Startup founders often romanticize the launch and dream about the exit, but 80% fail in the messy years between. Scott Belsky, founder of Behance and early investor in Uber and Pinterest, reveals why the middle phase of building a company is where success is actually determined. The problem? You're navigating without a map while organizational debt piles up, your team loses focus on critical priorities, and traditional metrics like quarterly profits don't validate the progress you're making toward a goal that's years away.This episode of the Marketing Execution Podcast breaks down Belsky's framework for surviving the drawn-out middle years. You'll learn how to maintain team motivation when external validation disappears, implement the 80/20 rule to eliminate wasted effort on low-impact tasks, and measure progress using lead indicators instead of lagging results. We cover specific strategies for product development cycles, managing uncertainty without becoming paralyzed by indecision, and why celebrating small wins without ignoring hard truths keeps momentum alive. Belsky's approach to embracing your unique vision rather than imitating competitors offers a counterintuitive path to standing out in crowded markets.Subscribe to the Marketing Execution Podcast for frameworks that turn technical innovation into market dominance. Visit https://growthstage.marketing to learn how Marketing Pods enable companies to scale their marketing impact without a big team, expensive consultants, or agencies.