Startup philosophy. How the future affects the founders

Not so long ago, the topic of startups was one of the exotic on the Internet. But if we look at it today, we will see tons of information from this area. Already as hackneyed discs, themes of metrics and business models, landing pages and conversation scripts, content marketing and direct, etc., endlessly scroll. However, there are still unsolved topics.

For example. Information about building startups is growing exponentially, why then the emergence of new successful projects clearly does not follow this trend? Are technical issues important for project success or do you need something else? What characteristic should a startup have and what do its founders need to develop a business?

Someone prefers to read articles, and someone to watch the video. Video content and articles complement each other, not copy.

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All successful projects are united by one common feature.

Google, Facebook, Skype, AirBnB, Uber and others have something in common. Maybe this is a business model, an audience, the amount of income per visitor or benefits to society?

Not at all.

The general sign of a successful startup is whether it changes the future or not. If you think well, this is the whole essence or philosophy of a startup.

Why so, and not otherwise?

Because it is the only criterion that cannot be undone or refuted. It is this criterion that allows a startup to develop into a big business.

Every investor's favorite question sounds like this - “And what is the use of your project?”. But this is the wrong question. Because benefit is a subjective concept, based on today's user experience. For different people there is a completely different benefit from a startup, and sometimes harm. Try to answer the question yourself - what is the use of Vkontakte or Facebook? For some, this is a platform for communicating with friends, for others a way of meeting new people, for some it is a sales channel for their products, for the fourth it is entertainment from watching cats, for the fifth it is a distraction that is hard to get rid of, for the sixth it is self-affirmation, for the seventh - avoiding life problems, for the eighth - a means of learning, for the ninth - listening to music online, for the tenths - a means of receiving news. The list is endless. And for those with social networks a distraction, Facebook, on the contrary, is a harmful service.

Is Uber useful? For passengers of course. But for ordinary taxi drivers, the service poses a threat and meets with violent resistance in many countries.

But the main and unshakable is that social networks have changed the future communications of people. In fact, they changed humanity by changing people's habits, their schedule of the day, ways of entertainment.

If we talk about the business model, then immediately come to mind examples of well-known projects that did not have any business model, some do not have them after a few years. What does this mean? The business model will be invented sooner or later. But it will not change the essence of the project itself.

With the audience going on the same thing. Startups designed for a young audience, over time, and increase the age. Skeptics, like early followers, are drawn into services over time.

But the feature of a startup to change the future, remains with him from the moment of foundation to the end.

What did AirBnB do? He changed the future of home renting. Removed intermediaries and allowed the landlord and the tenant to interact directly with each other. That is, before people gathered in another city, they booked a hotel, and not someone's empty house. Now millions of people are opting for apartments, houses, rooms. There is a changed world.

What did Uber do? The service has changed the future of taxi services. He removed the extra add-ons, opened the possibility to call a taxi with one click, and the driver to receive orders in the area where he is located.

Instagram has changed the future of our photo albums. Now they are not gathering dust on the shelves, but immediately open up to friends.

Google has changed the future of files and archives. Everything can now be found using the command line and at least an approximate description of what we are looking for.

Twitter has changed the future format of the news. 140 characters are easier to write than a double-page article.

Skype has changed the future of voice communication. Now this video link and the opportunity to see the interlocutor.

Tesla Motors has changed the future of the automotive industry. The electric motor has become a real replacement for the internal combustion engine.



If you look at any successful startups, we will see this fact of a changeable future everywhere. They have different ways of monetization, different audiences, different benefits. But this feature unites them.

How does your startup change the future? Think about it. Perhaps this is your mission, everything else is just a means.

The future affects the founders

And now we will touch on the topic, as the founders of startups who changed the future could do it.

What is the gift of foresight, divine power, pure chance, or something else?
Arguments that Page, Zuckerberg, Kalanik, Friss, Dorsey, Sistrom ... sat down thoroughly, analyzed everything and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to make their services as they exist, sound very unconvincing. Read more about it here.

