Favorite startup frameworks I've discovered on the following topics:
- Recruiting
- Fundraising
- PM-fit
- Community
Recruiting: It's important to get the first 10 hires right b/c each employee will replicate themselves 10 times. Take ur time
Since you can't compete w/ Google, you want to find ppl Google isn't chasing after but have even more talent & grit
Like drafting Tom Brady in 6th round
Talent arbitrage opportunity:
Find people who are excellent at their craft but struggle at self-presentation or public speaking.
Others will write them off before seeing what they have to offer—and you get to harness them for their skill & either hide or improve that weakness.
These time horizons affect the people you hire:
When you're 3 months old, you need to hire people who can come in and contribute right away. You don't have the luxury of not doing so.
When you're 3 years old, you can take more bets on people who will mature overtime.
When fundraising:
It’s helpful to consider the biggest reasons an investor might *not* invest, and pre-emptively address those reasons.
If you’ve solved for them, point to evidence.
If you haven’t, point to how you’ll address them, and the moat you’ve built to date.
When fundraising:
Ask in the beginning:
"Do you believe there will be a multi-billion dollar co in the space?"
If no —> don’t go further until yes
If yes —> here's our unfair advantage and why now (instead of 5 yrs ago or 5 yrs from now)
When fundraising:
After pitching, one thing you may try—under the context of your improvement—is asking them to role play as if they were pitching your biz to their partnership
If they don’t pitch it well, that may tell you something. Conversely, you may prefer their phrasing
Product Market Fit is the idea that is your product is so good you should start investing in more acquisition channels.
NPS & PM-fit scores can be powerful as they measure intent:
I’m excited to (finally) announce the launch of my newest incubated venture: @TurpentineMedia, a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more covering tech, business, and culture, from the perspective of industry insiders and experts.
There exist practitioners in every vertical who’d make more money & have more fun being a business creator for their niche, & Turpentine is here to help them do it
Check out the podcast episode with Marc Andreessen below. I'm biased, but I think this interview gives the best insight into his intellectual journey over the past decade.
- Marc's intellectual evolution
- Why billionaires think the same
- @elonmusk as the return to entrepreneurial capitalism
- Larry Page on why giving money to Elon is the best philanthropy
- Effective Altruism's blind spots
Thanks to sponsor @riversidefm. Riverside captures exceptional audio and video quality and makes it incredibly easy for us to record shows with multiple guests.
The idea of global supply chains goes away; the idea of a single price for oil goes away; the idea that we can feed 8 billion people goes away amazon.com/End-World-Just…
Talkshow founded by the excellent @sippey tried this in 2016, but perhaps now's a better time for it since group chats are more prominent today given how stilted social networks have gotten