The Secrets To Setting Smarter Goals

Goals that are too aggressive can demotivate founders, especially when they come from fear or assumptions about what investors expect. Dalton gives the example of a new YC company targeting $30,000 in monthly recurring revenue by Demo Day because an alum said that amount would help with fundraising. Michael and Dalton also describe founders who expect 100,000 downloads immediately after a carefully delayed launch.

For a paid product, registered users or downloads can hide whether customers are active or paying. Dalton lists website hits, unfinished registrations, and brief app opens as examples of misleading metrics. The hosts advise founders to treat goals as learning tools: adjust a bad goal, accept a miss, and focus on progress against the company’s hardest problems instead of making excuses.

Founders can misread comparisons to other startups, such as assuming a 2021 funding round predicts what investors will offer in 2022. Copying Facebook’s small user count without its unusually strong engagement also misses what made the comparison meaningful. Sandbagging goals may help someone look good at a large company, but Dalton says it can hold founders back when they are responsible for their own progress.

The hosts describe how raising as much as possible can cost founders control and encourage overspending, while hiring a large team too early can lead to painful layoffs. They warn against building an executive team or pursuing acquisitions before product-market fit, and against scaling a business with negative margins. Knowingly deceiving customers can cause serious harm and legal consequences; spending time angel investing for status can distract founders from building their company.

Founders’ choices teach their teams what the company values, so status-seeking or other distractions can spread. Michael and Dalton say founders can improve at setting and accomplishing goals over time. Their strongest companies get better at this and move faster as a result.