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The Startup Checklist

100 tasks to build unstoppable momentum for your startup from Jason Calacanis and the team at LAUNCH. Click the titles to watch Jason explain each bullet point in detail.
Note: This is built on Coda a great all-in one doc. We don’t even scratch the surface of its capability here... if you want to level-up your team go to and they’ll hook you up with a $1000 credit

Episode 1 -

1) Are you solving a problem that has personal relevance?
Will you still care about your product, your company, and your customers after getting beaten down for a year straight?
Is the north star mission important enough to you that you will put potentially put everything else in your life second for it?
Examples of north star missions:
Robinhood's mission is democratizing finance
Calm's mission is normalizing self-care and meditation
Eight Sleep's mission is improving quality and tracking of sleep
Is the problem worth solving to YOU?
Not everyone is going to start a company that reduces carbon emissions across the globe like Tesla
It's okay if you're building a B2B sales tool, as long as it matters deeply to you!
But if you're just in it to get rich or get famous, it's probably not going to work out!
2) Can you build a great product?
Do you have these skills:
Developer (knowing how to build something)
Product manager (knowing what to build, and how to get there)
UX/UI designer (knowing what experience the user wants, and how to make it great)
If not, you can learn these types of skills for free on the internet → there are no excuses
Or you can try out no-code/low-code solutions, and see if you can get to a "Minimum Viable Product" or MVP without using hard code
We run a ton of low-code stuff at LAUNCH!
We use Notion, Zapier, Typeform, Bubble, Squarespace, etc.
3) Can you recruit elite talent to join your team?
Can you recruit one or multiple co-founders that balance out your skillset?
Example: if you are non-technical but great at sales and vision you probably want to find a technical co-founder that's can handle product
If you can't build a product, can you convince people to work for you that can?
Is your opportunity large enough that you can convince world-class engineers, designers, salespeople, etc. to come work for you?
Some things that attract high-end talent:
Equity: That's how you can compete with big tech salaries
Large opportunities: Uber, Airbnb, Stripe, Shopify
Meaningful work: Tesla (EVs), Blokable (Housing), etc.
4) Do you understand your ideal customer?
The first step in delighting your ideal customer is knowing who they are
Being able to identify the makeup of your most engaged cohort of customers could be the difference between finding product-market fit and running out of money
How is your customer solving the problem today?
What do you offer that is superior?
Why will they make the switch?
Things to look for: demographics, average time spent on site/in app, how you acquired them, are they likely to recommend your product to a friend?
Do you have domain expertise in your industry?
This is a controversial issues among investors:
Some investors look for domain expertise in a first-time founder
However, other investors () actually believe domain expertise is overrated and could be negatively correlated with outlier success
Keith thinks that the greatest innovations typically come from outsiders, since industry insiders are usually entrenched in a limited way of doing things
Jason calls this "fresh eyes on a problem"
Also: your ideal customer might wind up NOT being who you thought they'd be - if that's the case, are you flexible enough to pivot and still succeed?
5) How much personal runway do you have?
People underestimate how long it takes to either A) raise money or B) get profitable
Ask yourself: What is your personal burn rate? Can you optimize it to extend personal runway long enough?
How you can hack this:
Build a side project on nights and weekends before leaving your day job
If you aren't technical, try no-code solutions to see if you can create a minimum viable product
If you can get to any amount of revenue while still in "side hustle phase" - that's amazing!
Then you can start doing calculations like "When I hit X dollars in profit, that will be ~70% of my salary and I can quit my job and make up the difference"
6) How much are you willing to sacrifice? How resilient are you?
Before you quit your job to start a company, do a self-assessment on your personal resiliency
Here are ten tips for building emotional resiliency ():
1) Practice mindfulness (mindfulness helps with building self-awareness, which is key to emotional resilience, according to the CNBC article)
2) Breathe slowly and deeply
3) Build a robust emotional vocabulary (distinguish between different emotions in yourself and others so you are less likely to react without thinking)
4) Reflect on situations (take responsibility and articulate what you learned and how that will make you wiser in the future)
5) Reframe your mindset (view setbacks as challenges instead of threats)
6) Search for meaning (reframe suffering to create greater meaning for yourself and your team)
7) Forgive (break psychological ties that tie you to your past)
8) Engage your support network (the CNBC article notes that "research shows extroverted individuals tend to be more resilient because they’re more likely to reach out to others when they need help" so introverts should be extra mindful of this)
9) Express gratitude (gratitude can redirect negative emotions)
10) Take control of your outcomes (YOU control your destiny)
7) Do you have a bias towards action?
Complacent people do not make great founders
If you enjoy a casual working environment, don't like working long hours, prefer not to work nights and weekends... than being a founder is NOT for you
As a founder, you will be forced to put out fires from Sunday morning to Saturday night, and everything in between
8) Do you need a boss?
Some people need oversight, direction and someone else telling them what to do
Those people can still be good employees, and can knock off tasks and help your business once you start hitting scale
However many successful founders were NOT great employees, and in fact many were tough to manage
If you're somebody who takes comfort in having someone above you who could take responsibility and give you a direction, you might not be fit to be a founder
9) Do you make excuses?
There are a lot of people who think they have what it takes
But they tend to be hesitant in getting started - often coming up with excuses:
They are willing to start companies if you give them money
They will start companies if they find a developer to work for free
They are willing to start companies, but only if they can make the same money they made at Google
These are NOT signals of a great founder
Great founders start building now, no excuses!
10) Can you build the startup flywheel?
Product, Customers, Team
Can you:
Build a great product?
Is it well designed, or is the product clunky and ugly? Do you have a product at all?
Delight your customers?
Do you even know who their customers are?
Do you know the pain point they're solving?
Build a great team?
Can you recruit and hire a team?
If the founder can't do these simple things then this is probably not a founder that is going to win

Episode 2 -

11) Pick a business model that easily aligns with your product or service and customers
Your business model will depend on the type of product or service you're offering
Today we're going to go through the most popular business models for tech startups, which models investors love and which ones they avoid
Examples:
Imagine if Uber charged a monthly subscription for unlimited rides instead of a marketplace solution... would they have still succeeded?
Companies that sell business software should NOT sell it as a one-off, you should always sell it as a subscription so you can have recurring revenue and reduce your churn
12) Keep it simple: FOCUS on a single business model
One mistake founders make (besides picking the wrong model) is trying to do too much
When founders get unfocused, that's very dangerous for a startup
Businesses with multiple streams of revenue can get clunky with less chance of outlier success than focused business models from the start
Example of single business models (at the start):
Uber → marketplace, takes a percentage of every ride
Calm → subscription for meditation
Slack → subscription for messaging app
Spotify → subscription for music
Pro-tip: Here is one way in which you can use to different business models to prop up your startup in the early days:
You can use service-based revenues to build out your SaaS business
We see this all the time with early-stage startups, and it's a great way to get quick capital to grow your recurring revenue business
HOWEVER... make sure you differentiate "service-based" from "subscription-based" when you're talking to investors!
Competent investors will always ask about the "quality of revenue"
13) Do you understand why investors love SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)?
Because it allows startups to increase revenue on a recurring basis, while keep fixed costs relatively consistent
What is SaaS? It's when a business charges a monthly or yearly price per seat for business software
This business model creates "recurring revenue" for a startup, which investors love because you start every new payment cycle with almost 100% of your revenue from the last cycle
If you sell on a "bottom-up" basis (meaning you sell into an organization from the lower level employees, not top-down from the VP level) your product can spread through a company like wildfire
Example: Slack, Notion
With bottom-up SaaS, you also can have a "cross-pollination" effect, where employees that get addicted to your product move to other companies and then infect THOSE companies with your product
14) Do you understand why investors love the Fintech model (SaaS + Transactions)?
This model combines the best parts of SaaS and transaction-based revenues
What is the Fintech model? It's when companies charge a SaaS fee AND take a percentage of each transaction (if your product enables transactions)
This is a popular business model with Fintech companies like Stripe, Shopify, and Plaid
Why? Because 100% of revenue coming from transactions is not as ideal as having as a recurring SaaS component
These companies typically charge a relatively affordable monthly or yearly SaaS fee and takes a small percentage of each transaction
For example: In Q2 2021 Shopify had $334M in subscription revenue and $785M in transaction-based revenue (they call it "merchant solutions revenue")
Shopify had about a 30/70 split between SaaS and transaction-based revenue
Shopify's standard plan costs $79/month, and they charge 2.9% per transaction for merchants using Shopify's payments processor
15) Do you understand why consumer subscriptions are coveted by investors?
Subscriptions make a vertical with historically high churn rates much more investable by creating pricing lock-in and recurring revenue
Consumer subscription are when companies charge a monthly or yearly fee for a consumer software
Examples: Spotify, Calm, Fitbod
Interesting insight: Calm used to sell their app for a "one-off" price of $10 back in the early days
When they started to charge $5/month (or $60/year) instead of just $10 for life, they actually saw a jump in downloads and paying customers
Why? Because people love subscriptions, even though it makes no logical sense!
The brain thinks "Hey, I can cancel this whenever I want." even though you'll likely paying 10x-100x the original purchase price over time!
16) Do you understand why marketplaces are coveted by investors?
Marketplaces are hard to get started, but even harder to stop when they hit scale
Marketplace businesses take a percentage of each transaction
Marketplaces are two-sided, and the two sides traditionally consist of "buyers" and "sellers"
These buyers and sellers can appear in many forms, depending on the vertical:
Amazon has third-party sellers and buyers (obviously)
Uber has drivers and riders
Airbnb has hosts and guests
Rover has dog sitters and dog owners
Hipcamp has private land owners and campers
Marketplaces rely on the total amount of all transactions on the platform - typically called GMV (or Gross Merchandise Volume)
The GMV in a marketplace determines the revenue that company will make, since companies typically take between 5-20% of the total transaction cost
This differs by vertical as well:
Uber and Airbnb refer to this metric as "Gross Bookings"
In Q2 2021, Uber had $21.9B worth, and revenue was $3.9B (about 18% of Gross Bookings)
In Q2 2021, Airbnb had $13.4B worth, and revenue was $1.3B (about 10% of Gross Bookings)
Marketplaces eventually become "self-sustaining" once they hit scale!
Craigslist, Amazon, eBay, etc.
17) At the most basic level, why do investors love these four business models?
The four models: SaaS, SaaS + Transactions, Consumer subscriptions, Marketplaces
Because they allow startups to capitalize on the scale-ability and high margins of selling software
The power of software: Instagram sold to Facebook for $1B with only 12 employees
What advantage does this provide the founder?
Founders can keep fixed costs relatively similar while growing revenue rapidly due to simple and scaleable business models
Which means they can pour the profits back into building their business
Business models of Jason's outlier success:
Calm (Consumer subscription), Uber (Marketplace), Superhuman (SaaS), Thumbtack (Marketplace), Grin (SaaS), LeadIQ (SaaS), Fitbod (Consumer subscription)
18) Which business models do most venture capitalists stay away from?
Typically these are not "venture scale" businesses, meaning they can't get to $100M in revenue in under 10 years
Direct to Consumer or anything CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods)
Lower margins and scales slower than software
For DTC, you need at least one of these differentiators:
1) Elite product/brand (Ex: Eight Sleep, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, Away Luggage)
2) Elite acquisition strategy (Mastery of TikTok/Instagram/Facebook advertising, or organic)
Hardware
Famous saying: "Hardware is hard"
Historically low margin, and scales much slower than software
Race to the bottom
Pro tip: If your hardware item has a software component, you can sell HaaS, or Hardware-as-a-Service, which is much more appetizing to investors
Ex: Density, Cafe X
Advertising
Making money through ads on your platform
This business model only works if you hit massive scale, which is why investors are typically skeptical
Example: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yelp, Twitter, Snapchat
Advertising budgets are also dependent on the economy, as major advertisers cut their ad budgets FIRST after there is a down turn
Service-based
Not venture scale, usually bad businesses for everyone except the founder
19) How soon do you need to identify a business model after starting your company?
Most great companies know how they will make money from the start
However, your business model can change as new opportunities appear. Some of the greatest modern tech companies have changed their business model.
Example: Netflix
Netflix had TWO business model changes
First, they went from mailing physical DVDs for a monthly fee to selling streaming software (their margins and user base increased dramatically)
Second, Netflix used to "rent and distribute" 100% of their digital content when their streaming platform first launched
They would sign deals with companies that owned the rights to content and pay to list that content on Netflix
In January 2013, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings released a memo to employees and investors announcing a commitment to producing original content
From the memo: "We don’t and can’t compete on breadth with Comcast, Sky, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, or Google. For us to be hugely successful we have to be a focused passion brand. Starbucks, not 7-Eleven. Southwest, not United. HBO, not Dish."
Netflix's first piece of original content, House of Cards, launched one month later in February 2013
In Q1 2013 (the same quarter that Hastings released his memo) Netflix had $1B in revenue and only $3M in net income
Eight years and three months later, in Q2 2021 (their most recent quarter) Netflix had $7.3B in revenue and $1.3B in net income
So in the 8 years since Hastings letter, Netflix has ~7x'ed their revenue and grown their profit ~433x, largely due to their focus on producing original content!
20) Pricing: How much should you charge?
Charge too little and people don't think your product is good enough to buy
Charge too little and you don't cover expenses
Charge too much and people won't give it a shot
Charge too much and potential customers might get "sticker shock" - which is why some SaaS companies don't list their prices publicly
Compare to competition
What are similar startups charging?
How do you compare? Are you the affordable solution, or are you the premium offering?
Know your metrics
At what number of customers and what price can you be profitable at your current burn rate?
If you need 500 customers at $20/month to be breakeven, that seems very doable!
If you need 3000 customers are $100/month, that might be a little harder, and you might want to lower your burn rate

