#164: The Most Important Question to Ask as a Founder

Seeking Wisdom with David Cancel

Molly Sloan

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

DC is often asked why he started Drift when he started Drift. As his fifth company, a lot went into the decision. But it boils down to a simple question – Why now? – with a simple answer– undeniable shifts. In this episode, DC explains why “Why now?” is the most important question any entrepreneur can ask themself before starting a new venture. The answer must always be because of an undeniable shift – a massive change in our world, a megatrend that’s forcing people to adopt new behaviors. He also shares insights from three experts: Strategic messaging expert Andy Raskin, Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine, and Sequoia partner and early Facebook employee Mike Vernal. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/ Resources: Andy Raskin – Great Pitches Start with Change https://medium.com/the-mission/great-pitches-start-with-change-2c7e696b86ea Don Valentine – Target Big Markets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get to the show, did you know you can get more insights just like the ones you're listening to right here on seeking wisdom, deliver right to your inbox?
0:14.1	Sign up to get my weekly newsletter.
0:16.2	It's called The One Thing at drift.com slash DC.
0:26.1	Thank you. one thing at drift.com slash DC. You know who it is.
0:27.6	It's the uncle.
0:28.9	We're back with another episode of Seeking Wisdom.
0:32.0	This episode, we're going to talk about something I get asked a lot about.
0:36.5	It's called undeniable shifts. So I'm often asked why I
0:41.1	start a drift when I started drift. So what was behind the timing and the reason to start yet another
0:47.8	company? There's a lot that goes into that. But the thing that I tell people all the time is this
0:53.9	idea of always when you start a company,
0:57.6	when you want to create a product, when you want to bring something new to market, the question
1:02.5	that you have to ask yourself is one question.
1:05.6	It's the most important question that as a founder, I've gone wrong so many times. And the question is this,
1:13.4	are you ready? Why now? That's it. Why now? It's the most important question that you ask.
1:21.6	And that's the idea behind this undeniable shifts. So for me, when I think about starting company
1:27.3	and why I started drift
1:28.4	when I did, it first started with this idea of why now. And then the next step was, okay, I'm going
1:36.2	to start a company. I have to answer the why now question. And the easiest way I found to answer
1:42.3	the why now question, the only way, actually, that I found to answer the why now question, the only way, actually, that I found
1:45.6	to answer the why now question is this idea of an undeniable shift, a massive change in our world.
1:53.9	Sometimes I call these megatrends.
	...

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