Why (and how) you should go bigger when you talk about your ideas

A distillation of a talk I gave to the founders of Odisea’s Acelera program, a deep tech startup accelerator in Latam, about why aiming high increases your odds to success.

The Upside of Thinking Bigger

Here’s a quote from the frontrunner of the most ambitious man of the year, Sam Altman:

“I believe that it’s easier to do a hard startup than an easy startup. People want to be part of something exciting and feel that their work matters. If you are making progress on an important problem, you will have a constant tailwind of people wanting to help you. 

Sam Altman

When you aim high, you become a lighthouse. Others see what you’re doing, decide if they resonate with what you’re building, and—if the answer is yes—approach you. These people will join you as team members, funders, advisors, random people who believe in the idea. 

At the early stages, you are not cool yet. Nobody knows you are preselected for greatness. What this means is that the moths attracted to your flame are missionaries, not mercenaries. These people become supporters because they believe in what you are building, not because you have money or prestige to offer them. 

After you raise a ton of capital and get some big wins, discerning the missionaries vs. the mercenaries will get harder. When a founder I know took his company public, he prepared for a 50% drop in the drive and passion of his new hires. After five years, he says that a 90% drop would have been more accurate.

What’s the Best Way to Learn to Think Bigger?

To learn how to think bigger, one of the best strategies is to follow the advice of Paul Graham, who recommends moving to an ambitious city and surrounding yourself with ambitious people. Doing so raises your own level of ambition, pushing it beyond the average, which is exactly what you need to succeed. In places like Silicon Valley, for instance, it’s normal to voice wild, audacious ideas that might otherwise get you laughed out of the room in more conventional cities. This environment fosters something psychological safety—where bold, even outlandish, ideas are given the space to grow. Silicon Valley nurtures these big visions in ways that most other places simply don’t. 

Now, I understand that not everyone is in a position to move to Silicon Valley. But here’s the good news: While Silicon Valley may be the most ambitious place in the world, the second most ambitious place is the Internet—and you’re already here. What’s more, you’re part of a very curated group, nestled in the tight-knit network of founders and advisors within Acelera. Take advantage of the opportunity. Absorb the vision, the boldness, and the ambition of the people around you. Let their energy fuel your own.

The 3 Rules of Talking About Your Work

In order to fully embrace your lighthouse status, understand that building the lighthouse (the product, the tech, the business) is not enough. You have to start shining that light around. Far and wide. Over an extended period of time. The world has never been more noisy and more crowded. It is incumbent upon you to communicate your ideas the right way. 

After achieving big wins for myself and the founders I help, three rules emerged for how to talk about your work: Make it big, make it simple, and make it transmittable.

Rule #1: Make it big

President John F. Kennedy’s mission to put a man on the moon in 1964. Russia had achieved the first successful space launch, embarrassing the Americans, who considered themselves the leaders of the space race.

Imagine if Kennedy had lowered his ambitions. Instead of pitching a man on the moon, he had tried to sell America a vision along the lines of “let’s build a competitive space program and send a spaceship five miles further than the Russians.” Yawn. Uninspiring and forgettable. Aiming high—no pun intended—works because huge goals capture the imagination; not low hanging fruit. Few people thought landing and returning a man on the moon was even possible at the time. Not only had it never been done before, the project was going to require materials (metal alloys) that had not even been invented yet. 

Kennedy’s big idea captured interest, which he channeled into funding, resources, and brainpower. Industry and investors, smelling economic opportunity, rushed in to support it. 

What fascinates me about this moonshot is that ambition costs nothing. The power of ideas, a strong vision, and good storytelling cost zero dollars. It doesn’t require one-in-a-million storytelling skills. Yet it is enough to create huge, culture-shifting outcomes. Given that you have a startup, you should infuse it with more ambition. Like Kennedy’s space program, paradoxically, aiming higher at seemingly loftier goals attracts more and better supporters, which means accomplishing the goal is easier than if you had stayed conservative.