Episode 3 -

21) Do you know who you're building for?
How can a founder distinguish their "ideal" users vs their "first" users
First users: could be your friend from college, a neighbor, your grandma, etc.
Ideal users: who your product ultimately solves the problem for, and who is willing to use it the most OR pay you the most money
Here is an easy trick to identify early potential ideal customers:
Segment your users into cohorts based on an engagement metric like time on site, rides taken (Uber), workouts registered (Peloton), etc.
Focus on the top 10% of engaged users
Ask yourself:
What do these users look like?
What are their occupations?
Where are they located?
Why are they engaging with my product?
How much time are they spending on the platform?
Use this info to create a blueprint for a potential customer
Ex: Small business that needs help with web design, but doesn't need to hire a full time software engineer
This example would be a blueprint for an ideal customer of a marketplace of freelancers
Remember: Winning founders understand their customers deeply
Superhuman has an innovative approach to focusing only on potential customers that fit their ICP:
CEO Rahul Vohra only on-boards email "power users" due to his product's relatively high price point (~$360/year for an email client)
Rahul knows if he onboards a customer who is not the right fit, that customer will likely have a bad experience, churn quickly, and the entire cycle of acquiring that customer will be a waste of time
Superhuman actually REJECTS potential customers if they are not a good fit
Instead, Rahul chooses to only spend time onboarding and acquiring customers they know will love and utilize their product
22) Can you explain your startup in one simple sentence?
Call this "Jason's OSS Rule" - One Simple Sentence
Any great company can explain what they do in one simple sentence
At its core - what does your company do?
No buzz words; just a clean, clear, and crisp sentence that anyone could understand
Investors see convoluted, buzz word-y company descriptions often
Here are some examples with popular companies:
Slack example:
Bad job: "We're a future of work startup leveraging software and integrations to improve workplace communications for the long-term."
Good job: "We sell chat software to startups."
Coinbase example:
Bad job: "We're leveraging the blockchain and decentralized technologies to allow any investor to get exposure into the world of cryptocurrency."
Good job: "We help people invest in crypto."
Uber example:
Bad job: "We use AI and machine learning to connect riders and drivers, disrupting the worlds of transportation and mobility as we know it."
Good job: "We help you get rides faster and cheaper."
Something to keep in mind: Does all your branding align with your simple sentence?
Is the messaging consistent across your website, Twitter, TikTok, etc.?
Can every employee explain what you do in one simple sentence?
Does your sales team speak clearly?
Remember: Winning founders can explain their product simply
Einstein famously said: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler"
Winning founders can do this in their explanation as well as with product development
If you can't say what your company does simply, your customers won't understand your value
23) Do you know where to find more customers?
Once you have your first 5 customers, you should immediately look for 10, then 50...
Too often founders find their first group of customers and quit looking
They often get lost building new features or assume the customers will keep coming
Winning founders are obsessed with acquiring new customers
If you found a way to acquire customers that works - keep doing it!
If you find oil, keep digging!
So, how do founders go about finding users?
What are a few customer acquisition strategies in the early days?
Hangout where your users are
If you're selling developer tools to software engineers on a bottom-up basis...
Post on hacker news and subreddits to try and get early users and feedback
Attend live events (like meetups) and talk to the users themselves
Build in public
Create a sense of community around your product
Being open and transparent on Twitter is becoming more popular
It is a great way to find users with word of mouth
You can also build publicly on Indie Hackers and engage that community
Leveraging your network
Are you solving a problem that your network suffers from?
Do you have ideal customers you can easily reach out to?
Alex Tew, co-founder Calm used a strategy to attract users by building an interesting viral site called - and it's still live today!
The virality of the non-product drives traffic back to the product
He did this with Calm by creating a simple website that asked if you could sit still for 2 minutes
If you moved the mouse or touched keyboard it would say "Fail"
People shared their scores, and he collected ~100k emails of engaged users (in a few days) before ever launching Calm
There is also the waitlist strategy
Obviously, you need serious demand in order to create a waitlist in the first place
Companies like Superhuman have perfected the waitlist
You should create a waitlist if:
You want to gauge the level of interest
You want to limit the amount of customers you're on boarding
You want to build up hype and demand for your product
Once you have a few hundred users on the waitlist, you can utilize growth hacks like:
Enticing users to move up the waitlist by referring other people to sign up, which creates a virtuous cycle
24) Do you have founder-product fit?
Ask yourself "Are you using your own product?"
Are your employees using your product?
Do you truly understand the problem you are solving for the end user?
There are several benefits to "eating your own dog food"
1. You can quickly help your team find bugs before impacting customers
2. It strengthens your relationship with the customer
Everyone at your company understands the customer experience
You'll build credibility by knowing all the work flows and pain points
3. It keeps your company on the same page
Engineering gets to hear feedback from users (even if they are internal)
Marketing knows how the product works to better strengthen campaigns
Sales better understands the problems the product solves when talking to customers
Executives stay involved in the day to day functionality of the product
Fitbod is a great example of this:
Fitbod's co-founders Allen and Jesse originally built their product for themselves
Or, in other words, they were their own ideal customers
In this case: hardcore fitness enthusiasts with disposable income that wanted a data-driven approach to exercise
Do you know your one key feature and how that feature is being used?
What is the main way that you use your own product?
Fitbod's key feature was their workout recommendation engine
This was a machine learning model that would put together your next workout
It was based on your preferences, past workout fatigue, available equipment, and more
When you know who your ideal customer is, what your key feature is, and you use the product yourself regularly
You can build marketing campaigns and sales strategies around these markers
25) Do you know how people are using your product?
We've established that you and your employees are using your product...
But are your customers using it in the same way?
This goes back to the first point today - do you know who you are building for?
Remember, winning founders understand their customers deeply
Are the features you think are most important the same ones that your customers think are most important?
STEEZY uses their customer support tickets to inform their product roadmap
Are customers having to work around clunky UI/UX that is making their lives harder in your app?
If you are dog-fooding your own app you'll identify issues sooner and prioritize a fix
Being able to proactively tell a customer something like:
"In our latest release, you can now save your most common view - you don't have to click this sequence of buttons anymore - it should save you 5 minutes every time you log in"
This builds trust that you understand their problem and your own product
And solving a problem your customer may or may not have known they had goes a long way
Look at the data whenever possible to understand your customers
Understand who logs in and when
What pages are they on longest?
What actions are they taking?
Where do they get stuck or lost and log out?
Study patterns across users
Grouping your users into cohorts to track trends is helpful
You can segment users based on when they signed up, the industry they are in, or any way that might be valuable to slice your user base for insights
Quantitative data like this is extremely valuable
But so is qualitative data... which leads us to:
26) Do you know how to conduct customer interviews?
Are you talking to your customers regularly?
Are you solving their problem?
Winning founders solve big problems for their customers
Use every interaction with your customers as a way to gather this data
You do not need to provide a formal "interview" to gain valuable insights
A simple email to check in and see if they have any needs, thoughts, or questions can provide a lot of great information
When you release a new feature let your customers know about it and be excited FOR THEM...
"I think you'll love this new feature, it is going to make your life easier by doing XYZ - would love to know what you think! What did we miss, what works for you?"
You'll quickly get feedback without people even feeling the need to commit to an interview
Building relationships and checking in with customers before you "need" anything also builds good faith and confidence
Offering additional value and
Providing great customer experience by being available is a way to stand out from competitors
And when you want to conduct interviews, people are more willing to participate if you have a relationship
So, how to find the right customers to interview?
Use the segmented customer engagement data we talked about before
Take the different cohorts and select a random sample of customers
This should range from your most engaged cohort to your least engaged
Reach out via email or phone
If necessary, offer them a gift card, or something relatively meaningful for their time
You want to hear from a wide variety of users
But make sure to weigh your "super users" input more heavily
What kind of questions should you ask?
Sample questions:
What do you think about the product?
What would you change about it?
What does our product allow you to do that you couldn't before?
How would you feel if you couldn't use our product anymore?
What should we stop doing?
Would you recommend our product to a friend or colleague?
Have you? Why or why not?
Listen to their answers and ask follow up questions that keep them talking
"Can you say more about that..."
"Can you explain what you mean by that..."
"Would you elaborate on why..."
Do not interrupt your customer's feedback!
You can also conduct listening labs
Where you have the customer test out the app and think out loud while they explore
You can ask them questions like
"What are you looking for..."
"Did that do what you expected it to do when you clicked on it... why?"
"What do you need to do next..."
You can also take interviews in another direction and create a Net Promoter Score survey...
27) Do you understand Net Promoter Score?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to measure customer experience
Winning founders are obsessed with metrics
Measuring, tracking, and making decisions based on data is important
Instead of the open ended discussion questions you can ask users to answer on a scale
This makes it easier to compare answers and group results
Customers rate their experience with your company on a scale from 1-10
Something like, on a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend our product...
Here is how it's explained at
Promoters (score 9-10)
They are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth
Passives (score 7-8)
They are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings
Detractors (score 0-6)
They are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth
You find your NPS score by taking your percentage of promoters minus your percentage of detractors
This means your NPS score can range from -100 to 100
You can use NPS results to anticipate churn or drive customer outreaching
NPS for major brands (via ):
Apple: 47
Facebook: -21
Starbucks: 77
Delighting customers is the ultimate goal
You need to be able discover answers to questions like:
What problem are you solving for them?
Do they feel you are solving it adequately?
What sets your product apart?
Which features do they love?
Which do they want removed?
Do you make their job or life easier, faster, or better?
Why do they use your product?
What do they wish was better?
Do the customers recommend your product to others?
Why or why not?
A savvy way to increase NPS through a growth hack is with referral programs
Robinhood had one of the best referral programs ever
You might know it as the "Free stock" program
Every time you'd refer a user to sign up, both you and the new user would get a free stock on the platform!
This created a huge surge of sign ups in the early days
No other brokerage had ever done anything like that before
Delighting customers is a vital part of the Startup Flywheel
Collecting customer feedback is a great way to gauge how you are doing
28) Should you start with a free or paid product?
This is a very common question
And it depends on your business model
Are you going to be a free app that generates all your revenue via ads?
Think, Google, Facebook, etc
Are you SaaS, consumer, or a marketing place that needs people to pay you to survive?
It also depends on how much runway you have from the start
It is best to turn on revenue as soon as possible
Is growing customer base or growing revenue more important?
Ideally you're growing both!
Free users, without skin in the game often provide high frequency, low value feedback
Free users speak with their words and their engagement
Customers who are paying, have skin in the game and are invested in your product
Customers speak with their words, wallets, and engagement
What signals should you look for that tell you it's the right time to turn on revenue?
You've figured out the pain point your company solves
And are seeing early signs of product-market fit
You've run successful free or paid pilots with happy users
During customer interviews they indicate that they would pay to continue using your product
You have a waitlist that includes a price users will pay for your product
How do you shift from a free to a paid product?
There are ways to roll this out
You could offer a freemium version of your product
Allow the free users to have access to part of your product
If they want full access they'll can start paying
You can offer early users a discount to continue using your product
You could grandfather legacy users in at an original price point
You can just flip the switch, turn on paid and know that you might have a high churn month but you've identified your ideal customers as those who stuck around
Anytime you have free users you should work on ways to convert them to a paid plan
Let them know what they are missing, and how it would be better if they paid a monthly fee
29) Do you understand the technology adoption curve
There are 5 stages to think about in technology adoption
Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards
tech_adoption.png
Anytime you are creating new technology you need to win over all five of the individuals
The technology adoption curve was introduced by E.M. Rogers in 1962
And made popular in the book Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
Innovators
They take risks with new technology
Typically support a transformation within the company around new tools
Early Adopters
Look to understand the technology fully before the support it vocally
They like to be at the forefront but care about their reputation
This is typically your group of beta testers
Early Majority
This group makes decisions based on data
They support technology but want to see the proof first
Late Majority
Require even more proof than the early majority
Don't like risk and not that interested in change
Laggards
Skeptical of new technology
Give up when a new tool doesn't work and revert to their old way of doing it
Identify the innovators and early adaptors and market accordingly to those users!
30) When should you fire a customer?
Do you know when to cut bait with disengaged users?
Can your ideal customer shift as your product evolves?
These users are giving you bad data also - if they're disengaged, you should NOT be building your product for them
Should change your product to increase engagement?
Are you prepared to tell paying customers, we're not for you?
How do you manage the current relationships as you shift?
How do you communicate that you are firing a customer?
Is it better to fire them?
Or let them continue using your product - knowing they might become upset and churn anyway?
Remember, the people paying the least money are usually the most needy and have the most complaints
Remember the Superhuman example we covered earlier:
Superhuman actually "fires" potential customers during the on-boarding process!
Meaning, if a user doesn't fit the specific qualities of an ideal user, they won't even bring them on as a customer in the first place
Superhuman is able to preemptively "fire" their customer because they understand their ideal customer profile SO deeply

