Last week I submitted an application to join a startup mastermind.

This is part of my effort to move an idea I’ve been exploring from the concept phase to reality.

While my EO Forum is a type of mastermind, I also want to be part of a peer group where everyone’s building a software business and is at the same stage of their journey.

The MicroConf Mastermind program focuses on B2B SaaS and groups founders by annual revenue (in my case, $0-10k).

Thinking back to the early days of 420 Science, two factors helped contribute to our initial momentum.

• Having a co-founder
• Being roommates with my co-founder

Shared passion was a driving force. Combine that with the amount of time Gary and I spent together and it’s easy to see why forward progress was the natural outcome.

Since I don’t have a partner this time around, I’ll need other ways to create inertia and provide accountability.

Even the simple act of filling out the mastermind application helped me move things forward.

For the first time, I wrote out the problem I’m looking to solve and described the ideal customer.

I also created a landing page with email collection, now live at ReferenceChecks.com

It’s been a long time since I’ve started something from nothing, but step by step, I’ll keep moving this idea forward.

PS. The illustration for this week’s article was created by Midjourney. The prompt I entered was “Drawing of a remote meeting. People using laptops. Happy.”