Van Halen buried a clause in their concert contracts: remove all brown M&Ms from backstage. Rock star ego? No. Safety test. If promoters missed this detail, they'd miss the technical specs that kept people alive.

I use the same test with founders. My brown M&M? Email response time.

Your inbox habits reveal everything. Operational discipline—are you drowning or organized? Strategic thinking—do you prioritize or just react? Professional respect—do you value other people's time?

In 20 years, I've seen this pattern hold. Founders who take days to answer investor emails also miss product deadlines. Those who ignore warm intros burn bridges everywhere. The ones claiming "too busy" are really saying "poor prioritization."

Top founders respond to major investors in minutes, not days. Due diligence requests? Hours. Event invites can wait 48 hours. This isn't about living in Gmail. It's knowing which balls are glass and which are rubber. Your email response time predicts your startup's execution speed.

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10 Days to One Customer. Or Quit. Get a simple, step-by-step guide for validating your startup idea and landing your first paying customer. The 10-Day Founder Test: 10 emails. 10 tasks. No theory. Most quit by Day 3. That's the filter. JOIN THE 10 DAYS CHALLENGE

Pirates in the Navy: Startup... Jan 19 · Brainwaves 3:16   ​

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