Episode 4 -

31) Do you know what problem(s) your product solves?
The answer to this question can guide your product roadmap
Another way to phrase this is "Why does your product exist?"
Examples:
Superhuman exists to make email faster
Uber exists to connects riders with drivers for faster and cheaper rides
Shopify exists to make entrepreneurship easy on the Internet
How important is that problem to your customers?
How are they currently solving it?
Ex: Gmail? Yellow cabs? Excel?
How is your solution better than the current solution?
When building a technology company, the answer should always be some combination of faster, cheaper and better
Uber helps people get rides faster and cheaper (which is better!)
Superhuman makes email faster and better (but not cheaper)
Remember: Winning founders know this is a race for credibility - do you deliver what you say you will?
32) Can you build an MVP?
MVP stands for minimum viable product
An MVP is the most basic version of a product that you can launch
Don't be precious about your MVP
Remember what friend of the podcast Reid Hoffman says: "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late"
Some things to keep in mind before building your MVP:
Are you a builder?
Can you code?
If not, are you familiar with Bubble, Webflow or other tools?
Do you have UI/UX experience?
If not, do you KNOW what good user experience is?
Do you have a growth/sales background?
If not, do you know how to build a growth model
Do you know how to create a go-to market plan?
How minimum is minimum?
You need be able to solve a customer's problem
How viable is viable?
Will customers actually pay you for it?
Is a landing page enough?
It depends on how complex the problem you're solving is
I've seen people create an MVP with a landing page and typeform
But you will want more functionality in most cases to see real traction
How far can no-code take you? If you can get to an MVP using no-code, that means you can get traction
And if you can get traction, that means you can get meetings with investors
33) Is your product simple to use?
Can a user quickly understand how to navigate and use your product?
Does your product highlight your main feature?
You want your product to be incredibly simple from the home screen
Don't make it difficult for users to navigate your product, that could result in more churn!
Calm
calm.jpg
Zero Fasting
zero.jpg
You should make it incredibly easy and delightful to be a user of your product
Again, the harder your product is to use the less likely a customer is to use it
34) Does your product have world-class design?
Achieving "world-class design" may sound like a high bar, but it's more doable now than ever before
No-code / low-code platforms like Bubble, Webflow, and Squarespace all have great templates that you can use as a starting point
There are also sites like where product designers share their work
You can draw inspiration from any of these places
There are some web 1.0 companies that have had mediocre design grandfathered in
Example: Craigslist, Amazon
These platforms have hit such massive scale that they can't really change anything on the UI side
If Amazon overhauled their e-commerce interface, they would get millions of complaints in minutes
But, first impressions still play an important role
Also, users are savvier than ever and will pick up on janky design instantly
If the product is clunky, slow, and hard to navigate you'll have trouble getting users to engage
Think of how simple and easy it is to use your favorite products
Robinhood used a great interface and no-fee trading to upend the entire stock brokerage industry
Designer co-founders have a great track record in building massive consumer-facing companies
Examples:
Airbnb (Joe Gebbia) - $100B market cap
Canva (Cameron Adams) - $40B valuation in most recent round
Instagram (Mike Krieger) - Sold to FB for $1B in 2012
Pinterest (Evan Sharp) - $30B market cap currently
YouTube (Chad Hurley) - Sold to Google for $1.6B in 2006
And world-class design doesn't just apply to consumer-facing companies
Remember, Stewart Butterfield (a designer) built Slack and started the "Consumerization of SaaS" movement
35) Does your product have "One Killer Feature"
In other words: the key feature that your product is known for
Examples:
Snapchat's ephemeral messaging and stories
Facebook's news feed
Instagram's filters
Spotify's entire catalogue of music for one low monthly fee
Robinhood's no-fee trading
A major mistake that first-time founders make is focusing on new features over ones that are already working
Remember, new doesn't always equal better
Prioritize perfecting your killer feature before you start expanding your product
Founders get into a mindset that if they add a new feature then traction will improve
No! Identify your key feature - get users, listen to them, delight them
Double down on what is working!
36) Does your product have a "hook"?
Great book on this topic -
Nir describes the product hook cycle in four stages:
Trigger
Something that gets a user to take the first action
What makes you open an app in the first place?
On his website, Nir Eyal uses the example of a user getting "hooked" into browsing on Pinterest
In this scenario, the trigger would be a link back to Pinterest on another social media site like Facebook or Instagram
Action
User takes an action that will eventually get them a reward
For example, click the link, open the app, register for the product, etc
It is key to have as little friction as possible here
In the Pinterest example, the link to the Pinterest app for a product they are interested in
Variable reward
Key word here is "variable" - so user does not lose interest
Users are forming a habit and if they always know the reward, then they will get bored
In the Pinterest example, the user is "rewarded" by similar images and products to the item that brought them over, and now they can discover new products
Investment
Requires the user to contribute back into the product
Part of what makes IKEA so successful is that the user feels pride in what they built
Finishing the Pinterest example, the user "pins" items that interest them, which gives Pinterest better data on what to show
Fitbod example from LAUNCH's portfolio:
Co-Founder and Head of Growth Jesse Venticinque described his products "hook" on
Here is Fitbod's product hook cycle:
Fitbod's Trigger: User has a psychological need to know how to exercise effectively, and Fitbod automatically generates a new workout for users
Fitbod's Action: User launches Fitbod to start their workout
Fitbod's Reward: Fitbod sets incremental and achievable goals that leave users feeling achieved after a workout
Fitbod's Investment: Users spend time entering data on Fitbod for better personalization
More data improves Fitbod's workout recommendation engine
Which then increases switching costs and reduces potential churn
After your workout ends, Fitbod immediately generates your next workout, which restarts the cycle (that's the "hook"!)
37) Do you have a viral loop?
You can also think of this as: is one user incentivized to create more users?
Remember, on episode three we talked about Robinhood's free stock referral program
If you invited a user to sign up you get a free stock and they get a free stock
The trigger and action are clear
The reward is variable - you don't know what stock you'll get... could be Apple, could be a penny stock
Here is why this was the best viral loop of all time
Via Robinhood's S-1:
Over 50% of users are first-time investors
So over half of Robinhood's 17.7M MAUs (at the time of their IPO earlier this year) were first-time investors
Ask yourself: What would be the hardest part about getting a first-time retail investor engaged in your brokerage?
Likely answer: Linking a bank account, depositing funds, and actually making their first investment
So to fix this, Robinhood said "Here's a free stock" now YOU have skin in the game and are instantly engaged!
And the results of the free stock referral were staggering:
Via their S-1, over 80% of users were acquired organically or referred
Can you leverage your product to create a viral loop as great as Robinhood's?
Dropbox did it with free storage: Dropbox Basic users got 500MB of extra storage for every user they referred, up to 16GB!
The app "Words with Friends" is another example:
A user can easily challenge a friend to play Scrabble
If that user doesn't have the app, WWF generates a download link to send them
Now that they are in they can invite their friends to the platform
38) Do you have a strategy to retain users?
User retention is a big topic, let's start with a simple example:
LinkedIn has an amazing user retention strategy
After you have gone a few days without opening the app, they will send you an email reminder to log back in
This is NOT a non-personalized, generic, "we miss you" email
They actually say "80 people are viewing your profile" to pique your interest
Then, when you go to the site, they let you know who was viewing your profile
Twitter does something similar
If you don't log in for a few days, you'll get a push notification:
Don't miss tweets from *your most engaged with accounts*
So if Twitter knows Jason engages with Knicks and VC content the most, they'll say "Bill Gurley and Knicks Film School are tweeting - don't miss it!"
These are all in-app ways to retain users, BUT customer success teams are becoming more popular as well
We'll touch on this more on a future episode called "Building Your Team"
Many people like a human touch
39) Do you know which product-focused metrics to track?
Remember - these metrics are "product-specific" so we're not going to include burn rate, runway, etc this time. We'll cover those on a future episode!
So here are the four product-focused metrics that matter:
1) Active User Growth
If your product is providing value, you're going to start growing users quickly
Are you tracking your daily, weekly, and monthly active users?
DAU - Daily Active User
WAU - Weekly Active User
MAU - Monthly Active User
Can you define an active user?
Remember, sometimes founders can get cute with how they qualify an active user
Nextdoor disclosed in their SPAC investor presentation that they count anyone who opens an email as a daily/weekly/monthly active user
This is not good hygiene - an active user is someone who opens your app and uses it
Founders should model their reporting after Twitter - who only reports on "Monetizable Active Users" - if a user can't be monetized (by being shown ads), they will NOT count them
Measuring and growing active users is crucial for startup success
2) Revenue (or MRR/ARR if you're selling software on a subscription basis)
If you're growing users and you have revenue turned on, you should also be growing revenue!
MRR = Monthly Recurring Revenue
ARR = Annual Recurring Revenue (MRR x 12)
Note - Founders can get a little cute with ARR sometimes, especially if you had a recent jump in revenue
Jason always asks founders for their last three months of revenue to see the raw numbers
Revenue growth is the engine that drives your business
3) CAC: Customer acquisition cost
How much does the average customer cost you to acquire
My bestie David Sacks' CAC formula: Divide sales and marketing expenses in the prior month by the number of new paid customers in the current month
the one month lag is to reflect the time it takes for sales and marketing to materialize
Remember - Amazing viral loops and word of mouth will acquire you users for FREE
4) LTV: Lifetime value of an average user
How much value are you getting out of an average user?
This is the total revenue brought in from a customer in a certain cohort
You can divide your LTV by CAC to get an accurate picture of how much profit you're making (or how much money you're losing) from an average customer
Remember, churn has a huge impact on LTV
The more value your product provides, the less frequently your customers will churn
Less churn = larger LTV
David Sacks put out a playbook last week called "The "
Goes into great detail and breaks down high level metrics
40) Do you know when to sunset a feature?
How much time should you give a new feature to breathe?
What if it goes mostly unused?
Consider
Ex: Uber Pool
Uber Pool was launched in 2014
Pool was a new type of ride where passengers could get cheaper rides by carpooling with others on a similar route
Pool was supposed to be better for the environment, cheaper (so more people could use Uber), and more efficient for drivers (multiple riders along one route)
Pool never was able to turn a profit since it was lower margin than regular rides
Uber sunset the feature in 2020 during the middle of the pandemic due to safety reasons
It's been theorized that Uber was going to sunset Uber Pool anyway, and the pandemic just sped up that process
It took Uber six years to sunset Pool

