Why We Invest Before the Market Notices

Why We Invest Before the Market Notices

Why Users Matter More Than 10k

Apr 4, 2025

Apr 4, 2025

5 min read

5 min read

Early Users Shape the Product

Your first 100 users don’t just use the product — they form it. Every bug report, unexpected use case, and casual comment is a mirror into what you’ve actually built — not what you thought you were building.
If you listen closely, these users hand you a roadmap. They show you which features matter, what feels confusing, and where trust lives. But you have to earn that feedback. That means being present, responsive, and honest.
Early users are partners, not metrics. They aren’t there to validate you — they’re there to pressure-test your instincts.

Volume Dilutes Signal

Getting to 10,000 users feels exciting, but if the product isn’t ready, you just scale confusion. You get more tickets, more edge cases, and more noisy data — but not more clarity.
When a product is still fragile, more users means more cracks. You can lose sight of what matters most: the why behind the behavior.
Scaling prematurely hides product gaps. That’s why we pay attention to teams that spend a long time with their first few hundred users — learning, adjusting, and shaping before broadcasting.

Trust Is Built in Micro-Moments

Your first users notice everything — the broken link, the awkward tooltip, the slightly-off tone in an email. At scale, this kind of detail fades into the background. Early on, it’s everything.
These micro-moments shape emotional trust. They signal whether you’re careful, thoughtful, and paying attention. And trust compounds.
A product with deep trust can afford mistakes. One without it can’t survive the first outage. The best founders obsess over these early signals — because they know they scale.

The Best Feedback Isn’t Obvious

Your power users rarely leave long feedback threads. But they’ll say something offhand, in a chat or call, that reveals a deeper truth.
The art is in knowing which signals to elevate and which to ignore. Not every loud opinion is useful. Not every quiet comment is small.
We look for founders who are great at pattern recognition — people who hear what’s beneath the words. That’s where the roadmap lives.

Loyalty Starts Early

When you treat your first 100 users like insiders — showing them the roadmap, involving them in decisions, thanking them for their time — they remember.
These users become your distribution later. They tell others. They defend you. They stick around when things are rough.
You don’t need a big community to start. You need a real one. And that starts with making those first hundred feel like they matter — because they do.

Conclusion

Growth isn’t about going wide. It’s about going deep — at the right time. The first 100 users offer you something no marketing campaign can: truth. Earn their trust, study their behavior, and let them shape what comes next. Everything big starts small — but only if you respect the small enough to listen.

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Conviction as a Strategy

Most breakout companies don’t look like winners at the start. The ones that seem obvious — the polished decks, the trendy buzzwords, the hype-fueled launches — are usually already crowded. When everyone agrees on something, the edge is already priced in. What looks like a “sure thing” often ends up delivering average outcomes at best.

Where Real Opportunity Lives

<p>True opportunity doesn’t show up with flashing lights. It hides in noise, in overlooked spaces, in ideas that sound slightly off — or even crazy. It lives in the uncertain, the unsexy, the things others dismiss too early. Where the signal is faint and the upside is hard to define, that's where the leverage truly lies.</p>

The Power of Conviction

It’s not about fearlessness — it’s about perspective. Conviction is what allows founders, builders, and investors to lean into an idea before others see its potential. It’s not blind belief; it’s pattern recognition, refined intuition, and a willingness to look foolish temporarily while being right in the long term.</p>

Train Your Eye for the Signal

To spot opportunity early, you need to sharpen your eye for anomalies. Instead of asking, “Why hasn’t this been done?” ask, “What if the world is just barely ready for it now?” Look for weak signals that suggest cultural, technical, or behavioral shifts. The earlier you can detect them, the greater the asymmetry in your favor.

Before the Crowd Shows Up

Most people wait for proof. But proof comes after returns. If you can act with clarity while others are still unsure, you're not just early — you're in position. That’s where real breakthroughs happen: in the quiet, overlooked moments before consensus forms

Examine Dispatch

Jul 28, 2025

5 minutes read

Conviction as a Strategy

Most breakout companies don’t look like winners at the start. The ones that seem obvious — the polished decks, the trendy buzzwords, the hype-fueled launches — are usually already crowded. When everyone agrees on something, the edge is already priced in. What looks like a “sure thing” often ends up delivering average outcomes at best.

