Immad Akhund says sci-fi teaches founders to imagine what customers actually want instead of copying competitors. The key is world-building thinking: reimagine possibilities rather than study existing products.
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I know you're really interested in sci-fi, and sci-fi is all about worldbuilding. How has sci-fi influenced the product and team and company building for you?
I think the thing that I really like about sci-fi is it just opens you up to possibilities. The world could be this. How do you reimagine it? And we never look at our competitors' products. Just forget all that. What do customers really want and how do we build the best thing for customers and reimagine it? So I get annoyed if someone's like, oh, we looked at a competitor's product. I'm like, I don't— why didn't you go talk to customers? that's what you should be doing. Like, I don't— like, it would be fine to go talk to a customer and then ask them, like, what did you really like about this competitor? I don't mind that, but like, I don't want to go look at competitors' products.