Are you starting your next big thing?
Whether you're thinking about leaving your job to start that company, pivot your startup, or join a co-founder, it's important to calibrate your care-o-meter.
Your care-o-meter is like your compass as a founder. A simple care-o-meter answers the question: if it's not a hell yes, it should most definitely be a no.
Should we stop there, though? We can certainly feel the hell yeah, which is important, but we don't want to chase every exciting idea that comes our way. How can we better quantify that hell-yes?
A recent email conversation sparked my imagination on this: what's the "The Founder's Guide To The Galaxy"?
It's really simple. Before you make a big decision about what to do next, and especially when you're feeling stuck, I think it's worth answering these questions to calibrate and quantify your care-o-meter. Write down your answers and talk about them with someone you trust.
- Is it a hell-yeah, or a no? Do you feel an energetic sense of hell-yeah, goosebumps, and excitement about this? If not, it's not worth answering the rest of these.
- How much do you care about this idea? On a scale of 1-10: 1 being a piece of trash on the ground and 10 being your loved ones. Where does this idea sit on your care-o-meter?
- Now re-score based on the problem and the current solution (if you have one).
- How much do you care about the problem, 1-10?
- How much do you care about your solution/ idea, 1-10?
- Whose solutions to this problem do you admire the most?
- Is this a hair on fire problem?
- Do you have a sharp feature or two that makes your solution far better than other solutions? This has to be a >= 10x feature here. No 2x, 3x, or 50% better! Be top notch.
- What makes you think that the feature or features are 10x better?
- Are you focusing on the few that love your product, or the many that dislike or don't care about it? Why is that the case?
- Do you have a team?
- You'll go faster alone, and further together. So if you're alone, are you going fast? If you have a team, are you going far?
- What does the world look like in 10 years and how does this fit into that world? Explain your vision, growth mindset, and ideate about future state journeys.
- What won't change in 10 years? Are you investing in that?
Good luck!