Startup Systems

systems that power startups

Maximum leverage is the result of commitment, of daily persistence, of gradual and insane and apparently useless effort over time.

The moment of maximum leverage

There isn’t nearly enough emphasis on repeatability . As you move your way up through the different levels of product-market fit, what you’re really unlocking is repeatability — across demand generation, product development, customer satisfaction and unit economics. A startup hasn’t reached the upper levels of product-market fit until it has... See more

The 4 Levels of PMF

Think about how different an accounting software for tattoo shops would look compared to Quickbooks.

Or how you could integrate pool-party motifs into a CRM for pool cleaners.

All of which would set your brand apart from the get-go and take you from being one of many to being the one and only.

B2B SaaS doesn’t have to be boring and you can create an... See more

Superhuman

The mistake is thinking your startup idea is venture-scale and getting on the VC treadmill. Once you’re on the treadmill, here’s what changes:

High growth expectations: VCs are looking for companies that grow big enough fast enough. If your business isn’t suited to this kind of rapid growth, it can lead to undue pressure and unrealistic

Lenny Rachitsky • Your startup idea probably isn’t venture-scale

Startups will have “we’re amazing” moments and they will also have “we’re crashing” moments. In order to weather those storms, you need high levels of trust.

Build Your Culture Like a Product — Lessons from Asana’s Head of People

But here’s the key for an early-stage startup: "As we’re building our plans, we only focus on those first three months, that first chapter. So we break that down into monthly high-level goals, and that's what I hold the team accountable for,” he says. In other words, don’t try to get detailed for longer than a few weeks out. "At a startup, it’s... See more

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice we Heard in 2023

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

Gena Gorlin • The Psychological Needs of the Extremely Ambitious

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

Will Manidis • Asset-light Software Businesses: The New Paradigm for Startups

On the evolving spend of startups

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.