Why Tech Entrepreneurship is Broken and How to Fix It: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of our blog series exploring why tech entrepreneurship is broken and how to fix it. 

Last time we talked about the first fundamental flaw of tech entrepreneurship: building for investors instead of users. 

In this blog, we will explore the second fundamental flaw and how we can change our approach to build better more sustainable businesses. 

Ready! Let’s dive in? 

Fundamental Flaw #2: Hustle = Success

There is a culture of hustle and overworking in tech entrepreneurship. We believe that if we work super hard and fast then success is inevitable. 

This feels like it should be correct. After all, if something is painful, shouldn’t there be a huge reward after it?? If we sacrifice just a little more, talk to one more person, attend one more event, do one more pitch, shouldn’t we be one step closer to success? 

Maybe in the short term this works! But in the long term, the answer is no. 

Pain does not equal success. Hustle does not equal success. 

I know this is hard to believe when there are so many bloggers and youtubers shilling out “rise and grind” messages and optimized morning routines.  

But do you know what really works? 

Consistency + Time

That’s right! The same thing that makes people successful in every other facet of life also makes us successful in entrepreneurship. 

Think about anything you’re really good at, like a sport or musical instrument. How did you get good? Did you hustle 80 hours per week for 2 years? Or did you deliberately and consistently practice regularly over years or even decades? 

Or think about how most wealth is made. Sure, we hear about crypto bros and lottery winners that made it big overnight. But what strategy worked for Warren Buffet?? He consistently invested from the age of 11 to 93. He played the long game. 

Play The Long Game to Win

This is where so many tech entrepreneurs go wrong. We try to hustle to make big “hockey stick” returns. But sometimes returns take time to realize. And sometimes we get steady or even rocky growth instead of hockey sticks. But what counts is if year over year we generally see improvement.

And it’s true that sometimes one conversation is our big break. 

But we have a better chance of having that one conversation if we are in the game for a long time.  

The longer we can survive, the higher chance we have of success.  

What is a major risk to survival? Running out of steam and money! 

What’s one of the biggest risks to your energy and money? HUSTLE  

Hustle is also a major reason that folks who could be successful entrepreneurs never try. They think it’s too much work! But it doesn’t have to be!!!!  

You can make your work what you want it to be. 

You have the power to speed up and slow down. 

You have the power to pause. 

There will always be times when we have to work more. If we get a huge order, we will need to work more. If we are building a new website, we will likely have to work more. 

But this does not need to be the norm!  

How to Fix the Fundamental Flaws

So now that we know the two fundamental flaws of building for funders over users and focusing on hustle over consistency, how do we do things differently? 

We take a sustainable Product Management approach!  

Product Managers are constantly evaluating the value, usability, feasibility, viability, and morality of a product. They do this through small cheap experiments. They try things quickly and iteratively in a sustainable way.  

What does this look like? 

Find The Joy.

If you’re starting a business from scratch and maybe you have a full-time job, ask yourself how much time you can commit to growing a business in a way that FUELS you and doesn’t DRAIN you. There is an amount of time and energy you can spend on your business that brings you JOY. This is what we are looking for – joy! 

I remember when I first started my entrepreneurship journey. I could only commit to 2 hours a week. It felt like so little. But I gave myself permission to do only what I could, and guess what? I LOVED it! It gave me energy. It made me better at my day job. I started making small amounts of cash on the side, which lifted my mood. This was key!! And 6 months after doing this small amount of work consistently, folks started to hear about my work and I started getting referrals. My business steadily grew from there and I was able to eventually do it full-time!  

If I committed to doing 20 hours a week, I would have burned out in a month. Instead, I did 2 hours a week for 6 months and it turned into a full business.  

We overestimate what we can achieve in the short term and underestimate what we can achieve in the long term. 

So know what you can do and stick to it for the long term. Then if you need a break take it.

But stick with it and incredible things will happen!

Solve for 1 Person

As someone who’d built products used by millions of people, folks are always surprised when I advise them to solve a problem for only ONE person to start. 

But how are you going to solve a problem for millions if you haven’t done it for even one person yet? 

So start with one!!! 

Do it manually. 

Do it 1:1. 

And you will learn more about the problem than anyone who goes straight to building a solution. Then you can productize only what works. 

Here’s an example. When we started our business, we were consultants. We helped one Product Manager at a time learn Product Management. Then we helped one team at a time. 

Over 1 year we had helped 150 people learn better product management practices.  

At this point, we were truly experts at what worked and what didn’t. 

Then we scaled ONLY what worked! We used videos, sales channels, etc. to do this. 

And now we reach thousands! But we started with just one! 

Bill As You Go

And the best part of starting with just one person and growing from there? You can bill and make money as you go. 

You can charge people for one on one time. You can play with pricing. You can learn what the market can bear. You can learn who is willing to pay and who isn’t.  

Through one on one conversations with customers, we learned which sales calls were easy and which ones weren’t. 

Through this time we refined not only our product offering, but also who we were targeting and our messaging.  

We got a lot of nos. 

But every yes led to more money that we could put towards more experiments.  

And slowly that grew to money that could fund our lives. 

Then folks that we could hire. 

Again, it was slow, but it was consistent. 

And eventually after a year of constant conversations, we knew who our target was and how to reach them. 

And the only times we wanted to quit were when we tried to go too fast. Or when we tried to force it. 

We learned to be patient but consistent. So for us, this looked like talking to at least one user a week. 

That was it!  

So decide what feels good to you and do this consistently. 

Bringing it All Together  

This is a different blueprint to tech entrepreneurship success. And success in any entrepreneurial endeavour. 

Funding is not a guarantee. But if you are consistent with your experiment, constantly start small, and seek joy instead of hustle, you can make it. 

It’s just a matter of time. 

And when you find something that does require funding and hustle, you will be sure you have something that’s worth fighting for.  

Unlock your path to product greatness with Tacit Edge! Our tailor-made product management training & certification programs are designed to elevate your skills and propel entrepreneurs toward success.