Dear Founders

At its core, a business is deceptively simple...

A business is simply a carefully orchestrated set of systems and processes that enable the safe exchange of value between parties.

Yet in practice, building these systems requires extraordinary discipline and awareness. When I'm teaching business to new founders, I always discuss the seven pillars that form the foundation of any successful business: strategy, g2m, design, technology, product, people operations, and financial planning and analysis.

Consider each pillar as a stack of empty cog shaped buckets  that requires sand before it can operate effectively. As you pour, the sand passes through a hole in the bottom of all the bucket shaped cogs to the bottom. This sand represents your allocated daily effort, comprising time, energy, and attention. Each day begins with a finite quantity of sand for distribution.

The critical insight is that you must add at least a few grains to every bucket each day. You can’t simply concentrate on one area while ignoring others, because an empty bucket means a stuck cog, and stuck cogs halt the entire machine.

This metaphor highlights several crucial principles about building businesses that many founders overlook:

First, momentum is paramount. Just as a heavy gear requires significant force to start turning but then maintains its motion with less effort, your business systems need an intense initial investment but become self-sustaining once properly established. This is why distributing even a few grains of sand daily across all areas is vital, it maintains the momentum you’ve worked so hard to build.

Second, systems thinking is essential. Many founders fall into the trap of viewing their business as a product or service, when in reality it’s a complex machine composed of interlocking processes. Each pillar represents a crucial subsystem:

  • Strategy isn’t just about having a vision, it’s about building processes for gathering market intelligence, evaluating opportunities, and making decisions under uncertainty. A firm strategy pillar means having reliable frameworks for navigating complexity.
  • Go to market isn’t merely marketing tactics, it’s systematic processes for understanding customer needs, articulating value propositions, and efficiently acquiring and retaining customers. A firm GTM pillar means having repeatable ways to reach and serve your market.
  • Design extends beyond aesthetics into processes for understanding user behavior, testing assumptions, and iteratively improving experiences. A firm design pillar means having reliable methods for creating intuitive, delightful interactions.
  • Technology isn’t just about writing code. it’s about building scalable, maintainable systems that reliably deliver value. A filled technology pillar means having robust infrastructure and engineering practices.
  • Product isn’t features, it is a set of processes for identifying opportunities, validating solutions, and consistently shipping value. Product discovery never ends. A firm product pillar means having dependable, repeatable, and understood systems to evolve your offering.
  • People operations isn’t just hiring, it’s systematic approaches to finding, developing, and retaining talent while building culture. A firmed people ops pillar means having reliable ways to scale your team.
  • Financial planning isn’t just bookkeeping, it’s processes for forecasting, allocating resources, and ensuring sustainability. A firm finance pillar means having dependable buckts of ways to manage growth.

This systems view reveals why “playing startup founder” is dangerous, it focuses on the superficial trappings of entrepreneurship rather than the methodical work of building these critical processes. Your real job is to become a consummate executive who understands how to construct and maintain the machine.


This also explains why robust systems protect against uncertainty. You don’t know what you don’t know, but good processes help surface blind spots before they become critical problems. When each pillar has strong systems, the business becomes more resilient and adaptable.

The daily practice of adding sand across all buckets serves multiple purposes:

  • It forces regular engagement with all critical areas, preventing tunnel vision.
  • It builds momentum gradually, but... irresistibly.
  • It surfaces resource constraints early, helping you plan for growth.
  • It develops your capabilities systematically across all pillars.
  • It creates natural forcing functions for building necessary processes.

Think of this framework as a meta process, a way of thinking that helps you build all the other processes you need. By maintaining awareness of these pillars and consistently investing across them, you develop the habits and systems that enable scale.

This is why many founders struggle..they haven’t internalized that their primary job is building these processes, not just building products. They haven’t developed the discipline of daily cross pillar investment. They haven’t embraced the transition from founder to executive.

As you grow, you’ll need to expand your capacity by bringing in additional bags of sand, whether through hiring, delegation, or capital. But the fundamental principle remains: every pillar needs consistent attention and systematic processes to function properly.

The companies that scale successfully are the ones that master this machine building approach early. They understand that business fundamentals haven’t changed much in forever; it is still about creating systems for exchanging value safely and efficiently. What separates winners isn’t usually their initial idea but their ability to build robust processes across all these critical areas.

This framework should inform your daily ceremonies, your team structure, your planning processes, and your personal development as a leader.

Use it to:

  • Audit where you’re spending time and identify neglected areas.
  • Plan hiring and resource allocation.
  • Design organizational structures and roles.
  • Evaluate opportunities and challenges.
  • Guide personal skill development.

Remember: you’re not actually building a product or even a company, you're building a machine made of processes. Every day, you must tend to all its parts.

There are no shortcuts, but there is a clear path: systematic, daily investment across all pillars until they become self-sustaining systems.

Your success as a founder ultimately depends not on your brilliant ideas or charismatic leadership, but on your ability to build and maintain this machine. Embrace this reality. Focus on becoming an executive who excels at process building.

Add your sand thoughtfully but consistently. The rest will follow.

This is the art and science of modern business building... master it, and you master scaling itself... :)

love,

j.