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What is the secret to the success of startups? Not trends that many Silicon Valley founders subscribe to, Andreessen Horowitz VC general partner Martin Casado told a room-only crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt last week.
Before joining the famous venture capital firm, Casado founded two other companies, including Nicira, a network infrastructure company that he sold to VMware for $1.25 billion. When asked for advice on achieving success, he warned founders to be wary of “hustle culture” trends.
“Silicon Valley is very performative, isn’t it? There’s a lot of ‘building startups’ and doing ‘the right things’ and being part of the culture club and networking,” he said. “It’s good to hear about all that loud and crazy stuff. And feel free to go ahead and think about it. But if you’re building a startup, you should really focus on your mental health.
For example, he hears a lot of founders “focusing on how they can be as productive as possible on a given day,” he says. They write out their days: they wake up at five, eat certain foods, exercise, and “fast at such-and-such times,” he says.
On top of that, there are productivity hacks like “Eat the Frog,” which is doing your most hated task first thing every morning; The Pomodoro Technique, which works in 25-minute intervals with 5-minute rest periods; And countless other trends.
“I don’t think any of it really had a serious impact. “I think the most important thing is just doing the thing,” Casado advises.
Instead of filling a day with stagnation, “Startups are so hard, and as a founder, you’re so shell-shocked that I actually think you need to kind of do the opposite…just focus on staying sane and taking care of yourself.”
That might mean “sleeping in and eating junk food,” he says. Founders must understand that it will likely take years to achieve success, and there is no guarantee that they will ever do so. Lifestyle tricks that may work to make it to a deadline may not be sustainable as a lifestyle for years.
“Things always take longer than you expect. And I believe that people who only focus on their well-being are the ones who survive. “If you can survive, eventually, you have a chance to win.”
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