When founders love their customers, it causes the company to thrive. Customers are more likely to be loyal and open to trying new products and features. They’ll provide more frequent and honest feedback. They’ll also share their positive experiences with friends and colleagues.

You can tell if founders love their customers by hearing how they talk about them internally. These co-founders know each customer by name, why they use the product, and their long-term goals. The founders speak about their customers as something closer to friends than clients. You can see the genuine excitement on their faces when a specific customer comes up in conversation.

founders often run out of hope before they run out of money. But why do they run out of hope? One explanation is that they do not care enough about their customers to maintain the force of will required to overcome the challenges of building something meaningful.

Building a successful company is impossible if you look down on your customers.

Love motivates people to work through challenges that might otherwise lead them to give up. If those founders had focused on building for a customer they genuinely loved, they would have been more likely to persevere and create something that addressed a deep need.

I am unsure if a passion for building products or scaling businesses is sufficient. You serve customers—other humans. They define the value of your products and business. How can you dedicate over a decade to serving someone you do not love?