The Opinionated Founder

How Strong Product Vision Builds Startups That Actually Win

Most founders say they want to build simple, world-class products. Very few are willing to be opinionated enough to do it. The Opinionated Founder argues that the defining trait of great startup builders is a ruthless, almost dictatorial clarity about what their product should do, and just as importantly, what it must never do. When you lack that clarity, you don’t get “flexibility” or “customer obsession” – you get a bloated mess of features, settings, and choices that quietly kill your product.

In an age of TikTok feeds and ChatGPT answers, people don’t want more options. They want you to decide. This book shows founders how to develop a strong product point of view, defend it against investors, advisors, and feature requests, and translate it into concrete decisions: what to ship, what to cut, what to hide, and what to decide by default so the user never has to. Drawing on examples like Google’s search box and the rise of AI chatbots, it reveals why the products that win are not the most powerful, but the most opinionated.

The Opinionated Founder is written for early-stage founders, product-minded CEOs, and first product leaders who feel their product getting heavier, slower, and more confusing as the company grows. You’ll learn practical frameworks for saying “no,” designing around ruthless simplicity, and treating every extra click, setting, and choice as a failure of leadership. If you’re tired of building “flexible platforms” that users quietly abandon, this book will teach you how to build a focused product that people actually love – by having the courage to be decisive.