e., giving the audience some time back). The VP shared a problem the founder had never considered. His team did some research, realized it’s a huge problem, and pivoted.

I love how this founder didn’t force his product on perspective customers. Instead, he read his audience and made the most of the meeting by asking the right question and listening with an open mind.

Good things eventually happen when founders listen to their customers. It can be hard. Founders want everyone to love the solution they spent countless hours building, but sometimes the love just isn’t there. The mindset has to be that what you want most is a successful company—the beating heart of which is solving the customer’s true problem (not the one you wanted to solve). If your solution isn’t resonating with customers, that’s OK. Consider taking more time to listen to their problem.

I caught up with an investor recently, and the topic of schedules came up. We were discussing events we’ve attended and plan to attend. We agree that events are a good way for investors to meet new founders and other investors and learn about new trends. Both of us are looking forward to larger, more regional events, most of which require travel.

I think 2022 will be a great year for in-person start-up events, especially regional ones. There’s pent-up demand for in-person interaction in the start-up community, and I think it will be unleashed this year.

I’m a fan of the hybrid model for events because it allows people to attend who otherwise couldn’t, but I’m looking forward to attending—in person—some regional events this year!

I spent today working on a project on my to-do list. I’ve got most of it figured out, but I noticed that one thing is holding me up. The companies I’ve historically used are charging rates that are within the range I’m comfortable paying, but the value of the services they offer has diminished. Translation . . . the cost far exceeds the value, so I haven’t pulled the trigger.

The companies I looked at are likely pricing based on market conditions, which makes sense given the mature state of their companies. But their services haven’t evolved as consumer tastes have changed. Their services don’t measure up anymore. I think these incumbents are unwittingly giving upstart competitors an opportunity to steal their loyal customers. When value exceeds cost, the purchase decision is easier. When cost exceeds value, the result is hesitation—hesitation that can cause a customer to look at others and even give them a try if they like the value-vs.-cost alignment. If the upstart does a good job, they’ve likely stolen a customer from the incumbent.

I decided to keep looking. I found a start-up that offers services more aligned with my expectations at a price similar to that of incumbents. I’m excited to give them a shot and hope they deliver. If they do, I’ll continue using them.

If you’re a start-up going against incumbents, you don’t have to compete by being cheaper. Consider finding areas where they haven’t kept up with customer expectations and then doing a better job in those areas. If you can offer more value than incumbents, you’ll increase your chances of their customers giving you a shot.

I started working on a project today. I have zero experience in the space and had no idea where to start, so I did some research online. I found a service provider whose site answered all my questions and then some. It had videos and document templates and offered a quarterly masterclass to answer questions. After digesting some of this content, I understood what it would take to complete the project and decided it’s best to hire someone instead of doing it all myself. I decided to hire the company whose content was so helpful. In fact, I didn’t even consider anyone else.

I really like how this company is giving knowledge away, free of charge, to attract customers. No salesperson or email campaign tried to convert me to a customer. Just a self-serve educational process that reinforced to me that this company is credible and trustworthy but also positioned me to complete the project on my own if I chose to do so. I’ll sign up and likely have to talk to a salesperson to become a paying customer, but the salesperson will basically be processing my order instead of having to sell me. Actually, I’ll be pushing them to get me onboarded quickly so I can complete my project quickly.

If you’re an early founder who understands a problem and space deeply, consider sharing that knowledge broadly. It could be a great way to attract qualified customers and shorten your sales cycle.

‍

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-first week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred one:

• Perspectives – I love getting different perspectives on things I’m thinking about. I always learn something or am made aware of something I hadn’t considered. This week, other people’s perspectives were helpful.
• First quarter – We’ve got fewer than thirty days left in Q1. The year is flying by. I want to make the most of the rest of the quarter.
• Forest – This week, I spent time thinking about things from a higher level and talking them over with others. It was refreshing. It reminded me that it’s important to stop from time to time and make sure I can still see the forest for the trees.  

Week one hundred one was busy and productive. Looking forward to next week.