Productivity hacks are overrated, says a16z VC who sold his own startup for $1.25B

What’s the secret to startup success? Not the trends that so many Silicon Valley founders subscribe to, Andreessen Horowitz general partner VC Martin Casado said to a standing-room-only crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt last week. 

Before joining the storied VC firm, Casado founded two other companies, including Nicira, a networking infrastructure company he sold to VMware for $1.25 billion. When asked for advice about achieving success, he warned founders to beware of “hustle culture” trends.

“Silicon Valley is so performative, right? There’s a lot of ‘doing startups’ and doing ‘the right stuff’ and being part of the culture club and doing networking,” he said. “It’s good to hear about all the hustle, crazy stuff. And feel free to go ahead and think about that. But if you’re doing a startup, you should really, really focus on your mental well-being.” 

For instance, he hears a lot of founders “focusing on how they can be as productive as possible in a given day,” he said. They script their days: wake up at 5, eat certain foods, work out, and “fast during so-and-so times,” he describes. 

Beyond that there are productivity hacks like “Eat the Frog,” doing your most disliked task first thing every morning; the Pomodoro Technique, working in 25-minute chunks with 5-minute breaks; and countless other trends.

“I don’t think any of that really had a serious impact. I think the most important thing is just to do the thing,” Casado advises.

Instead of filling a day with rigidity, “startups are so hard, and you as a founder, are so traumatized that I actually think you need to kind of do the opposite … just focus on staying sane and taking care of yourself.” 

That might mean “sleeping in and eating fast food,” he says. Founders need to understand that it will likely take years to achieve success, and there’s no guarantee that they ever will. Lifestyle hacks that may work to hit an approaching deadline might not be sustainable as a way of life for years.

“Things always take way longer than you expect. And I think the people that actually just focus on their well-being are the ones that survive,” he said. “If you can survive, at the end of the day, you’ll have a shot at winning.”