Startup Founders: Make It Unreasonable

Dear Founder,

Have you met the threshold for earned inevitability?

As in, have you done such relentless, uncomfortable, comprehensive work that it would actually be unreasonable for this not to work?

Only you know.

There’s a difference between working hard and working so hard it breaks the logic of failure. Can you manufacture the default outcome.

That’s what this is about. That level. That gear. That moment when your effort becomes so complete, so relentless, so uncomfortable that it would actually be unreasonable if this didn’t succeed.

I’ve done so much that if this doesn’t work, the universe owes me an explanation kinda levels.

This doesn’t mean your solution is right. It means the problem is right. The opportunity is real. And you’ve done unreasonable amounts of work to make your solution right enough. To fit what’s needed. To test what’s broken. To break the bias you didn’t know you had.

What does unreasonable actually look like?
Too much? Crazy? Uncomfortable? Unsustainable? Sure.
Unrealistic? Depends who's asking.

This ties into last week's newsletter on labels. It’s the same thing. Who defined unreasonable? Someone else's definition of unreasonable includes someone else's assumptions.

Mostly though it's being overwhelmed with clarity and not having enough time in the day to execute on that clarity. You stop being confused about what to do and start being stressed about how much there is to do.

Unreasonable ≠ 18-hour days. It’s depth of analysis more than it is hours logged.

We like the Law of Diminishing Returns... more effort, smaller gains. But you decide where that barrier is and if you push through the first barrier when logic says stop, you'll likely find the next exponential curve that only exists for people insane enough to have kept on keeping on.

You might still fail. We are not ignoring survivor bias. We are making sure we are at peace with it.

Founders talk a lot about “inevitability" — I screamed about it with probability vs possibility.

But inevitability isn’t a vibe. It’s a result.

It’s not a feeling of confidence.
It’s the outcome of unreasonable input.

You don’t deserve to win because your idea is good.
You deserve to win when you’ve done the kind of work that makes losing feel mathematically absurd.

I’m not talking about working harder — you should.
I'm talking about working in a way that:

• Maps out your entire business — value chain, proximity to core, every lever you can pull.
• Explores every signal — the weak ones, the weird ones, the ones everyone else ignores.
• Sees the light — that moment when the path becomes clear.

And then runs — with complete conviction toward what you now know has a likelihood of working.

The type of founder who understands the entire system they're building within.

That’s the job. The job you signed up for.
And if you haven’t done everything. Then what exactly are we calling hard?

So don't stop just before it gets unreasonable.
Don't stop because you have followed the MVP, website, campaign, outreach, lotta "no thx" playbook.

No one cares about the market not being ready, learning a lot, entering too early, educating customers. No. One. Cares. What are you doing about it?

I can't tell you what your unreasonable looks like, but you will know. To repeat. Because it is so clear what you have to do, and now it's hours executing it.

This is volume, yes, and variety. I tried vs I tried everything!

So, if you want an unreasonable outcome, surely you need to earn it with unreasonable inputs.

• Have I done enough to expect a result?
• Have I gone so wide, so deep, so consistently that it would feel illogical not to make progress?
• Have I built earned inevitability?

If you haven't gone unreasonable, you're still in the optional phase.

And optional doesn't win markets. Unreasonable does.

Pick the thing you’ve been working on the reasonable way.
And make it unreasonable.

That’s the work. Are you doing it?

LFG,
James