Erik Berlin

I’ve come to believe that early experiences carry disproportionate weight - far more than we often acknowledge. For designers and builders, “minimum viable” may suffice for validating core functionality, but it rarely earns trust or sparks genuine delight. While velocity matters, I’ve always struggled with the notion that early versions should be merely viable, especially in a world where attention is scarce and emotional resonance is everything. This extends beyond product. Do you show up as the minimum viable version of yourself in your work, your relationships, your craft? I would encourage you to challenge the conventional MVP framework. Replace it with the Minimum Awesome Product. This doesn’t mean it’s fully-featured or pixel perfect. But it should be worthy of attention. Memorable, even evocative in the way it triggered emotion. The kind of product that prompts someone to say, “I didn’t know I needed this, but now I can’t live without it.” You can refine mechanics over time, but the emotional experience of a first interaction is singular and unrecoverable. Don’t settle for viability. Build something worth remembering… and make it awesome! ❤️‍🔥

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Building a startup is hard. It is especially hard in a country like Nigeria, where the ecosystem is yet to mature, and there are still many challenges to navigate. It is confusing, lonely, and full of uncertain decisions. Founders, especially early-stage founders, need as much support as they can get. Not “inspire to perspire” posts, but practical support on hiring, operations, funding, customer research, and navigating the regulatory landscape. Too many founders are surrounded by noise, surface-level advice, and generic content that does not reflect their current realities. What they need is a community that understands exactly what they are going through and can offer context that is immediately useful. Sierra Collective exists to be that community. A space where founders learn from one another’s live experiences and shorten the painful trial and error that usually defines the early stages of building. At Sierra, we believe that the most valuable support comes from those who are active in the trenches, navigating the same obstacles. If you are an early-stage founder, you should join the Sierra Collective. You do not have to figure everything out alone. As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Join Sierra: https://lnkd.in/d-Nzmtkq

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Terminal Use (YC W26): Vercel for background agents. Terminal Use is hosting infrastructure for background agents that makes harness engineering easy. https://lnkd.in/gv99wN2t

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Reflections from 1 week in SF: - Dev tool space has never been hotter (emphasized by Figma's recent IPO!) - Agentic UIs and workflows are becoming the bare minimum - Fundraising is rarely a concern to founders in the Bay area. Founders are raising pre-seed with a Notion doc + hype (despite macro sentiment!) - Talent density is unparalleled (so much so that I met a cracked engineer living in his car just to be close to the Bay area) - Most founders I met were both extremely technical and could sell ice to eskimo - Vertical AI platforms could be huge disrupters to mom+pop shops….Think AI-native ERPs for niche markets: AI for insurance underwriting, AI-first factory optimization, AI enabled supply chain ordering for dentists etc. Verticalised solutions with a full-stack GTM, co-built by domain experts, with a network as a moat = 🔥 - Founders are truly pushing frontiers of innovation more than I've ever seen before. Everything from agentic deployment in <5 mins, agents working with agents, agentic browsers [see the trend?], fitness non (!) wearables, poop scanners, chat to 3D print & more - Tremendous long term efforts in bringing together the ecosystem for upskilling, knowledge sharing & connecting. Literally attended startup events held at a library, a community centre, a comedy club, an accelerator & the AWS's builders loft (shoutout Amazon Web Services (AWS) for all the free food 😂 ) - AI on billboards everywhere (see pic!)

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Debugging in climate tech isn't just about squashing bugs it's about securing trust. Each fix at Plantd.Life improved not just the code, but the experience for the schools, fundraisers, and changemakers using it. Mistakes don't derail missions. They strengthen them."

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"Because engineers had been through brainstorming and story mapping, they were able to identify the most promising direction and find a way to implement one key piece of it pretty quickly." Want to get your engineers more involved in continuous discovery? Learn how Ellen Juhlin, Senior Director of Product Management at Orion Labs, successfully brought engineers into the discovery process. Key takeaways from Ellen's experience: 🎯 Start by inviting engineers to customer interviews as listeners and note-takers 💡 Include engineers in brainstorming and solution mapping sessions 🗺️ Use assumption mapping to help engineers focus on validating ideas 🔄 Don't worry about following a linear process - iteration is key 🎯 Begin with just one or two engineers rather than the whole team 🤝 Keep engineers connected to business outcomes Check out the comments for a link to the article. ❓ What's one small step you've taken to include engineers in discovery work? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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As a founder I too am a big fan of writing investor updates - it's hard when you're just a few people to keep track of time - some days it's absolutely bonkers crazy, and other days you're waiting for leads to mature. Your constantly changing/pulling in new information until you get to PMF and Investor updates gives you a trusted audience to reflect and synthesize with and for.

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The circles of Control, Influence, and Concern Early in our careers, we’re often told to “own the outcome.” As we grow, that ownership broadens beyond code or systems — it extends into people, mechanisms, and culture. Stephen Covey’s Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern provide a simple but powerful framework for reflection — one that we all live through daily. Circle of Control This is what you can directly act upon — your code, design quality, and decisions. It’s where you move fast because you don’t need permission to do what’s right for the system. For me, this means writing tenets, defining metrics, reviewing designs, and raising the bar on engineering standards. Circle of Influence This is where leadership without authority matters. You can’t force a change here — but you can shape it. Influence is built through clarity, trust, and data. When you help another org simplify a design, mentor an SDE into a stronger reviewer, or align leaders on shutting down a misaligned project — you’re operating here. Your success depends not on hierarchy, but on how consistently you demonstrate judgment, objectivity, and customer obsession. Circle of Concern This includes everything you care about but can’t control — like organizational priorities, macro-level business shifts, or leadership changes. The key here is emotional discipline. Those who spend energy worrying about concerns they can’t act on end up drained. Those who channel that energy back into influence — writing a clear doc, proposing a mechanism, or building alignment — create impact. Success isn’t about controlling everything; it’s about knowing where to invest your judgment, where to build trust, and where to let go. How do you decide which circle your current challenge belongs to?

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