Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
17% of employees who quit do it within the first month of a new role.
Why?
They were sold on something different than what they received once they got started.
Startups move fast and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but when this happens there’s a huge loss of trust. Employees may never take you at your word again fully.
The best you can do is to be... See more
Why?
They were sold on something different than what they received once they got started.
Startups move fast and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but when this happens there’s a huge loss of trust. Employees may never take you at your word again fully.
The best you can do is to be... See more
Michael Houck • What Do Top 1% Startup Employees Want?
Replacing bad systems with bad systems
seths.blog
The network effect is sticky and hard to overcome, and as we move the internet of things from our phones to just about everything we touch, it’s worth thinking about resilience, flexibility and the reason we need something in the first place.
Often, we end up compromising about our compromises, maximizing for the wrong outcomes and getting hooked on a new system that forgot what the original system was even for.
When a system is new, few are watching, so a handful of people with intent can design it and optimize it. As it gains in scale and impact, it calcifies at the same time that new tech arrives to codify the decisions that were made when the conditions were very different.
Another emotion I picked up in myself and in others is what feels like we’re floating in space a bit. Since the change is so fundamental and a lot of things aren’t figured out, it’s quite hard to navigate yourself within Buffer currently, since nothing feels “fixed” and ever changing these last few months.
I do get the sense that this is somewhat... See more
I do get the sense that this is somewhat... See more
How We're Working Without Managers at Buffer
The build is taxing. Empathy with yourself and others who are building alongside you is crucial.
A new business is complicated. It involves weaving together suppliers, partners, customers, processes, technology, leases, employees, logos, capital and more.
Along the way, it’s easy to get distracted, but focusing on the hard parts is a useful way to move forward.
Along the way, it’s easy to get distracted, but focusing on the hard parts is a useful way to move forward.
Customer traction is the hard part
- Level one: Nascent product-market fit. Likely a pre-seed or seed-stage company. The goal in this stage is to find three to five customers with a problem worth solving, engage with them, deliver a solution, and validate that solution. [examples: Vanta,
Lenny Rachitsky • A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital)
Pick a customer instead of an idea: “One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was that when you're starting a company, you often think you're picking an idea, but you're really picking a customer. It's actually pretty easy to change your idea, but it’s way harder to change the customer you're serving,” says Agrawal.
Superhuman
Customer math for a new business
How much does it cost to get a new customer?
How much do you make from every interaction with that customer?
How long does the customer stick around?
How many new customers will existing customers bring you over time?
How much does it cost to get a new customer?
How much do you make from every interaction with that customer?
How long does the customer stick around?
How many new customers will existing customers bring you over time?
Customer math for a new business
What sort of bicycle?
seths.blog
Little decisions compound and then anchor systems.
Our commitment to defending sunk costs keeps those systems long after they’re no longer serving a purpose.