In my opinion, when we talk about FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – in the startup world, we actually need to split it into two types:
- The founder’s own FOMO, and
- The FOMO a founder creates in the market.
The Founder’s FOMO
This one is tricky. FOMO can either speed you up or slow you down. Sometimes you rush product development because you’re afraid of missing an opportunity. Other times, you say yes to every coffee, meeting, accelerator, or partnership… and waste weeks chasing things that don’t really matter.
I’ve been there myself with ROOTKey. Looking back, there was a period when we fell into the trap of product FOMO. We kept building feature after feature – afraid that if we didn’t match every trend in the market, we’d be left behind. The result? A product that should have launched in three months took seven or eight. We burned money, but worse, we burned countless hours chasing functionality that wasn’t essential. And here’s the punchline: a year later, we ended up removing most of those features, or quietly folding them into the tech without ever presenting them as “advantages.”
That’s why I say the market is not a one-time train you have to catch. It’s more like a living, breathing thing – constantly growing and evolving. If you’re solving a real problem with a good solution, there will always be market. Missing an “opportunity” doesn’t mean failure.
I like to compare it to trains and cars. If you’re on the train, you have to stop at every station – even the ones you don’t care about. It’s time and energy wasted. But if you’re in a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS cruising down a parallel highway, you see the stations, but you don’t need to stop. You’re focused on the destination, and you’ll get there faster. For me, that Porsche is focus and long-term thinking – not chasing every “quick win” that comes your way.
The Market’s FOMO
Then there’s the FOMO we, as founders, can create in the market. This is a powerful card – and a dangerous one. With the right moves, you can make investors, media, clients, and partners all feel like they need to be part of your story. And that’s huge: visibility, buzz, pipeline, credibility.
But here’s the catch: once you raise the market’s expectations, you carry the weight of them. You’ve got everyone watching. Keeping that hype alive is exhausting. What I call the “Weight of Managing FOMO” is real. As a CEO, you suddenly feel the pressure of always having to deliver, always being on the radar, always keeping the spotlight satisfied. That can be empowering… and terrifying.
Final Thought
FOMO is neither good nor bad on its own. It’s a tool. As founders, we just need to manage it with balance and respect – for our teams, our investors, and the market as a whole.
Creating hype is easy; living up to it, and knowing when not to chase it, is where true leadership kicks in.
