Founder Lesson
I frequently describe myself as a “heart” entrepreneur (versus a “head” entrepreneur). What I mean by this is that two things are most important to me before I ever think about the economics or financial gain of a new startup...

1) The “magic” of the product. I have to be able to imagine what will truly surprise & delight customers. This is typically a combination of a 10x better product and a strong brand.

2) The mission of the business. The main goal of the business has to be something extremely meaningful to the founding team. This is also very connected to the brand (or personality) of the new business. (side note: this is often why the best people ask founders to begin with their origin story when they first meet…to get at the real why of the business).

As a startup grows, the more practical issues around being a business matter more, but in the beginning the fuzzier notions around mission/product/brand are what will drive your initial customers usage and (just as important) word-of-mouth growth.

So when I heard this founder talk about "entrepreneurship as activism," my ears immediately perked-up. I’m very fortunate to know Gagan and couldn’t be happier about his startup journey.

In this podcast/video, a very experienced founder/CEO describes the underlying missions of two high-profile startups that he helped create.

Get Right to the Lesson
I’d recommend listening to the entire thing, but to get right to the point go to minute 35:50 of this podcast/video.

Thanks to these folks for helping us all learn faster
Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani), CEO of Sprig (@sprig)
This Week In Startups (@TWistartups )
Jason Calacanis (@jason)
Jacqui Deegan (@jacqKD)
Jacob Beemer (@jacobbeemer)

Please let me and others know what you think about this topic
Email me privately at dave@switchyards.com or let's discuss publicly at @davempayne.