Just after Thanksgiving in 2023, I got a text from my co-founder: "Can we talk next week?"

I felt a knot form in my stomach.

When I got back to San Francisco, we went for a walk around Union Square, and he told me: "I'm done with crypto."

By that point we'd spent nearly 18 months in the space, building everything from an options exchange to a marketing analytics platform.

We were a 2-person team so I was alone and left with 2 options. Dig in and keep exploring crypto or step back and admit I was wrong.

A big part of me wanted to dig in and prove everyone wrong. I wanted to soldier on and show I could build something real here. I was scared of throwing away the work and the relationships I'd spent nearly a year and a half building.

And anyway, that was what you're supposed to do as a founder. Push through mountains.

But as I came to realize, there’s a catch.

Pushing through only works when you genuinely believe that, if a few things go your way, you'll get where you want to go.

And when I was honest with myself, I didn't believe they would.

My bet when I started this business was that crypto would grow into a huge market. 18 months later, there were still very few users and most users were traders. Very few businesses were actually making money.

The market wasn't growing the way I believed it would.

So I decided to leave.

If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have what I have today - a personal brand, a 7-figure business, and more opportunities than I ever imagined.

In that go / no-go situation, many entrepreneurs push harder on the thing in front of them. More hours and more effort. That’s been my default reaction in the past too.

But in reality, the most important thing to do here is understand the bets that you’re making.

What needs to go right for your business to be successful?

Is your bet that people want what you sell?
Or is it that they'll pay enough to make it worth your time?
Or is it that you can keep finding more people like them?

And how much evidence have you collected for each of your core bets?

When I finally asked myself that about crypto, the answer was obvious. I'd spent 18 months collecting evidence that my main bet was wrong, and ignored it.

The hard part is being honest about what the evidence tells you.

So if you're grinding on something right now and wondering whether it's working, get the bets out of your head and onto paper. Then look at what the evidence actually says.

Sometimes the bet has clearly failed, and you need to change something. Your offer, your customer, sometimes the whole business.

Sometimes you just don't have enough evidence yet and you need to go get it.

Either way, give yourself a deadline. Then act on it.

See you next week,

Will

P.S. I just made a new YouTube video on the 10 types of LinkedIn posts you need for 2026. Watch it here.

Will McTighe

Forwarded this email? Sign Up Here
Connect with me on LinkedIn | YouTube