StartUp Founders: Big Doors, Small Hinges
Dear Reader,
The biggest inflection points in your startup won’t feel big when they happen. It’s the smallest shifts that change everything.
Big Doors Swing on Small Hinges is tied to decisions, actions, and communication.
🚀 The decision that kills your startup won’t feel big when you make it. That’s what makes it dangerous.
🚀 The decision that changes everything won’t feel big either. That’s why most founders miss it.
This is the counter-balance to the entropy newsletter. The thousand tiny compromises that don’t feel like failure. Until they do.
Entropy = Passive decline. (failure sneaks up on you)
Small Hinges = Active momentum. (success sneaks up on everyone else)
Startups don’t die because they miss one giant opportunity. They die because they miss a thousand small ones.
This is not a “play small” story, nor is it thinking small, playing it safe, avoiding big swings, not taking moonshots or any other attempt to assign small hinges to small things.
Its about understanding what makes big swings possible. Massive wins are rarely the result of that one heroic, high risk move, its intelligent, strategic, high leverage decisions that stack over time.
The gold medal at the olympics. Thousands of early mornings, restrictive diets, cancelled plans, injuries, and more.
Yes, one big moment can shift everything. One big feature. One big investor. One big customer. One big partner. Sure. Sometimes, the right big swing pays off. Sometimes, it has to. But that’s rarely how the big win happens.
I talked about this in The Monopsony Trap. Chasing it, sometimes works. Most of the time, it bends your company in ways you can’t recover from.
It’s not the monster client that changes everything. Its the 100’s of prospect calls that came beforehand, the rigorous refinement of messaging, the preparation, the pain, the failure, the rejections.
It’s not the massive launch that sets you apart. It’s the months of planning, researching, organization and the relentless execution on the tiny details that add up over time. Ask anyone who launched on product hunt with 3 days of prep.
The biggest inflection points in a startup rarely feel big in the moment.
Founders Hate Small Hinges 🙂
We chase big swings instead of small hinges. Big swings feel like progress. Small hinges feel like maintenance.
We know this, I always talk about it. Your (my) brain is wired for dopamine, not results.
The rush, the thrill, the high, of having an epic opportunity – a logo prospect, a media mention, a VC tickle.
Your brain floods with dopamine from the possibility of massive success. Even when the probability is microscopic.
(Now I have next weeks topic – Possibility vs Probability!)
The small, boring, unsexy work that actually moves the needle barely registers. No glory. No rush. No story to tell at founder happy hour.
You know you know this. Marginal gains is a real thing. If you work on your SEO everyday, you will rank higher, you make one small improvement to your customer support program and less customers will need a human. The 1% rule. Make something 1% better every day… do i need to finish this sentence?
The question is whether you have the discipline to know you know this and ignore the dopamine to focus on the small boring, high leverage decisions, every. single. day.
Small Hinge Filter?
Not perfect… but:
1️⃣ Can it be done in a day?
2️⃣ Can it be measured in a week?
3️⃣ Does it target the critical 20% that drives 80% of results? (pareto)
4️⃣ Can it be amplified if it works?
5️⃣ Does it trigger a chain reaction of positive changes?
✅ If yes to all five, it’s a high-leverage hinge. Do it NOW!
It’s not about making the perfect move. Just make small, smart moves that compound.
The startups that lose? The ones talking a big game about big moves and ignoring the things that actually matter. The willingness to go into the coal mine (the hard, unseen work).
Words Matter.
Sometimes the hinge is a word. A word that shifts how someone perceives a sentence, a pitch, a deal, or a decision.
- “I love your product, but it’s missing X.” → “I love your product, and it’s missing X.”
One shuts down the conversation. One invites collaboration. - “Would you like to move forward?” → “How can we make this work for you?”
One gives an easy “No.” One forces engagement.
These aren’t tricks just small hinges that move deals, shape decisions, and drive momentum.
Startups aren’t built on one moment. They’re built on 10,000 small ones.
As always, if I can be of service, feel free to grab time.
LFG.
— James