During Ethic's long build phase before traction, the founder found it crucial to ignore external validation signals like other companies' funding announcements. The key to surviving this lonely period is a relentless daily focus on execution and solving customer problems, not chasing industry hype.

As startups hire and add structure, they create a natural pull towards slower, more organized processes—a 'slowness gravity'. This is the default state. Founders must consciously and continuously fight this tendency to maintain the high-velocity iteration that led to their initial success.

Instead of optimizing for a quick win, founders should be "greedy" and select a problem so compelling they can envision working on it for 10-20 years. This long-term alignment is critical for avoiding the burnout and cynicism that comes from building a business you're not passionate about. The problem itself must be the primary source of motivation.

Founders often seek a silver-bullet growth strategy. The most effective approach is tactical and relentless: identify every small point of friction in your product and funnel, fix them, and repeat the cycle. This operational excellence *is* the strategy.

When a business flatlines, the critical question isn't which new marketing channel to try. It's whether the founder has the motivation and long-term desire to reignite growth. This "founder activation energy" is a finite resource with a high opportunity cost that must be assessed before choosing a path.

After spending nearly a year on the "soul crushing" task of fixing rendering bugs, Tela experienced an almost overnight acceleration in growth. This suggests that a 'leaky bucket' of quality issues can silently suppress a startup's potential, and fixing fundamental problems can be a more powerful growth lever than shipping new features.

The founder attributes their eventual success to the YC mantra "don't die." They consciously stayed small and conservative for years, resisting hype and fundraising pressure while still figuring out the product. This capital efficiency allowed them to survive a long period of flat growth to eventually find product-market fit.

Before its explosive success, StackBlitz spent years as a 'research lab' with little revenue. The team stayed motivated not by financial prospects but by the intrinsic challenge of building novel technology. This mission-driven culture is crucial for retaining top talent during the long, uncertain search for product-market fit.

For many founders and product people, personal fulfillment is tied to learning and overcoming challenges. Even in a profitable, stable business, stagnation can lead to personal dissatisfaction and burnout, making growth a necessity for morale, not just for investors.