The Illusion of Momentum
If Everyone’s Moving Fast, Who’s Thinking Differently?
The machine is running at full speed. But, are we steering it or are we just keeping up?
Everywhere I turn, I see movement. Founders launching. Startups scaling. Investors optimising their bets. AI accelerating every part of the process.
By all accounts, this should be a golden era of innovation. The tools have never been more advanced. The access to knowledge, never more immediate. The ability to build, never more frictionless.
But something isn’t sitting right.
The Game Hasn’t Changed, But Builders Are
Investors say they want innovation, but funding still follows familiar patterns. The founders who fit the mold, those who look like past winners and check the right boxes, are the ones who get access. The rest? They build anyway.
We keep hearing the same strategies repeated:
"GTM is king. PMF is everything. B2B needs new distribution models."
The same playbooks. The same urgency to grow faster, raise smarter, and scale at all costs. Some days, it feels like I’m compiling an acronym dictionary rather than shaping the future.
The startup ecosystem has never been more engineered with growth formulas, AI-driven sales, and funding decisions built on pattern recognition.
And now, something else is happening beneath the surface.
Some founders are opting out. Not because capital is scarce, but because it’s selective. They’re seed-strapping, bootstrapping, self-funding and not always by choice, but by necessity.
So when the system is designed to fund what already exists, who is actually creating the future?
Some Are Playing The Game Elsewhere
…and in places where founders are forced to think beyond capital.
Look at Notion.
In 2015, they ran out of money and could have easily become just another failed startup. Instead of scrambling to raise more, they moved to Japan, stripped everything back, and rebuilt. They focused on survival, product, and profitability before raising again.
Look at Mailchimp.
They didn’t just question the VC treadmill. They opted out entirely, ever taking a single dollar in outside funding. While others played the fundraising game, they built profitably and scaled on their own terms.
So, What Now?
If funding follows predictable patterns, how do you break through? The founders who don’t fit the mold are thinking sharper. AI can give you that edge, not by replacing your instincts, but by challenging them.
If you want to build differently, don’t just look for what’s working but find what’s missing.
Prompt 1:
"Analyze the most common strategies in my industry. What’s missing? Where is the whitespace that others are ignoring?"Prompt 2:
"Take the perspective of a competitor betting against me. Where would they see my biggest blind spots, and how would they capitalize on them?"How to Apply This:
Use the first prompt to map where the market is saturated and where the gaps exist.
Use the second prompt to pressure-test your approach and uncover vulnerabilities before they become risks.
Where This Leaves Us
Are we truly moving forward or are we just keeping up? I believe that the real staying power comes from playing a different game.
So I will leave you with this prompt to ask your favourite AI:
"If I could no longer rely on traditional growth strategies, how would I build a business that is impossible to ignore?"
All the zest 🍋,
Cien
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