Episode 5 -

41) Do you need a co-founder?
If you are a first-time founder - YES!
Starting a company can be stressful and lonely
having a co-founder is helpful
it's good to have a partner to divide and conquer, especially when you are fundraising, which is a full-time job.
Plus, VCs will want to see you have a co-founder
Why? Because if you quit someone else is still there to work on the idea
Many startups don't work out
Placing a bet on a solo founder adds risk to an already risky situation
Investors like to see complementary founding teams (ex: technical founder + sales-oriented founder)
If you have already started a successful company and have the credibility, it isn't as important to have a co-founder
How to pick a co-founder?
Identify the skills you have and the skills you need to build a successful company
You want a co-founder that has a complimentary skill set to your own
If you have a sales background - you want to find a builder
If you are a builder you might need someone who is a marketer
Have you worked with them before?
Do you know how they work day to day?
How do they handle stress when things go wrong?
Do you trust them?
Where to find a co-founder?
Start with your network and people you know
Have you worked with anyone on projects that went well?
Do you know anyone that has the skills and background you're looking for?
Attend events, conferences, and network
Finding a co-founder is essentially your first sell
If you can't find one person to join you that is not a good early sign
42) Do you know when to make your first hire?
When can you justify paying someone to do the job(s) you are currently doing as co-founders?
Ask yourself - how much would it cost to have someone else do this?
Will the quality stay consistent without my constant input?
What else could I be working on as a founder with this time?
JMC: Is there a benchmark level of revenue you should hit before hiring an employee?
JMC: What percentage of spend is typically set aside for salaries?
JMC: What amount of burn is smart to take on for employee salaries?
JMC: Should founders make their first hire before raising money funding?
43) Do you know which positions to hire for first?
What are the priorities for your startup when building out your team?
A deep AI, machine learning application may require different hires than a fashion marketplaces
Do you know what qualities or skills are important in early hires?
General rule of thumb:
If you have less than 10 employees
Hire GENERALISTS
Once you have more than 10 employees
Hire SPECIALISTS
Are there specific roles every startup needs to hire sooner than later?
Developer (sooner)
Finance/accounting (can outsource early if needed)
PR (don't need it in early days, then outsource if needed)
HR (outsource at first, can hire when company scales to ~50 employees)
Lawyer (outsource)
'Bar Raiser' hiring process at Amazon
Every person hired should be better than 50 percent of those currently in similar roles.
- from "Working Backwards"
What to ask in an interview:
You want to ask questions that help you understand how the the individual works & if they'll fit your team.
For example,
What is a new skill you've learned in the last year?
Do you think it's more important to be talented or hardworking?
Teach me something in two minutes (The Chamath question)
Highlights their passion, ability to be concise, ability to convey information, etc
How do you handle having multiple assignments at once?
44) Should you build a distributed team?
When hiring in today's landscape, is offering remote positions a requirement?
Finding talent is going to be a challenge
Startups can give themselves an advantage by offering flexible working situations
This can help small competitors outrun larger companies who have sunk cost in real estate
And if you aren't offering flexible options, you may put yourself at a disadvantage
How can you build culture and accountability with a remote team?
What we do at LAUNCH with a remote team:
Slack huddles
Weekly team calls
Quarterly team retreats (planned)
JMC: Can a co-founder (or early employee) be located in another country?
45) Do you know what to outsource to freelancers?
What kinds of projects can you outsource as an early-stage startup?
If it is strategic - keep it in house
If it is administrative or repeatable - outsource
How outsourcing looks to investors:
Outsourcing product development / engineering (BAD)
Outsourcing sales (BAD - sales should be founder-led in the early days!)
Outsourcing HR (GOOD!)
Outsourcing other administrative work (GOOD!)
Remember: Product, customers, team
Worry about perfecting these three things...
and find ways to outsource things that do NOT impact the startup flywheel
Utilize SaaS instead of contractors where you can
Ask yourself, is there a SaaS tool that can simplify a process?
For example,
HR tools or software
Helps to create a repeatable and consistent process
What are the pros to outsourcing?
Free you up to do other tasks
Focus on the parts of building a startup you're best at
Freelancers typically are efficient with their time
What are the cons to outsourcing?
There is risk they don't understand your vision
This can lead to loss of time and money
Not a priority - your project is likely one of several the individual/company is working on
Communication
Constant communication eats up time - the top thing you were trying to save by outsourcing
Lack of communication can lead to unnecessary errors and delays
46) How much do you pay early employees?
"Don't make compensation a conversation"
Have a plan early
Know at what stage of growth each key hire needs to be made
VP of sales when you hit X amount of revenue
VP of marketing when you hit X amount of revenue
Head of PR when you hit X
Do your homework
Know what is fair value for each major role
What goals does your startup need to hit to be able to afford top talent?
Get creative with hiring
With remote work - you can get MORE QUALIFIED employees more affordably
How do you balance experience & high compensation vs. affordable & high potential?
You probably can't afford the best developers on salary alone
But you can sell them on your vision and offer equity
You can also find mid/junior developers with potential that you can groom
Many startups will have a senior dev that helps to upskill more junior level individuals early on
47) Do you know much equity to give to early hires?
What percent makes sense to reserve when the time comes?
It can vary but some back of envelope numbers may look like:
(Numbers below are from & blogs)
A third co-founder might get ~10%
A VP that joins to lead sales or marketing may get ~1-2%
Senior engineers who are building your product can get as much as ~0.7%-1%
Mid-level engineer ~0.45%
Junior engineer ~0.15%
Junior business hire ~0.05%
Equity is limited - so be smart with it
One major mistake of founders is giving away too much of their company early
This will mess up the cap table - making it hard for others to invest later on
Establish and communicate ownership with your team
Set an employee stock option plan (ESOP)
If you want to go super deep into employee stock options and liquidation preferences:
check out and click on the stock options episode with Wilson Sonsini's Becki DeGraw!
One MAJOR take away from that episode:
We talked about selecting the 83(b) provision which is CRUCIAL for founder and employee stock options
this is because it gives you the option to pay taxes on the total fair market value of your stock options AT THE TIME OF GRANTING
if you don't elect this option, you'll owe taxes on your stock after every new round of fundraising!
Implement Vesting schedules
4 year commitment with a 1 year cliff is common
This means you need to work at a startup for 1 year before any ownership is given
At that point you get 25% of your total
Then 1/48th (48 months over the 4 years) for each month after your first year
Build an org chart & adapt as you grow
48) Do you know when to start thinking about culture?
Culture starts at the beginning
A culture will emerge regardless — so you need to set and guide it intentionally
Value hard work & reward your high performers
When your team is small everyone needs to carry their weight!
One way to do this is allow multiple members of the team to interview new hires
This goes back to Amazon's Bar Raiser
It is good to have a 3rd party (non-member of the internal team) sit in on interviews
For example, a member of the ops team helps interview for a podcast role
This helps give an unbiased view of the candidate
And helps ensure cultural consistency across the organization
And this actually happens at LAUNCH:
Nick had Ashley and Jacqui meet with producer Rachel and producer Justin before extending offers!
As founder, lead by example and set the tone early
Do not wastefully spend
You don't need the expensive downtown office
You don't need swag
No one is going to buy your product because of a t-shirt they saw at a conference
If you want your team to take days off you have to take days off
Your team will follow your lead
Instill a culture of accountability
Have the team hold each other accountable for their work
Don't allow unsatisfactory work slide
Address it head on
You may learn about blockers that make everyone else more efficient
Remove cultural killers
At a startup with 3, 5, 10 people you can't afford to have dead weight
You have to fire people who aren't contributing
49) Do you know when to fire an employee?
"The one that got you here aren't necessarily the ones to get you there"
Create a performance improvement plan (PiP)
Document everything
Be graceful and professional
Communicate the decision with the team
Make sure you understand employment laws of the state of your employee
50) Are advisors valuable?
Advisors are NOT full time employees but might offer ideas or answer questions a few hours each month
Can you find experienced individuals who believe in what you are building?
Will they offer you valuable insights?
They are typically paid with equity
A few basis points is common
Say 0.1% to 0.3% equity for an advisor
See Founder Institute's - Founder / Advisor Standard Template
Are the insights they provide worth a stake in the company?
The hope is that at least one of your advisors can provide enough value to justify having a few on board

Episode 6 -

51) Market: Are you creating a new market or servicing an existing one?
Let's use two consumer subscription companies as examples for this:
Spotify and Calm
The market for Spotify was clear - everyone loves music
Consumers would LOVE all the music in the world catalogued and instantly accessible for a small monthly fee
The issue with Spotify was figuring out the rights issues that plagued music startups in the past
Spotify KNEW their market existed (everyone loves music), they just had to figure out how to not make the same mistakes as Napster
For Calm, their market did not exist
They helped create their own market by launching a great product at the perfect time
just as the general population became more aware of self-care
Calm did not know for sure that there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
but their product was so good it helped create the market they now exist in
GREAT PRODUCTS CREATE MARKETS:
Uber
Airbnb
Calm
52) Market: Understand the difference between "Lazy TAM" and "Bottom-Up TAM"
Early-stage investors typically don't need to see a TAM slide
"Lazy TAM" is a term I coined after having hundreds of founders show me an uncorrelated Gartner number on their TAM slide
Let's use an example:
Imagine a startup was pitching me...
They are an IT setup marketplace that's used by startups and SMBs
Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $4.4T in 2022, according to
If they used this $4.4T number in their TAM slide, that would make no sense!
Founders: Do NOT do this, it makes you instantly lose credibility
The great early-stage investors don't care about an insanely huge market size
We care about the flywheel:
Great product
Great team
Obsessed customers
BUT - if you do want to impress an investor with a TAM slide
Bottom-up TAM is another term I coined
Why? I want founders to start with REALITY and build UPWARDS from there
This is the right way to calculate your TAM in the early stages
If you do this coherently, you will increase credibility with investors
Made up startup example:
Acme Corp sells SaaS software to dentist offices
They charge $1000/month per office
First, let's do a LAZY TAM example:
According to an ADA () report from June 2020, the total projected dental spending for 2021 was between $123.9B and $154B
Lazy TAM would be taking the average of these two numbers ($139B) and pitching that as your yearly market size
"We can capture 10% of this market, and if we were at scale in 2021 our yearly revenue would have been $13.9B"
This calculation would completely miss the mark, and lose you credibility with investors
BOTTOM-UP TAM example:
Remember, you're only selling to dentist offices, so find that number first
In 2020 there were 201K working dentists in the US,
But there are only 187K total dental offices in the US in 2021, 's projections
This makes sense, as some offices have multiple dentists
Out of the 187K dental offices, what % can you convert to customers?
Let's say you think you can capture 10% of the market in ten years
That's $1000/month x 18.7K = $18.7M/month OR $224M/year in revenue
$224M in revenue is a GREAT business!
And if you walk investors through your TAM bottom-up style, you will look really prepared and considered
Make sure to emphasize that you're only going after the customer segment that fits into your business, not the ENTIRE market
Ex: The Acme Corp selling into dental offices does not care the total dental revenue of toothbrushes, oral hygiene products, etc.
You can also put a "looking ahead slide" where you talk about potential markets you can expand into in the future
Expanding into different markets has made great companies go supernova
Ex: Amazon building AWS
through the first 9 months of 2021, AWS accounted for ~70% of Amazon's profits ($13B out of $19B)
And AWS had only 13% of Amazon's total revenue ($44B out of $332B)
Another Ex: Uber first expanded from black cars into Uber X's, then expanded into delivery
The first expansion (offering Uber X) basically created the gig economy on a global scale and kicked Uber's business into hyperdrive
The second expansion (delivery) made Uber's business anti-fragile and kept them growing throughout the pandemic as rides shut down for a few months
53) Market: Have investors had success in your market before?
Also called the "Scar tissue issue"
OR - is the market opportunity appealing to investors?
Can dozens (or hundreds) of VENTURE SCALE businesses be built in your market?
Being in enterprise SaaS is MUCH more investable than owning a bunch of laundromats or restaurants
Why? The path to creating a $1B company is EASIER in enterprise SaaS
Venture scale means "can your startup can get to $100M in revenue or a $1B valuation in under 10 years"
When Calm first started out, they were not viewed as a "venture-scale business"
Investors were skeptical that Calm's market size was larger than people who were currently into meditating (which would NOT have been a venture scale business)
Once Calm added Sleep stories, mental recovery for athletes, and other products, the market expanded
Ask yourself: Can you get to $100M in revenue in 10 years in your market?
In a February 2017 blog, Elad Gil () described a trick to assess if your market was a good one to be in:
Elad calls this "The 2% and $1 Billion Rule"
QUOTE: "In general, you want to be in markets where multiple companies could afford to buy you for $1 billion, or where 2% of their market cap is at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars."
Ex: If you're a startup that's building tools to help creators monetize, you could be acquired by...
Google: ~$2T market cap
Facebook: $950B market cap
Snapchat: $88B market cap
Twitter: $43B market cap
Ask yourself: "what are the market caps of the biggest companies in my space"?
Ex: Consumer internet: Google is ~$2T, Facebook is $950B
Ex: Enterprise software: Microsoft $2.5T, Adobe $315B, Salesforce $300B
If the market caps are huge, this will help you in three ways according to Elad:
1 - These market caps reflect market opportunity since they're based on total revenue, growth rate, and margin
2 - Large incumbents are competitors BUT they're also potential acquirers (they will create exit opportunities)
3 - High market cap and cash rich companies tend to be great strategic investors at the later stages for a company
54) Market: Do you know your competitors?
If an investor asks about competition:
You should be able to name your top 3-5 competitors and how much money they have raised
And you should also be able to explain how and why what you're offering is better for customers
If you were building a video game platform and your #1 competitor was Roblox, you could say:
"Roblox takes a 30% fee and they're focused on kids, we take a 15% fee and we pay creators MORE than anyone else"
It's also a bonus if you know ballpark revenue numbers
This information is typically pretty easy to find through Crunchbase or Pitchbook
Here is a scenario that happens often when founders are pitching me:
I ask them: "Who are your main competitors"
And they say: "We don't have any competitors"
You ALWAYS have competition!
Even if nobody is going after the same customer segment, there will still be other companies in your vertical
Even Uber - who basically created a new industry with the gig economy - had competitors: they were originally competing against yellow cabs
If you know the ins and outs of your competition, you will come across VERY credible to investors
And when you're trying to raise money, increasing credibility key!
55) Market: What are the barriers to entry in your market?
For most tech industries, the barriers to entry are pretty low - examples:
E-commerce
Enterprise software
Consumer software
Marketplaces
Most of the regulations are common sense stuff - no lewd content, no securities fraud, don't lie to investors or customers, etc.
In crypto, there are almost zero headwinds (until you get caught)
Ex: Tether has been operating a stablecoin for years that's now worth ~$70B without every undergoing a real audit or disclosing the makeup of their commercial paper
In enterprise software, some headwinds start to exist around security and compliance once you get to scale (signing contracts worth six figures and up)
In healthcare, housing, and education, there are massive barriers to entry:
federal regulations for healthcare
zoning and building permits for housing
local regulations for education
All of these barriers take TIME and MONEY to pass
That's why VCs are skeptical about those businesses
Music was also viewed as a really tricky market, until Spotify figured it out (and the prize was huge: they are a >$50B company)
Another headwind: Is your market limited by factors out of your control
Ex: Oculus developers can only build software for the hardware they are given
AND their games will only go as far as the market for VR headsets takes them
But keep in mind:
The bigger the barriers to entry, the deeper the moat
56) Branding: Is your company name easy to say and spell?
Does your company name pass the "bad telephone test"?
If not, you might be doomed from the start
This especially matters for consumer-facing companies
Remember the classic Bezos story from Brad Stone's book :
Jeff Bezos originally wanted to name his company "Cadabra"
To convey how magical online shopping was
But Bezos's lawyer convinced him that the name sounded too similar to "Cadaver" after he couldn't understand the name over the phone
Bezos took his advice and named his company Amazon
How many great consumer-facing companies do you know that have really complex, weird names? Not a lot!
Look at how great and simple these names are:
Uber
Calm
Airbnb
Netflix
Spotify
Google
Amazon
Pinterest
Robinhood
Soundcloud
Now let's look at some great enterprise names:
Zoom
Slack
Shopify
Salesforce
57) Branding: Do you have a great domain name?
Great domain names build trust and prove to investors that you are able to negotiate something of value
If they can negotiate a six or seven figure domain name away from the owner, that's a big tell that the founder can be successful
impressed Jason immediately
If you can't get the domain name, there are a few easy things you can do:
GetCalm.com
TryCalm.com
BeCalm.com
GoCalm.com
This goes for social handles as well!
58) Branding: Logos: When and how?
What comes first - the MVP or the logo?
Logos are hard to get right
You shouldn't shoot for a 10/10 immediately
You can be comfortable with a 7-8/10
Classic example of bad early design but great product: Uber!
ubercab.jpeg
The product was so good that the terrible design didn't matter
59) Branding: Is your website beautifully designed and clear?
Terrible websites destroy your credibility with investors
