Too many founders want to build "in stealth"—so they can do a grand reveal to the world.
Unfortunately, stealth =
• Slower
• Very expensive
• Harder to iterate
• More pressure to make it "perfect"
Building in public = speed & easier to iterate.
The first-time founder playbook 🧵:
Too many founders want to build "in stealth"—so they can do a grand reveal to the world.
Unfortunately, stealth =
• Slower
• Very expensive
• Harder to iterate
• More pressure to make it "perfect"
Building in public = speed & easier to iterate.
Don't ever think your startup will reach an end.
Don't strive for "done."
Even at 600,000 employees and $1.5 trillion in market cap, Amazon still operates as "it's always Day 1."
Greatness should be a forever journey, not a destination.
Before a customer can care about what you do, or what you've made, or what you sell...
THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.
You should be able to name & claim your category in 2-3 words.
And those 2-3 words should be the nucleus of everything you do.
Your first hire is the most important one you'll ever make.
Because that hire is what unlocks:
a) More of your time
b) The future culture of the team
Hire this first person slowly. Make sure it's right.
If it's not, get rid of them ASAP & try again.
There is an impulse when you're a first-time founder to measure success by how many people are on your team.
"We have 20 full-time employees!"
But this is a dangerous metric—and not one you should be proud of.
Your goal is to earn $$$ with less.
Big mistake founders make is trying to launch several products at once.
Don't.
You should be able to get 1 product to $1M in revenue. (Hell, some tech startups have 1 core product valued at billions of dollars.)
Stay focused.
Before you (ever) launch a 2nd product, you should first try to raise prices on your first product.
Chances are, you have no idea where the ceiling is.
And instead of scaling revenue with a 2nd product, it's easier to scale $$$ by increasing price 1st.
The best founders don't chase what's popular.
They build a solution to a problem they hate experiencing in their own lives.
This is called Living Your POV.
You need to be your product/service's biggest evangelist.
OOZE it.
https://t.co/Ax8Vw0r8RW
Nobody wants to hear "from the company" anymore.
People want to hear from the company's founder, CEO, or any of the leaders.
It's your responsibility to educate the world on the NEW & DIFFERENT you are trying to build.
https://t.co/T4CysXWjZV
Don't try to be everything for everyone.
• Pinpoint your Supers (the type of person who would be OBSESSED with this type of thing).
• Talk to them, ask them questions
• Ask for feedback
• Build for them
• Sending personalized video messages doesn't scale.
• Answering individual questions doesn't scale.
• Creating free resources for the top 1% of your users doesn't scale.
But for your Supers? It's worth it.
Your first goal should be to play every role inside your company.
(Inevitably, you will in the beginning).
Your second goal should be to then fire yourself from each job.
• Learn it
• Document it
• Train it
• Leave it
• Repeat
Entrepreneurship isn't really about "doing."
It's about having the discipline and awareness to know what NOT to do.
And focusing 100% of your effort on the 1 thing that matters at any given time.
This is your role as CEO.
Conventional startup wisdom says "the best product always wins."
As a result, founders get myopic about products and give too little attention to:
• Category Design
• Business Model
• Data Flywheel
• Superconsumers
https://t.co/4d8xsXZxAl
• People care about electric cars, not Tesla
• People care about plant-based burgers, not Beyond Meat
• People care about $0-commission stocks, not Robinhood
Market the category and customers will assume you're the leader.
Never, ever, compare yourself to another company/competitor.
This is a recipe for disaster.
Build your company as if you have no competition. Educate the world on your NEW & DIFFERENT. And market the category.
This is how Category Kings walk.
A lot of first-time founders think they need angels/VCs onboard.
The truth is, 90%+ of startups can bootstrap their way in the beginning and prove concept.
If you want money to scale, that's fine.
But make your first $1 on your own.
Silicon Valley loves to chant "Grow or die!"
But sometimes, it's much better to slow down, fix foundational problems, and set yourself up for more sustainable growth later.
Don't be afraid to take a breath along the way.
It's your company.
When in doubt, take the next step.
Even if it's wrong, you'll learn that it was wrong faster than if you just continued to sit there wondering.
Action, action, action.
Learn by doing, not by thinking.
Ideas are a dime a dozen.
Don't put yours on a pedestal, and don't get side-tracked by someone else's.
The only thing that matters is the outcome.
• What are you building?
• By when?
• What's the impact?
Ignore everything else—and START.
I love writing about Digital Writing, Category Design, and bootstrapping businesses.
If you enjoyed this thread, follow me @Nicolascole77 for more threads like this.
More from Nicolas Cole 🚢🏴☠️
I started writing threads on Twitter in 2019.
Since then, I've written more than 200 threads and accumulated over 50,000,000 views on Twitter alone.
