Z Fellows
Posts
Jensen Huang's advice on starting a company, the Relentless 13, and Facebook's first pitch deck

Jensen Huang's advice on starting a company, the Relentless 13, and Facebook's first pitch deck

The Z Fellows Newsletter - January 12, 2026

Abhishek Jariwala
January 12, 2026

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Jensen Huang's advice on starting a company

“Building Nvidia turned out to have been a million times harder than I expected it to be, any of us expected it to be. And at that time, if we had realized the pain and suffering, and just how vulnerable you’re going to feel, and the challenges that you’re going to endure… I don’t think anybody would start a company.

Nobody in their right mind would do it. And I think that that’s kind of the superpower of an entrepreneur — they don’t know how hard it is, and they only ask themselves, ‘How hard can it be?’ And to this day, I trick my brain into thinking, ‘How hard can it be?’ because you have to still, when you wake up in the morning, ‘Yep, how hard can it be?’

Everything that we’re doing, how hard can it be? Omniverse, how hard can it be? I’m still enjoying myself immensely, and I’m adding a little bit of value, but that’s really the trick of an entrepreneur. You have to get yourself to believe that it’s not that hard because it’s way harder than you think.

I work from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed, and I work 7 days a week. When I’m not working, I’m thinking about working, and when I’m working, I’m working. I sit through movies, but I don’t remember them because I’m thinking about work. I’m thinking about what the company can be and if there are things that we could do even better or sometimes it’s just trying to solve a problem.“

Source: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang by Acquired

2: The Relentless 13

The Relentless 13 is a list of traits put together by Tim Grover, the personal trainer of Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant. It offers insight into the essential traits shared by the most intense competitors and achievers in sports, business, and all walks of life:

You keep pushing yourself harder when everyone else has had enough.
You get into the Zone, you shut out everything else, and control the uncontrollable.
You know exactly who you are.
You have a dark side that refuses to be taught to be good.
You’re not intimidated by pressure, you thrive on it.
When everyone is hitting the “In Case of Emergency” button, they’re all looking for you.
You don’t compete with anyone, you find your opponent’s weakness and you attack.
You make decisions, not suggestions; you know the answer while everyone else is still asking questions.
You don’t have to love the work, but you’re addicted to the results.
You’d rather be feared than liked.
You trust very few people, and those you trust better never let you down.
You don’t recognize failure; you know there’s more than one way to get what you want.
You don’t celebrate your achievements because you always want more.