BC STARTUP

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Jesse Pujji
@jspujji 4 years, 6 months ago 674 views

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Starting a company is hard.

The hardest part: the euphoric ups followed by the VICIOUS downs

I wasn’t satisfied that this was “the way it had to be”

I started digging. Worked with a coach. Read books

Here’s the #1 I learned to fight the ups and downs

I do it daily 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ First, let’s back up.

One thing entrepreneurs all have in common is that we are HUMAN.

Newsflash: Humans weren’t designed to be happy. We were designed for one thing: survival.

Now if you were designing an animal to survive, what are some things you may give it?

2/ How about an alert system?

Something to let them know they should be careful or stop doing something: EMOTIONS

Fear - what wants to be paid attention to?
Anger - what wants to be stopped?
Sadness - what wants to be let go?
Joy - what Wants to be celebrated?

What else?

3/ You’d want this animal to be able to use these emotions and quickly spot threats.

In fact, humans are built to walk into a room and first pay attention to anything that could harm them!

But these days, we don’t often experience threats aren’t to our physical survival…

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Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Everyone has ONLY one problem.

And it's the SAME problem.

It's called: The Upper Limit Problem.

Here is everything you need to understand and solve it 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

Each person has an "inner thermostat" of success/happiness that was set for us as children.

When we exceed our "setting," we unconsciously sabotage ourselves to come back into the familiar/comfortable "temperature."

The classic example: a lotto winner.

It's a proven fact that most lotto winners, regardless of the size of the prize, report similar or LOWER happiness 5-10 years post win.

So much "success" in one area overwhelms their neurosis and they "bring themselves down" in other areas

There are plenty of other examples too

The rock star who develops a drug problem.

The entrepreneur who makes it big and then loses it all.

The sports star who gets a huge injury.

Often times, success in one area leads you to "lower temperature" in another area.

Big financial win, you fight with your spouse.

Got married, your startup fails.

Book published, you broke your leg.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

I've heard Google Cloud or AWS will provide up to $100K in credits for new products/startups.

Anyone know about/done this? Where can I learn more?

Cc @AWSstartups @googlecloud

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Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Startups are hard!

One of the hardest parts is managing your team.

How much guidance do you give? Do you do it yourself? When to track others to-dos?

Starting out, I wish I had a cheat sheet for management.

So I wrote one.

23 Hard Won Lessons In Startup Management 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ Feedback is a gift.

Don't just give it frequently but seek it all the time, in multiple different ways.

Create a culture where feedback is viewed as a gift and given frequently.

2/ Almost without fail, if at any point you think in your head, "this person is not good, we should let them go," then you are probably right.

Try to do it as soon as possible but compassionately.

3/ Leading and managing people well is NOT an innate talent.

Get a coach and a mentor and learn as much as you can.

You will improve continually over time.

4/ Bring on an "HR" person earlier than you think you should.

Let's face it - most folks want to complain/vent to someone.

Without an HR person, you are that person.

As a founder, you take this complaining too personally and too seriously.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

In February, I launched my first DTC brand.

I put my name, $, and reputation on the line.

It was an utter failure.

Here is the story and what I learned 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ After ~10 years of running Ampush as CEO, I stepped into the chairman seat.

Ampush had helped countless brands build and scale customer acquisition including: Dollar Shave Club, Birchbox, Stitch Fix, and many others.

I had the obvious idea: why don’t I start a brand?

2/ I was eager to get back to “early days entrepreneurship.”

I spent 2020 both decompressing and anxiously thinking "what's next"

Investing? Another company? Something else?

I love the process of building businesses so I went for my dream: A venture studio.

But now what?

3/ After going in circles towards the end of 2020, the new year started.

I realized: I have to stop thinking.

I have to start DOING.

I’d build the venture studio from the ground up. So now, I needed an idea.

4/ I have seen so many brands grow from obscurity into huge success.

What I wanted to learn:

- How cheap/fast can I stand up a store
- What does it take to get a supplier?
- How do 3PLs work?
- Will my expertise in growth help me win?

I brainstormed ideas with my wife…

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Facebook & Instagram are NOT listening to your conversations.

What they are doing is MUCH more effective!

Here’s how it works👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ The two most valuable pieces of software on earth are:

1. The FB pixel
2. The FB newsfeed

When you wonder how $FB is worth > $400BN while Twitter is < $30BN, these two pieces of software are your answer.

What are they?

2/ The FB pixel is a tiny piece of code that nearly every website/mobile app on the planet has embedded.

It collects anonymized data for FB to aggregate: websites visited, how much time was spent, did you buy or not, etc.

3/ The newsfeed algo looks at that as a signal along with hundreds of other data points like age, friends, what you click on, and even where you post to determine which ad to place in front of you, when.

All of this is done in aggregated groups.

Not personal/specific to you.

4/ When it works: right message in front of right person at right time….everyone wins.

A brand finds a new customer.

You find a product you want.

FB makes $.

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Rob Chauncey
@BertoChauncey

I worked at a very hip startup that was once on the move but then had crested and was on the slight decline.
1/

I was running a team of people who did video conferencing. They were really good at it, and I didn't know anything about the technology. One of the tricks I sometimes use in management is to shut up when I don't know anything.
2/

it was IT in a different gear than I'd seen before
e.g. your wiring had to be perfect, there would be decisions by people that required insane costs &
white gloves
3/

a day or two after they announce earnings, they want to do an All Hands where the CEO, CFO and various bigwigs claim credit for the smart work of their teams.
4/

This team runs that conference setup. It's a big deal and a lot of work, and this was the first one I'd run by myself. None of the old leaders
5/

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198 engineering seats were available for every 1 lakh people in India. Of all states, Tamil Nadu has the highest per capita seats with 705 for 1 Lakh Tamil Nadu citizens.

