Now that avoiding unicorn culture is definitely a hot idea, here’s a bullet pointed list of his ways to avoid the craze, pulled from his recent interview as well his past writing.
Aim to Dent
Don’t be the universe. Just dent the universe. Hansson’s previously written about unicorn culture and its founders who “have to fucking own the universe,” saying they should simply try to dent it. In the recent interview, he adds his own feelings about his success: “I go to sleep every night knowing that I already left my dent in the universe. It’s a very liberating feeling.”
Think About Why You Do It
Again, from a previous post by Hansson:
Avoid External Validation
Find a Small Investor
Even Basecamp struggled to avoid the growth-driven approach most VCs had, at least at the time:
Maybe Leave the Physical Location
Replace Unicorn Culture With the Fundamentals
Don’t Apologize for Being Small
“Small is wonderful, small is beautiful,” Hansson says towards the end of the interview. It’s a mantra that’s reflected by plenty of wise VCs, even though it goes against the scale-hungry nature of unicorn culture. As Mark Suster noted in a recent post, “I advise founders to focus on what I call ‘basecamp,’ which is the first level of success or validation at a startup. Raise only the money you need to arrive at basecamp and build only the team required to make it there.” Is it a coincidence that “Basecamp” is also the name of Hansson’s successful “dent in the universe”? Well, probably, but it’s certainly poetic. Image: Wikipedia
