Infinite Articles, Culture-Market Fit, & Teaming Up With Muse

Happy Sunday!

This week, we’ve got essays on lessons from failure and the secret ingredient to startup success, plus an exploration of one potential application for AI and an exciting development in crypto. But first: some news! 

In case you missed it, we’re teaming up with Muse, a visual notetaking tool for iPad and Mac, to offer paid Every subscribers a free year of Muse access. We’re beyond excited to make a subscription to Every even more valuable, and help our readers do their best work. 

For more on how to claim your Muse access, click here. 

Not a paid subscriber yet? Sign up now. 

Now, on to the posts! 

Lessons from My Failed Startup

In 2019, Francisco Javier Arceo left Goldman to start his own company. Three years later, Francisco himself calls that company “an utter business failure.” 

Startup failure is never easy to talk about, but there are just as many lessons to be learned from failures as there are from successes. Here, Francisco breaks down the mistakes he made as a first-time founder, with the hopes of helping others—and his future self—avoid them. 

Read.

Why Culture Eats Strategy

Every founder wants to know how to win, and every investor wants to know how to pick the winners. The problem is no one can seem to agree how to do either. Some extoll the supremacy of the founder, others insist it all comes down to frameworks. So which is it—or is it a secret, third thing? 

Evan has his own theory about the source of startup success. He calls it “culture-market fit” —”that blissful intersection of an opportunity in the market with a culture that can execute on said opportunity.” Here, he breaks down what he means—and why culture beats strategy every time. 

Read.

The Infinite Article