Hello Friends,

Welcome to March.

February was a Lunar focused month. The Lunar New Year celebrations and the start of Ramadan fasting. It was a blend of higher social interaction and solitary introspection.

There are people who look forward to gatherings and thrive in them. There are also those that dread and avoid them.

As a Founder, it's easy to remain in build / focus mode and make it the default. It may be hard to see value in mingling, socializing and dare I say the word - networking, when most Founders are tunnel-vision obsessed with their business.

We talk about getting out into the world especially in in build / focus mode.

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The Situation:

Sarah is laser focused on her startup. She thinks about it all the time.

Her knowledge diet is a library of playbooks, podcasts and books from entrepreneurs she admires. So much of the advice states that it is important to put your head down and just build. As an introvert who prefers her own company, this is the kind of advice Sarah gets 100% onboard with.

She does see the value in in-person feedback from local entrepreneurs who have relevant experience but is reluctant to reach out to them.

Sarah's reluctance stems from:

1) Not being comfortable in cold outreach

2) Fear of receiving feedback that will spoil her work momentum

3) Fear of receiving feedback that will make her scrap her idea

She wants to find a way to get over her reluctance and discomfort.

THE HOLLYWOOD TAKE

In the 2025 movie, Swiped, which is about the dating app, Tinder, actress Lily James played Whitney Wolfe Herd (former co-founder of Tinder, now Founder of Bumble). She was tasked with seeding the dating app with real users.

Her idea was to head to her university alma mater, to get students to sign up as new users. She helped Tinder move the needle by getting their critical traction milestone in their early stages.

Whilst she was clearly enthusiastic about the idea and great at marketing it, the app's seeding ran into a chicken & egg situation. The dating app can only work if there are enough users on it.

Whitney (as portrayed in the movie) headed for her old Sorority house to market the idea to the ladies but needed to motivate them to use the app by telling them that the Fraternity guys were on it. That got the ladies excited to sign up.

Just one thing stood in her way - Whitney lied about the Frat boys being on the app.

Seeing the ladies' interest gave her the confidence to approach the Fraternity men immediately, and that ultimately made the sign up process and volume a roaring success.

As a co-founder, Whitney acted on her assumption that the university scene would adopt the dating app idea. With that assumption in mind, she assumed it would be a no brainer for students to sign up organically.

When she went in person, she understood that:

1) No one wanted to sign up for the app unless there were attractive people on it

2) People needed to be informed that there were attractive people on it

Being there in person and interacting with actual users was the catalyst in growing Tinder.

SOCIAL SCRIPT:

Most people can be helpful if they are asked in a way that appeals to their values.

Someone who prides themselves as helpful, as a mentor, as a leader would be inclined to respond to a young entrepreneur seeking advice and guidance.

Someone who has benefited from former mentorship would be inclined to pay it forward when he /she is called to task.

Someone who has tasted success and is in a grateful headspace would be inclined to say yes to a coffee meeting seeking advice.

Conversely, someone who has been taken for granted in the past, would be less willing to help out.

INNER SCRIPT:

Sarah realizes that her fear lies in someone criticizing her idea and work.

With her being so ingrained in the workings of it, it is hard to separate the work from her identity. She takes any negative feedback quite personally and it makes her less motivated to work.

On the other hand, she wants feedback from real life users, customers and also seasoned entrepreneurs who have walked similar paths.

She wants the feedback to be targeted at improving the business.

Sarah understands that she needs to be objective about any form of feedback (positive or negative).

ACTUAL SCRIPT:

Sarah decides to attend her startup idea incubator gathering despite her reluctance to put herself out there in a social setting.

To hype herself and to avoid being a wallflower, she tells herself that she is being an anthropologist and doing a survey study on behalf of her business.

Her cohort classmates, instructors and guest entrepreneur lecturers are in attendance.

She decides to approach them in a way that is natural / organic and exciting to her i.e. talking about her business.

Instructors

• Sarah updates her instructors on what she has built so far and the milestones she has achieved
• She indicates that she is looking for feedback on specific areas that coincide with the instructor's expertise
• She listens to the feedback and thinks about how to apply it towards her business

Guest Entrepreneur Lecturers

• Sarah approaches the Lecturers who are in the same industry space as her and shares her observations on her customer's behavior
• She questions if these are normal insights given what they have seen in the industry
• She shares her business goals with them and asks them to honestly critique if they are realistic and achievable. If yes / no, why?

Cohort Classmates

• Sarah approaches classmates who could be possible customers of her business
• She gives them a coupon code for them to experience the service in exchange for specific feedback on the overall customer experience