Wayfinding without Maps

How to find a path to your destination when you don’t know the way | A great podcast recommendation exploring how to maintain “Superagency” in the context of AI and uncertainty.

"Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do." - Jean Piaget

Every founder faces a fundamental paradox: you need to know where you're going, but if you're building something truly original, you can't possibly know exactly where you'll end up. You need a process, but you're venturing into territory without clear paths.

Piaget's words should be every founder's mantra: Intelligence is fundamentally about knowing what to do when you don't know what to do. This is the core creative skill of an entrepreneur.

We need to stop thinking about planning and start thinking about navigation. While planning assumes you can see the whole journey from the start, navigation is about mastering the art of finding your way as you go. You might not know exactly where you'll end up, but you can develop the skills to recognize success when you see it.

This isn't a new idea. Pacific wayfinders crossed vast oceans without maps, using their understanding of stars, currents, and natural patterns to venture into unknown waters. They didn't need a precise destination to navigate successfully—they needed deep pattern recognition and the ability to read the signs around them. This is the kind of navigation founders need.

The closest model for understanding this approach isn't business planning—it's exploration. Explorers don't just wander - they combine vision with methodical practice. They know the destination may be vague and the route uncertain, but the process of exploration itself can be mastered.

So how do successful founders navigate this uncertainty? Let's look at what we can learn from explorers:

• They start with a direction, not a destination: A general sense that there might be valuable discoveries to the west is enough to begin. Founders start with hunches about where value might be created.

• They focus ruthlessly on essential next steps: Resources are always finite, even when they seem abundant. The art is in identifying what's truly essential for the next phase. Every founder needs to develop this same judgment about where to focus limited time and money.

• They map as they go: Each step forward builds knowledge of the territory. Good explorers notice everything: water, danger, promising paths. Good founders do the same, noticing what works and what doesn't.

• They read the landscape: The best explorers develop pattern recognition. Which valleys lead to rivers? Founders need this same skill. Which customer behaviours signal opportunity? Which conditions suggest danger?

• They build networks of local knowledge: No explorer succeeds alone. The best ones learn from everyone they meet. Founders need customers, advisors, and partners who help them understand their new territory.

You can't plan exploration, but you can structure it. The best explorers developed systematic approaches. That's exactly what I’m trying to do with the ClimbWorks Paths.

Instead of giving founders a rigid map, we give them milestones—clear signals that help them recognize valuable territory when they find it:

Each stage has clear success criteria:

• Exploring: You've validated real customer problems, not just interesting ideas—you know you're solving something that matters

• Designing: You have eager customers before building anything—you've found a clear signal of demand

• Building: Real users show genuine enthusiasm, not just polite interest

• Launching: You can consistently acquire and retain customers

• Scaling: You have evidence of sustainable growth

• Thriving: You've achieved true founder autonomy

Why Traditional Startup Milestones Fall Short

The conventional way we mark progress in startups misses what really matters in building a successful business.

Pre-seed, seed, Series A - these terms focus on investment rounds. That's fine if you're venture-backed. But for most founders, this framework tells them nothing about whether they're building something valuable. It's like having a map that only shows bank locations when what you need is terrain features and water sources.

These milestones matter because they're based on real value creation. Validated problems. Eager customers. Proven value. Reliable growth. Whether you're bootstrapping or building a unicorn, these are the signs that tell you you're on the right track.

Put someone in a featureless environment or blindfold them, and they'll walk in circles. Without fixed points to orient themselves, they lose all sense of direction. This is why founders need clear milestones—not to constrain them, but to help them maintain their bearing.

Three Essential Navigation Skills for Founders

This is what Piaget was getting at. Intelligence isn't about having all the answers. It's about knowing how to find them. For founders, this means developing three things:

• Pattern Recognition: The judgment to spot promising directions in ambiguous situations

• Systematic Discovery: The skills to navigate uncertainty methodically, not randomly

• Value Sensing: The wisdom to recognize when you've found ground worth exploring further

Like any craft, intelligent exploration gets better with practice. Each venture teaches you to read the terrain more skillfully, to recognize patterns more quickly, to make better decisions with limited information. That's what these paths are for—not to eliminate uncertainty, but to help you develop a craftsperson's intuition for navigation.

The best founders, like the best explorers, don't just move forward—they get better at the very practice of exploration itself. They develop a feel for promising territory, an eye for hidden opportunities, and the confidence to keep going when the path isn't clear.

After all, building something new isn't just about reaching a destination. It's about mastering the art of finding your way through uncertainty. That's the true craft of entrepreneurship.

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If you are curious about where you are on this journey, take our Wayfinding Self-Assessment to identify your current stage and get personalised guidance for your next steps.

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Podcast of the Week: Reid Hoffman on Agency and Uncertainty

I’ve been working on the post above for a few weeks. But it was very gratifying to hear Reid Hoffman make similar points—using similar metaphors—when discussing how to manage uncertainty.

This is a wide-ranging topic that makes some excellent points about how we can use AI to enhance our agency if we learn how to use it appropriately. Highly recommended!

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