Startup Systems

systems that power startups

Necessary chaos embraces the uncertainty inherent to startups. Here are a few examples:

As growth accelerates and larger teams are needed, people stretch into new roles, teams scale and split, and new processes are formed.

After a promising call with a potential new customer, the product roadmap is re-prioritized to incorporate features that will... See more

Jean Hsu • Does Your Startup Feel Chaotic? Good.

Thumbnail of The Racecar Growth Framework—expanded and illustrated

Lenny Rachitsky • The Racecar Growth Framework—expanded and illustrated

Thumbnail of We Are Entering a Maker Renaissance

Dimitri Glazkov • We Are Entering a Maker Renaissance

Founders are striving to do something more innovative, uncertain, and psychologically demanding than most of us ever try to do—many with potentially large impacts on the world—and yet their distinct psychological needs have gone largely unstudied and unaddressed. And despite the many headlines signaling a “mental health crisis in startups,” with... See more

Gena Gorlin • The Psychological Needs of the Extremely Ambitious

Sometimes, it’s possible to reduce the bad parts. But that takes considerable focus, effort and commitment. It’s not free. You can’t expect them to go away on their own.
It might not seem like a feature to you, but the bad parts are often the flip side that allows the other part to exist.
And sometimes, the bad parts are built into the system

Product-market fit always starts with the customer. And Dan Olsen’s PMF framework starts from the bottom up.

Michael Houck • Resilient Founders Always Have A Move

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.

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

Certainty - Making your customers feel secure about the quality and longevity of your product reduces the fear of disappointment or the need to frequently replace the item.

Variety - Owning items that introduce a sense of novelty to a person's life satisfies their need for variety and can make them feel more excited.

Significance - Owning something... See more

Superhuman

On purchasing higher end products

The first thing to do when thinking about starting a project, before you invest in systems design, infrastructure or fancy tools, is to practice getting some customers. And the second thing to do is to find out what it’s like to delight or disappoint those customers.

Customer traction is just about the only thing all successful organizations have in... See more