Want to know a secret?
I (pretty much) use the same 7 thread templates every time.
🧵👇
Template #1: The Framework Thread
The best frameworks all follow this same recipe:
• To solve X [well-known & difficult] problem
• I do Y [unconventional] thing
• To achieve Z [highly desirable]
Template #2: The Curation Thread
Recipe: "I did all this work—so you don't have to."
But the secret w/ curation threads is to niche down HARD.
"Biz books to read on investing" > "Best biz books" > "Best
Template #3: The "This Just Happened" Thread
Breaking News always has a 24-48 hour hype cycle.
The recipe here is:
• Write about a trending topic
• Provide your own unique take
• Unique take must be relevant to your
Template #4: The "If I Had To Do It Over Again" Thread
Recipe =
• I achieved X
• And made a lot of mistakes along the way
• If I were you, and had to do it all over again, here's what I would do
Since then, I've written more than 200 threads and accumulated over 50,000,000 views on Twitter alone.
Want to know a secret?
I (pretty much) use the same 7 thread templates every time.
🧵👇
Template #1: The Framework Thread
The best frameworks all follow this same recipe:
• To solve X [well-known & difficult] problem
• I do Y [unconventional] thing
• To achieve Z [highly desirable]
In 2021, I published 4 books.
— Nicolas Cole \U0001f6a2 (@Nicolascole77) January 3, 2022
In 2022, I plan on publishing 8.
Here's the 5-step framework I use to write 60,000+ words in 30 hours or less (2,000 words per hour) \U0001f447
Template #2: The Curation Thread
Recipe: "I did all this work—so you don't have to."
But the secret w/ curation threads is to niche down HARD.
"Biz books to read on investing" > "Best biz books" > "Best
Over the past 10 years, I have read over 500 business books.
— Nicolas Cole \U0001f6a2 (@Nicolascole77) January 4, 2022
99% were 1 idea stretched across 300 pages.
They should have been blog posts.
Save yourself the time and just read these 10 \U0001f447
Template #3: The "This Just Happened" Thread
Breaking News always has a 24-48 hour hype cycle.
The recipe here is:
• Write about a trending topic
• Provide your own unique take
• Unique take must be relevant to your
Today, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
— Nicolas Cole \U0001f6a2 (@Nicolascole77) January 18, 2022
$68.7 billion. All cash.
But Activision has had a rough couple years.
\u2022 World of Warcraft dying
\u2022 Overwatch delayed
\u2022 Sexual harassment charges
Microsoft needs to fix these 3 things to be successful:
\U0001f9f5\U0001f447
Template #4: The "If I Had To Do It Over Again" Thread
Recipe =
• I achieved X
• And made a lot of mistakes along the way
• If I were you, and had to do it all over again, here's what I would do
I started writing online when I was 17 years old.
— Nicolas Cole \U0001f6a2 (@Nicolascole77) November 10, 2021
Since then, I've...
\u2022 Written 3,000+ articles online
\u2022 Ghostwritten 1,500+ articles online
\u2022 Published 5 books & 30 "mini-books"
\u2022 Built two 7-figure writing businesses
If I had to start from $0 again, here's what I'd do:
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I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹
I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):
The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹
Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹
References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):
The famous \u201cLucy\u201d, an early ancestor of modern humans (Australopithecus) that lived 3.2 million years ago, and was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, displayed in the national museum in Addis Ababa \U0001f1ea\U0001f1f9 pic.twitter.com/N3oWqk1SW2
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 9, 2018
The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹
Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹
References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
Next level tactic when closing a sale, candidate, or investment:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) February 27, 2018
Ask: \u201cWhat needs to be true for you to be all in?\u201d
You'll usually get an explicit answer that you might not get otherwise. It also holds them accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
I think a plausible explanation is that whatever Corbyn says or does, his critics will denounce - no matter how much hypocrisy it necessitates.
Corbyn opposes the exploitation of foreign sweatshop-workers - Labour MPs complain he's like Nigel
He speaks up in defence of migrants - Labour MPs whinge that he's not listening to the public's very real concerns about immigration:
He's wrong to prioritise Labour Party members over the public:
He's wrong to prioritise the public over Labour Party
One of the oddest features of the Labour tax row is how raising allowances, which the media allowed the LDs to describe as progressive (in spite of evidence to contrary) through the coalition years, is now seen by everyone as very right wing
— Tom Clark (@prospect_clark) November 2, 2018
Corbyn opposes the exploitation of foreign sweatshop-workers - Labour MPs complain he's like Nigel
He speaks up in defence of migrants - Labour MPs whinge that he's not listening to the public's very real concerns about immigration:
He's wrong to prioritise Labour Party members over the public:
He's wrong to prioritise the public over Labour Party
