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Naval Ravikant: The Common Thread Across Every Great Founder He Has Backed

By Naval Ravikant · Mindset & Career · 1 min read

Naval looked at the 6 or 7 amazing deals he's seen — Dropbox, Airbnb, Square, Twitter — and found one common thread. The entrepreneurs were extremely deliberate in every early decision. They were laying bricks for a 10-year business.

Key Points

The common thread: entrepreneurs were extremely deliberate in every early decision
They felt like they were laying the foundation for a 10-year business — none was thinking of flipping
The sloppy entrepreneur who doesn't care about details is telling you they won't be there in 2 years

The sloppy entrepreneur who's not thinking about every little detail — it's a tell that maybe they won't even be there in two years.

The Common Thread

Naval: I was reminiscing about the 6 or 7 really amazing deals I've been fortunate to see in my career — most of which I either passed on or didn't get into, by the way. Dropbox, Twilio, Airbnb, Square, Twitter, Foursquare.

I was thinking — what was the common thread? The entrepreneurs were extremely deliberate in every early decision they made. They were not haphazard. The reason is because they really felt like they were laying the foundation for a 10-year business. None of them was thinking of flipping.

Extremely deliberate in every early decision. They felt like they were laying a foundation for 10 years.

Every Detail Matters

Naval: Someone like Jack at Square or Drew from Dropbox — we're going to solve this problem, we've got a great name, a great logo. They work every detail out. The name. The logo. Every investor. Every person they hire. Where they put the office.

Every little detail matters to them — because they're laying bricks to a foundation and asking: am I going to be able to deal with this 5 or 10 years from now?

The name, the logo, every hire, the office — every detail matters because they're building for 10 years.

The Tell

Naval: The sloppy entrepreneur who's not really thinking about those things — it's a bit of a tell that maybe they won't even be there in two years. They'll sell when they get the first offer. Or they'll shut down when they hit the first speed bump.

The sloppy founder is telling you they'll sell at the first offer or shut down at the first speed bump.