Being Early is Your Edge

Quote: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Being Early

One of the easiest competitive advantages out there is being early. And this really translates to so many different areas that it is actually crazy. There are obvious ones like investing in bitcoin, starting a YouTube channel 15 years ago or being the first company to sell books online (now Amazon). And less obvious but more practical ones, like implementing a new tool, an AI workflow or starting to write content about a new topic.

And yet most people simply do not have the early adopter mindset needed to benefit from this. I catch myself in this trap too. There are things I knew about two years ago that are now massively hyped, and I never took a single step to act on them.

Knowing about something early is one thing, but actually executing on it is another. So I want to address both.

1. Knowing about the New:

Knowing about things early obviously depends on the domain. But for the startup, business and innovation space, I feel like I mostly know where to look. For me it comes down to following the right people on LinkedIn, reading the right newsletters, occasionally going through Hacker News and, very importantly, talking to other people who share the same curiosity. In general, just stay curious and always keep an eye out for interesting channels that are not yet mainstream.

Some stuff I recently picked up this way:

• Ramp, one of the biggest startup success stories in the US, is coming to Europe. Both a great career opportunity and a tool worth implementing.

• Harry Stebbings is someone you should probably follow on LinkedIn. One of his investments, PeecAI, is a tool I still want to try. And honestly also looks like a great place to work.

• And Dominik Nitsch is doing great stuff with his recruiting platform Generalyst, worth keeping an eye on.

2. Implementing the New:

In order to take advantage of such things merely knowing is not enough. Instead you need an early adopter mindset which means being part of a unique group of people known for jumping on new things before they are fully polished, simply because they can already see the future potential.

One thing that helps me pause the constant information inflow and make a deliberate decision is when I come across the same new thing multiple times in a short period. Whether it is a tool, a startup, a book or a concept, when it keeps showing up across different places, I force myself to stop and investigate. From there I get a solid understanding of its potential, whether that means using it in my own startup, applying it in my current job or even building something entirely new around it.

A safe first step is often just introducing it at your current workplace. And please do not be scared to do this. Founders and managers are often so deep in their day to day work that they simply do not have the capacity to think about new things the way you do. They are usually more than grateful when you come to them and say:

"Hey, I kept seeing this new thing everywhere, ran a few tests myself and actually think it could help us do xyz better, faster or cheaper. My suggestion is that we invest a small budget into a one-month test run that I will lead, so we can make an informed decision afterward."

I know so many cases where I did not do this for tools I already knew about, only to watch those same companies start implementing them years later. Years of missed opportunity.

And here is an interesting observation: even when you feel like you are no longer early because your entire feed is flooded with something, you are actually still very early. Most people will passively scroll past the noise without ever making a deliberate decision to act on it. That gap is still your advantage.