I have a very different perspective/experience: in a new business (without explicit domain experience) it's difficult to know what actions gives the better company outcome. Sometimes a timely 8 hours of work and luck gives a better result than weeks or even years.

So, it's important to know that everybody is in the same boat.

I can give you an example from my little experience: we invested in a technology for two years with a team of 3 without any economic result (although we believed in the importance of that specific technology). One day, 1.5 years later after we put on hold the work this technology is the core of one of the products of a fortune 100 company.

So, it's difficult to estimate what founder work will give the best outcome in advance.