Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
Eight marketing maxims
- Trust is worth more than attention.
- Helping people get to where they seek to go is more effective than hustling people to persuade them to go where you’re going.
- Choose your customers, choose your future.
- Tell ten people. If they don’t tell the others, make a better product.
- Creating the conditions for the word to spread is the j
Eight marketing maxims
People act like having a startup fail is the worst thing that can happen to you. And man, that's not even in the top 10. It's bad, I've done it, it's awful. It's really bad, but far worse is to be in a company that won't die, a zombie, undead company that you hate, but you can't leave. Oof, have I met people like that, and we're having a mental hea... See more
Reflections on a movement | Eric Ries (creator of the Lean Startup methodology)
Think about how different an accounting software for tattoo shops would look compared to Quickbooks.
Or how you could integrate pool-party motifs into a CRM for pool cleaners.
All of which would set your brand apart from the get-go and take you from being one of many to being the one and only.
B2B SaaS doesn’t have to be boring and you can create an a... See more
Or how you could integrate pool-party motifs into a CRM for pool cleaners.
All of which would set your brand apart from the get-go and take you from being one of many to being the one and only.
B2B SaaS doesn’t have to be boring and you can create an a... See more
Superhuman
Customer math for a new business
How much does it cost to get a new customer?
How much do you make from every interaction with that customer?
How long does the customer stick around?
How many new customers will existing customers bring you over time?
How much does it cost to get a new customer?
How much do you make from every interaction with that customer?
How long does the customer stick around?
How many new customers will existing customers bring you over time?
Customer math for a new business
17% of employees who quit do it within the first month of a new role.
Why?
They were sold on something different than what they received once they got started.
Startups move fast and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but when this happens there’s a huge loss of trust. Employees may never take you at your word again fully.
The best you can do is to be can... See more
Why?
They were sold on something different than what they received once they got started.
Startups move fast and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but when this happens there’s a huge loss of trust. Employees may never take you at your word again fully.
The best you can do is to be can... See more
Michael Houck • What Do Top 1% Startup Employees Want?
It’s all about the learning. And mediocre successes don’t give you any learning.
Abraham Thomas • Mediocre Success Is Worse Than Outright Failure
The Jenga situation
seths.blog
The early days are exciting. Customers are seen and heard and served. Variations are created and value is produced as problems are solved.
In the early days, the most celebrated employees are the ones who figure out what someone needs and then determines a way to fill that need.
Once the organization gains traction, it’s possible that a short-term profit maximizer will join the team. They push to treat the customers as replaceable flanges, almost identical, income opportunities to be processed. And the employees? They are expenses, not part of a team.
It can seem like the fastest way for a stable business to increase profits is simply to remove some sticks. Process more flanges with fewer expenses. Lower overhead, measure the easy stuff, do it faster.
We spend too much time dealing with shaky towers. The resilience of people connecting, of organizations evolving, of service and clarity and generative work is far too important to be threatened by a few hustlers who insist on measuring the wrong thing.
We try to be as rigorous and data-driven as possible in quarterly planning. All objectives are measurable, either in terms of quantifiable thresholds or Boolean “was X completed or not.” Our objectives are very aggressive, and often at the end of the quarter we only end up completing 70% in one direction or another. The remaining 30% helps identify... See more
Lenny Rachitsky • How Perplexity builds product
how Perplexity builds