You need great founders, the right product, AND the right timing of course.
But …
What grit and dogged persistence can do is let you hack timing:
- It’s actually not that hard to be 24 months too early to market with a product that is a new category. Grit can get you through those 24 months.
- It’s pretty easy to burn a year or more just finding what version of your product is truly actually sellable. Grit will get you through that.
- Your “wedge”, your market entry point may be wrong even if the product itself isn’t. Grit will keep you out pounding the pavement, changing your approach and market insertion point, and not seeing an initial lack of customer traction as a 100% product failure, but rather, just a new insertion point to find.
- It’s pretty easy to grow too slowly from $100k-$2m or so in ARR and want to give up because you’ll never get there. Grit will get you through it.
- It’s pretty easy to burn out from $2m to $10m when there aren’t enough resources. Too many customers, too many issues, not enough people to fix ’em and deal with ‘em.
- It’s pretty common to give up around Year 5 because you are tired. We almost all get so tired here. Grit isn’t enough. But if you have any left, it can help you get past the 5 Year Hump.
