Thread by @gregisenberg

20 years of juicy startup & life knowledge in 1159 words

1. Everything is a drug. Coffee is a drug. Food is a drug. Business is a drug. Use accordingly.

2. Google is a $2T biz walking around with their pants on fire because of AI. There's no guarantees in life

(keep reading)

3. Jargon almost never helps your case. The simplest sentences make things happen

4. Avoid “trust me” people. Constantly the most untrustworthy people

5. Why most products fail: not opinionated enough, wrong opinions, wrong community, distribution never figured out, giving up

6. Bad copy kills businesses, good copy makes them. Elite copywriters are worth their weight in gold.

7. There are three types of goals to hold sacred. Your someday goals. Your 1 year goals. Your daily goals. Everything else doesn’t matter.

8. I used to think a low follower to followee ratio was cool. Now I think the opposite. Avoid people who play status games.

9. More direct reports you have, the more stress you'll have. That's okay. Just acknowledge it.

10. Nothing is out of reach. I remember that feeling, on the come up. Top people felts unreachable. They’re just like you.

11. When someone uses your product, they are having a dialogue with you. It’s kinda spiritual. Will they understand your vision like you do?

12. Find all your business partners from either people you grew up with or people you find fascinating on the internet, and nothing in between.

13. How to hire: based on integrity, grit and how quickly (and willing) they are to learn.

14. Cash-flow is king. Being dependent on anyone is always less than ideal. Zuck or VCs.

15. If you want to write an angry email, wait 24h and see if you’d word it differently tomorrow. Hard to write good emails when you're angry

16. Bad copy kills businesses, good copy makes them.

17. The wrong customers will drive you crazy. Sometimes I’ll see a wonderful team and product, but they just focused on the wrong customers. So the business ends up sucking.

18. Find invigoration trips. Trips that give you a dose of inspiration.

19. If you sell on the internet, you’re a dopamine dealer whether you want to admit it or not.

20. Be busy creating, not consuming. Consuming is overvalued and creating is undervalued.

21. Follow what competitors are doing, but don’t obsess over it.

22. “10 people who yell make more noise than 10,000 people who are silent”

23. No amount of marketing can save a lousy product.

24. No-one should work at a company for 12+ years. It’s too comfortable.

25. Your quality of life increases when you screen time goes down. You’re more productive and happy.

26. People underestimate a good name for a product. Own a good name. Bonus points if its a dotcom. The internet rewards catchy names.

27. No rejections, no progress

28. The real minimum viable product is just a social post. You’ll validate more than 99% of MVPs through a tweet or an IG post.

29. When you’re thirsty, it’s too late to be thinking about digging a well

30. We often undervalue what we have and overvalue what we don’t have

31. T-shirt test. Your brand should be so good people want to wear it on t-shirts.

32. Give customers a little more than they expect. “Bonuses” go a long way.

33. Start even if you’re bad. Get going then get good

34. Everyone is in the acquisition and retention business. You're either attracting customers or keeping customers. Usually both

35. You’ll be a lot less happy (and wealthy) if you do what other people expect of you

36. Ignore status games. It’s “cool” to zig, it pays to zag

37. The trends that change the world are the ones that are part-inspiring, part-scary

38. Whatever you’re building, have an aesthetic. And own it. People will notice

39. How to come up with startup ideas: "Virtual travel". Go on comment sections to understand peoples needs

40. “Home” is where you feel accepted. “Family” is where you feel loved. “Purpose” is where you feel at peace.

41. Startup killers: too much capital, too little capital, perfectionism, too obsessed over competition, team burnout, too many pivots, no distribution, no fun anymore.

42. The moment you start caring about what other people think, is the moment you start building your company like them

43. Life is full of hidden taxes that slow you down. attention tax, social tax, boss tax, commute taxes etc. What life taxes are slowing you down?

44. Life is messy. That's how it's supposed to be. Make typos and don't feel bad about it. Speak from the heart. I know I have typos but that's not why you follow me @gregisenberg (follow me?)

45. Real feedback from colleagues, customers, bosses, investors is sobering. Seek it.