What Is Goblin Mode for Founders?

Rob Snyder calls goblin mode a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency move for founders. It means going all out and doing unhealthy, somewhat crazy things to see who will buy something right now, then generating a hypothesis from who will buy. He is not sure whether goblin mode is a good thing.

The picture he keeps is a dog with the zoomies. A conference is on tomorrow in Europe and the potential customers will not talk, so the founder gets on a plane and goes there. A friend scheduled 20 meetings at a conference and told people to say what to build. A friend building Tiro, a dental staffing company for dental hygienists, sent his parents door to door at dental offices to get people talking about being customers. The visits worked.

Some founders operate in goblin mode all the time. Getting older means he can only pull goblin mode out once in a while. The goal is getting in front of customers right now, talking to everyone, and looking for earned secrets.