founder lesson of the week #1

I used to wonder why Kanye West took so long to make an album—until I heard how rough some of the original versions of his songs sounded. (Seriously, listen to the early version of Hurricane here.)

With AI, iteration cycles are much faster now thanks to powerful tools.
However, these same tools have elevated users’ expectations significantly.
This creates a bifurcation between businesses' commercial models and users’ expectations.

The founder lesson of the week is that the barrier to monetizing users has risen.
AI makes it easier to build products, but also raises the baseline of what users can get for free.

With low switching costs and cheaper development, users no longer feel loyal to companies offering similar features.

As a founder, ego can get in the way here. When you see a new competitor with similar features, the first thought is: "But can they do this?!"
The reality is, users don’t care about ego—they care about solving their problems better and faster.

The key takeaway for me is that it’s critical to find a 5X or 10X moment for users in ways that differentiate me.

And to tie it back to Kanye: iteration matters. Just like Hurricane evolved into a Grammy-winning track, constant refinement and focus on the end product is what sets the best apart.