shrugs The clock isn't ticking that fast. I have some experience here . I was the second technical hire at a company that went on to sell for nine figures. I f

shrugs The clock isn't ticking that fast. I have some experience here . I was the second technical hire at a company that went on to sell for nine figures. I founded an unsuccessful company. My second startup (as a founder) went on to be a successful and ongoing thing (revenue in the 7 figure range). For the last two years I've been with a nicely growing early stage startup. I'm throwing out my resume to establish that I'm coming at this with nearly 15 year of startup experience. I've rarely put in more than a 40 hour week at any point in my entire career. While I understand the idea that you are racing to product market fit.. I've never bought into the idea that effort is the thing that drives it. You need to be focused. You need to work hard, but you also need to keep your mind and body fresh. It's more important to produce great work at a reasonable speed, rather than bad work really quickly. Those pre-PMF days aren't a sprint. They are most definitely a marathon, just one with a clear finish line. When I think of great early stage teams I don't think "high output", but instead I think "methodical" and "relentless". They are constantly analyzing the problem they want to solve. They are clever about soliciting feedback. They build prototypes leveraging every useful shortcut they can. However, few of them (again this is my experience) approach these early days with 60 or 70 hour work weeks. The benefit just isn't there.