Dennis H. Lewis and Tony hike to Santa Barbara Castle in Alicante, Spain, using the climb as a metaphor for startup building. They talk about perseverance, managing limited resources, and pushing through obstacles when you're exhausted and the peak still looks far away.
Hey, I'm Dennis Lewis, your soon to be sunburnt, no code wizard. And today we're in Alicante, Spain, and we're going to go on a hike and take you up to the top of the Santa Barbara Castle. But this isn't just any old hike. Today, this is a perfect metaphor for the founder's journey. A journey you're either probably on or thinking about starting.
You know that there is a lift that we can take and it's only like three euros.
Yeah, I want to warn you guys that walking is not Tony's favorite thing to do. So today we're going to see how the old man shows up the young guy. And no, we're walking all the way up. It's 160 meters of ascent and no shortcuts allowed. No shortcuts.
Just like building successful applications using Bubble like we do, a climb of this type of caliber is going to have multiple paths, it's going to have multiple challenging sections, and there is also going to be an a nice reward waiting for us at the top. Hopefully, okay nice, you know, we'll probably get a nice view at the top.
I think so.
Let's hope so.
Let's get started. Like most journeys worth taking, sometimes you go the wrong way, and sometimes the path leads you to a sign that says no exit. that's part of being a founder is running into obstacles and finding your way to get around them. And that's what we're going to do now at this little turn in the road that we've made.
Yeah, well, I mean, it's been like 10 minutes. I'm already filthy, stinky, super gross.
Dennis, look at this enchanting little corner of Alicante that we found. It's really a romantic little place. I think that there's, there's something to be said for screwing up and. enjoying the path as you go.
Yes, I'm having a lot of fun.
Let's keep going, man. So we've only been at this for about 15 minutes. We're already starting to get some incredible views. And this is awfully a lot like starting any project. At the beginning, there's excitement. It's like everything's new. You're on your way to your destination. and then the path comes.
You know what's funny? I'm thinking if the view is already nice and you're happy where you're at, why would you keep going upwards? Now, but look how much further up we gotta go. I mean, we still have, I would say, a good hour of a hike. And this is probably where most founders actually get it wrong, right? They see the path, but they underestimate how difficult it is to actually complete the journey.
So the real dilemma for most founders isn't about funding, it isn't about tech, it's about constraint. It's about understanding what you can do with the resources that you have and planning how you're going to actually achieve that goal up there, starting from where you are down here. Look, there are multiple paths up this mountain. And you as a founder, your obligation is to find the path that best suits the resources that you have and the time and the money and the tech savviness and understanding exactly where you need to go. And now that we're halfway or getting halfway there, you really have to learn to manage your resources in a wise way, otherwise you'll end up halfway up the path and not getting to your goal. So one of the things you'll learn in your founder's journey is that sometimes you can't control everything that happens to your project. Your hiking merrily up the hill and you end up watching a sign that says, this path is closed. And this is an important decision point for you as a founder. You can turn around and call it a day and go home, or you can look for an alternative path, solve the problem, and get to the top of the castle. Guess which one we're going to do.
I would have still taken the lift.
This is where it gets real. You gotta do the hard work. There's no way around it. Founder's Journey, nobody said it was gonna be easy.
And the Founder's Journey, I guess this is really the pushing phase, right? Where you gotta put in the hours, get technical, and just pull through.
Just do the work, make it happen. Come on, you can do it, man. Every Founder's Journey needs some time to reflect, to stop, to look back at where you've come from, think about where you still need to get to. how you're doing, what you need to change, make sure you're on the right path.
At this point, we're usually looking at data. We start looking.
