Founder vs. Reality Fit

There are meetings that follow the agenda, and there are meetings that reveal far more than what was planned. I’m fortunate to have more than a few of the second kind.

I sat down with two founders to review the usual: what they are building, product, positioning, the next set of decisions that always feel more urgent than they really are. We went through the motions the roadmap, the constraints, the opportunities. And then, almost as an aside, one of them mentioned he had written a series of papers on the underlying concepts that give structure to the product he’s building.

I read them later, and one of those essays hit directly on a theme I’ve been returning to for some time: the decisions founders avoid because they feel expensive, when in reality the cost lies in postponing them.

The essay was “The Decision That Costs You Nothing.”

And the timing couldn’t have been better.

What struck me wasn’t just the argument; that misalignment, whether with investors, clients, or partners, builds up quietly until it becomes structural. It was the recognition that founders often already know the truth long before they act on it. The intellectual foundation is there. The clarity is there. The writing is there. But the decision, the one that actually changes the trajectory, is postponed.

We talk a lot about product-market fit, but far less about founder-reality fit.

About the courage to walk away from what looks like progress but isn’t. About the discipline to stop feeding relationships, assumptions, or strategies that will never pay back the energy they consume.

Over the years I saw that same pattern the essay describes: the knowledge exists, the reasoning is solid, the signals are visible, but the structural decision hasn’t been made yet.

And that’s the point worth bringing to the Adamastor community this week: founders rarely lack insight; they lack permission to act on the insight they already have.

Sometimes that permission comes from a mentor, sometimes from a crisis, and sometimes — as it happened to me this week — it comes from reading the right sentence at the right moment, written by someone who, I’ve got a felling that already realise how relevant it would become to their own product.

The decision that costs you nothing is always the one you’ve been postponing.

And the sooner you make it, the sooner the real work can begin.

The work mentioned is “The Decision That Costs You Nothing” by Ahmad Noureddine and you can find it on the 'Read’ section.

• 💡 The Startup Capital Summit is one of the main Startup Conferences in Portugal and will take place June 3rd. Tickets available.

• 💡 PIRATE Night on June 24th applications open for free booth + two tickets.

• 💡 Productized is in June this year (not October)

• 💡 Santander X Do you want to take your startup or scaleup to the global stage of innovation? Applications open until June 30.

Keep following Adamastor to stay up to date with our ecosystem.

See you at the next event.

✍ Quote of the week

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

Anaïs Nin

Highlights of the week

• 🔷 Startup Grind Lisbon Pitch Awards 2026, this Tuesday.

• 🔷 Masterclass: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition & Search Funds with Professor Newton Campos @Nova SBE on May 27.

• 🔷 Lispolis - Startups Deep Tech em Saúde, and Startup Portugal: Above & Beyond, this Thursday.

• 🔷 Startup Capital Summit returns to Coimbra on June 3rd.

• 🔷 Google for Startups AI Agents Challenge - Submissions open until June 6.

Congrats

• 👏 AXIOS CARE won Empreender com Impacto - Pitch Competition by InCubo Alto Minho.

• 👏 Savearth has raised €400,000.

• 👏 NOVA Starters Academy winners: NSafe (overall winner); MEMVO (Audience Award); Daysy (Best MArket Validation).

• 👏 VeriCasa was awarded Best Startup in the GOAL programme at the Plug and Play Summer Summit in Silicon Valley

• 👏 Get2C and Periplus awarded at SME EnterPRIZE competition

Something to read, listen and watch

📚Portugal não tem falta de startups por Carlos Resende

• 📚 Portugal’s Strategic Play in AI: Capturing Value Where It Matters Most by Pedro Santa Clara

• 📚 5 Insights da SIM Conference 2026: O papel dos Dados e da Expertise da DIG-IN no Futuro do Ecossistema

• 📚 The Decision That Costs You Nothing by Ahmad Noureddine

• 📚 Who I Am — Inês Odila: Writing Style & Agent Profile

• 📚 ESNA Compendium Volume I: Regulatory Barriers

• 🎧 Are we living longer: Céline Abecassis-Moedas and Rui Quinta we dive into the longevity revolution

• 🎥 Improving padel skills with data | Andre Croft de Moura from CourtMaster w/ Luis Gutman

• 🎥 CDK | André Oliveira (PixelMatters): Design, talento e os segredos de quem constrói do zero

Looking for your next spark of inspiration or connection? Discover what’s happening in the ecosystem—check out the Adamastor Events Calendar and find the perfect event that fits your goals, your vibe, and your stage. From founder meetups to investor talks, there’s something for everyone.