You must decide whether “great UX and UI design" is core to your startup's identity and act consistently. It can be the most important thing or not important at all, but you have to pick.

Startups are a time-warp where days feel like weeks and months feel like weeks.

What would convert your “satisfied” customers into “fanatics?” That would advocate for you? Those are the ones creating word-of-mouth, those are the ones who won’t cancel even if something bad happens, those are the ones indicating you’re really doing something great. (1/3)

Building things is so much more fun than (1) finding people, (2) getting busy people to talk to you, (3) and tell the truth, (4) and then finding out they didn’t want what you built. That’s why you build into oblivion. And why it’s wrong, if this is supposed to be a company.

Your best marketing and selling will happen at the intersection of what’s natural and joyful for you, and where your customers already congregate and look for answers. If that intersection is empty, that might mean you’re not the right person to execute this strategy.

Koan #21 “I’m in stealth mode!” “Are other people are desperately trying to find out what you’re doing?” “No.” “Will it take a well-funded competitor more than 6 months to copy your idea, if they wished to?” “No.” And the student was enlightened.

Just published a new article! 👇🏾 Do less, to create the space to be great. Many thanks for spreading the love with ❤️ and 🔁!

One way for a product to be “viral” is to require that others use it, in order for it to have value. (Like collaboration tools.) Another is that users are highly motivated to share, like Wordle. The latter is of course difficult to create, but magical when it works.

If you could do anything, no strings attached, no human consequences, what would you change about our company? Freedom from consequence can lead to uncomfortable but transformative ideas that are worth considering. More:

Often you don’t know what you really want, until you get / don’t-get some stuff. But, you can’t know what it is beforehand. So, true though that is, you have to act as if it isn’t true. Just don’t be surprised if it happens, and don’t blame yourself.

If your product is 30% better, it’s not worth the effort, risk, time, retooling, to switch from an existing solution. Has to be 2x better at least. Shoot for 5x, so it’s a no brainer. Almost impossible… But then you win, and it was worth the effort.

“If a competent CEO got to run your life for a day, what is the first thing they would eliminate?” -- James Clear

If you don’t know what to do, explore and say yes. If you know what needs to be done (and maybe just don’t want to do it), execute and say no.

Broader (and more important!) marketing concepts like "positioning" and "brand" are very unlikely to be solved through A/B testing. There, you need a strategy, and then match that strategy, and of course evolve the strategy if it is found lacking. (1/2)

A study of over 2100 real-world A/B tests found a 40% false positive rate. The software said the tests were 'significant,' but they weren't. We never had a chance. Learn why, and how to avoid this issue:

The best business coaches are worth 100x what you paid them. The worst are worth paying 10x just to not listen to them. Advice on the Internet (like this) depends on wisdom and also applicability to your particular situation. It’s up to you to figure this out.

Any one customer is not a representative of your entire customer base. So if you’re acting based on feedback from a single person, you’re flailing in the wind.

I don't know any content creators who work only 20 hours a week and are successful, in the sense of bringing in meaningful money or influence. Everything is hard.

“Act as if you’re in total control of your destiny.” So the advice goes, after acknowledging how much of life is due to luck. I disagree. You need to pick strategies that work well specifically under conditions of both good and bad luck. Here’s a bunch of them, with examples:

Once an incumbent builds a multi-100,000,000 business, the model cannot be changed. So, if a startup is “50% of the features, but 1/10th the price,” the incumbent can never match price. More techniques for David to beat Goliath:

“I don’t want to. I’d rather write more code.” I know. But do you want a company that pays you $20k/mo or do you want a GitHub repo that no one looks at but you? “But it’s hard.” No shit. “But it’s not as fun.” It gets fun when it’s working. STFU and get to work.

Actual contradictions indicate the strategy is wrong; fix your decisions. Apparent contradictions can be resolved with additional insights, often leading to a unique and excellent strategy. This is how you notice that, and resolve it:

Edison didn’t interview customers before inventing the lightbulb. Maybe some things are obvious. Then again, how many inventors of that time also didn't ask customers, and invented something no one wanted? Answer: Almost all of them. So…

If your savings are going down every month, you're not profitable. If you couldn’t afford to replace yourself with someone else, you’re not p profitable. But that doesn't mean you're failing - it's just part of the process.

Koan #25 “My mother was a neat-freak, so I became a neat-freak.” “My mother was a slob, so I rebelled and became a neat-freak.” “I never knew my mother, so I took control of my life by becoming a neat-freak.” And the student was enlightened.

Koan #93 “90% of new tech companies fail in the first 24 months.” “So, how will you be different?” “I can’t sum it up in one phrase. It’s just better. Customers will spread the word.” “Ahh, just like everyone else.” And the student was enlightened.

