The Hardest Position a Founder Can Be In
Butterfield: We had a relatively big user base who were very engaged. But we had a leaky bucket — it was very difficult to add new users to the game we were working on, Glitch.
I felt very stuck. On one hand you have the narrative — good entrepreneurs are resilient, when everyone else thinks it's a bad idea it's probably a really good idea, you have to dig in and prove people wrong. On the other hand, there was a morning I woke up and I was just like — I can't do this anymore. I'm the CEO, I'm the chair of the board, I'm sure this is not going to work. And it's actually hard to convince everyone else.
On one hand: good entrepreneurs are resilient. On the other: I woke up knowing this is not going to work.
When You're Out of Ideas
Butterfield: I had exhausted all of the ideas we had to fix the problems. We focused on new user experience — we really wanted to teach people what this was, get them excited. We were okay at attracting people into the top of the funnel but had a hard time retaining them.
That's always when I tell people to give up on an idea — when you're out of ideas about how to fix it.
Give up when you're out of ideas about how to fix it.
The Whiteboard Empties Out
Butterfield: We would have an idea, we'd try it, didn't work. Have another idea. At first you can fill up Post-it notes, those giant boards, fill up whiteboards with ideas. You argue about which ones are the highest value.
Then one by one you eliminate them. Months go by. A year goes by. Another six months. And it's like — these are all the ideas we thought were the worst ones to begin with. And we only have three left. So this is probably not going to work.
At first you fill up whiteboards. A year later, only the worst ideas are left. Three of them. Probably not going to work.