Hi Reader,

I went to a VC panel last week. Two investors on stage, a room full of founders, the usual questions about what's getting funded in the age of AI.

Halfway through, one of them said founders don't need their permission anymore. She was talking about startups, and I sat there thinking about everyone I know who's weighing whether to go out on their own.

What I'm noticing

She meant it as a market observation. Building something small and profitable is a solid goal now: something that works, solves real problems for customers, and doesn't necessarily need outside funding. She said that wasn't how anyone talked two years ago.

The investor who said it is doing it herself. She described what she's building as a fund backing the new generation of AI founders, and she's running it solo. A one-person fund would have sounded like a contradiction a few years ago.

For a long time, your idea counted when someone with money said it counted, and you needed a team before you could build anything worth showing.

More people are skipping that now. While it still takes courage to build something new, it costs a lot less than it used to. Research, a first draft, a landing page, and the back-office work that used to take three people: a lot of that is one person and an afternoon.

That's "Automate Yourself" in practice: automate the toil, and you can start without a team.

I see the same thing in consulting. The Water Cooler 🚰 I host every month is full of people running practices on their own that would have taken a small firm not long ago, and handling the delivery, the business development, and the back office themselves.

Your next move

So whose permission are you waiting for?

A lot of the people I talk to are waiting to be convinced they're ready: by someone further along, or by a client big enough to make the whole thing feel official.

Three things to try this week:

1. Name the problem you'd take on if you didn't need anyone's permission. Whose problem it is, and what it's costing them.
2. Sketch what you'd actually do about it. Then look at which parts used to need a team, and what those parts cost you now with the tools you already have.
3. Have one conversation with someone who has that problem. Find out how they're handling it today and what they've tried. Someone you know is fine, as long as the problem is real for them.

That third one is discovery, and it works as a conversation about their work rather than a meeting about yours. You're listening for what the problem is costing them and what they've already ruled out. Both of those tell you more than any amount of planning will.

It's also the one people put off longest, and the only one that tells you whether the idea has legs.

Life beyond the screen

The people I know with the best hobbies are usually decades older than me. Gardening, folk dancing, choir, pottery, birdwatching. Nobody took a course to be allowed to start, and none of them are waiting to be told they're good enough at it.

It's the same habit I'm describing above, in a lower-stakes place. Somewhere in adulthood a lot of us started looking for someone to sign off: on the hobby, on the practice, on the thing we'd like to make.

The hobby I've started getting into is mushroom hunting. I didn't take a course or wait until I knew what I was doing. I started noticing them on walks and taking pictures, like this one. (In fairness, it's one of the few hobbies where you do want someone further along telling you you're ready, at least before you eat anything.)

A question for this week: What would you start if nobody had to say yes first?

Want to talk it through? I've been keeping a few 30-minute conversations open this month for people weighing a move to independent or fractional work. Thirty minutes on where you are and what you're weighing, and I learn as much from them as you do. Hit reply and I'll send you some times.

Come to the next Water Cooler 🚰 Thursday, October 29 (9am PT), Ian Irfan joins us on closing high-ticket deals without a proposal. Save your spot: https://luma.com/o737mad7​

Let's Chillaborate,

Dina

Founder, Chill Labs

PS: Know someone who's been waiting to feel ready? Forward this to them. 💙