Why We Invest Before the Market Notices
Why We Invest Before the Market Notices
Why "Unscalable" Is Often a Moat
Apr 4, 2025
Apr 4, 2025
4 min read
4 min read
Start With the Work No One Wants
In the early days, the best ideas look inconvenient. They require labor, awkward conversations, or steps that don’t obviously compound. Many founders skip these parts, hoping to automate their way out.
But that friction is where differentiation lives. Manual onboarding? It teaches you user psychology. Custom workflows? They show you what the market actually needs.
Founders who lean into the mess earn sharper insights. And insight — not scale — is the true advantage in the beginning.
Unscalable Builds Trust
Doing the things that "don’t scale" often means showing up in ways competitors won’t. Writing every early user personally. Supporting with hands-on help. Being obsessively available.
These actions don’t just improve retention — they build narrative. Early users become evangelists not because your product is perfect, but because your presence is real.
In a world of automation and abstraction, the human layer is the hardest to copy. And the easiest to remember.
Process Comes After Intuition
Too many founders try to systematize too early. They want SOPs before they’ve even felt the edge cases. But processes without firsthand understanding are fragile — they codify assumptions, not reality.
The unscalable phase is where intuition forms. You start to sense what works and why. You feel the user's hesitation, confusion, delight — things data won't always reveal.
Only after that lived context should scale enter the room. Until then, do the hard things yourself. You’ll scale better because you waited.
Scale Is a Filter, Not a Goal
We’ve seen companies scale processes that were never working in the first place. Automation turns dysfunction into disaster at a larger size.
What looks unscalable is often a test: a way to prove that the underlying thing actually deserves to scale. If users keep converting despite the friction, that’s signal.
We back teams that see the early grind as a proving ground, not a hurdle. They know scale is something you earn — not something you buy.
Scarcity Creates Story
The time before scale is also the most intimate. Every interaction is close, every mistake is felt. That proximity shapes culture. It becomes part of how the company sees the world.
Years later, when the product is polished and the systems are humming, people still remember how it started. The early chaos isn’t something to erase — it’s the most valuable story you’ll have.
That’s why we don’t mind the messy stage. We lean into it. Because the best moats often begin as effort no one else was willing to give.
Conclusion
What’s unscalable today becomes unbeatable tomorrow — if you’re willing to do the work. The grind is not the opposite of strategy. Sometimes, it is the strategy.
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Notes from the frontlines of digital advantage, venture, and scale.

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

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

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