A founder writes in feeling off track and wants to know if the problem is his plan or his execution. James Johnson and Freddie Birley don't let him off with "it's both."

They walk through how to tell which one is actually broken, why most "plans" fail the moment someone asks how often you're checking against them, and why the instinct that got you through Seed can be the exact thing working against you at Series A. Stick around for the rocks-and-sand analogy, which might explain more about your last quarter than you'd like.

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