Beamer

When an idea dies in testing, it’s not failure. It’s a gift! You just saved time and money for the next big thing. Founders with a graveyard of tested ideas are the strongest.

The best thing you can do in your 20s is to read a lot, write a lot and start a lot of things. You don't have to be good at anything yet. But you should have the audacity to try everything.

Focus isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing less, consistently. What’s your top priority today?

Narrow wins! Big ideas start small. Founders: focus on specific problems. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. What’s your take?

3. Resourcefulness Startups are a long sequence of problems no one has solved for you. The founder who can get an early customer without a finished product can probably recruit, sell, hire, and raise when things get difficult. I pay attention to what they have already made happen with very little. Resourcefulness is often more predictive than polish.

2. Rate of learning At the pre-product stage, I care less about what the founder knows today than how quickly they update their view of the world. Have they spoken to customers? What did they believe a month ago? What changed their mind? What did they do next? A strong founder does not protect an assumption. They test it.

The best way to get rich is by owning a piece of something that will get much bigger. The best way to do that is by investing early. But how can you evaluate a founder before there's a product? 5 things I look for:

Founders often overestimate what they can build in a year and underestimate what they can build in a decade.

The highest returns come from being early. Amazon, Netflix, Uber. All had one thing in common: they were underestimated. The same is true for Africa. Don't just take my word for it.