If you're selling to enterprise customers, your website's landing page will be the first place many people interact with your company and brand
If your website is ugly, clunky, and hard to navigate...
You are leaving a really bad first impression on potential customers/investors!
LAUNCH Example:
Mahreen (who runs Remote Demo Day) had a founder tell her that a bunch of high profile VCs were interested in investing so LAUNCH needed to move fast to invest
Mahreen checked out their website and product...
and it looked like it was from 1999
the founder immediately lost some credibility
60) Branding: Do you have a concise company mission?
What is the goal of your company?
Why do you get up for work everyday?
This should be a simple sentence that describes your mission
Examples:
Robinhood: Democratize finance
LAUNCH: Support founders and inspire innovation
Jetson (the E-VTOL startup we covered earlier this week): Make anyone a pilot
Airbnb: "Create a world where anyone can belong anywhere"
Uber: "Create opportunity by setting the world in motion"
Amazon: "We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience"

Episode 7 -

61) Do you have a low-burn culture?
As a founder you set the tone for your company in all things
Especially in how you spend money
When you're able to save money, put it back into your product
No excessive spending - act like a startup
When using tools
Use free versions of tools until you outgrow them
Why pay for a solution that Google sheets provides for free?
Negotiate contracts for all vendors
When looking for office space
With covid & distributed teams -
There is no need for expensive office space
Getting a fancy space sets the tone completely wrong for your startup and the people you hire
When you travel - do so responsibly
If your team travel have one person in charge
Instruct them to get the best deal for your company
Don't waste money on swag
On we spent an hour on the importance of maintaining a low-burn culture as part of Scaling your Startup series
62) Can you calculate your burn rate and runway?
Burn rate:
First, you need to know your revenue
Are you charging for your product?
If you're not making any revenue, your burn is whatever you spent last month
So how do you calculate your burn rate?
Revenue - Spend = Burn
Most startups are not profitable
This is normal, it takes investment to grow a business
In startups, we call it "burn" to give the appearance that we're on a rocket ship...
but in reality, "burning" cash really just means you're losing money
If your burn varies widely from month to month, you can take the last three months average and use that to calculate it
Bonus: Do you know your burn multiple?
VCs sometimes use the Burn Multiple to help understand product-market fit
Burn Multiple measures how much a startup is burning in order to generate each incremental dollar of ARR
Formula is Net Burn / Net New ARR
David Sacks & Craft use the following as a rule of thumb:
burn_mult.png
Runway:
Runway means how many months you can continue to operate before you run out of money at your current pace of spending?
If you are profitable, your runway is infinite 🙂
To know your runway, you need to know two things:
how much money you lose every month?
how much cash do you have in the bank?
As a rule of thumb, we prefer founders to have 18 months of runway in the bank after fundraising
Do you have at least 18 months of runway?
You want to have some time between rounds to focus on growth and product
We suggest planning at least 6 months for fundraising
Keeping track of your runway will help you manage spending
If you can measure it, you can manage it
63) Do you have a forward looking org chart plan?
Early on as a founder you are doing everything
You are the org chart!
As we discussed in episode five (where we covered Building a Great Team) you want to hire generalists early on
So it might not be vital to have a formal org chart in the early days
But it is important to know who is responsible for what tasks as you scale out your business
Then as your team grows an org chart begins to provide structure
And if you can model a forward-looking structure for your startup, you can scale your startup!
Ex: How many Salespeople will you need to hit $X amount of revenue? What other roles will you need to fill to maintain the company as your selling more?
For example, at LAUNCH we have clear teams and people assigned to them
Production Team (Nick, Charles, Justin, Rachel)
Syndicate Team (Ashley, Heidi, Amber)
Investment Team (Jacqui, Presh, Mahreen)
Now we can model out how to scale up these teams
We are also working on implementing a Single Threaded Leader (STL) on new projects
This was made popular by Amazon
described as:
"STL is 100% dedicated and accountable to a new initiative"
"This could be inventing a new product, launching a new line of business, or executing a digital transformation."
Having an org chart helps track where your heavy workloads are and can drive hiring decisions
64) Are you tracking and properly categorizing expenses?
It is always important to know how much you are spending
And on what!
Founders that are not properly categorizing expenses call fall into serious trouble if it goes unchecked
It might sound boring and silly — but we occasionally see this issue with early-stage founders
Also - have a separate bank account. Do NOT use your personal
In our 12-week course we encourage founders to create an "Application Tracker" in the initial weeks
Essentially, it's a spreadsheet where founders track info on any tool, resource, application, etc that they are testing or paying for
In this spreadsheet they also:
assign an owner of each tool
track when the free trial expires
and how much it costs
This provides a nice visual of where founders are spending money
These small expenses can add up quickly
The team can then review at any time which tools or expenses are still needed and which are unnecessary
65) Are you doing a monthly P&L and balance sheets?
What the difference?
According to Investopedia:
The balance sheet reports the assets, liabilities and shareholder equity at a specific point in time
while a P&L (profit & loss) statement summarizes a company's revenues, costs, and expenses during a specific period of time
Typically these are reviewed every quarter at a minimum
P&L and Balance Sheet together is an instant "snapshot of your business"
Always have these on hand when you're talking with investors
If you type in "P&L template" or "balance sheet template" on Google there are tons of great templates and tools available
Sometimes founders will outsource this work
That is fine but you should review it at least monthly
Check their work diligently
As a founder you need to understand your P&L balance sheets
This can help you forecast any possible scenarios (whether it be growth or going backwards)
66) Make a growth plan and resource it properly.
When you want to raise money from investors, you should have a clear growth plan
Basically: map out how you will spend your targeted raise down to the dollar
Growing or Zombie mode
Examples we go through at LAUNCH:
Give three different growth models: 5% MoM, 10% MoM, 20% MoM (best cast, worst case, medium case)
Then, map out how you will hit these numbers based on the data you already have
If you're a SaaS business: how many new salespeople will it take to hit 20% MoM growth?
Or, how many months does it take an average salesperson to pay for themselves?
If you know these numbers, you can model out your growth for years to come
67) Make sure you're using accrual-based accounting—not cash-based.
Startups should ALWAYS use accrual-based accounting
Public companies are REQUIRED to use accrual-based accounting, rather than cash-based
Accrual-based is GAAP - or a Generally Accepted Accounting Principle
Will investors avoid your company if you used cash-based accounting?
Essentially, accrual-based accounting is when you record revenues and expenses when they are earned, regardless of when the money is actually received or paid
For SaaS businesses - this means an annual contract is recognized over 12 months, not up front
You need to know when and how your revenue being recognized
68) Are you "default alive." and why that's so meaningful?
Default alive was coined by
Default alive means you can make it to break even or profitability with your current runway
Meaning that you don't need to raise any more money to be profitable
This puts you in the drivers seat as a founder
You only need to raise money if you want to
In September 2019 I coined the term " Startup" in a blog post
Here is the QUOTE:
"A Pegasus startup is one that is so profitable that it is able to use its profits to soar so high, that it skips multiple rounds of funding."
Current Pegasus companies in my portfolio:
Calm
Fitbod
Default dead means:
Default dead means you need at least another round of funding before you can be profitable
Or - if you never raise money again, you will eventually die
In this case, your mindset should be "How can we save the company?"
69) Establish a frugal—but not cheap—culture.
Cheap examples
Losing a stellar employee because you haven't given them a raise in years
Being super tight with giving early employees equity (Taso Du Val from TopTal)
Being late on paying salaries
Haggling on price on unnecessary things
Frugal
Know every dollar coming in and out of your company
If you are NOT wildly profitable, you should NOT waste any money on:
fancy office space
daily catered lunches
snacks
Crazier example of reckless spending:
Adam Neumann bought a $60M private jet while WeWork was on pace to lose $1.9B in 2018
70) Read "The Lean Startup"
The Lean Startup was originally published in 2011
The author Eric Ries was on the podcast:
Some great short QUOTES from the book:
"Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught."
"…lean manufacturing, design thinking, customer development, and agile development"
“Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.”
The book also mentions "The Five Whys" a method developed by Toyota to get to the core of any issue:
Ries applies the "Five Whys" to a startup:
Example QUOTE from an Eric Ries in the Harvard Business Review:
A new release broke a key feature for customers. Why? Because a particular server failed.
Why did the server fail? Because an obscure subsystem was used in the wrong way.
Why was it used in the wrong way? The engineer who used it didn’t know how to use it properly.
Why didn’t he know? Because he was never trained.
Why wasn’t he trained? Because his manager doesn’t believe in training new engineers, because they are “too busy.”
Ries argues that to build a great company, you should start with the customers in the form of interviews and research discovery.
Building an MVP and then testing and iterating quickly results in less waste and a better product-market fit.