Where Real Opportunity Lives

<p>True opportunity doesn’t show up with flashing lights. It hides in noise, in overlooked spaces, in ideas that sound slightly off — or even crazy. It lives in the uncertain, the unsexy, the things others dismiss too early. Where the signal is faint and the upside is hard to define, that's where the leverage truly lies.</p>

The Power of Conviction

It’s not about fearlessness — it’s about perspective. Conviction is what allows founders, builders, and investors to lean into an idea before others see its potential. It’s not blind belief; it’s pattern recognition, refined intuition, and a willingness to look foolish temporarily while being right in the long term.</p>

Train Your Eye for the Signal

To spot opportunity early, you need to sharpen your eye for anomalies. Instead of asking, “Why hasn’t this been done?” ask, “What if the world is just barely ready for it now?” Look for weak signals that suggest cultural, technical, or behavioral shifts. The earlier you can detect them, the greater the asymmetry in your favor.

Before the Crowd Shows Up

Most people wait for proof. But proof comes after returns. If you can act with clarity while others are still unsure, you're not just early — you're in position. That’s where real breakthroughs happen: in the quiet, overlooked moments before consensus forms

Examine Dispatch

Jul 28, 2025

5 min read

Conviction as a Strategy

Most breakout companies don’t look like winners at the start. The ones that seem obvious — the polished decks, the trendy buzzwords, the hype-fueled launches — are usually already crowded. When everyone agrees on something, the edge is already priced in. What looks like a “sure thing” often ends up delivering average outcomes at best.

Where Real Opportunity Lives

<p>True opportunity doesn’t show up with flashing lights. It hides in noise, in overlooked spaces, in ideas that sound slightly off — or even crazy. It lives in the uncertain, the unsexy, the things others dismiss too early. Where the signal is faint and the upside is hard to define, that's where the leverage truly lies.</p>

The Power of Conviction

It’s not about fearlessness — it’s about perspective. Conviction is what allows founders, builders, and investors to lean into an idea before others see its potential. It’s not blind belief; it’s pattern recognition, refined intuition, and a willingness to look foolish temporarily while being right in the long term.</p>

Train Your Eye for the Signal

To spot opportunity early, you need to sharpen your eye for anomalies. Instead of asking, “Why hasn’t this been done?” ask, “What if the world is just barely ready for it now?” Look for weak signals that suggest cultural, technical, or behavioral shifts. The earlier you can detect them, the greater the asymmetry in your favor.

Before the Crowd Shows Up

Most people wait for proof. But proof comes after returns. If you can act with clarity while others are still unsure, you're not just early — you're in position. That’s where real breakthroughs happen: in the quiet, overlooked moments before consensus forms

Jul 28, 2025

5 minutes read

Examine Dispatch

Conviction as a Strategy

Most breakout companies don’t look like winners at the start. The ones that seem obvious — the polished decks, the trendy buzzwords, the hype-fueled launches — are usually already crowded. When everyone agrees on something, the edge is already priced in. What looks like a “sure thing” often ends up delivering average outcomes at best.

Where Real Opportunity Lives

<p>True opportunity doesn’t show up with flashing lights. It hides in noise, in overlooked spaces, in ideas that sound slightly off — or even crazy. It lives in the uncertain, the unsexy, the things others dismiss too early. Where the signal is faint and the upside is hard to define, that's where the leverage truly lies.</p>

The Power of Conviction

It’s not about fearlessness — it’s about perspective. Conviction is what allows founders, builders, and investors to lean into an idea before others see its potential. It’s not blind belief; it’s pattern recognition, refined intuition, and a willingness to look foolish temporarily while being right in the long term.</p>

Train Your Eye for the Signal

To spot opportunity early, you need to sharpen your eye for anomalies. Instead of asking, “Why hasn’t this been done?” ask, “What if the world is just barely ready for it now?” Look for weak signals that suggest cultural, technical, or behavioral shifts. The earlier you can detect them, the greater the asymmetry in your favor.

Before the Crowd Shows Up

Most people wait for proof. But proof comes after returns. If you can act with clarity while others are still unsure, you're not just early — you're in position. That’s where real breakthroughs happen: in the quiet, overlooked moments before consensus forms

Jul 28, 2025

5 minutes read

Examine Dispatch

Enable Dispatch Uplink

Notes from the frontlines of digital advantage, venture, and scale.

Enable Dispatch Uplink

Notes from the frontlines of digital advantage, venture, and scale.

Enable
Dispatch Uplink

Notes from the frontlines of digital advantage, venture, and scale.

Enable
Dispatch Uplink

Notes from the frontlines of
digital advantage, venture, and scale.