With Q3 having recently drawn to a close, I have been working through the retrospective process of considering:

To support with this process, I have been reading extensively and searching for inspiration, on the best way of moving forwards with Stacked. 

My key realisation from all of this, is that it's time to significantly reduce the amount of things that I'm working on and to focus on doing much much less. 

Various coaches and mentors have offered me this advice, during the past few years, whilst I have been building Stacked. 

Having finally arrived at this realisation myself, it would be logical to think that they were right and I was wrong. 

Perhaps they were. I chose very smart, experienced and successful mentors for a reason. 

There is another way of looking at this though. 

The process of building Stacked and has been very different to the process of building my property investment business. 

For the most part, building a property investment business is simple and predictable. Whilst it can be very challenging and stressful at times, the path forwards is normally clear and the likelihood of success is high. 

The process of building a tech startup is entirely different. 

The odds are always stacked against you. 

The correct path forwards is obscure and fraught with uncertainty. 

There are countless trade-offs and challenging decisions that need to be made every quarter.  

Building a property investment business, is a journey of acquiring knowledge, which is readily available and taking high value action, on a consistent basis. 

Building a tech startup, is a journey of continuous experimentation, in order to discover what works and what doesn't work. It's about trying to make the best decisions you can, in a highly unpredictable and ever-changing environment. 

Up until this point, I have chosen to take a very broad focus, so that I could explore the landscape and learn as much as possible about the best way forwards. 

Having explored the landscape and captured a wealth of key learnings, I am now ready to narrow my focus and work in a very well defined niche. 

So, whilst this post is all about taking a narrow focus, I feel there is a strong case for casting your net far and wide, in an open-minded spirit of exploration, before deciding on a very narrow path forwards. 

If you're reading this and you're interested in building your own tech startup, you may find the following resources useful: