Founder Fridays No. 158
American Vulcan -- Pivoting at Light Speed -- Build Less, Win More
Happy Friday.
American Vulcan
Ever buried your passion 200 feet underground—in a missile silo? That’s exactly where Palmer Luckey stores the world’s largest video game collection, a metaphor (and literal!) for his audacious path from camper-van tinkering to multi-billion-dollar tech disruption. He turned VR on its head with Oculus Rift and now channels that same blend of fantasy and audacity to transform the military-defense landscape. Whether labeled eccentric or visionary, he’s forging a future where startup culture redefines national security. Tablet (8 minutes)
Pivoting at Light Speed
The worst enemy isn't failure—it's building something that "kind of works." AI has collapsed the traditional 7-9 year path to unicorn status down to just 3-4 years, forcing founders to recognize dead ends within 6-12 months instead of burning years on mediocre traction. Israeli founders excel in this compressed timeline because their IDF training normalized rapid course corrections as mission-critical survival tactics, not ego bruises. The smartest move isn't perfecting your original idea—it's reallocating your momentum toward what actually works before your competition does. NFX (6 minutes)
Build Less, Win More
The urge to build custom AI tools can be intoxicating, but often the smartest move is to stop building altogether. Six weeks of debugging a custom editor revealed that the real bottleneck wasn’t features—it was reliability, adoption, and maintenance overhead. The breakthrough came not from code, but from reframing: the asset wasn’t the app, it was the editorial standards and prompts that powered it. Offloading complexity to a shared platform freed the team to focus on outcomes, not infrastructure. EVERY (9 minutes)
Founder FAQ: What’s the Deal With Copyright Infringement?
Most founders think copyright infringement is just about using the wrong stock photo—but statutory damages alone can reach $150,000 per work for willful violations, enough to bankrupt an early-stage company. Beyond financial destruction, copyright claims trigger investor flight, customer trust erosion, and can force complete product shutdowns through court injunctions. The real killer isn't obvious violations but "kind of working" fair use assumptions that crumble under legal scrutiny, especially since registration requirements can block your ability to recover damages when others steal your work. Smart founders treat copyright like security architecture—boring prevention work that saves your company from existential legal threats. Westaway (8 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term-by-term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Convertible Note: Guide / Video
Is the Billable Hour Right for Startups?
Most law firms bill startups by the hour because that's the status quo. But while it may work for big companies, the billable hour is likely the wrong model for startups. Why?
It incentivizes inefficiency. Firms are motivated to pad hours rather than work efficiently. This adds unnecessary costs.
It rewards busywork over results. Startups care about outcomes, not hours logged.
Costs are unpredictable. With fluctuating monthly hours, legal spend is hard to budget.
It stifles innovation. Hourly billing gives no incentive to find better solutions. Startups need forward-thinking counsel focused on results. That's why we've ditched the billable hour for transparent flat fees.
If you're ready to explore a law firm with a better billing model, let's talk.
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