Episode 8 -

71) Is your company a Delaware C-Corp?
If you are not a Delaware C-Corp that's an immediate non-starter for venture funding
Why a Delaware C-Corp?
Delaware law is favorable to shareholders
It means the company must do what is best for the shareholders
It is also what everyone is most familiar with
Investors are comfortable because it is what they know
Process is straight forward
There is limited liability
There are some tax benefits
If you're an international company looking to raise from US VCs, but you don't have a US entity, what should you do?
72) Do you have a clean cap table?
A messy cap table is a HUGE red flag for investors, and can stop someone from investing
Having a messy cap table in the early-stage is the biggest red flag we see at LAUNCH
How much the founders should own at each stage:
Pre-series A: the founders should collectively own 50-65%
Series A: they get cut to 40-50%
Series B: 30-40%
Series C: 20-30%
IPO/Exit: 10-20% ownership
Do NOT give away a large percentage of your company to a dev shop or consulting firm in the early days
Investors will want to see that you've been capital efficient
If you've raised a lot of money and are still pre-revenue or pre-product, that will raise red flags with investors
73) Do you understand dilution?
What is dilution?
Definition: the reduction in equity as new shares are issued
Simple terms: the more of the company you sell, the less of it you own
Again - it is SO important to not get too diluted too early
Common shares and preferred shares
Common shares are what founders, employees, and advisors get
Preferred shares are what investors get
Preferred shares means that the investors get their money out FIRST, before the founders or employees
It also includes information rights, board rights, and more
Understanding pre- and post-money valuations:
Pre-Money
Pre-money is the valuation BEFORE the new capital has been accounted for
Post-Money
Post-money is the valuation after the new capital has been added to it
Ex:
Company A raises $100M at a $900M valuation
Their pre-money valuation is $900M
Their post-money valuation is $1B
74) Eliminate any other "surprise red flags" from diligence (aside from cap table)
Here are some major "surprise red flags" that investors see:
Outstanding lawsuits
Disgruntled former employees (that could potentially sue down the road)
Are you paying rent out of the business instead of paying yourself a salary
Cash-based accounting (covered this on E6)
Not being intellectually honest about the business
75) Build a data room
What is a data room?
A place where important documents are saved and easily accessible for the due diligence process
Essentially just a Google Drive with the following contents...
Items you should include in your data room:
Financials: P&L and balance sheet
Founders legal names and email
Board minutes
Bank statements
Incorporation documents
Documents from any previous raises: Convertible Notes / SAFEs
Cap Table
Other items that are helpful to include (but not necessary):
App reviews
Cohort data (retention/churn data)
Number of full-time employees
Number of part-time employees
How much money you have raised to date
And from whom
Do any of them have side letters?
What is the name of your lawyer?
What firm are they from?
Having a tight data room RAISES credibility!
76) Understand startup funding documents
Convertible Securities
Investments that CONVERT at an event that is specified in the investment documents.
EX: When $1M or more is raised in a priced round, the investment converts to equity at the predetermined valuation or cap.
SAFE:
Simple Agreement for Future Equity
They were introduced by YC in 2013
Not meant to be paid back, typically has a cap and a discount
Generally the least expensive way to raise money from a legal perspective
Remember TopTal - They never raised another round of funding after their SAFE - so investors never got money back
Convertible Note:
A debt instrument or "loan" that isn't meant to be paid back but can be at the investors request.
Has an interest rate, typically has a cap and discount
Long form document that has more protections for investors (more investor friendly)**
Here is a CAVEAT w/ convertible securities:
Founders should set a minimum investment amount: $50k is a good target
Then, don't raise at too many caps/discounts
Why? Because it's tough to know your true ownership as a founder and it can make the conversion at a priced round chaotic and more expensive
Priced Round:
A priced round is an offering and sale of newly-created stock in your company at an agreed-upon per share price
Typical cost for a priced seed round using standard documents is $12k-$20k
Could be more depending on how much clean up is need from multiple SAFE/Note rounds
77) Have a plan that gets you to 18 to 24 months of runway
18-24 months is the sweet spot
Raising too little will force you to start fundraising again too fast
Fundraising is a full-time job
Raising too much (giving yourself 3-5 years of runway) will hurt you
Your early-stage valuation will dilute you too much at a larger dollar amount
Remember: You're optimizing for finding PMF, not for an IPO
In point 66 I talked about building a growth model, here is where that comes in handy again:
Build a financial model for high growth, average growth, low growth
High growth/24 months of runway = is the upper limit for your target raise
78) Do you know how to value your startup?
Your valuation is mostly determined by the market
BUT, here is how you can think about it:
If you land a lead investor, they will set the terms.
If you go the party round route, though, you will need to set your own terms.
It's a crazy market (November 2021); valuations are 50%-100%+ higher than what they were last year.
Previous formula was roughly 10x ARR = valuation.
So, a company generating $1M of revenue is worth $10M
In this market, valuation calculator is out the window.
David Sacks recently said 100x ARR has become the standard for enterprise SaaS startups
So that $1M revenue company is now worth $100M instead of $10M
There will be higher valuations for trendy verticals and serial entrepreneurs with past success
79) Start governance early
Hold board meetings even if it's just two founders and an advisor
Add "Board minutes" to your data room - even if it's just you and your co-founder, or you and an advisor
Meet quarterly and talk about the business
Strategy, headwinds, any major
You don't need to meet for 3 hours, but taking the time to do this will be a positive signal for downstream investors
80) Know that fundraising is a full-time job
Do you have team members who can pick up the slack while you fundraise?
Goes back to the Startup Flywheel
Hiring a great team is vital
Solo founders will have a hard time being successful at this
Founders should block off 6 months to fundraise

