David Clark

90% of founders waste years building products nobody wants. They all skip the ONE question that matters most. Answering it is how I got strangers on Reddit to pay me for an 'AI' startup before even having a product. The "reverse launch" method—get paid first, build second: 🧵

Stop optimizing your startup for investors who will fund you. Start optimizing for customers who will pay you. The former feels impressive. The latter creates actual businesses.

Why founders avoid manual processes: They think automation makes them look more "tech-forward" to investors. But customers don't care how you deliver value, just that you deliver it. Manual processes reveal what to automate. Skip them and you automate the wrong things.

The paradox of founder decision-making: You need extreme confidence to start a company, but that same confidence makes you ignore market signals that contradict your assumptions. The best founders toggle between delusional optimism and brutal realism.

I thought regulatory barriers were obstacles until I realized they're actually moats. Getting licensed to operate in real estate was months of paperwork misery, but it also keeps 99% of potential competitors from entering our market.