Shreya Murthy

Like doing literally anything else would be not just easier, but would probably make more money, like have a higher expected value calculation of just, you know, going to big tech and making a great salary there.

And so...

My biggest piece of advice is to be incredibly passionate about whatever you're building.

Don't build because a VC told you it was a great market.

Don't build because you saw some list of requests for startups.

Don't build because you looked at a bunch of data and saw that a market was promising.

And I'm not saying that doesn't work for everyone.

It may work for some people.

But just what I know is that this journey is so...

emotionally taxing and psychologically taxing and comes with new unexpected challenges every single day.

And just so there's so much fragility in it that I think you have to have something deep and powerful that really grounds you and keeps you going, even when things seem impossible, even when you start your party startup and then a global pandemic happens that makes parties illegal for a

You have to have some passion and true belief that keeps you going in your darkest moments.

Solve a problem that you feel personally.

Okay.

Build for yourself and then take the leap of faith that other people feel the same way that you do because that is the problem that you're going to be most intimately familiar with and you will know in your bones when you've built the right solution to that problem.

And that...

truth is much stronger data than any survey you could run or even any user interview that you could have.

And so center in your own problems and your own truth.

And if you solve those problems really well, there will be at least some other people out there who feel the same way.

And now you've just solved their problem.