🎯 Turning Constraints into Catalysts: The Unsplash Story

In 2013, Mikael Cho, founder of the Montreal-based startup Crew, faced a dire situation. With only three months of cash remaining and no interest from venture capitalists, the company was on the brink of collapse.

To revamp their website on a shoestring budget, Cho's team organized a photoshoot. The resulting images were high-quality, but they used only a few. Instead of letting the unused photos go to waste, Cho decided to share them with the world.

Here’s what Mikael did…

He gathered up 10 beautiful photos that the company had lying around from when they’d first developed their website and hired a photographer. “Our audience is in the process of building their websites and apps,” he thought. “They could probably use some good photos.”

Mikael put those photos on a Tumblr site, purchasing a simple, photo-friendly layout that cost a whopping 19 bucks. Even a startup about to go out of business can afford THAT.

“Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos” Mikael wrote on the top of the Tumblr page. “10 new photos every 10 days.”

Within four hours, Mikael had launched this side project, and he named it … Unsplash.

Think about how constrained Mikael’s actions were up to this point. He spent just a few dollars and half a day creating a side project. It was indeed creative and new, but by no means did he operate like he had creative freedom. In fact, he didn’t have total freedom at all. He had extremely limited resources. He also had to move quickly, since his company could go under within the next quarter if this project didn’t work. He had to stay disciplined and focused and test something small, despite how high the stakes were for Mikael. Remember, he had investors to worry about. He was responsible for a handful of employees too.

This initiative, quickly gained traction, amassing tens of thousands of downloads in a short time. The unexpected popularity of Unsplash not only provided value to countless creators but also brought significant attention to Crew, helping to revive the struggling startup.

Eventually, Unsplash grew into a standalone platform, becoming one of the most popular sources for free, high-quality images on the internet.

Lessons for Entrepreneurs

This story underscores a vital lesson: constraints can be powerful catalysts for creativity and innovation.

• Resourcefulness Over Resources: Limited funds forced Cho to think creatively, leading to an innovative solution that provided immense value.

• Value Creation Through Sharing: By offering something valuable for free, Cho built goodwill and a strong user base, which in turn supported his primary business.

• Embracing the Unexpected: What started as a side project became a significant venture, illustrating the importance of staying open to new opportunities.

🗓️ Build Your Calendar Like a Founder Builds Product: With Purpose, Not Clutter

Most people treat their calendars like a junk drawer—jammed with calls, check-ins, and "quick syncs" that add up to zero real progress.

But as an entrepreneur, your calendar is your control panel. And like any good product, it should be designed intentionally, not reactively.

Treat Time Like a Scarce Resource—Because It Is

Here’s one calendar strategy that prioritizes energy, not ego:

• Morning = Founder Mode
  The first 2–3 hours of your day should be your personal launch window. No meetings. No email. Just focused work on the things that actually move the needle—writing, designing, thinking, building.

• Late Morning = Movement Break
  Around 11 or so, get moving. Walk. Lift. Swim. Whatever clears your mind and reboots your system. If your health isn’t on the calendar, it’ll never be on track.

• Afternoon = Real Life Integration
  Around 3pm, shift gears. Spend time with family, read a book, watch some thing that interests you. Run a passion project. Go outside. You’re not “off the clock”—you’re investing in the part of life that makes all the work worth doing.

• Open Space = Strategic Optionality
  The rest? Leave room. That whitespace is where optionality lives. It’s where unexpected opportunities show up—and where bad ideas go to die before wasting your time.

The Real Flex

Everyone wants to talk about “leverage” and “scale.” But if your calendar is jammed wall-to-wall, you’re not scaling, you’re stuck living other peoples optimal BS strategies.

The real flex isn’t being busy.
It’s having unclaimed time to focus, to build, to breathe.

Think of it this way:

Don’t be the founder who’s always booked but rarely building.
Be the one who treats time like equity: protected, intentional, and compounding in value.

🎨 The Taste Gap: When Your Standards Are High, but Your Work Isn’t (Yet)

If you've ever made something — a product, a pitch deck, a brand — and immediately felt disappointed, you’re not alone. That feeling isn’t failure. It’s called the Taste Gap.

As This American Life’s Ira Glass explains:

You can see what great looks like — but your skills haven’t caught up. That frustrating gap? That’s the forge where creators, builders, and entrepreneurs are made.

And that brings us to Andrew Moo.

🍜 The Accidental Restauranteur: Andrew Moo and the Long Arc of Taste

In 2012, Andrew Moo moved to China on a whim , a gap year to explore his cultural roots. He didn’t speak the language. He had no plan. He wasn’t a chef. In fact, he was a marketer.

But he had taste.

As he settled into life in Guangzhou, then Shanghai, Moo fell in love with the culture and the food especially the kind of casual, inventive, street-level meals that mix heritage with experimentation. At home, he cooked constantly. He started hosting dinner parties. His dishes? They were okay. Not amazing. But the vision was there, he wanted to create something that told a story, something original and craveable.

For years, he refined his ideas. He kept showing up in the kitchen, learning the hard way how to translate flavor into form. He didn’t start with the talent of a chef — but he had the taste of one.

