October 21, 2025
Manifesto
There’s a lot of undue focus in startups about finding the idea or the problem. As Dave McClure put it, you want to be solving a problem that “bothers u so much u can’t sleep, can’t take time to PEE.”
This focus on the problem makes sense: it’s concrete and results in a tangible solution. However, I don’t think it’s quite that simple for many—if not most—people. It’s not a singular idea or problem that drives people and gives them their determination. It’s an underlying goal.
And this is where many individuals flounder: what are you trying to, ultimately, achieve? Do you want to simplify banking? Make someone’s day brighter? Help people travel hassle-free?
Those are goals. These define a problem space. Once you’re thinking within a specific problem space, it’s easy to find lots of potentially solvable problems.
That’s where a manifesto comes in: it helps hone in on that problem space. Everyone should have a personal manifesto outlining your aims, your goals, what you ultimately desire to achieve. This is what will drive you, your startup, and your passion—not the individual problem or idea.
Your manifesto can be a bulleted list of items, or a simple statment of purpose. To lack one, however, leaves you adrift in an endless space of solvable problems you may or may not be passionate about.
What’s my manifesto? The short of it: I want to increase the signal and reduce the noise in people’s daily lives and create tools that help people do so.
You should follow me on Twitter here.