Rule #2: Make it simple

Sticking with the Kennedy example, notice how much clearer and more legible the man-on-the-moon example is in comparison to the incremental, 5-miles-further goal:

COMPLICATED “Let’s build a competitive space program and send a spaceship five miles further than the Russians.”

SIMPLE “Let’s put a man on the moon”

Bill Gates said something equally simple:

COMPLICATED “We aim to improve operating systems using advanced coding paradigms.”

SIMPLE “Let’s put a computer on every desk”

Pithiness in the latter examples makes them that much stickier. You couldn’t forget it if you tried.

Note how this pithiness avoids getting bogged down in the details. There is a possibly apocryphal Steve Jobs, when describing the raison d’etre of Apple as follows: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?” The “dent” language captures the rough-around-the-edges vibes that work here. If you find yourself offering caveats and disclaimers ad nauseam in your own speech, just avoid them altogether. Doing so is not serving you. Each time you diminish your vision, your lighthouse gets dimmer.

Bryan Johnson is trying to be “the man who lives forever.” Elon Musk, perhaps taking a cue from Kennedy, wants to “make humans an interplanetary species.” Jeff Bezos started with the simple vision to become “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” These proclamations are big and simple, which makes them catnip. They stick in your mind and spread easily, whether you agree with them or not.

Rule #3: Make it transmittable

In order for your idea to make its dent in the universe, it has to spread. It needs to be contagious such that someone who is not you is able to spread it. Put more simply, can someone else tell someone else? The best frame to think about this is something I call the cocktail party test.

Imagine yourself at a cocktail party, where you’re talking to someone, and they ask what you do, and you tell them. Then, you leave to grab a drink or go to the bathroom, and they go talk to the next person. That person asks, “Hey, who were you talking to?” And the first person responds, “Oh, that’s [Your Name], they’re building [Your Idea].”

What is the thing that they will be able to remember and articulate about your project?

If you get too deep into the weeds of the technology and the jargon, they might not be able to relate it to others. Being transmittable means that the idea is clear and understandable enough for others to easily share. It also means that it’s interesting—it speaks to something people care about, something that addresses their needs, something that feels relevant. Those are the qualities that make something transmittable.

Consider the story of the Duffer brothers, creators of the Netflix phenomenon Stranger Things. As two brothers from North Carolina with no Hollywood connections, they faced the challenge of getting their complex show concept in front of decision-makers. Their series involved an ensemble cast with multiple intricate storylines spanning different dimensions—hardly something that could be easily explained in a brief elevator pitch.

They understood that when meeting with junior executives at studios and streaming services, they couldn’t count on these gatekeepers to accurately relay all of this complexity to their superiors. They needed something tight, catchy, and memorable. Their solution? Two words: “supernatural kidnapping.”

This phrase captured the essence of their show while highlighting its unique appeal. While audiences had seen countless supernatural stories and kidnapping narratives separately, no one had effectively combined the two. This concise description was perfectly transmittable—junior executives could easily remember and repeat it to their bosses—the people who would greenlight the show.  It passed the cocktail party test with flying colors.

If your idea and the way you talk about it pass the cocktail party test, you’ll likely have something that sticks. It will spread. It will attract the right people. It will fuel growth. 

Make it Big, Make it Simple, Make it Transmittable

See what I just did there? I repeated the key ideas I’m trying to get across. Which represents a final lesson: you will need to do the same, i.e. repeat your big idea over and over. The lighthouse needs to shine the light repeatedly over an extended period of time. If you find this discouraging, don’t—the fact that it works that way just means you get multiple shots to nail the language and framing. Having to say it over and over again means you have plenty of opportunities to test and iterate how you make it big, simple, and transmittable.

So, remember these three simple rules when talking about your work: Make it big, make it simple, and make it transmittable. If you can do that, you’ll increase your chances of creating something memorable, impactful, and, most importantly, capable of spreading to others who can help it grow.

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Thanks to early readers: Adam Siegal, John Sherwin, Matthew Beebe, Cansafis Foote