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I used to think the goal was to build a company that looked impressive to everybody else.

Big team.

Big office.

Big logos.

Big revenue number.

All the things that make people nod their head and say “wow - you guys are really doing it.”

But the problem is, most of those things are just expensive ways to feel insecure.

I know because I did it.

At one point we had 38 employees, a product that sort of worked, and absolutely no idea how we were going to get unstuck. We were spending money, hiring people, adding features, taking meetings, and doing all of the things that companies do when they are trying to manufacture momentum.

It felt like progress.

It wasn’t.

The business was stuck at around $3m ARR, I had ZERO confidence in myself as a founder, and every new initiative somehow created three more problems.

The worst part was watching everybody around me appear to CRUSH IT.

People were raising money.

People were announcing new offices.

People were hiring executives.

People were posting screenshots of growth charts that went straight up and to the right.

Or so it seemed.

Eventually we shrunk the team to 6 people and started focusing on the only thing that mattered: building something customers actually wanted.

Not what looked impressive.

Not what made us sound enterprise.

Not what gave us an excuse to add another layer of complexity.

Something simple.

Something people could use without talking to us for six weeks first.

That was the turning point.

The first thing SORT OF worked. The second thing worked a little better. The third thing REALLY worked.

The third thing got to $10m ARR with 3 employees.

No giant team.

No complicated sales process.

No army of account executives.

Just a simple product that solved a painful problem for a specific type of customer.

That business gave me a totally different definition of success.

Success is not having the biggest company in the room.

Success is having a company that gives you energy instead of taking all of it.

Success is having customers who love the product, employees who know exactly what they are responsible for, and enough freedom to spend your time on the things you actually care about.

I still get the “oh that’s cute” look every once in a while.

But it doesn’t sting anymore.

Because I know what I want.

And I know that the business we are building is exactly the business I want to be building.

That is a much better feeling than impressing somebody who doesn’t know anything about your life.

So if your company is small, or stuck, or nowhere near as impressive as the companies you see online, keep going.

Keep building.

Keep throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Just make sure you are eventually learning which pieces stick.

Because some day you might wake up and realize that the life you wanted was never the life that looked the most impressive from the outside.

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