Most Companies Don’t Starve. They Drown.
In too much money. Too many people.
In too much time. Too much comfort.
We glamorize abundance.
But greatness?
It lives in constraint.
Instagram (2010)
- Team of 13
- Tiny budget
- Ruthless focus: photo sharing
- Outcome: 30M users in 2 years → $1B acquisition by Facebook
Google+ (2011)
- Unlimited resources
- Massive team
- Mission: Beat Facebook (not serve users)
- Outcome: $585M+ spent → Shut down in 2019
Instagram obsessed over one problem. Google+ tried to solve all of them.
Constraints aren’t barriers.
They’re sharpeners.
They force clarity.
Kill fluff.
Demand focus.
Obsession is what survives when distraction dies.
Give a small, gritty team one hard problem and they’ll outbuild a bloated giant chasing ten.
Comfort builds nothing.
Pressure builds breakthroughs.
Ask Yourself
- What am I adding that I should be removing?
- What would I do if I had 3 people, not 30?
- What if I had 3 months, not 12?
Constraints aren’t the enemy.
They’re your unseen edge.
Most founders don’t lack ideas.
They lack clarity on which constraints matter and how to work through them.
You’re not alone in this tension.
At IntuiWell, we help high-performing founders turn hidden constraints into growth catalysts without burning out in the process.