Texts with Founders: Christmas List
Ideas learned this year from other founders.
Welcome to the 27th weekly post from Texts with Founders — tested tactics for early-stage startups.
If you're exploring starting a company, apply for ODF20, which kicks off on 1/26. We've helped over 1,000 companies get started and raise over $2B. Learn more at beondeck.com.
Today’s post is short — some ideas I’ve learned from working with other founders in 2023. Hopefully they will help you in the year ahead. Merry Christmas!
Customer support is often underrated as a key competitive advantage.
You have more agency than you believe in most scenarios.
We lionize outsiders disrupting industries. Subject matter experts are less popular, but if resourceful and resilient, they can become top 1% founders.
Many top founders can quickly pivot their businesses to breakeven if necessary.
The more ambitious the startup, the greater the magnet it is for capital and talent.
Many founders believe their business is mostly execution risk when it’s often market risk.
The main reason top young employees leave is that the company doesn’t accommodate their slope and potential.
If an incredible founder can’t recruit a dream hire because they want to start a company, both you and that founder should invest immediately.
All else being equal, startups that raised at reasonable valuations across multiple rounds are doing better a few years in than those that maximized valuation.
You must live with your decisions' outcomes—your friends and advisers won’t.
Every time you face a tough decision and get too in-the-weeds, step back and go for a run or lift weights. Like magic, the fog will clear.
It’s easy to spread yourself too thin—with your product, your business, your life. Choose wisely and go all-in.
The longer you confine tough conversations to text before escalating to a phone call, the harder things will become.
When trusted people encourage you to walk through a one-way door, ensure their advice is informed by enough data and context.
If you persist—and aren’t hemorrhaging money—you can break through. If you are hemorrhaging money, that’s your primary problem to solve.
That’s all for this week — thanks for reading.
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- Julian
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Recent Posts:
Let the waitlist wait - Focus on “center of the bullseye” customers.
When and How to Engage Follow-on Investors - Timing matters. So does narrative and what you disclose.
Reference Checking Investors - Learn about other founder's experiences before committing to a fund
VCs that Ghost - Dealing with investors that drag out the process
Intros and Forwardable Emails - Make it easy for connectors to facilitate introductions
Browse the full archive.
“I met so many fascinating people in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey, some still full-time employed, some secretly working on their next thing, some exploring new ideas, and some already with shipped products and revenue.”
Jacob Rice (ODF19) is a former senior software engineer at Airbnb and participated in our latest cohort. ODF20 kicks off 1/26 — learn more and apply at beondeck.com.
Hey, could you ellaborate point 8, couldn't figure it