Essays on ambition,
communication
& living well.

I'm David, founder & CEO of ICODOS. I write about building a company and what I learn along the way.

Read essays About me

David Strittmatter, smiling — David Strittmatter Mannheim, Germany

Selected essays.

Goal Achievement3 min read

How it Feels like Being an Early-Stage Startup Founder

The responsibility, isolation and freedom of starting a company.

Goal Achievement3 min read

Role Modeling

On purpose, success and being a role model.

Goal Achievement1 min read

I categorize decisions into three types: shirts, hiring, and tattoos.

How reversibility changes the way I make decisions.

Recent essays.

Goal Achievement122 Communication55 Well-Being34 Relationships17

Jun 23, 2024Role ModelingAvicii's death reminds me why purpose beats success — I try to be the person my younger self would look up to.Goal Achievement Feb 18, 2024I categorize decisions into three types: shirts, hiring, and tattoos.Optimize for speed when it's reversible, diligence when it's costly, and deliberation when it's permanent.Goal Achievement Oct 14, 2023Creating vs. consuming: two ways to spend your lifetimeI worked through my own vacation and realized creating brings me more joy than consuming.Communication Aug 20, 2023How I deal with difficult conversationsCrucial conversations fail when people feel unsafe — restore safety and almost anything can be said.Communication Jul 29, 2023More Than Just ‘Hola’: My Plan to Learn Spanish for a Greener FutureWhy my e-methanol startup made me commit to fluent Spanish, starting from zero words.Goal Achievement

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archive.

AI answers from my 192 essays, with links to the sources.