It’s Time to Build Something People Love
I’ve been obsessive about building for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I built tree houses, massive castles made of legos, and a greenhouse full of different plants, mushrooms and garage equipment. Sounds cool, right? Well, it wasn’t that cool the time the unstable tree house fell to the ground. But that is a story for a later occasion. Eventually, my passion changed from building legos to building dreams. During high school, I discovered something that changed my life direction and really got my juice going. Drum rolls, please…
I stumbled across entrepreneurship. Oh, only that, Michelangelo? I didn’t even know what it was. But I knew it was about changing the world in a garage with a revolutionary idea and becoming millionaires overnight. I love this narrative, despite it being quite far from reality. Also, my best friend had taken a class on it. I think that moved the needle for me to take the leap of faith and try to see what it was all about. All in all, entrepreneurship led me into unimaginable places — it was a journey all about building, but was it for the right reasons?
My first entrepreneurial project was building a clothing brand inspired by the city of Oslo. Despite it not being created in a garage, we had massive dreams and envisioned ourselves on top of the world. We were young and naive, not knowing what it meant to be a founder. However, we got some initial traction, and it seemed like things were moving forward for us. At one point, even some money came in, and it felt amazing. I was living the dream, despite it lasting just for a moment. Or was it a mirage? The following year, we were dead and underwater for good. What happened?
It took me many years to realise what really occurred behind the curtains. It is time to unpack the truth. Ladies, and gentlemen, here it is. The mistake that consequently killed us was to spend a ridiculous amount of time on activities that made us feel good (e.g. talking to investors, attending networking events, and getting featured in the press) instead of building the product. We had fallen in love with the narrative of being a founder instead of doing the tasks at hand. A crucial mistake that I will never forget.
Sam Altman, my hero and the former president of Y-Combinator, famously said: “These days, there is a horrible show about startups (I think he was referring to the HBO show Silicon Valley). This show only highlights the part of the life of a founder that will make good television. But if you are seriously considering starting a company, do everything besides what they show on television. Instead, focus on what would be cut out during production. Building your product and talking to users are the things that will make you win. At some point, you either build a great product that users love, or you don’t. You can get everything else right, but you fail in that, then you will ultimately fail in everything else”. Well said, Sam!
The greatest lesson here is quite evident: a great founder should spend most of her or his time building a product and talking to users. Suppose you are seriously considering becoming a founder one day, in that case, the most important thing you and I can do is build something, anything really. It doesn’t matter what, as long as people love it, the rest will follow.
At the end of the day, we are all builders figuring out how to navigate life. Yes, I like to consider myself an amateur philosopher. Was it a bad joke? Oh, right. Having said that, it is time now time to announce that I am starting a new journey. Together with an exceptional team, I will be part of Back’s journey in a city that I love, Berlin. It is time to build something that people love.
Did I need an essay to make this announcement? Probably not. Was it fun to write, and am I excited about joining Back? Heck yes. :)
Dreaming big,
Michelangelo Pagliara