Episode 9 -

81) Be able to pitch your startup effectively and concisely
Jason's Rules for Pitching
1. Get to the product in 15 seconds 2. Examples matter (of people using the product) 3. Synchronicity (be talking about what’s on the screen) 4. One slide - one message (keep it simple) 5. Show don’t tell (performance data, customers, process steps > lots of text & vague descriptions)
Remember from checklist item #22:
"OSS" - One simple sentence explaining your startup
No jargon, no marketing-speak
just say what your company does in the most basic way
Get the team involved
The founder should not make this deck alone
Include any employees that has important insights in this
Sales provides input on sales slides
Engineering provides input on product slides
This is a lot of what we do at the LAUNCH Accelerator -
We help founders perfect their three-minute pitch to investors
We train them on how to answer investor questions
82) Do you know how to find investors?
NOT just the firm — but the specific investor
Some investors/firms are stage-specific, some are vertical-specific, and some are geo-specific
You don't want to try and pitch a growth-stage firm if you're raising a Seed round, for example
Others are agnostic to stage, vertical, and geo
Learn HOW they invest
Some investors only lead, some investors only follow, and some do both!
Of the followers-only, some will follow only if there is a lead, and some will be okay in a party round.
It might not be clear until you start to have conversations with them.
Tips for finding the right investors:
Who has invested in companies in your space? (Note: avoid investors of direct competitors.) Crunchbase and NFX Signal are good resources.
Once you identify firms, check out the firm team page and LinkedIn for each investor's focus and previous investments.
Research their background (past winners, were they an entrepreneur?)
Follow them on social media (retweet them, add them to lists, engage)
Learn what they care about, read their blogs
Tailor your outreach accordingly; explain why are you targeting that specific investor
No "spray and pray."
When you find an investor that fits your stage and vertical:
Research when they raised their last fund
If they've recently announced a new fund - they are LOOKING to deploy capital
PitchBook lists "Dry Powder" for VC firms - which is an approximation of how much capital they have to invest
83) Do you know how to build a fundraising pipeline?
Now that you know how to find investors, how many of them do you need to pitch to get a term sheet?
Here is what a typical fundraising funnel could look like:
Large list: 150 investors
Curated list: 125 investors
First meetings on Zoom: ~50
Second meetings: ~25
Go into diligence: 10
Term sheets: 1-3
So those 150 top of funnel investors could net you 1-3 term sheets
This varies greatly from startup to startup
This Week in Startups: Scaling Your Startup has a ton more info
E1210 "" - Season 2 with Andrew Farah of Density and Dejan (pronounced "Dee-on") Pralica of SoleSavy has great fundraising strategies from the founder perspective:
84) Do you know Jason's "Perfect cold email" template?
Short and to the point
Examples matter
Should include a short, personalized intro (1-2 sentences)
And then these numbers:
How many customers/users
How you make money
Last 3 three months of revenue
Quick product demo (Loom)
Charts are good — show don't tell
The more wordy, the less likely it is to be read
85) Do you know the "Loom, Zoom, Room" Rule?
This is the standard for remote investing
It’s super simple:
First, send investors a product demo where you record yourself sharing your screen and walking through your product
A company called Loom does this automatically
Next comes the Zoom meetings (~30 minutes is ideal on Zoom for a first meeting)
Finally, you can meet in an actual Room to close the deal (or for a second meeting if they are local)
86) Nailing your first meeting
Prep:
Best practice is to have two decks (5-min and 15-min) ready
If using the short version, include an appendix to go into more detail if asked
include financial models and in-depth analyses (on competition, cohort and market)
You can send this as a follow up if you don't get to it in the meeting
Ask the investor: would you prefer to see a product demo and the short deck, or go through the longer deck?
Have positive, exciting, and contagious energy
Prepare questions
Practice answering investors' actual questions, accurately and concisely.
We practice this in our Accelerator.
e.g., If an investor asks what was your revenue last month, don't launch into an explanation on the vision.
Own your early traction, even if modest!
Before the meeting ends: make sure to have clear action items/next steps
Ask, "What would it take for you to invest in this round?"
After the meeting, follow up immediately to thank the investor and address whatever concerns they expressed in answering the above question (about what it would take to invest).
87) Can you nail the “post-meeting follow up email"?
Be positive
Add things that you think could have been clearer
Create a sense of urgency
Best reply (if true): "I have a term sheet"
NEVER lie
Follow up (nicely) if you don't hear back
Include an exciting update since the last email
88) Do you know how to diligence potential investors?
This is different than "researching" investors
You should figure out how valuable they are as partners
Investors WILL go deep on diligence on your company
And you can do that too
Speak to founders in their portfolio
What was their experience? Was the VC firm helpful, or were they a net negative?
You don't want to add a bad investor to your cap table!
Some investors just write the check and are hands off
Others are really helpful in various ways
Some investors have legal expertise, some enterprise sales, some operational, etc
And some are actually a net negative to your company
89) Send a great investor update
Once a month you should send an update
Or more!: Twice/month or weekly if you are trying to convert an investor, with an "exciting update" drip campaign!
Include the "not yet" investors on your updates; the ones who expressed interest but it might be too early for them.
Convince them over time!
You can have two separate updates:
One you send you current investors
And one you send to potential investors that you're trying to close
(and to whom you might not want to disclose certain information)
Here is what we look for in our portfolio founder updates at LAUNCH:
Charts:
Show month over month growth
Revenue
Spend (Expenses)
Burn/Profit
Cash on Hand
Runway
Team Size
Product Data
Updates
Key Findings
Highlights/lowlights
If you need help or advice — ask!
90) Understand SEC rules around fundraising
When you're raising 506(b) (most common) you can't talk about it publicly
With 506(c) you can raise in public BUT you have to confirm investors are accredited by reviewing accreditation documents (w2s or letters from lawyer/accountant are most common)
506(c) usually costs more money because it takes way more time
and folks usually hire a service to verify accreditation
Only accept $ from those who truly understand the risk
meaning: accredited investors
if you take $50K from your family, what happens if you lose it? Will it ruin your relationship?
If you take money from a non-accredited investor:
This can mess up fundraising down the road
Basically,
Only take money from accredited investors
Don't talk about fundraising publicly!

Episode 10 -

91) Understand lean management (SOD/EOD)
I wrote a blog post in January 2019 titled:
The Start of Day / End of Day / End of Week reports are incredibly powerful
These are even MORE important when you're managing remote employees
Basically, at the start of the day my team at LAUNCH lists their top 3-5 goals for the day, that's their SOD
At the end of the day, they list what they got done
Then, at the end of the week, they list the 3-5 major things they completed this week
This should NOT take more than ~5 minutes at the start and end of your day
If employees argue you about doing this — that's a red flag
Another tip: Work on your hardest problem first
Don't leave the hardest stuff for the end of the day!
92) Hire people smarter than you
It's a privilege to be the dumbest / least experienced person in the room
You want to hire people that can do things you can't do
And do things you CAN do but better
93) Understand how to spend your capital efficiently
Your total spend should be broken down into different segments
Here is how great founders typically allocate their capital:
Salaries: 20%-50% of spend (depending on how high your margins are)
Office space: Under 10% of spend (especially in COVID)
This is especially crucial in the days of remote work, where you don't need expensive office space
The less you spend on office space, the more you can spend on talent
Marketing: 2-5% of spend
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold): 20-60% of spend (depending on your business)
COGS is the cost of delivering the product to the customer
hardware has high COGS: cost of components/manufacturing, packaging, shipping, warehousing, import/export, personnel costs for sales, implementation, and customer service
software typically has low COGS: hosting, servers, personnel costs for sales and customer service
Other spend:
Professional fees (legal and accounting)
R&D
Travel and meals
Equipment (hardware, desks)
Subscriptions (software)
Taxes and licenses
94) Know the value of "little big things"
Little big things are seemingly small UI or UX features that make a huge difference for users
This was made popular by the blog
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky absolutely understands little big things
A few weeks ago, Airbnb announced they would be adding Wifi verification to host profiles!
Basically, you can now test and verify the internet speed of an airbnb location before booking it!
airbnb_wifi_169.mp4
2.9 MB
This is such a small detail, but will make a huge difference for so many people!
Especially considering that in Q3, about 20% of bookings were long-term stays, and remote workers need good internet!
95) Be able to do back of the envelope math
If a founders gives me numbers that are ridiculously stupid...
I assume there is something wrong with how they are thinking about the business
Party trick for understanding a quick runway calculation:
I ask:
How much revenue per month
How many full-time employees
How much have you raised so far
Then, I calculate their
Always know your two week payroll cost AND your last three months of revenue offhand
It raises credibility!
Also remember the rule of 72
96) Read the "Mount Rushmore of Management Books"
We already talked about "The Lean Startup" in bullet point #70
You should also read these three books, which round out the Mount Rushmore of Management Books:
Checklist Manifesto
By Atul Gawande
Why?
The value of checklists
Pilots used to crash planes, surgeons used to mess up surgeries, until they implemented checklists
Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
By Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
Why?
Written culture, single-threaded leaders, managing inputs
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
By Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings
Why?
Freedom and responsibility
97) Go through your entire product workflow every week
I had Des Traynor on episode 543 back in 2015
On that episode, he said all founders should go through their entire product workflow at least 1x per week
This means:
sign up as a new user
go through the on-boarding process
understand what it looks and feels like to sign up and start using your product
Things to focus on:
How can you make it easier: less clicks, less time, less friction
98) Avoid "shiny object syndrome"
You don't need to change your business to web3 because it's popular on Twitter
You don't need to enable NFTs or the blockchain (if you're not a crypto company)
AVOID Founder ADHD at all costs
If you find oil, KEEP DRILLING
Do not lose focus, lots of founders lose focus and the business suffers for it!
99) Align your team with monthly updates
Like an investor update, you should also be updating your team on how the business is going
And you should have team members contribute to this every month
This keeps everyone on the same page
And it forces different team members to take responsibility and deeply understand what they're working on
100) NEVER lie (In general, but ESPECIALLY when you're raising money)
This should be a no brainer, but it's so important
When you are fundraising, you are selling securities
so always being 100% truthful is important
If you lie, or misrepresent the truth, you are committing securities fraud
in this case, knowingly omitting information is also lying
Never, ever, ever lie (in general, but ESPECIALLY when you're raising money)

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