One of the problems with being a founder is that you’re often being smacked around by the waves you’re trying to swim through — making it hard to see the bigger picture. That’s why it’s nice to have folks like Chris DeVore of Founders’ Co-op to help you better understand the market trends from a different vantage. Which is exactly what he did in a recent blog post.
For founders, the past fifteen years were a dizzying elevator ride from scarcity to abundance, with a final wild peak of absurdity. Being a founder went from gritty and unfashionable, to glamorous and well-paid, to a LARP that YOLOing college grads played with other people’s money.
But don’t worry. This isn’t just a look back. It’s a look forward. And a navigational beacon for founders as they attempt to ford the waves of the current, um, wave.
But one thing is certain: as the money tide recedes and uncertainty spikes, being a founder is becoming gritty and hard again. LLM breakthroughs are coming too fast, and finding a place to stand that doesn’t get washed away by the next model release is too hard for most teams to handle. Real builders working backward from customer problems are finding ways to stay relevant, but the game has barely begun.
For more, read “The VC tide has gone out. A real innovation wave is now arriving.“
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