The term "0→1" gets thrown around a lot in startup circles, but most people using it don't actually understand what it means. It's not about taking a company from zero revenue to one million in revenue. It's not about going from idea to Series A. And it's definitely not about transitioning from stealth mode to public launch.
0→1 is about taking nothing and creating something that has never existed before.
It's the act of pure creation — turning an idea into reality through sheer force of will, skill, and relentless execution. It's building the first version of your product with your own hands. It's having the first conversation with your first customer. It's writing the first line of code, designing the first mockup, making the first sale. It's the moment when something that existed only in your head suddenly exists in the world.
But we've witnessed the rise of a different breed of "founder" — one that's more comfortable with presentations than products, more fluent in strategy than execution. These are the pitch-deck founders who can sell a vision but can't build a thing. The idea-founders who mistake having thoughts for having a business. The credential-based founders who believe their MBA or previous corporate experience entitles them to skip the messy, uncertain, hands-on work of actually creating something.
This mismatch between founder aesthetic and founder function isn't just embarrassing — it's deadly. Because here's the uncomfortable truth that the startup world doesn't want to acknowledge:
if you can't do 0→1, you have NO business founding a startup.
