Jan Gunash

Every early-stage founder wakes up with a question that doesn’t have a clean answer:

Where should I put my energy today?

You have four currencies as a founder: building, selling, networking, and learning. And you’ll never have enough time to fully invest in all four. The hard part? Each feels “critical,” but only one or two are truly pivotal at any given stage.

Startups run on urgency. There are always more problems than hours. Most teams operate under extreme resource constraints, unclear paths to product-market fit, and shifting priorities. Time is the scarcest asset, and how a founder allocates it shapes the trajectory of the company more than any single decision.

Yet every founder encounters the same contradiction hidden in the grind.

Every day brings competing pulls between building, selling, networking, and learning. All four feel essential. But they are not equal. The real art is choosing which to emphasize and which to set aside at a given moment.

It is not simply about being busy. It is about presence. Even when calendars are full or code is being shipped, the silent question lingers: are we ignoring the conversations we should be having? Are we investing energy in the right place?

Founders hold four currencies. None can be spent fully at once. Choices must be made:

• Build, to create the thing people need
• Sell, to validate that something people will pay
• Network, to get access, partnerships, or influence
• Learn, to adapt, grow, and avoid repeated mistakes

These are not interchangeable activities. They are strategic levers. Misallocating attention is often what quietly breaks momentum.

Early-stage teams default to building. It feels tangible. Shipping features gives a sense of progress. But a product without users is a vanity project. This is when selling becomes the real work. Talking to users. Testing pricing. Asking for money. Rejection is the most honest signal you can get.

As the company matures, the focus shifts to leverage. Networking moves from casual conversations to strategic relationship building. The right introductions can collapse timelines and open doors that execution alone cannot.

And through every stage, learning remains the multiplier. Markets evolve. Assumptions decay. Hitting walls without reflection leads to stagnation. Pulling back, studying, questioning what was once obvious keeps a team adaptive.

Balancing these four is impossible. But founders can ask:

• What is the bottleneck today?
• If one area is ignored, which hurts most in 30 days?
• Which lever unlocks the others?

This becomes the guide for daily focus.

Founders rarely fail because they lack ideas. They fail because their attention is spread thin. Strategy is not about doing more. Strategy is about subtraction. Choosing the currency that matters now. Letting the others wait.

Pick your currency. Channel your attention. Move forward.