Because startups don’t die from a lack of work — they die from doing the wrong work.
In incubation programs, we meet many founders who are extremely hardworking.
Packed schedules. Endless tasks. Slack notifications constantly lighting up. Meetings from morning till night.
But the paradox is this:
The busier the founder, the higher the risk of failure.
Not because they’re lazy.
But because they’re busy at the wrong level of work for a founder.
1. Being busy ≠ creating value
In the early stage, startups never lack things to do.
There’s so much work that if founders try to do everything, they’ll burn out before the product even reaches the market.
The problem is:
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Making prettier slides doesn’t mean understanding customers better
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Attending more events doesn’t mean gaining traction
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Coding more features doesn’t mean solving the right pain point
At Techbloom, we often ask founders a very “uncomfortable” question:
“Last week, which task you did actually reduced your startup’s risk?”
If you can’t answer that, chances are you’re busy just to feel like you’re moving forward — not because you truly are.
2. The core mindset: the founder is not the one who does the most
One of the most dangerous misconceptions in early-stage startups is:
The founder must be the hardest-working person on the team.
In reality, at Techbloom, we see founders as people who do less — but work on things with much higher leverage and impact.
There are three layers of work a founder must personally own:
(1) Understanding customers deeper than anyone else
This cannot be outsourced.
No team, no AI, no consultant can replace it.
(2) Making direction-level decisions — not just daily tasks
Founders must spend time thinking about:
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Why are we doing this?
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If this is wrong, what’s the consequence?
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Does this reduce the biggest uncertainty we’re facing right now?
(3) Managing financial rhythm and personal energy
Cash flow and founder energy always move together.
When a founder burns out, that’s often when the startup starts burning cash unconsciously.
If a founder is busy with tasks that someone else could do at 70–80% of their level, that’s a red flag.
3. Techbloom doesn’t ask “What are you doing?” — we ask “What are you avoiding?”
A very real observation from incubation programs:
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The busier the founder, the less they talk to customers
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The busier the founder, the more they avoid looking at financial numbers
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The busier the founder, the longer they delay hard decisions
Busyness can sometimes be a very subtle form of avoidance.
At Techbloom, when a founder says:
“I was too busy this week to meet customers”
We often follow up with:
“Or are you afraid of what they might say?”
4. The discipline of 3 weekly questions for Techbloom founders
To avoid “being busy to death,” every founder in the incubator is required to answer three questions each week:
What is the biggest uncertainty of the startup this week?
(Market, customer, business model, pricing, channel, legal, cash flow?)
What is the one thing I personally did to reduce that uncertainty?
(Not something merely “useful,” but something no one else could do for me.)
What should I stop doing, delegate, or deliberately do only up to 80%?
(Founders are not allowed to “hold onto work just to look responsible.”)
If these questions can’t be answered clearly for three consecutive weeks →
the startup is moving fast… in the wrong direction.
5. Great founders are not the busiest — they are the most clear-headed
At Techbloom, we don’t look for founders who:
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talk the most,
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do the most,
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are online all the time.
We look for founders who:
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dare to drop busy work to face hard work,
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dare to say “I don’t know” instead of hiding behind slides,
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dare to slow down so they don’t die early.
Startups don’t need heroes.
They need someone who can stay clear-headed in chaos.
And sometimes, the most important thing a founder can do…
is to stop, face the truth honestly, and choose the right work again.
