Consume Information That Encourages You To Do More - Dalton Caldwell

You want to really think about what kind of information you're consuming and will be very thoughtful that it's information that encourages you to do more and to actually work on the thing you're aspiring to do. And that isn't implicitly discouraging. Right? There's a lot of media and information you consume out there that's very much hero-worshipping investors that talks about fundraising above the actual product, that talks about how hard it is, or all the negativity around doing things in technology.

And those are all well and good, but if you're consuming it day after day after day, sometimes I meet founders who don't even have a start-up idea yet. But because they consume all this information about fundraising 24/7, they're completely focused on fundraising without even knowing what their startup idea is. Right? And I would argue that is not super constructive. I think it'd be so much better for aspiring founders to be consuming media that inspires them to build things, to give things to other people, and provides them with more positive feedback on the things they're doing, and not really on fundraising. That comes later after you've built something.

Another thing that could be secretly not good about consuming too much fundraising-related media is that you feel like you can't do it. You feel like you need permission. You feel like you need the approval of external parties or investors to even begin. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Right? When I meet aspiring founders, they usually think the first thing to do to start a company is to first make a pitch deck and go raise money. Right? And that's not the first thing to do.

The first thing to do is figure out who you want to work with and what the first thing you want to build is. If the kind of people that you follow, the kind of blog posts that you read, or the kind of forums that you're members of, are really focused on building things, and making things, and holding you up, and giving you positive feedback for making things, I would argue that's a great kind of information flow to give yourself every day. But if you're a hundred percent focused on the nuts and bolts of valuation, and board meetings, and branding, and things like that, I just find it to be a little bit discouraging for people who haven't even begun their startup.

Another question I sometimes hear from aspiring founders is how important it is to establish thought leadership and to get notoriety for themselves. I can definitely see why people think that, especially if you're consuming a lot of thought leadership. Right? If you're following a bunch of people on Twitter or reading blog posts, you get the idea that to replicate the success of the people that are putting out the content, you yourself need to be doing exactly the same thing.

And I would suggest that is not true. The vast, vast, vast majority of successful founders that we've funded at YC have effectively no presence whatsoever, especially not in the early stages. Right? Especially not in the first five or six years of the lifetime of their company. Exposing yourself to all that noise or putting a lot of energy into establishing thought leadership can be a huge distraction from doing what really matters—making your company work.

The other thing to really understand is a lot of this stuff where people spend a lot of energy on putting information out on the Internet is content marketing. What they're trying to do is to promote their product or service, and it's a really effective marketing channel. But they're not doing it because that's what got their startup successful in the very early days; they're doing it because it's a channel that works.

So, if you're one of those people where thought leadership is an amazing way to get more customers and you can actually prove that it improves your bottom line, you should definitely be doing it. But, on the other hand, if it has nothing to do with your core business and what makes your startup grow, it's not necessarily a great use of time.

If you've heard the thing that your personality is heavily influenced by the five people you spend the most time with, I would argue that your thought process as a founder is heavily influenced by the five most common information sources you get. Therefore, I want you to be really thoughtful about what kind of information you're consuming.

Is it inspiring you to build more things? Is it inspiring you to work harder? Is it inspiring you to be rowing in the right direction? If there are pieces of information or content you're consuming that's kind of discouraging or blowing you off track, just stop reading it; stop consuming it.

So, in conclusion, think about whether this content that you're consuming is serving you well and making you a better founder and a better human being, or is it making you kind of depressed and sad? Always go towards the positive.