Me and my team we are mercenaries right now and just yesterday we discussed that we should start a missionary on the side too. (I am in tech. So imagine two or three boring tech products hosted on aws). Balance is the key to survival I guess :).
P.S. Big fan of you and if you ever see this, my humble request please never ever let go of “the whole truth” this is the brand of the future! The new whey protein line is genius in all aspects and so are all the other products.
Though there are companies that are missionaries yet work really well with the reality. One example is Google search, or products like Uber, Airbnb etc.
This so much rings with me Shashank. I too believe I'm a missionary founder and struggling, yet i'm positive. Maybe we should form a group of founders with missionary brands to keep sharing our learnings.
Although i have a different opinion about the manner of consuming protein, what comes across clearly is that we both are on a mission to get people to where we are, and we believe they should also be with us. Yes, audaciously presumptuous indeed ;)
The mercenary vs missionary founder conversation triggered a similar thought — selling virtues vs vices.
People say that selling the 7 sins - pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth is easier & profitable. However selling virtues is not.
My contrarian view though is that humans have evolved and survived inspite of the vices and the way that was possible was because of the power of repetition.
And we get people to repeat the virtues even though they were difficult by either creating system like rituals, festivals, religious connotations, laws, social appreciation, concept of karma, etc. These systems acted as a trigger and helped us form habits around virtues. The habits ensured that we are able to mindlessly also execute virtues even if they are difficult.
As a founder also, if we can help our user create habit of the fundamental virtue we want them to imbibe, then purpose driven founders can also build large profitable businesses
PS: I run Fix Health & our purpose is to ensure that muscle & joint pain isn’t a barrier to living a fulfilling life for anyone. We do it by providing AI-assisted physiotherapist-led online 1:1 sessions!
Very insightful article. Left me also wondering about the possibility - if the gap in the market that a founder identifies is towards better health / well-being / positive impact, then the Mercenary approach can have a Missionary zeal in-built into it, no?
Insightful as ever. What do you think happens to the founders who go from being missionary to mercenary? Do those businesses scale to profitability or die due to dissonance?
I completely resonate with this. Do saal se laga pada hun to make supplements clean, because more than food supplements are the real killers. And people tell me if your product is so good it should be gang busters :)) arre koi pulse cany thori na hai. To phir pulse candy banao. Nahi banana mujhe pulse candy bhai. I'm a born mercenary trying to be a missionary. Would be great to have your guidance.
Me and my team we are mercenaries right now and just yesterday we discussed that we should start a missionary on the side too. (I am in tech. So imagine two or three boring tech products hosted on aws). Balance is the key to survival I guess :).
P.S. Big fan of you and if you ever see this, my humble request please never ever let go of “the whole truth” this is the brand of the future! The new whey protein line is genius in all aspects and so are all the other products.
Though there are companies that are missionaries yet work really well with the reality. One example is Google search, or products like Uber, Airbnb etc.
This so much rings with me Shashank. I too believe I'm a missionary founder and struggling, yet i'm positive. Maybe we should form a group of founders with missionary brands to keep sharing our learnings.
Although i have a different opinion about the manner of consuming protein, what comes across clearly is that we both are on a mission to get people to where we are, and we believe they should also be with us. Yes, audaciously presumptuous indeed ;)
Never tasted the brand but love everything about Innocent Drinks in UK. It is owned by Coca Cola however
Yea loved innocent. Until that happened :/
Shashank -
The mercenary vs missionary founder conversation triggered a similar thought — selling virtues vs vices.
People say that selling the 7 sins - pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth is easier & profitable. However selling virtues is not.
My contrarian view though is that humans have evolved and survived inspite of the vices and the way that was possible was because of the power of repetition.
And we get people to repeat the virtues even though they were difficult by either creating system like rituals, festivals, religious connotations, laws, social appreciation, concept of karma, etc. These systems acted as a trigger and helped us form habits around virtues. The habits ensured that we are able to mindlessly also execute virtues even if they are difficult.
As a founder also, if we can help our user create habit of the fundamental virtue we want them to imbibe, then purpose driven founders can also build large profitable businesses
PS: I run Fix Health & our purpose is to ensure that muscle & joint pain isn’t a barrier to living a fulfilling life for anyone. We do it by providing AI-assisted physiotherapist-led online 1:1 sessions!
Deep, insightful and purpose driven as always!
Very insightful article. Left me also wondering about the possibility - if the gap in the market that a founder identifies is towards better health / well-being / positive impact, then the Mercenary approach can have a Missionary zeal in-built into it, no?
Insightful as ever. What do you think happens to the founders who go from being missionary to mercenary? Do those businesses scale to profitability or die due to dissonance?
What a piece !
I completely resonate with this. Do saal se laga pada hun to make supplements clean, because more than food supplements are the real killers. And people tell me if your product is so good it should be gang busters :)) arre koi pulse cany thori na hai. To phir pulse candy banao. Nahi banana mujhe pulse candy bhai. I'm a born mercenary trying to be a missionary. Would be great to have your guidance.