Eventually, in 2020, Moo launched Yaya’s a Shanghai pasta bar that blends Chinese and Italian influences. Think: dan dan tagliatelle. It hit a nerve. Yaya’s quickly developed a cult following for its unique dishes and deeply personal vibe.

From there, he co-founded GOODMAN, a burger joint reimagined through the same lens: unexpected, playful, and grounded in global flavors.

💡 The Lesson: Taste Is Your Compass .. Not a Curse

Andrew Moo’s story is a masterclass in navigating the Taste Gap.

He had high standards from day one — but it took years of experimenting, iterating, and sometimes flopping to build something that matched his internal vision.

As an entrepreneur, you’ll face this too.

• You’ll cringe at your early product mockups.

• You’ll doubt your pitch deck even after version 15.

• You’ll launch something that’s 60% of what you imagined.

And that’s normal.

The ones who make it? They don’t quit because their early work is off. They keep going because their taste tells them there’s something better on the other side.

🚀 Your Move

If you’re building right now and you feel like your execution isn’t quite “there” yet don’t stop. Do remain humble.

You’re not broken. You’re just crossing the Taste Gap.

And if you’re lucky, the gap will never fully close — because that means your taste keeps growing, too.’

Inspired from the Business Insider story here.

If you missed the dot-com bubble cycle, or the app store cycle due to being young or not being around, its not on you, but if you miss the AI/Agent cycle, its on you. It may seem boring but thats where the real fortunes will be minted. Take some time and find your wedge.

This tweet, over and over again.

The Brain-First Trap: When Your Mind Moves Fast, but You Don’t

Some founders operate like chess grandmasters. I know because I work with dozens of them across geographies and see this in action at every board meeting

They glance at a task a pitch deck, a landing page, a partnership deal and instantly know what it will take to complete it.

Their mind races ahead. They see the outcome clearly. They know they can do it probably in one focused push, caffeine in hand, a playlist dialed in.

So they wait.

No urgency. No momentum. No guilt.

Just a quiet confidence that when the time comes, they’ll nail it. And most of the time? They do. The winners for sure.

But here’s the trap: because it works, they repeat it.

Until one day, it doesn’t.

🐉 Enter: The “Dragon of Delay”

This isn’t procrastination in the traditional sense. It’s more sophisticated more seductive. I call it:

The Dragon of Delay

Speed of mind creates the illusion of motion. But execution? That’s still on pause.

The Dragon of Delay feeds on your intelligence:

• You see how easy it’ll be, so you put it off.

• You know you’ll crush it, so you skip the prep.

• You believe in your instincts, so you don’t test them early.

And every time you deliver under pressure, the dragon grows a little stronger.

It starts whispering:

Until eventually, your sharpest edge becomes your softest weakness.

⚔️ The Anti-Dragon Framework: PACE

To outmaneuver the Dragon of Delay, you don’t need panic. You need a system. Try this:

P.A.C.E.

• Prioritize Early → Scope and sketch at the start, even if you don’t execute yet.

• Act in Microbursts → Begin before you feel “ready.” 15 minutes kills inertia.

• Create Real Triggers → Replace fake deadlines with peer check-ins or public launches.

• Execute in Timeboxes → Channel your sprint energy, but inside structured windows.

I tell the smart founders to not fight their wiring instead build rails around it.

Why this matters?

The most dangerous habit of high performers isn’t laziness.

It’s delay dressed as confidence.

If you’ve built your career on last-minute brilliance, just know: the Dragon of Delay is riding with you. And the longer you wait, the more it feeds.

So slay early. Ship often. Stay sharp.

My Favorite Story for Founders: The Architect vs. the Magician

There are two types of builders.

The Magician waits for inspiration. When it hits, he conjures brilliance in a single night. People clap. He disappears again.

The Architect shows up at the same time every day. One brick at a time. She doesn’t dazzle until one day, she’s built the empire everyone else works in.

One is addicted to the rush.
The other is committed to the craft.

Guess who wins in the long run?

This week think about “The idea that we are the first generation who can actually make money via internet just from our computers. Our parents and grandparents don’t have that and somehow they made businesses work, so there’s zero excuse to not find a way to make money online”.

You don’t have a skill problem if you aren’t doing this already, you have a willpower and motivation problem, because skills you can learn.

Bonus! Thought of the week

Maintaining a good attitude independent from external circumstances really is one of the greatest gifts.

Contrarian Take: 

"Reading Too Much Can Make You Lazy—Here’s Why"

Albert Einstein supposedly warned: "Reading after a certain age diverts the mind from creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and thinks too little falls into lazy habits of thought."

Controversial? Maybe. But he’s onto something.

Most entrepreneurs treat reading like a virtue, hoarding books, chasing the next "must-read." But knowledge isn’t the goal; doing something with it is. Passive consumption tricks you into feeling productive while avoiding real work.

The fix? Read less, think more.

• Absorb just enough to spark ideas.

• Then close the book—and build, test, iterate.

Genius doesn’t come from memorizing. It comes from creating.

When was the last time you put the book down and just thought?

Bonus: If you’re reading this instead of working, irony alert:-)