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This week’s ‘How Founders Think’ insight comes from Marta Bitar, Co-Founder and CEO of Flodesk.
“Our goal became simple: get people to say ‘no, I don’t like it,’ and then learn from it.”
— Martha Bitar, CEO, Flodesk
Most teams avoid hearing no. Marta Bitar did the opposite.
In the early days of Flodesk, discovery calls often ended in rejection. One prospect, a fashion blogger, couldn’t get past the first step of their prototype.
Her feedback was blunt: “Marta, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. This is so confusing.”
For the founders, it was crushing. They questioned if they had anything real.
Marta came from a sales background and was used to rejection. For her, a no was a starting point.
So they shifted their mindset: instead of chasing validation, they aimed for rejection. The goal became getting people to say “no, I don’t like it” and then digging into why.
Every no revealed what was missing or confusing.
This “aim for no” mindset helped them create emotional distance from what they were building and truly understand what people were struggling with.