Building Startups Through Mindset, Systems and Execution – An Interview with TJ Lee
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
TJ Lee is an entrepreneur, startup builder, and Managing Director of Peptides.io, where he focuses on making complex health and medical information easier for everyday people to understand. His approach to business has been shaped by years of building, testing, learning through adversity, and finding practical ways to turn complicated ideas into clear systems. In this interview, TJ shares his views on mindset, systems, speed, execution, artificial intelligence (AI), trust, and why real relationships matter more than ever.
TJ Lee, Entrepreneur
What draws you to problems that need to be simplified, structured, and turned into something people can actually use?
I'll be the first to say I'm not always the smartest person in the room. If I can't understand something, there are probably hundreds of other people having the same problem. I'm also not someone who wants to spend forever processing something. If I can't understand it at a glance, there's a good chance I'll overlook it, and the world moves too fast for that. That's something I learned through years in marketing.
I also always come back to what I call the "grandma test." If my grandma can't understand what something is, why it matters, or how to use it, she probably isn't going to use or buy it.
The same applies when you're pitching a startup, product, or scientific idea. A scientist may explain something scientifically because that's how they understand it, but the average person can get lost. You need a translation layer.
That's also a big reason Peptides.io exists, to take complicated medical and scientific topics and help regular people like you and me understand them better.
When you build a startup, how do mindset, systems, speed, and execution work together in practice?
Mindset comes first for me. I can teach someone a high-income skill, but if they don't have the mindset to act on it, they may never use it. Startups are the same. If you don't have the mindset to get started and keep going, the startup may never become real.
Then come systems. If you don't put the right systems in place early, small problems can become very expensive later. Systems give speed guardrails. Moving fast means you're going to break things sometimes, and that's okay. You want to learn what works and what doesn't as quickly as possible, but a strong system helps you move fast without creating unnecessary chaos.
Then there's execution. I've watched people hype an idea for months while waiting for funding, a signature, a partner, or permission. Momentum dies when all you do is wait. If the main thing is blocked, work on something you can control that still moves toward the goal. Build the brand. Test the market. Strengthen the system.
Sometimes you have to go full circle to get where you were originally trying to go. Mindset, systems, speed, and execution all work together.
What have you learned about turning strong ideas into systems that can actually create revenue and momentum?
Systems let you clearly see the goals, the key performance indicators (KPIs), and the path to your destination. The more organized that path becomes, the clearer your shot at success becomes. I think of it like running through a field of thorn bushes. You can force your way through and get cut up, or you can build a system that helps clear the path in front of you.
When you have an idea, A-B-T, Always Be Testing.
Especially with AI, this is the fastest I've ever seen us able to validate concepts. Funny enough, it's also the fastest way to learn that people may simply not care about your idea. You'll hear, "Oh, that's cool," but that doesn't mean they'll actually use it. You can spend all day vibe coding something clever and find out very quickly that nobody wants it.
A few years ago, you might have spent $20,000 learning that lesson. I know from personal experience. Today, you can test much faster.
One of the strongest validations is building something you would actually use, proving that it creates value or revenue for you, and then seeing whether you can teach someone else to use that same system successfully.
As AI makes ideas and strategies easier to generate, what do you think will separate the founders who succeed from those who do not?
Anyone can build almost anything now, and they can build it fast. People can recreate funnels, launch campaigns, generate strategies, write code, and produce enormous amounts of content with AI. Companies can also hire people to keep doing more of those things.
What is much harder to recreate is access to a real ecosystem and trusted relationships. That takes time. It takes showing up. It takes trust.
In an age where so much can be generated or fabricated, authentic relationships become even more valuable. You can copy someone's funnel. You can't instantly copy the trust they spent years building with people.
Execution still matters. I see people sitting in AI chats all day generating documents, strategies, and ideas that do absolutely nothing for their north star, and they consider that work. To me, that's activity, not execution. Work starts when you take the idea out into the real world and do something with it.
That goes right back to mindset. AI can help you think, build, and move faster, but it still can't make you take action.
What does it take to build trust in a fast-moving health space where hype can easily outrun the evidence?
