As a founder, life is no different than running a ship in uncharted territory. The help of team members makes the journey meaningful. Outsiders with no skin in the game have too many opinions. It can be social media experts or journalists, media houses. They see the effort or outcome from a biased and blurry lens.
Who controls and commands the ship? Is it not the captain and crewmen? How much will they worry about the prediction outside?
The elements which constitute the startup journey are team, product, and customers. As long as they are in sync, most other parts become easy.