One can think of a startup as two sets of to-do items (initially all unfinished).
The first set is existential: have enough money to pay this month’s salaries, have a co-founder dynamic that keeps everyone from quitting, keep the founder out of jail or sex trafficking scandals, don’t let a board fire all the best people, etc. This is fairly instinctual to most.
The second set is execution: get to your first 10 customers, hire a VP of sales, fundraise on good terms, build a sales pipeline, etc. These items live between the items of the previous list.
In this light, a startup lifecycle is a series of life-and-death moments separated by lower-stake get-things-done moments. You only reach the next survival milestone after continuous execution in between. As a startup grows older, its priorities shift from the first - a focus on pure survival - to the second - a focus on superior execution. In other words, the gaps between survival moments grow larger over time.
Let’s say, for illustrative purposes, that the second set is comprised of 1,000 items (assuredly a gross underestimation). Ideally, the startup will accomplish all of them in the next 7-10 years. It is then part of a CEO’s job to collect and use shortcuts for these items whenever possible. Effectively, a CEO’s job is really to allocate resources towards the completion of those 1,000 items.
For example, the right network prior to starting the company will shortcut the hiring of employees #1-10. Warm intros from investors or friends may shortcut the path to your first paying customer. The right CS PhD friends may shortcut incredibly difficult technical problems (and if you’re calling them often enough, you should probably just hire them).
However, a startup should not over-index on shortcuts forever, because shortcuts will only affect a portion of the 1,000 items. For example, warm intros may get you a few paying customers. But enterprise customer #18 will require a sales pipeline anyways. Building that pipeline is one of the 1,000 to-dos, and you cannot skip it.
I spoke recently with a founder who vetted every potential investor by their ability to make customer intros. His math was to trade allocation (and therefore equity) for one kind of shortcut. In my opinion, a bad trade. Granted, the company was pre-revenue, and the next survival milestone would require a paying customer. But there were more intermediary execution items than just a paying customer - 2-3 key hires, a strong initial product, and a compelling vision. But, the founder was allocating a large chunk of resource towards a shortcut - not even a full item. Even without warm intros, I am sure they would have been able to land a few pilot customers, through a strong outbound motion and their 2nd order network.
What should a founder do? Trade for the right cards. A strong hand has as many shortcuts as possible, for as cheaply as possible.