Stop comparing pages

Last week a founder messaged me: “X company exited at $50M. I’m still searching for product-market fit. What am I doing wrong?”

Maybe nothing. You’re just comparing wrong.

When you read an exit headline, you see the ending. You don’t see the four years of zero revenue. The three pivots. The bridge round that almost didn’t close. The divorce, the lost friends, the ignored health.

I’ve followed over 400 startups closely. Behind every headline there’s an iceberg. Everyone sees what’s above water, then compares it to their own depths.

You’re measuring someone’s year seven against your year two. That’s not insight. That’s poison.

Nobody posts “I reduced churn by 0.3% this week” on LinkedIn. But startups are built from exactly this — boring work, repeated reliably. Like compound interest: first year is dull, third year is surprising, fifth year is unexplainable.

Every morning, look at yesterday. Not at someone else’s highlight reel.