When you say “we learned from failure,” it’s hard to know what actually caused the failure, and what just “also happened.” Same with success. Success BECAUSE of, or success IN SPITE of? If you can figure it out, that’s gold. If you’re not sure, you’re not really learning.

The US has 200,000 mid-sized companies (annual revenues $10M-$1B) and 5,300 large (>$1B revenue). So you might think it makes sense to target mid (big N) but not large (small N and difficult). That might still be wrong though:

Koan #29 “What’s the lifestyle of a bootstrapper?” “Working 80 hrs/week; tired but truly living.” “A VC-funded founder?” “Optimistically changing the world.” “A solo CPA?” “Good money, fun on weekends.” “So, which one is a ‘lifestyle business?’” And the student was enlightened.

The Mayans' model of the universe was laughably wrong, yet they predicted eclipses with impressive accuracy. A striking example that a model can be completely wrong about 'why' yet still yield accurate predictions. What about the models we use in business?

It's difficult to be simple, in writing or speaking, even after thinking hard and iterating. Is it muddled thinking? Or a lack of decision-making. Saying what's important means deciding against so much more. Which is yet another reason why it’s useful to do it.

What is a brand, if not a consistent repetition of a specific message? Or culture, if not repetition of specific values? Yes, repeat yourself beyond reason.

When I was in high school, it was 100% clear that my career would be in writing code, 70% clear that I would start a company someday (hate authority, hate being told what to do), and 0% clear what topics/markets I would end up choosing. What are your 100/70/0 things?

“𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵” 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁. If you agree, you have part of what it takes to be successful. But when you aim that obsessive gun at 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, you don’t have enough time and attention for the most important things. How I navigate:

Rewriting something in your own words is more valuable than it sounds. You internalize it. You tweak its meaning to match your philosophy and experience. You put your own style on it. You repeat a good idea, which it deserves. Lesson for social media and newsletters.

What if you stop now, but you were just on the edge of a breakthrough? What if you keep going and never get anywhere, but had you stopped, you would have found a breakthrough? Both will always be true. (1/2)

“Dude, you’re weird.” Good. Not-weird is boring.

Ironically we undervalue our greatest superpowers exactly because they come so easily to us. So we don’t think it’s impressive, special, or interesting. But it is the fact that it’s so easy for us that makes them superpowers.

“Launching” is over-rated. Most of the time it's a flop; a huge waste of time, and hurts morale. Even in the best case, you still have to earn customers systematically for the next 3 years. Just work on THAT.

What story is your price telling? Telling your customers they’re getting a steal? Reassuring them they're investing in quality? Accessible? Trusted? Scaled? Personal? Pricing is positioning:

The dream for many consulting companies is to build up a stable profit and then build a product. Almost none accomplish either. These are some of the reasons, and some things to do about it:

Speed is one of the few advantages startups have. So use it. Most things only have to be "good enough;" speed solves for that. For the things that are wrong, "speed" causes you to find that out sooner, and fix it sooner.

Some claim larger companies have lower risk-tolerance because they lost the ability to take bets. But also, now they actually have something to lose. Also, the "success" case has to be larger. This is due to competence, not incompetence.

If all the decisions before you are bad, one path is to pick the least-bad. Some say forms-of-government are like that. Ideally, though, you see this as a signal to "create more ideas" rather than settle on a bad one

Your business will be sustainable or not based on its long-term strategy. You will make a sale tomorrow or not based on what you can accomplish today. How to do path for both:

Koan #18 Edison failed to find the right filament. Jordan failed to sink the game-winning shot. Dr Seuss failed to get published. Einstein failed to get a professorship. Lincoln failed 8 elections. Van Gogh failed to sell more than 1 painting. And the student was enlightened.

Koan #18 Edison failed to find the right filament. Jordan failed to sink the game-winning shot. Dr Seuss failed to get published. Einstein failed to get a professorship. Lincoln failed 8 elections. Van Gogh failed to sell more than 1 painting. And the student was enlightened.

“We have no competition.” Always a huge red flag. If they mean it, it’s oblivious ignorance or a failed attempt at declaring how “differentiated” they are. Or they think they’re getting away with a lie. Usually it’s the failed attempt. Don’t be that person.

Koan #68 “Our product is better than Z!” “But is it great?” “Our customers say it’s better than Z.” “But is it great?” “We have positive reviews on a website.” “To which strangers have you delegated the judgement of whether it is great?” And the student was enlightened.

When A/B tests are inconclusive, we like to let them run for longer “just in case.” No, you’re wasting time. If the difference was big enough to matter to your business, you’d know already. The math: