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Last week, I was reminded of the importance and value of being around other founders who believe the impossible is possible.

When I was first starting out, I would read the local paper and business journals, looking for any articles about startups in the area. If I saw that an entrepreneur had launched a new business or raised money, I would reach out and ask them to lunch. Most of the time, I never heard back, but occasionally, an entrepreneur would respond and agree to meet. I wanted to understand how they did it. I wanted to know what they had learned, what they knew now that they didn’t know before. In hindsight, I also realize I wanted to be around someone who believed so strongly in their vision that they were willing it into reality.

When we first opened the Atlanta Tech Village over a decade ago, we knew there was value in entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs—from casual hallway conversations to more formal programs with mentors and speakers. By bringing like-minded entrepreneurs under the same roof, they naturally help one another and increase everyone’s chances of success.

But even with that, there’s another element that’s easily overlooked: the belief that you can create something from nothing, even when everyone is telling you otherwise. Doing it alone is possible, and it’s been done many times. But building your company alongside others who are building theirs, in a community that’s striving to do the impossible, is incredibly valuable.

The more you talk with the entrepreneur down the hall who believes in her business and her ability to make it work, the more your own mind starts saying, “I can do it too.” It’s like a phenomenon where you might never have considered it if you hadn’t been exposed to it—whether it’s entrepreneurship in general, the concept of venture capital, or taking a company public. When you see and hear someone actually doing it, especially in person, your brain lights up and says, “Wait a second… they’re just like me. We breathe the same air. We live in the same city. I can do it too.”

My recommendation for entrepreneurs: be around other entrepreneurs. Find the big dreamers. Find the ones with the deepest belief in what they’re building. Being an entrepreneur is hard; being an entrepreneur without a community is ten times harder. Belief is contagious, and surrounding yourself with entrepreneurs who believe will help unlock a greater level of belief in yourself.

Last week, I was talking to a would-be entrepreneur, and the usual questions came up about my personal experiences, background, and philosophy. As I thought about how to emphasize a key point, I shared that my favorite word when it comes to entrepreneurship is permissionless.

Permissionless—while not a word used often in everyday conversation—captures the ethos of entrepreneurship so well. The term comes from the Web3/blockchain world and refers to a protocol that is accessible to everyone without restriction, meaning no prior permission is required.

Entrepreneurship is the science and art of creating something from nothing that someone else wants. The key aspect is that “something from nothing” moment. Think about the great entrepreneurs of our time: they didn’t ask permission to create a new search engine, to invent a new way to connect with friends, or to set up an online bookstore. Permissionless captures the idea that you can simply act. You can create new products. You can launch new services. While it’s true that someone must eventually want to buy or use what you make, you don’t need their permission to prototype, test, and refine it.

There’s another element of permissionless thinking that resonates with me: risk-taking. My favorite way to describe it is this—most people overestimate risk and underestimate opportunity. If you’re constantly seeking permission to try new things or explore new opportunities, you’ll inevitably encounter resistance from decision-makers who are focused on the path they’re already on.

When taking risks—especially those most people consider “too risky”—you need even more permissionless thinking. Human nature drives us to seek approval from others: peers, colleagues, mentors. But when you step outside the bounds of generally accepted risk tolerance, you have to be willing to proceed without that approval. It’s not that people don’t want you to take risks; rather, they want you to be successful and to follow a path that has worked for them and the people they know. The problem is that the biggest opportunities often lie outside those well-worn paths.

So the next time you think about startups and innovation, I hope one of the first words that comes to mind is permissionless. No permission required to invent the future. No permission required to start a business. Build a permissionless mindset—and create something from nothing.

Last week, I spoke with an entrepreneur whose company is growing at a pace that goes beyond even traditional hypergrowth standards. I’ve read about companies like Replit and Lovable going from $0 to $100 million in revenue in under a year, and coming from a more traditional SaaS background, that level of growth seems almost unfathomable.

We used to look at the “triple-triple-double-double-double” model as the blueprint for companies that reached escape velocity, went public, and had strong outcomes. But now, we’re seeing businesses grow so rapidly that they break all the previous paradigms.

When speaking with this entrepreneur, I asked the usual questions:

• What’s your renewal rate?
• What’s your upsell and cross-sell rate?
• What are your gross and net dollar retention numbers?
• How do you segment your cohorts—are some just kicking the tires while others are serious adopters?
• What’s the meta-analysis of your customer base?

The answer, unsurprisingly, was: “We don’t really know yet.”

The growth has been so fast, and customers have been onboard for such a short time, that it’s hard to gather meaningful data. While the goal is to eventually apply all the traditional best practices and quantitative frameworks, it’s nearly impossible to do so in the early stages of this kind of explosive growth.

We also talked about valuation and funding needs, and another fascinating insight emerged: the company doesn’t really need more capital—at least not in the traditional sense. The growth primarily demands more foundational AI model and hosting capacity. Thanks to AI in other parts of the business, many functions like customer success, support, and sales are handled with an incredibly lean team. Because of that, and the fact that the business is already highly profitable, there’s no urgent need for outside funding.

Never having personally experienced this level of warp-speed growth, my advice was simple: stay as close to the customer as possible. Get on the phone. Do the Zooms. Meet in person. Listen to their feedback—not just through support tickets and customer success notes, but by actively engaging with them directly.

One of the biggest questions in situations like this is about the durability of the revenue. If tens of thousands of customers can sign up out of nowhere and get immediate value, they could also just as easily churn and move to the next shiny tool. There’s a massive amount of work to be done to ensure that customers receive unique value that can only be delivered by your product. That means building deep integrations into the rest of the customer’s ecosystem so the product becomes a critical, embedded part of their workflow—not just a standalone app.

Overall, this kind of growth isn’t just hypergrowth—it’s something even more dramatic. But regardless of the growth rate, the core principles remain the same:

• Stay close to the customer.
• Build opinionated functionality for your ideal user.
• Deliver something they couldn’t do before your product existed.

Growth of this kind is rare, but I hope more entrepreneurs get the opportunity to experience it. And no matter how fast the business grows, the ultimate goal stays the same: to deliver real, lasting value to your customers—not just today, but well into the future as they continue to evolve alongside your product.

As I look out my window this morning, I can’t help but smile watching my robotic lawnmower carve pictures and words into the backyard. Of course, the artwork is silly and there for fun, but the aha moment for me—as a kid who grew up in the Deep South mowing grass for hundreds of hours in 90°-plus temperatures—is that I can’t help but be thankful and optimistic for the impending wave of robots coming into our lives. Now, we’ve had simple robots for a couple of decades doing productive tasks. The Husqvarna could bounce between a buried low-voltage wire and mow the grass. The Roomba could bounce around the house doing basic vacuuming. Now, the big unlock is a combination of processing power, computer vision, GPS + RTK, ubiquitous internet, battery capacity, and miniaturization of electronics, all combined with a supercomputer in our pockets. Now that the robots can see, think, and act in a more human-like manner, the new possibilities are endless. Robots will soon be everywhere.

Last week, we did a road trip of a couple hundred miles. I simply put the destination in my Tesla, and Full Self-Driving took us the entire way—from stoplights to interstates to navigating tight downtown roads. The entire experience was flawless. The robot—in this case, my car—did all the heavy lifting, and I was merrily along for the ride. With an experience that good, I can’t see ever buying a car again without that functionality. Just like pushing that lawnmower, doing a repetitive task was a poor use of time; driving a car feels antiquated and a waste of effort. The robot drivers are more alert, monitoring all 360°, and never get distracted. It’s both safer and more efficient. The next time you have an opportunity to experience a Waymo or Tesla, try it out and experience it for yourself.

For entrepreneurs thinking about their next idea, my recommendation is to research the robotics space. Talk to companies and ask how they might use robots in their business. When researching, consider both the creation of new robots and all the businesses that will be built to install, manage, service, and finance them. Robots will soon be ubiquitous, and thousands of new startups will be created in the process.

As we’re dreaming up amenities and experiences for entrepreneurs in South Downtown Atlanta, I’m reminded of the early years, when things were much more challenging and lean.

When I first moved to Atlanta in 2002, our big customer at the time, Noble Investment Group, was kind enough to provide office space for us in a couple of empty rooms at the end of the hall on the 14th floor of a beautiful skyscraper. As part of the arrangement, we were able to use their kitchen with foosball table. Now, while the foosball table might seem like an overdone perk for a cool office vibe, we wore that table out and played for hours and hours.

After a little over a year working out of their office and sharing space, we needed to get our own office and went through the typical startup process at the time: looking at subleases, because facilities like the Atlanta Tech Village and co-working spaces didn’t exist. We found a great little sublease at 550 Pharr Rd. that was furnished and ready for occupancy. Only it was missing one critical element: the foosball table.

We had just spent our last dime getting things situated, and I really wanted that foosball table. So I did something that I wouldn’t recommend: I went over to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and at the time, they had an offer where if you signed up for a Dick’s Sporting Goods–branded credit card, you would get $50 off any purchase. So I signed up for a new credit card and got $50 off the brand-new $200 foosball table. Again, not recommended, as it’s a slippery slope to sign up for lots of credit cards and go down that rabbit hole. But while the business was growing nicely, the hard truth is that the faster you grow, often the more cash you need—and we didn’t have enough cash.

After hand-assembling that new foosball table in the sublease, the amount of foosball we played relative to the previous office went down dramatically. It wasn’t the foosball’s fault; the culture evolved, the team changed, and we spent more time doing things like going out to lunch every day as our new activity.

Now, anytime I see a foosball table, I think of those early years and of signing up for a credit card just to save 50 bucks. I’m grateful for those memories and for being able to reflect on how the priorities, resources, and journey have evolved.

For entrepreneurs in the hurricane of building their businesses, remember that this is one moment in time, and that as you keep pushing forward, it too will evolve and hopefully improve. What might be a fun team activity around a foosball table might not be the same vibe the following year. But holding onto those memories—even if there’s a little financial hiccup, like signing up for a credit card to try to keep the foosball vibe alive—makes it that much sweeter. Enjoy the journey today, right now.

Whenever I visit a founder at their office, I always ask for a tour. Naturally, the entrepreneur perks up, eager to show off their environment. So much time, energy, and thought go into building a cool, collaborative office that there’s a sense of pride and joy in sharing it with others. Beyond the basics—like how they organize the floor plan, conference rooms, breakout areas, and kitchens—I’m also on the lookout for ideas to bring back to our own office.

For example, many years ago, I visited another startup’s office and noticed a giant TV mounted on the wall right by the front door. It displayed a scoreboard of their most important goals, color-coded red, yellow, green, and super green based on their progress. This was visible to everyone—employees and guests alike—making it clear where the company stood on its key metrics. Inspired, I immediately implemented this at our office, installing a massive TV in the lobby connected to a Mac Mini. It displayed a Google Sheet that automatically updated with red, yellow, green, and super green indicators based on our metrics.

Today, depending on the startup, the office often serves as more of a way station, with employees splitting their time between a couple of days in the office and a couple of days working from home. While office usage has changed since pre-COVID, it still plays an important role for most companies. My recommendation for entrepreneurs is to always ask for a tour when visiting another entrepreneur’s office and to look for ideas they can adapt for their own environment. Constantly tinkering and improving across everything is one of the great joys of being a founder.