“I have a lot of smart friends that if I would have gone to with the idea for Coconote they would have said 'Zack no one's gonna buy this, you're targeting college students.' In the early days of an idea you can almost imagine it like a seed and you want to shelter it from a lot of harm so it can at least sprout. A much better framework is what happens if it does work.”

Shelter the seed — ignore smart friends who tell you the idea won't work

Zack credits part of Coconote's success to never pressure-testing the idea against smart skeptics in the early days. Smart people instinctively pattern-match to reasons something won't work; flip the frame to 'what happens if it does work' to make better early bets.