Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
The thing about smart people is that they tend to think that if they think really hard about something, they might figure it out, when the truth is, in strategy (and life in general), there is never one right answer.... See more
Strategy requires making choices about a future that is not yet known. I’m one of those people that tends to over-intellectualize
Sari Azout • Both are true
If you allow your ICP to fray, you’ll lose
From the beginning, we knew we needed to define a good ideal customer profile (ICP). There are manyapproaches to defining a good ICP, but a quality we underestimated is specificity . Simply put, an ICP must be a single market segment :a group of people for whom the value of solving a problem is roughly the... See more
From the beginning, we knew we needed to define a good ideal customer profile (ICP). There are manyapproaches to defining a good ICP, but a quality we underestimated is specificity . Simply put, an ICP must be a single market segment :a group of people for whom the value of solving a problem is roughly the... See more
Lenny Rachitsky • Lessons learned from a startup that didn’t make it
...in order to understand how to get a yes, we first need to grasp why people typically say no.
The main reason says Kao, is that people don't see how the idea you're proposing is beneficial to them. She's right.
At least on some level, we're all selfish.
The solution is to present your request in a way that shows the benefit the other party will
Because big businesses aren’t built on gimmicks. You can blitz your way through Sand Hill Road and spike up the App Store charts on gimmicks, but you can’t actually use them to replace Gmail, or Salesforce, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram. Even seemingly instant successes can’t become lasting companies without putting in the... See more
Benn Stancil • Why Are We Surprised That Startups Are So Freaking Hard?
According to self-determination theory, humans have three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. One reason why nudges toward change often backfire is that they can feel like a violation of autonomy, leading someone to do the opposite as a way to regain a sense of freedom.
As a result, well-intended feedback can actually reinforce the... See more
As a result, well-intended feedback can actually reinforce the... See more
Casey Rosengren • The Art of Subtle Influence
Take, for example, the ambition to “make your venture-backed startup profitable”: to develop, market, and distribute a product or service that’s never existed before, in a form that’s valuable and accessible enough for large numbers of people to want to pay you for it, in sufficient quantity that your revenue consistently exceeds your costs.
If... See more
If... See more
Gena Gorlin • The Psychological Needs of the Extremely Ambitious
The most exciting thing about professional project management is that it trades away excitement for systems thinking and intentional action. We make heroes out of people who show up with the last-minute save, but the real work is in not needing the last minute.
And it’s helpful to realize that it’s a skill, a choice, a set of tools to be learned,... See more
And it’s helpful to realize that it’s a skill, a choice, a set of tools to be learned,... See more
Project management
First-principles thinking, or thinking from first principles, sounds a lot more complicated than it is. It’s simply a technique for approaching problems with a beginner’s mind. Instead of working within assumptions and what people around you “know” to be true, you do the hard work of figuring out what’s actually true and, thus, what’s truly... See more
