Startups win through extreme focus, not balanced execution

You don't win by doing 10 things well. You win by doing one thing really well and maybe you fail nine things. I just need to get an A+ on the one class that matters. And then I can get an F in all the other classes.

Concentration is what builds wealth, diversification is what preserves wealth. And you're a startup. You're not trying to preserve anything. You're trying to build something. It requires concentrated bets, not hedging.

Startups have the benefit of starving, and so you need to create scarcity. The company has a tendency to over-invest.

If you decrease the surface area than with the same amount of force you can apply more pressure. So the amount of pressure is the force divided by the surface area, this is a basic equation for physics, but it's also true of communications, which is if you decrease the surface area and don't try to appeal to everybody with everything. And you're targeting exactly whom you're talking to and you are sharpening your message to a point, to get them in the bullseye of the cultural erogenous zone. Then you're able to with the same amount of effort or expense or time, you're able to make more of an impact, you're able to apply more pressure.

I think the only way you build something that matters that's going to change the world is if you find a big idea you believe in and you say no to everything else.

When you are an early stage company, the worst thing you can do is try to be everything to everyone because you don't have enough runway. You just don't have enough of anything to do that successfully.