How do you like this option of their success? - The attraction of the future.



Is it possible that it was the future that influenced the development of startups, some kind of elusive connection with what will be present, allowed the founders to do what they did. It may sound fantastic, but it is scientifically possible.

The reason for everything is our consciousness. It turns out that it has the ability to establish a connection with the future. This phenomenon has various names superintuition, superconsciousness, foresight, attraction of the future. And if philosophers and psychologists have long come to the conclusion that this is possible, then now comes the era of evidence of this phenomenon in the natural sciences.

The subject of research of physicists is increasingly becoming the human mind. The discovery of quantum mechanics and its laws made it possible to describe consciousness as a quantum entity and explain its mysteries.

Remember the movie “Interstellar”? The idea that the human feeling - the love of the hero for his daughter, is able to break through time and change the physical reality, is not at all an artistic invention of the director. Jonathan Nolan wrote the screenplay of the film based on advanced scientific research in the field of human consciousness according to the idea of ​​the theoretical physicist Kip Thorn.



If you omit the theory (you can study it yourself - the sources at the end of the article), then the conclusions are:

- For intuition (attraction of the future) or the superconscious there is no concept of time.

- The whole quantum world is a single whole - there is no separation between me and others. In the quantum world there are connections of all with everyone, past, present and future.

- Consciousness is able to establish a connection with the future and let us know what needs to be done and thereby start the process of creating the future.

But the most interesting is the question of how we can understand that we have caught the moment of attraction of the future. You understand that this is not a note from a stranger that you find in the mailbox or almanac of sports results from Back to the Future. It turns out that this is a correlation of fragments of quantum information from the future and the present, which is enough for consciousness to insight.



It is illumination that is the connection with the future. And if you carefully examine the examples of the insights of scientists, we will understand why Archimedes cried out Eureka. In moments of insight, most scientists and entrepreneurs experience strong emotions. And between these groups there is a direct connection, one constantly examines scientific laws, the other laws of the market. These emotions are called euphoria. The strongest positive emotion is a marker that you are on the right track.

We in the Grrow.me team have recently become interested in questions of consciousness, but the conclusions are simply amazing. And allow you to interpret this knowledge on the process of building a new business.

If you look through the prism of the scientific understanding of quantum consciousness and the stories of successful Internet projects, then very curious conclusions are suggested.

It turns out that all billion-dollar companies were not created by chance or for a reason. Their founders have the ability to interact with the future and attract it. At the same time experiencing an incredible emotional recovery in the process of building your project.

Of course, this is not a ready-made startup recipe, but the saying “Do you want to change the world? “Change yourself” acquires a more practical and scientific meaning.
More information on this topic will appear here.

And in conclusion, I will quote from the article “How Tesla will change the world” by Tim Urban -
“Tesla's story - not about the car or the car company - it’s about how changes are occurring. And also about why they often do not occur.

Our intuition tells us that technology, social norms, movements and ideas simply move forward with time, as if progress is like a river, and these things are like a boat that slides along the waves. We so associate the passage of time with progress that we use the term "future" in relation to a better, more advanced version of the present.

In reality, if a more perfect future comes, it happens, thanks to the will of a few courageous people. The present does not welcome an advanced future, because the present is the interweaving of ideas, norms and technologies of the past. There are only flashes and small changes of proven concepts of development, and this may seem to us a move towards the future, but in reality this is only a polishing of the past.

When the real change comes, you know exactly what it is. This is a distinct, invigorating feeling when you witness how a breakthrough innovator makes his way through everyday life. I had that feeling when I watched the Steve Jobs iPhone presentation in 2007. ”

The founders of startups feel the future and transfer this feeling to other people.

Sources:

Mensky, M.B. "Social Consciousness and Quantum Physics"

John Searle "Myths and Reality of Consciousness"

Dan Dennett "About our mind"

The future affects the past

Books
Antti Revonsuo "Psychology of Consciousness"
Mensky, M.B. Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics