I'm having a hard time balancing my schedule. Part of me thinks I should take every meeting because you never know how people can be helpful. The other part of me wonders if I should take any at all because they're all distractions from what really matters: the product.

What do you think? Any sage advice?

It's true that it's hard to predict which meetings are worthwhile, but the answer is definitely not to take every meeting. As your company gets more successful, that will take a higher percentage of your time (at the same time there's more to do internally). It's unsustainable.

I assume by "take meetings" you mean saying yes to meeting requests from others—not meetings you yourself request to drive some top-level goal.

If that's the case, "no" should be your default answer.

What's the best way to respectfully bow out? Does "focused on the product" cut it?

I think it's perfectly understandable for a founder to to say, "I would love to chat at some point, but right now we're heads-down on product development and my plate is full." You can add a "Ping me in a couple months."

Also, point them to this thread. :)

I have another tactic I'll suggest in a minute...

Continuing from above:
To those listening, I mean Josh's answer, as CEO of a product-driven company. Product should be your number-one priority, recruiting number-two.

Other than recruiting, almost everything external is overrated (partnerships, speaking, conferences, etc.). Just get the product right.

That said, it helps to come out of the cave now and again to get different perspectives. You're very good at finding and picking the brains of your many advisors, so you've got that covered.

For random meetings, here's something I've done before: Set aside a day a month as "Random Meeting Day." Book it back to back. When someone emails, say, "Sure, how about... [next available slot]?" Have them all come to you.

This tremendously cuts down on the overhead of deciding and scheduling. Some % of the meetings will be worthwhile. And it might be a fun day. (Also, I've found, because this may cause you to book a lot in advance, a lot of people flake, and you get those hours back.)

I think the process can be more of an ebb and flow. Sometimes, I'll go into "high tide" where I take more meetings and am doing more outreach. I've found more often than not, meetings lead to unexpected value—but this might be a function of having built up instincts on who to meet with.

During "low tide", when I want to focus on product, my approach is to take only lunch meetings near the office. One has to eat and I've always felt eating in front of the screen is neither working nor eating.

To add Josh's question about how to bow out, focused on product is a great response and, more importantly, is true. I will often say we're heads down but give a timeframe for them to reach back out.