Dru's Notes

I ran a daily standup for 2,000 days. Hundreds of founders joined and logged 44,110 standups, but ending it took years.

Show Notes

I ran a daily standup for 2,000 days. Hundreds of founders joined and logged 44,110 standups, but ending it took years.

Featuring: Milton Friedman

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Chapters:

(00:00) Friedman on Temporary Programs
(00:06) The 44,110-Standup Streak
(00:40) Traction as an Accidental Obligation
(01:05) Call Options for Projects
(01:25) 4 Rules to Keep Experiments Optional

Where to find Dru:

Essays: https://druriley.com/
X: https://x.com/DruRly
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

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What is Dru's Notes?

One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."
Milton Friedman

I ran a daily standup for 2,000 days.

In 2020 I asked Trends Pro Members to post status updates with three questions:

- What did you ship yesterday?
- What will you do today?
- Where are you stuck?

Hundreds of founders joined and they logged 44,110 standups.

By the end, two or three people posted each day.

I ended the standup on day 2,000 and shipped a book built from the standups the same week.

The book took a week. Ending the standup took years.

Run an experiment. It shows a spark of demand. People start using it, so now you have to keep it working for them. Run eight experiments that each get a little traction and you're running eight projects you decided to keep by default.

Shipping 12 startups in 12 months sounds great to me. I want to try a lot of ideas and find the few that stick.

The experiments that kinda work are the trap.

A call option gives you the right to buy something later without the obligation to buy it. I want an experiment to work the same way. Upside if it lands. Room to walk away if I'd rather spend the week elsewhere.

I ended the standup, but it took 2,000 days. Walking away sooner takes practice.

Some moves I'm considering to keep experiments optional:

- Ship the experiment with an end date. Let the people using it buy the extension.
- Hand it to someone to run it. The experiment keeps running and I stop being the one asked.
- Presell it against a number. Take orders until a count is hit. Miss the count and the experiment never starts.
- Sell the experiment. Get good enough at selling a small business that handing it over is a move I can make in a week.

A thing that works is harder to end than a thing that fails.

What rule keeps your next experiment from becoming a commitment?