when the announcement is bigger than the progress
why founders conflate press with progress and die quietly
press release season. everyone's announcing partnerships. everyone's announcing rounds. everyone's announcing breakthroughs.
and most of them are selling the news instead of shipping the progress.
this is the founder trap: get a headline, then optimize for the next headline. the work gets slower because you're spending time on the announcement instead of on the thing.
best founders i know do the opposite. they ship quiet. the announcement comes when there's nothing left to announce—because the progress has already leaked.
the smartest distribution i've ever seen is: ship it. let people figure it out. then tell them what they already know it does.
not: announce it. then figure it out. then apologize that it doesn't do what you announced.
this is how reputations break. one announcement at a time.
if you're spending more time on press than on progress, you already lost.