I sat next to a founder who’d sold his startup to Google.
I asked what he was working on next. His answer? “I don’t know yet.”
He was testing ideas. Not building them, testing them. Landing pages. Paid traffic. Conversion data. He’d discard a bad idea in days, not months. By the time he pitched investors, he had messaging that resonated, pricing that converted, and a 40,000-person waitlist.
He’d already killed 100 ideas. And could explain exactly why each one died.
That’s not failure. That’s play.
James Altucher calls it “skipping the line.” In his book, he shares how he became a headlining comedian in 3 years instead of 10. His secret? He volunteered for the worst slots—warming up hostile audiences—and experimented relentlessly. “Do you want to hear this story or that story?” Of course he told both. But by letting the audience choose, they were invested.
10,000 experiments beats 10,000 hours.
Last week I spoke at Bucknell about this—how nimble experimentation is a superpower for startup traction. I shared the Sad Boy Creamery story. Remember the ice cream lottery? I talked about how AI lets you prototype a webapp in an afternoon.
But here’s what I really wanted them to understand:
The 2022 Ig Nobel in Economics showed that success requires luck. Not just talent—luck. And the optimal combination? Moderate talent + magnificent luck.
The good news: luck isn’t random. It’s a flow state. Curiosity. Resilience. Trusting yourself. Positive expectations. These behaviors shift what you notice—and what notices you.
And the accelerator? Playfulness.
Building a startup should feel like building sand castles. Fast. Iterative. No preciousness. Joy in the discovering.
Playfulness coalesces teams. Engages customers. Unlocks novel solutions. And energizes everyone around you.
So experiment. Play. Discard 100 bad ideas until you find the one that resonates.
That’s the Mavericks way.
