Everything42

Life, the Universe, and Fusion42 #021

Hello Hello,
I hope you all had a fantastic week and are making great moves. It was an up and down week here at Fusion-42. Here’s the 😇 Good, 😈 Bad and the 🤢 Ugly »> Why today vs tomorrow haunts every founder.

😇 The Good

When you’re deep in execution mode as a founder, it’s all too easy to forget to come up for air and feed the very obsession you set out to solve—especially with the landscape shifting so rapidly.

⭐️ This week, Kurt, Henrik and I paused for a deep dive into Fusion-42: what it stands for today, how the startup–investor ecosystem is evolving and what the future might hold.

Alignment is crucial, but even more so is asking yourself:
Is what we believed yesterday still true today? Is our plan sound? Are we just building for today—or really building for tomorrow?

Over this one-month founder alignment sprint—which sets the blueprint for the entire Fusion-42 build—we will:

• Challenge our assumptions by asking, “What important truths did we hold yesterday, and do they still hold true today?” This uncovers hidden beliefs about our market and compels us to validate them as conditions evolve.

• Practise definite optimism by setting clear, measurable goals for each accelerator phase. We’ll define precise outcomes, track progress against them and adjust our plans whenever reality diverges from our expectations.

• Iterate our thesis across the entire Fusion-42 build using real data—participant feedback, engagement metrics and performance benchmarks will guide every pivot.

• Avoid echo chambers by actively inviting critique from our diverse network of founders, mentors and investors. If everyone agrees with us, we’ll know we’re doing a crap job, not stress-testing our convictions—and that’s exactly what we intend to prevent.
  

Looking forward to these mind bending sessions and stress testing everything.


🚀 Our lead gen has taken a massive step forward as we have implemented more tools to gather data and automate processes. I’ll talk about this in an upcoming huddle so watch out for the invite in our cal and community.

🎙 Our new Investor-X podcast starts recording in the next few weeks, super excited by the response and bookings already, and be assured I won’t be asking the normal run of the mill questions, we provide that data already.

𝌞 More amazing content will be coming your way on Insights.fusion-42.com. We will be turning all of our newsletters, masterclasses, articles and series into deepdive podcasts. After writing a mini series about AI's Cambrian Explosion and releasing a deepdive podcast for each chapter it is a really great way to get a solid and grounded reflection on the content.

If you have not seen it, check it out here:

Deepdive pod:

The intro article to the 11 part series:

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🚀 FOR THOSE WHO STILL WANT TO HAVE A JOB OR A BUSINESS NEXT YEAR

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🎬 AI Launchpad
When: 16th August 2025, 19:00–20:45 GMT+4
Who: Executives & founders
What: Masterclass Panel and workshops-over 4 weeks .

Why attend?

• Go from AI novice to AI native

• Master GenAI & LLM essentials: prompts, context & best practices

• Automate processes, build intelligent agents and enterprise-level agentic solutions

• Walk away with practical blueprints & real-world takeaways — upskilling on steroids

Bonus: Register for the full programme and get our ChatGPT: The Starter Playbook.

It’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s the sale of the century at just $400.

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😈 The Bad (and how we deal with it)

There is not really any bad to talk about, but I would like to highlight something that grabbed my attention.

“All the best startups I have invested in are working 7 days per week, 12 hours per day in the office—everyone’s on the 7/12 grind and ‘it’s a vibe’.”

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🥊 Hustle Culture Clash: Vibe, Value or Vice?

🔥 The Hustle Evangelists:
They hail 7 × 12 as proof of passion—relentless hours forge momentum, create a “moat” and woo investors.

🌱 The Balance Advocates:
They counter that an 84-hour week is toxic. True endurance comes from efficiency, rest and mental clarity—working smarter, not just longer.

🃏 The Banter Brigade:
Satirists liken this grind to 19th-century plantation labour or mock “LinkedInner” culture—exposing the absurdity of worshipping hours over tangible outcomes.

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🔥 Top Backlash Comments

• Mikael Dia: “This is pretty ridiculous… ‘Grow at all costs’ is bullshit.”

• Peter Mackness: “Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week? Reevaluate your life choices.”

• Aaron S.: “This is insanely toxic… F**k that noise.”

• Colin Godby: “Indentured servants, 1832—and apparently VCs, 2025.”

• Olya Grovel: “Best ideas come from mental clarity and white space, not sprinting through chaos.”

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Why It Matters

Burnout kills momentum, morale and retention. These rebuttals remind us that sustainable growth hinges on results, not rubber-stamped hours.

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Blah, blah blah ……I regurgitated the above tribal noise through the consensus spewing ChatGPT, trained on so many stupid soundbites —now let’s stop. Rather than churning out polarised camps and low-level pattern-matching, let’s think.

That dust-up could just as easily have read:

“All the worst startups I have invested in work 7 days per week, 12 hours per day in the office—everyone’s on the 7/12 grind and ‘it’s a vibe’.”

Zero value added—just click-bait fodder.

➡️ How many founders do you know who pull crazy hours?
➡️ How many founders do you know who still don’t succeed?

If you think the 7/12 grind is insight, you’re still in amateur hour.


Here’s a Micro-Action

👉This week: Log some hours in 40-minute blocks. Tag High/Low-value and see how easily you can eliminate 50 % of your low-value time.

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🚀 The above is why I am obsessed with building Fusion42 so founders can get out of the soundbite trap and move beyond the consensus blah that adds zero value but steals our time.

PS. I am a little pissed off with myself for having being trapped by this, but i feel it has to be said 😂

We’d Love Your Feedback!

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Thank you for helping us grow and improve!

🤢 The Ugly

There be no ugly 🚀

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Well that’s it from me, I am so excited and pumped for what’s to come over the next days, weeks, months. Thanks to all for being part of this journey.

For the ❤️ of startups

Enjoy and hope to see you soon.

Derek, Henrik and Kurt

If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram —
it is probably time to do so.

For the ❤️ of Startups

Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.

If you've got suggestions, an article, research, your tech stack, or a job listing you want featured, just let me know! I'm keen to include it in the upcoming edition.

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• 👍 Great, always a good read.

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• 👎 Okay, seen better.

• 🛑 Get a different job.
  
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