Your startup strategy ain't as important as some make it out to be

Startups need execution, and that's where most fail.

No market demand? Execution, out of touch with your customers.
Running out of funding? Execution, misallocation of limited resources. Beat by competition? Execution, moving too slow.

All founders I know and work with who knocked it out of the ballpark have one thing in common. They are all roll-up-their-sleeves hustlers. Some had no strategy when their product took off on an exponential growth curve. Others ended up building entirely different products for different markets than initially planned.

So how is it possible to succeed without a strategy, and why? There are too many unknown unknowns. You can't predict anything in advance. Instead, you must reach out to customers and constructively chat about their issues. You must show prototypes of your idea and get feedback on everything. Doing this consistently and over time gives you enough data points to develop a successful business.

Think of strategy as not an input to start your hustle but rather the output you would get if you hustle enough.