My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Rise of Anti-Business Business Builders
Timeframe: 5-10 year shift already underway
What's Changing
Growing number of entrepreneurs rejecting traditional business advice about fundraising, quick exits, and growth-at-all-costs in favor of long-term ownership and product obsession.
Driving Forces
Wealth concentration making quick exits less necessary for security
Examples of founder-controlled companies outperforming
Backlash against venture capital growth models
Increased focus on company culture and values
Winners
- Product-obsessed founders who can self-fund
- Companies building for decades not exit events
- Founders who maintain control through growth
Losers
- Traditional venture capital models
- Growth-at-all-costs strategies
- Short-term optimization businesses
How to Position Yourself
Focus on product quality over growth metrics
Emphasize long-term vision over quarterly results
Maintain founder control through company structure
Build for customers not investors
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“Software founder bootstrapping to $10M ARR, refusing all VC offers, maintaining 100% ownership while competitors raise multiple rounds and dilute themselves into minority positions.”
Related Knowledge
Personalized AI Life Coach
People make important decisions without having a trusted advisor who knows their full context, goals, and circumstances.
Anti-Business Billionaire Framework
A framework identifying five core traits of entrepreneurs who build massive companies by being contrarian to typical business advice: high disagreeableness, extreme self-confidence, product obsession, total control retention, and refusal to sell at any price.
Edisonian Principle of Design
A product development approach focused on rapid experimentation, immediate feedback, and constant iteration rather than master planning.
Maintain freedom to work on what you love while building a successful business
Ability to work exclusively on projects you're passionate about, declining lucrative distractions, and having money follow from doing what you love rather than chasing money directly.
Family Heirloom Business Model
Viewing your business as a family heirloom to be passed down through generations rather than an asset to be optimized for sale.
Go Slow Now to Go Fast Later
Deliberately limiting initial growth to deeply learn fundamentals, enabling exponentially faster growth later when you apply accumulated knowledge.