I talked to a founder who’s had an interesting journey. He built a great product and company. Before becoming a founder, he worked in corporate America and aspired to start his own company. He had a problem in mind that he wanted to solve but realized there was a lot he didn’t know about building a start-up and raising capital. With no connections to those worlds, he decided to focus on networking to forge some. He developed a list of people he believed could help him and began meeting with other people who might know them. Over the course of a year, he ended up meeting most of those on his list, and they invested in his company and introduced him to their networks. He then hired a team and built the first version of his product. He was off to the races.

The big takeaway from his story? The power of networking. He was intentional about building his network to fill his gaps. He hustled to find a way to get in the room with people who had the knowledge and relationships he needed to achieve his goal of being a founder. This resonated with me because networking—building relationships—is something most can do. A little bit of effort and consistency usually have an outsize return, though, because so few people do do it. Taking the initiative and being consistent will set you apart and sometimes are all you need.

This founder’s journey, like every founder’s, is unique. If you follow his example, there’s no guarantee you’ll have the same outcome (you still have to execute). But his story shows that relationship building is a powerful tool in the arsenal of founders and aspiring founders.

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I’ve been learning about labor market challenges for the last few months. They’re a big problem—but also an opportunity. (Without problems, there’d be no opportunities for entrepreneurs, right?) Flexibility is a high priority for workers, and that’s affecting businesses’ ability to meet customer demand. There’s still lots for me to learn, so I’m digging into this more.

Today I began to think about the issue from a different angle. How people think about work, where they work, and when they work has changed significantly in the last two years. Yet, the way workers are recruited hasn’t changed much (minus Zoom), as far as I know. There’s probably an opportunity to improve how companies attract candidates, evaluate them, etc. I’m wondering whether part of solving the labor challenge is rethinking recruiting and aligning it more closely with today’s labor market.

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I chatted with a founder who’s solving problems for the trucking industry. He has a great understanding of the industry and can build a solution to solve its problems. I love to understand the unique insight a founder has that will allow them to succeed. This founder shared that most truck drivers aspire to more. They want to be entrepreneurs and run a trucking company, not just one rig. Yet they don’t have the know-how or tools to go beyond one rig.

Laggard industries aren’t sexy, but they’re a great entrepreneurial opportunity. Especially as things move from physical to digital in these industries.

Talking with this founder illuminated the probability that there’s a large opportunity to help entrepreneurs build small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in laggard industries. More people are embracing an internal locus of control and, with it, the belief that entrepreneurship can be the vehicle that gives them control of their life. A solution that allows these entrepreneurs to do more with less, or to do something they otherwise couldn’t do, will likely build a loyal customer base and a big business.

I listened to a friend share his founding story. Part of the story was that he put every penny he had into getting his business ready to open. Translation: he was all in. The audience asked questions about various things that could go wrong and what he would have done if it hadn’t worked out. His response was simple: “You can’t think like that.” He focused on making it work and winning. Sure enough, it worked. That business has been thriving for years.

The simple statement “You can’t think like that” says a lot about how my buddy thinks. He has a winner’s mentality. He doesn’t worry too much about the hurdles or the what ifs. He focuses on winning and doing what’s needed to win. He’ll push himself and put it all on the line in the name of winning. I’ve known him for years, and he’s overcome adversity repeatedly. He’s successful, and I attribute a large part of his success to his winner’s mentality.

Building a company is hard. A lot of things must go right for your business to succeed. Some are in your control, and some aren’t. One thing that’s totally in your control is how you think about yourself and what you’re doing. Think about yourself as a winner. That simple shift in mindset can have a big impact on your outcome.

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I listened to a podcast today. It was about start-ups. One of the guests said something that stuck with me: there are no secrets in the world anymore (I’m paraphrasing). Everything is in the public domain. The question is how you find what to pay attention to.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms distribute information in ways we haven’t seen historically. It’s done quickly and isn’t filtered by larger media organizations. And they empower people to share knowledge with a click or tap. The upshot? A flood of information accessible to anyone. Some has substance, and some doesn’t. It’s become harder to know what information should be taken seriously.

Access to information is important, and historically, most people haven’t had much of it. Knowledge is power, and I’m a fan of more people having it so they can make better-informed decisions. How you determine what you should and shouldn’t pay attention to is important. It’s something we’ll have to solve for in this new world of more accessible information. The solution could have major implications for how we learn and absorb information. It’s a large opportunity, and I can’t wait to see how entrepreneurs solve for this problem at scale across various platforms.  

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Today marks the end of my ninety-ninth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week ninety-nine:

• Gratitude – There’s always something we don’t have. There are always people who have more. Taking time to recognize what I do have (that many don’t) always helps me put things in perspective and be grateful.
• Team preference – The past few weeks were a reminder of how much more I can accomplish with help from others.  
• 2022 – I think this year will be memorable in many ways.

Week ninety-nine was steady. Looking forward to week one hundred!

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I caught up with an old colleague recently. He’s in corporate America at one of the large accounting firms. I asked how things are going, and he said they’re having a hard time retaining junior team members. A few things he shared with me:

• Home – Many team members moved home during the pandemic. Most were single and wanted to be near family during a time when they couldn’t have their normal social life in Atlanta. They’ve enjoyed being around family more often, and instead of returning to Atlanta they found jobs in their hometowns and quit.
• Balance – Work–life balance is top of mind for junior employees. They want to do more than work crazy hours. They want a meaningful and fulfilling life and are willing to walk away from demanding jobs that make balance impossible.
• Interaction – Junior team members haven’t had as much time to establish meaningful relationships, and they want more in-person interaction than experienced team members do. This has made it easier for them to cut ties and pursue other opportunities.

The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that lots of companies are experiencing and trying to deal with. My former colleague’s experiences, while anecdotal, shed light on the question of what part of the workforce may be affected most. I’m curious to see if this trend continues and how employers will adjust to retain and attract junior talent.

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I had a chat with two early founders who’ve built a product together but haven’t found product–market fit yet. They need to refine the product until it solves the customers’ problem well enough that the customers will readily pay for it. The topic of goals came up, and they were stumped. They weren’t sure what they should focus on, given that things will change a lot as they search for product–market fit. Sure, they could say they want two hundred customers in the quarter, but that goal isn’t helpful if customers churn just as quickly as they came in because the solution to their problem isn’t good enough.

I agreed with these founders: specific goals around business metrics may not be the best thing for their situation right now. I suggested a different kind of goal: directionally on-target activities. What activities could they do regularly that align with where they want to be (at product–market fit)? They can control whether the activities are completed or not, so achieving these goals is totally within their control and gives the team something to celebrate and rally behind. The founders must choose activities that they are confident will get them closer to the destination if they execute them consistently.

The founders took this to heart. They told me they’ve now set up a few directionally on-target activities. The main one is regular sessions with current customers, prospective customers, and prospects they failed to convert to customers. They never know exactly what they’ll hear from the conversations or what the new insight they acquire from them will require them to do, but they know they’ll get closer to a better understanding of their customers and, eventually, product–market fit.

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I had a conversation with a founder who described how his business model works. It involves lots of external parties, government regulation, and execution within specific time frames. These complexities and other factors have kept others from pursuing the opportunity he’s going after. He’s learned to navigate it all and be successful, but it hasn’t been easy. Figuring it all out on his own has been frustrating at times. As I listened to him, I saw it a little differently. Complexity is his moat.

The complexity of what he’s doing is difficult to navigate. It takes time to figure out exactly how all the pieces work together, let alone execute successfully. The barrier to entry is tall and intimidating. That he knows how to surmount it is his secret sauce. He has a serious competitive advantage.

I like businesses like this. They aren’t sexy, and it takes time to grasp their complexity. But when you figure out how to execute scalably, you can unlock massive value. There likely aren’t many competitors. If your solution is really good, you’ll be able to tap into pent-up demand and build a big business.

Complexity turns off a lot of people—and because it does, it can be a huge entrepreneurial opportunity for someone determined to master it!

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I’ve lived in Atlanta for many years, and I’m a proponent of the city. Atlanta has a lot to offer, but I think that for a long time, people haven’t realized how great a city it is or where it’s headed. That’s starting to change, though. People are paying close attention to the city’s upward trajectory, and many are choosing to make it their home.

This weekend, I read an article describing how Atlanta’s attractiveness caused more people to move to the city and drove a higher rate of inflation here than in any other city last year. A few takeaways from the article:

• Housing costs were the single largest driver of inflation in Atlanta. The shelter index rose 7.7% in Atlanta versus 4.1% nationwide.
• Atlanta attracted home buyers from more expensive markets like the Northeast and West Coast.
• The median sale price of homes in Atlanta rose 23% in a year, more than the 15.2% national average.
• Atlanta is still more affordable than coastal cities like San Francisco and New York, even though prices are rising quickly.
• Transportation costs, which include vehicle prices and gasoline, are up 29.3% in Atlanta (and up 21.1% nationally).  

I’m curious to see if this trend continues and will watch housing costs closely this year.