Real people, credible sources, and information that is actually easy to understand. That's where trust starts for me.
The internet is being bombarded with AI content right now. In a funny way, I think this may be one of the best times ever to stand out simply by being a real person. When everything starts sounding polished, generated, and almost too perfect, people notice when there is an actual human being behind the work.
That matters even more in health. If you're talking about something that could affect someone's health, you should be able to show where the information came from, involve credible people when appropriate, and be clear about what is known and what is still uncertain. You don't need to create more hype just because a topic is moving fast.
It still has to pass the simplicity test. Credibility doesn't help the average person if they can't understand what you're saying.
For me, trust comes from combining credible sources with real human communication, don't pretend to know more than the evidence shows, and explain what you do know in a way regular people can actually use.
When a founder feels overwhelmed by a big idea, what is the first thing you encourage them to turn into a concrete system or action?
This goes right back to mindset, systems, and simplifying things.
When a founder tells me there are 50 things that need to happen, I don't think the answer is to attack all 50 at once. You need to systematically look at those 50 things, break them into layers, simplify them, and build a system for doing them one by one based on what matters most.
That's where KPIs and the north star come in. Not every task carries the same weight. Some things move you toward the destination, and some things just make you feel busy. The system should help you see the difference.
Then you need the mindset to coordinate it and actually pull it off.
If I were sitting next to that founder, I wouldn't immediately tell them what to do. I'd first ask how they see the entire project and how they're approaching it. I want to understand the picture in their head. Then I can give my perspective, help simplify the layers, and identify the first things that actually matter.
How do you decide when persistence is the right response to a difficult period in a business and when it is time to change course?
There are going to be moments when something doesn't go the way you planned. It can throw off projections, quarterly KPIs, and timelines and make you feel like you've been pushed behind. That's okay.
Sometimes that doesn't mean the original destination was wrong. It means you skipped a step, missed something, or discovered that something else has to happen first.
That's when I think you pivot. You figure out what's missing, work on that piece, and then come back full circle to the original plan when you're ready. Changing course doesn't always mean abandoning the goal. Sometimes it just means taking a different route to get there.
This happens in business all the time. The important skill is being able to look at what's happening without panicking, identify the missing piece, and decide what you can do next.
I don't think persistence means repeatedly doing the same thing when the evidence says it isn't working. Persistence is staying committed to the destination while being flexible enough to change the route.
How did growing up around financial adversity shape your views on responsibility, resourcefulness, and taking action?
I'll tell you one thing poverty taught me personally, at some point, you have to take responsibility for changing your own situation.
That goes right back to mindset. If you never change the way you think, it becomes very easy to stay conditioned to where you are. You can spend years waiting for someone, something, or some opportunity to save you. For me, getting out meant changing how I thought, becoming resourceful, and taking action even when the conditions weren't perfect.
That is one reason I look at startups the way I do. Are you really going to wait all day for funding before you start? Are you going to wait for a contract to get signed before you do anything? There is almost always something within your control that you can move forward.
Adversity taught me to stop waiting around and find that thing.
"Get up. Get out. Get something."
That mindset is bigger than entrepreneurship to me. Whether you're trying to get out of poverty, rebuild after a setback, or create a company, you have to start moving before everything is perfectly lined up.
What is one principle you would want an emerging entrepreneur to remember when an ambitious idea starts to feel impossible?
I'm at a point in my career where I genuinely believe almost anything is possible. I've seen enough in my own life to know that your starting conditions do not have to determine your destination.
I've dealt with a lot of adversity. I've gone from struggling financially to writing books, receiving support and endorsements from A-list celebrities and moguls I'd only seen on television, teaching at top universities in the United States, building companies, and getting into rooms I never would have imagined being in when I was younger.
I look at my own life as evidence that you can come from very difficult conditions and still build something meaningful.
But it still goes back to the same foundation, mindset. You have to be able to visualize the destination and believe in your heart that you can get there. Then belief needs structure behind it.
Set up systems that support you. Move with enough speed to learn quickly. Execute so the idea leaves your head and becomes something real.
An ambitious idea is supposed to feel impossible sometimes. Keep building the person and the systems capable of making it possible.
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