Less Theater, More Building

In the current crop of first-time founders, I’ve noticed pockets that have less patience for the performative side of startups. Less energy is spent on the milestone announcement, the funding round as a status update, all the stuff that got really loud the last few years.

These founders aren’t anti-polish… plenty of them are sharp, know their way around deal terms and industry norms, and send clean decks. It’s more that they don’t seem to be optimizing for how the company looks from the outside. They’re just heads down building the thing.

It’s forcing me to change how I operate too. I’m getting texts about traction updates instead of monthly investor emails. Faster, scrappier, less formal and I’ve had to get comfortable meeting them there instead of expecting the traditional song and dance.

I don’t have a grand theory for why these builders are wired this way. But I like being around it. It’s a good reminder that the format isn’t the point. The building is.