Copying someone else’s playbook will keep you stuck…

31 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this concise YouTube monologue, Dan Novaes shares his personal lesson about the danger of blindly copying the playbooks of famous entrepreneurs or peers—such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or friends who raised venture capital. He explains that his own business was at a different stage and revenue level, making traditional VC fundraising a poor fit. Instead of forcing a mismatched model, he asked himself what his company excelled at, how to communicate value, and what resonated with customers and investors. This introspection led him to discover crowdfunding as a capital-raising method that aligned with his business’s structure and stage. He concludes with a call to action to follow for more free hacks.

Chapters

Here's something that trapped me for years. You start copying what other people's playbooks are. You read about how Steve Jobs ran Apple or how Elon runs his company, how your friend raised venture capital, and you think, oh, that must be the way. So if you try to fit yourself into their box, their fundraising strategy, their leadership style, their business, and their model, it's not going to work because it's not yours. I personally went through this. I saw friends crushing it with VC fundraising and how they ran their company, and I thought I needed to do the exact same. But our business was at a different stage, at a different revenue level, and didn't fit what specific VCs were looking for at that time. Time. So instead of forcing a door that wasn't built for me, I asked the question: what am I actually good at? How do I communicate? What resonates with my customers? What resonates with my investors? What's the best way to raise capital? What structure fits our business? And that's how we stumbled upon crowdfunding. And that was my path. If you want to get more of this, follow us and get all of our hacks for free.