We're living in the most hyper capitalistic moment in tech history. Everyone just wants to get rich and no one is being shy about it. But your startup can’t outspend Meta and you can't convince people to join you using money. So what do you do? You focus on being a mission driven company. Just like always. In fact, I’d argue you need to lean on mission more than ever before. But what does this actually mean? First: it means having a clearly articulated mission that is both extremely ambitious and highly measurable in a simple way. Stripe’s mission to “increase the GPD on the internet” and SpaceX’s “making humanity interplanetary” are great examples. Next, you need to know exactly how your mission translates into a company strategy that everyone in your company can grasp. It should be simple and multi-step - but not too many steps. At Spotify, we used to ask, “what’s the simple 3 step plan for how this becomes a reality?” when debating big product strategies. You (and your company's key leaders) need to know how the steps translate into actual goals, ideally annual and then quarterly goals, and more specifically, OKRs. Everyone managing anyone else needs to know which OKRs their team is helping drive and why this matters for achieving the overall mission. Everyone in the company, including all ICs, need to both deeply know and believe in this mission. They need to know that if they do their job really well and really fast, the team will goals will be achieved. And if enough of the goals are achieved, the strategy will work, and the mission will ultimately be accomplished. It's not about having an exit strategy or hitting the next fundraising milestone so the team can sell secondary. It's about accomplishing the mission and knowing that if you do, the company will be insanely valuable. And then, of course, to beat Meta and others at hiring, you need to hire against this mission and make the it main reason why someone would want to join you. If you can't do that, you will not be able to compete against deep pocketed incumbents, and you will likely fail.