Most founders are busy. Few are actually moving forward. Why effort alone doesn’t move startups and the shift that changes everything.

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more The Action System: Turning Founder Activity Into Real Momentum (Free Resource) Why effort alone doesn’t move startups and what to do instead Shashank Rajurkar Dec 20   READ IN APP   Something shifted the way I think about founder execution. It did not come from a book or a new framework. It came from a line of thinking that kept resurfacing in conversations about action, pressure, and consistency. One of those conversations was with Ioan Mateescu. What stood out was not his background in direct-response and high-growth businesses, but how clearly he articulated the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it consistently. It is his work on action systems I am sharing here. Why startups stall even when founders work hard Most of us assume action becomes automatic once we know what to do. In reality, action is fragile. Especially in early-stage startups where feedback is delayed, confidence fluctuates, and certainty is rare. And then it leads us to a default to what feels urgent instead of what compounds. Decisions get heavier. And, we end up busy, tired, and stuck. The real bottleneck The issue is rarely discipline. It is that daily execution is disconnected from purpose. Most founders know the long-term vision. They believe in the problem. They are willing to work. But the connection between today’s actions and that future vision weakens over time. When that link breaks, motivation becomes unreliable. And, startups do not survive just on motivation. A different way Ioan Mateescu’s view is simple. Action does not come from motivation. It comes from structure. Founders do not need more intensity. They need a way to act deliberately even on bad days. His framework revolves around three stages that founders often blur together. Clarifying who you are becoming as a founder and how you operate under pressure. Defining a path that adapts as the startup evolves instead of collapsing. Installing systems that keep execution moving when motivation disappears. The power is not in knowing the steps. It is in removing daily decision friction so action stops being renegotiated every morning. When founder action lacks purpose, teams lose confidence, signals get noisy, and progress feels random. The free resource for founders who feel busy but stuck Here is a simple 3-step guide that Ioan distilled this thinking into a short, focused PDF. Learn these three steps to acting with purpose daily, in 30 days or less. 📄 Access the free resource here If you want to follow Ioan’s thinking or connect directly, you can find him here. 👉 Connect with Ioan on LinkedIn Final thought If you are working hard but progress feels fragile, the issue is rarely effort. It is that your actions are not anchored tightly enough to who you are becoming as a founder, where the startup is going, and how you act when certainty disappears. Fix that, and action stops feeling heavy. - Before you build anything, make sure someone wants it enough to pay. I put together a free 7-day email course on revenue-first customer discovery — how to pull real buying intent from real conversations (without guessing, overbuilding, or hoping). If you’re a builder who wants clarity before code: 👉 https://startup-side.in/free-email-course-revenue-first-customer-discovery   Like Comment Restack   © 2025 Startup-Side Unsubscribe