Startup Systems

There are two types of founders.

Those who do lots of research, validate ideas, test many prototypes, and iteratively get to a product. This is a more technical and user-focused approach.

The other is where the product vision emerges fully-formed in the founder’s eye before it is brought to existence. Here, the founder zeroes in on their self... See more

If you’ve ever worked at a fast-growing startup, you’re probably familiar with the concept of “technical debt.” Code is scrappily thrown together so that the product can function. It’s done with the understanding that this debt will accumulate and eventually cause things to break if not addressed down the line.

Something similar can also happen... See more

A startup’s biggest competition isn’t an established player, it’s inertia.

Unnecessary versus necessary chaos

In my 13 years working at startups, I’ve witnessed many examples of unnecessary chaos—here are a few.

A major release has been planned for months, but launch communications—new positioning, website copy, customer email, blog post—are reviewed at the last minute.

A manager reschedules 1:1s every week because of... See more

The median bootstrapped B2B SaaS company currently spends around 90% of its annual recurring revenue on costs—25% on go-to-market strategy and execution, 24% on research and development, 15% on administrative and miscellaneous expenses, 13% on website hosting and implementation, and 10% on customer retention. Each of these categories of cost is now... See more