How important is daydreaming when building a startup?

04 Tem 05:21

Thanks for the great question, buddy! I think we should all have a dream, but at the same time, we need to make realistic plans about "how to do it." So, while you're dreaming right now, which steps are you keeping in mind?

04 Tem 05:40

First off, to give you what I think is the best answer, we need to go back a bit. Years ago, I set out in Moscow with a pretty big "pipe dream": I wanted to build a kind of "super app" that would replace digital marketplaces. There were three of us on the team, and our investors kept asking, "What exactly are we putting all this money into?" Eventually, we launched our first MVP, but users just asked, "Why would I need this?" That’s when I realized that big dreams require three things: 1) A clear problem definition, 2) Technical feasibility, and 3) Market demand. Without all three, the "dream" just becomes a fundraising story. Vision matters, but you have to break it down into tangible pieces. Take Elon Musk’s Mars colony vision—right now, they’re pouring billions into the Starship rocket. Why? Because every step of that dream leads to a usable technology for the next one. Startups work the same way: if you break your vision into 6-12 month sprints, that "big dream" turns into practical steps. Clarity is key here—if you can’t articulate your vision clearly, your team and investors will start to lose their way. I came across a study recently: according to Y Combinator’s analysis, 68% of funded startups that survive the first three years aren’t chasing a vague dream—they’re solving a clear problem. But even they spent the first six months sharpening their answer to "What problem are we solving?" So I think the balance is this: without a dream, motivation fades, but without problem clarity, there’s no startup. The best scenario? Combine the two—use the big-picture vision to drive concrete results in every sprint.

04 Tem 07:33

But isn’t too much daydreaming dangerous? I mean, that “big vision” you talk about—sometimes it can pull the team so far away from the real problems on the ground that you end up building things that barely touch the ground. My first startup had that exact moment: instead of building a simple tool our users actually needed, we chased the dream of a “revolutionary platform for everyone.” Six months later we’d burned through a ton of code because we listened to the echo of our own ambition instead of the voices of our customers. Still, we don’t have to choose between the two extremes. Right now I’m mentoring a team whose vision is crystal clear, yet they still make sure every week to talk to paying customers who are actually writing checks. So when people say “dream,” what they really mean isn’t some distant fantasy; it’s painting a sharp picture of where you need to go today. Maybe we should stop obsessing over the word “dream” and start calling it a “clear but flexible roadmap.”