Social media platforms reward outlandish, clickbait statements (e.g., "Triple, Triple, Double, Double is dead") with attention. Founders should be wary of this advice, as it's often disingenuous and designed to grow an influencer's audience rather than provide nuanced, actionable guidance.
Related Insights
In today's hype-driven AI market, founders must ignore 'false signals' like media attention and investor interest. These metrics have zero, or even negative, correlation with building a useful product. The only signal that matters is genuine user love and feedback from actual customers.
Platforms like TikTok have shifted the paradigm where success is tied to each post's individual merit, not the creator's follower base. A single viral video can generate massive reach and sales, even if other posts have low engagement, a trend now adopted by LinkedIn, YouTube, and others.
A common failure pattern for online creators is "audience drift." As they gain notoriety, they stop creating content for their original followers (e.g., "how to make your first $1,000") and start producing content designed to impress other high-status creators, alienating their base.
Building a social media audience is poor advice for SaaS founders. An audience offers passive reach (retweets), while a network of deep, two-way relationships provides true leverage (customer introductions, key hires, strategic advice). Time is better spent cultivating a network than chasing followers.
While no single path guarantees startup success, the phrase "there's no one right answer" is dangerous. It implies all approaches are equally valid, leading founders to choose easy methods over proven, difficult ones. In reality, only a handful of paths are viable, while the vast majority ensure failure.
Gaining millions of views is a vanity metric if the audience isn't engaged or aligned with business goals. Instead of pursuing fleeting viral moments, focus on consistent content that cultivates a real community. That engaged community, not a passive audience, can eventually be converted into customers.
When an influential institution like YC promotes a company with a "rage bait" strategy on its official channels, it signals approval. This can mislead young, impressionable founders into believing such tactics are a necessary or endorsed path to success, potentially corrupting the startup ecosystem's norms.
Much online startup advice comes from founders with a single lucky success or a large pre-existing audience, making their advice often not repeatable. Seek guidance from those who have demonstrated success multiple times, proving their methods are based on skill and strategy, not just luck or circumstance.
Activities like discovery interviews and seeking design partners often feel productive and validating. However, they are frequently designed to make founders feel comfortable and avoid the difficulty of real selling and deep immersion. True progress comes from uncomfortable, direct actions, not feel-good processes.
While social media challenges are framed around metrics, their most significant outcomes are often intangible. The real wins include forming business partnerships, raising capital, and building genuine relationships with peers—benefits that far outweigh simply gaining new followers.
