Editor’s Note: This story is a piece of fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Andrew Ho is an aspiring wantrepreneur. There are many things he wants — the new Tesla cyber truck, a perfectly proportioned Sweetgreen bowl, and, most importantly, a girlfriend. Ride along with Andrew as he tries to maintain his sanity through the ups and downs of being an early-stage founder surrounded by the absurdities of Silicon Valley. From the magic of b2b saas to finding founder-market-fit to starting from first principles, The Next Unicorn depicts the fanatical constant grind within the SF startup community.
“So, what do you think of this space?” Arnav asked Andrew as they sat down on the common lounge sofas for lunch. They hadn’t been able to find two desks next to each other, so they compromised with diagonal ones. On Andrew’s right side was a three-person team that had sticky-noted their desks as reserved. His left neighbor, Kevin, had informed Andrew that the team hadn’t come in for a month. Kevin was a new hire of an eight-person team (one of the biggest in the office) from a small town in New Jersey. He was a recent grad of Duke University, studying sociology, and had just learned to code in the last six months — he was described as an absolute stunning hire by the talent partner at Sunflower as they suspected Kevin was being paid minimum wage. “It’s cool,” Andrew scooted away from the windows and moved his Diet Coke from the window sill as he noticed a trail of ants crawling past. “The view is nice.”
“Yeah it is,” Arnav excitedly replied. Andrew felt they were talking about different views as Katie had just walked by. “I heard all of their summer interns this year are from Stanford and Berkeley. And the ops ones are ALL hot girls who got their whole class on dial if needed. Now that’s what I call STRA-TE-GY.” Andrew expected as much — one of Arnav’s fundamental reasons for accepting Sunflower’s term sheet instead of YC was because Sunflower had a majority of female talent. It was plastered over every Sunflower communication, and Arnav insisted diversity was crucial to a firm’s performance. “Hey — about this space. I was wondering how long—”
“You know, I was thinking,” Arnav interrupted. “We need to get a UX design intern. Our website is shit right now, and if we wanna attract more users, we’ve got to bunker down, build—like you know that new thing going around? Katie was telling me about it.”
“Founder —” Andrew had a feeling what it was.
“Founder mode. Like the guy who sits next to me — his most recent hire works nonstop and hasn’t showered in a month. Like — that’s the type of mojo we need.” Arnav was getting on a roll now. “Think about it. That team by the bathrooms does a Headspace meditation three times a day to reach ALIGNMENT. And there is engineered vulnerability in the mental health startup — I mean, the co-founders are getting a divorce so I don’t know how it gets more personal than that. I’m thinking the UX intern has to be a girl with TASTE — since, she’s like, doing design. She’s gotta be personable and bring her whole self to the office.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the website actually —” Andrew tried to speak. “We’ve gotta show Sunflower we’ve got Founder mode.” Arnav continued, “Katie says Nick is all in it and —”
“That-that’s cool and all, but—”
“I think we need an overhaul. Like, look at this office—at this view.”
“The view is nice—”
“Sunflower knows what it’s all about. This VIEW will IN-SPIRE founder mode. And the community, and the support, being surrounded by legit founders and VCs — just like Katie said, it’s all for the founders cooking.”
“Wait a second—I thought you said we needed the office membership because you were sick of working at home.
“No stupid. Weren’t you listening? Sunflower is on the cutting edge of what’s happening in venture. WE NEED THEM. They’ll help us hire that intern too — Katie told me their talent team is HUGE, and —” At that moment, Katie walked back in with an apologetic look.
“Sorry guys, but we need the space to be quiet for a few hours. Some very important guests are coming.”
“Of course,” Arnav immediately jumped up. “Andrew here just got a little nervous about how fast we’re moving with the company and all — you know, how we’re really trying to embrace founder fode.”
“Yeah, so sorry about the noise—” Andrew added.
Katie interrupted. “Say that again.”
“What? Sorry about the—”
“No stupid. Arnav, say that again.”
“FOUNDER MODE,” He enunciated.
“Yes,” Katie said, throwing up her hands.
“She gets it,” Arnav nodded. “Andrew, you should talk less and listen more. Arnav here truly understands what we on the Sunflower team look for,” She shook her head and laughed at the ceiling. “First day, and you already get it.”
Andrew spent the rest of the afternoon coding through some bug fixes. Arnav was nowhere to be seen and turned up at four after going to the office gym. “So AWE-SOME,” he had commented to Andrew. “I met Nick again and he was on calls the entire time. He probably works harder than HALF the founders here.” Arnav packed up and left at around 4:30 — he said he had a pickleball tournament with friends and then had to attend an appointment. Physical activity, Arnav assured, was part of Founder Mode, and so was the out-of-network dermatologist he saw on Monday evenings who addressed his teenage acne.
“All of this—the co-working space, the new intern — “
“I thought we hadn’t confirmed hiring a UX intern yet.”
“—the gym. Man, all of this is a new chapter in our journey.” He ignored Andrew’s remark and patted him on the back. “And the Sunflower team will be crucial to our success. Katie and Nick already totally get our mindset — starting from first principles and giving us such a supportive environment.”
Andrew worked late into the evening. He had planned to leave around 5:30 but found another annoying bug and lost track of time. By six, the office was mostly empty except for a few founders. The Sunflower team all had left before four. By seven, the only other person left was Kevin, playing Tetris on the common room TV while eating stolen snacks from the kitchen. When Andrew was leaving, he was surprised to see Nick still at the Sunflower workstations. Nick was leaning back in his chair, squeezing a stress ball, and looking intently at his laptop screen. “Hey — have a good night.” Nick looked up.
“Founder mode,” He said, almost to himself.
“Did you say something?”
“I’m writing my weekly Monday Musings on Founder Mode this time. You look like you got it — and that other guy is still in the office. Kevin, was it? Anyway, both of you got it. Working hard, working late. Very good,” Nick paused as if thinking. “You know what Founder Mode is really about?” Nick waited for dramatic effect. “It’s about letting go.” Nick nodded to himself and stood up, raising both his hands to gesture at the ceiling.
“Up there, unicorns reign. To become one, Sunflower Ventures gives every support to founders,” Nick eyed Andrew, “We get down in the nitty-gritty, working side by side, here in the same office, same space. But at the end of the day, we gotta let you guys cook. Founder Mode.”
“You hear that?” Nick was now directly addressing Andrew. “We aren’t always going to be here to baby you guys. You have to work — FOUNDER MODE. You can’t rely on just us. In fact, we’re probably providing too much support. Sunflower cares about you guys too much.”
“I don’t—”
“Andrew,” Andrew was surprised Nick knew his name. “You can’t let it get to your head, but I think I might mention you in my post. A founder like you — who works hard, doesn’t say much, really embodies the type of founder I LIKE. A true founder mode.”
“Oh, thanks,” Andrew really wanted to go now. “Uh, see you tomorrow, I guess? Goodbye — “
As he made a beeline for the door, Nick had already turned back to his laptop and was now typing furiously and muttering under his breath, “Founder mode, founder mode…”
The following day, Andrew woke up to an excited message from Kevin, his deskmate, to check his LinkedIn. Nick had mentioned both of them in his new post: “Sunflower Venture’s philosophy really distills down to one thing — enabling Founder Mode: our office space, our expert support team, and our incredible environment. Just last night we had founders @Andrew Ho @Kevin Bopp staying past midnight grinding side-by-side with me as we were building the future. Seriously, these will truly be the Next Unicorns.”
To be continued…
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