However, based on the Employability Test report by SHL, it seems that the states with the highest per capita seats also produce the most unemployable engineers (software engineers shown in this map)

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Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33

Last week, I wrote a thread about generating momentum for startups.

Today's thread is on how emerging fund managers can generate momentum for their fund.

Whatever you do, momentum is so impt to get ppl onboard -- for hiring, for sales, for fundraising.

Read on >>

1) First, why does momentum matter?

Think about it from the "buyer's perspective" -- it is almost ALWAYS better to wait and get more information if you can get the same deal. Right?

More info on a potential investment. More info on a new product. Etc.

2) There are few situations where it's impt to be a first mover.

If you're a product buyer, it could be you have a dire situation at your company that alternatives can't handle.

But if you have a decent alternative (alternative product or alt investment), it's better to wait.

3) That means it's YOUR JOB to create momentum. Whether for fundraising, sales, or hiring.

So with that in mind, how do you generate momentum for fund fundraising?

4) In a prior tweet about generating momentum for startup fundraising, essentially I said to limit your supply (the amnt you are raising) in tranches AND to increase demand by packing in mtgs.

Unfort this doesn't quite work well for funds.

Barrett O'Neill
@barrettjoneill

We've been told having a job is safer than entrepreneurship.

But that's a lie.

10 reasons to bet on yourself:

More value capture:

As an employee or an owner, income is a function of value creation.

The only difference?

Some (or most) of an employee's value flows upstream to ownership.

Owners capture ALL of the value they create, and even more from their team's output.

Income diversification:

Entrepreneurs spread income across several accounts/business units, acting as insurance against total income loss.

Employees have a single income source AND are exposed to factors out of their control:

- economy
- corporate pivots
- budgets

Low downside:

In the past you needed an investment or debt to start a business.

In 2022 you need an internet connection, creativity, and consistent effort.

EX: you can start a 7-figure agency business (65%+ margins) for a few hundred dollars per month in software fees.

Time freedom:

Successful entrepreneurs use leverage (labor, capital, technology, audience) to disassociate their time with income.

Employees are required to be present in-person or on calls/video, making it hard to use leverage to get more done with less time.

Olabinjo
@binjoadeniran

People who want to switch on growth for their startups or marketing professionals ask me what to read to get their thinking up. Here's a thread of some books and blogs I read

When you read these, it's important to focus on the principles and not the exact strategy. Copying and pasting what someone else has done is not a guarantee that it'll work

Books:

1. Nir Eyal - Hooked: How to build habit-forming products.

Nir writes about the psychology of human behaviour with digital and physical products and shares real-life examples of how you can engage, nudge and encourage your customers to keep using your product

2. Ryan Holiday - Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising

Ryan writes how boring simple advertising is and what growth hackers need to do/take advantage of to be truly unique and to switch things up

3. Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares - Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers.

Gabriel and Justin focus on channels you can lever to acquire and retain customers. This book is a guide if you have no clue how to approach customer acquisition. It's an inexhaustive list tbh

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[THREAD: HISTORY OF THE HINDU TEMPLE]
1/102
Four hours south of Aswan in Lower Nubia, right by the Nile, is a region dotted with temple complexes built more than 3,000 years ago. Some like the temples of Amada, Derr, and Beit el-Wali go as far back as 1500 BC.

2/102
A little further south, not far from the border with Sudan, is another complex dedicated to Ramses II, Hathor, and Nefertari in the village of Ipsambul, better known locally as Abu Sunbul and internationally as Abu Simbel. These go back to the 13th century BC.

3/102
Djeser-Djeseru, also known as the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Upper Egypt also dates to 1400 BC. Over 500 years older is the nearby Mentuhotep II, also a mortuary temple. Both were dedicated to the cult of Amun Ra, besides their respective pharaohs.

4/102
Far older is the Ġgantija complex of Malta. Going as far back as 3600 BC, this one comprises of two temples entirely made of stone and enclosed in a stone wall. From the figures therein, it's understood to be a site of some kind of a fertility cult worship.

5/102
Dating from the same period are the limestone megaliths of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, both said to have once hosted ritualistic sacrifices as part of the same fertility cult worship as found in the Ġgantija complex. Malta has some of the oldest temple complexes in Europe.

Jijo Sunny
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1/ 👋 Excited to share what we’ve been building at https://t.co/GOQJ7LjQ2t + we are going to tweetstorm our progress every week!

Week 1 highlights: getting shortlisted for YC W2019🤞, acquiring a premium domain💰, meeting Substack's @hamishmckenzie and Stripe CEO @patrickc 🤩

2/ So what is Brew?

brew / bru : / to make (beer, coffee etc.) / verb: begin to develop 🌱

A place for you to enjoy premium content while supporting your favorite creators. Sort of like a ‘Consumer-facing Patreon’ cc @jackconte

(we’re still working on the pitch)

3/ So, why be so transparent? Two words: launch strategy.

jk 😅 a) I loooove doing something consistently for a long period of time b) limited downside and infinite upside (feedback, accountability, reach).
cc @altimor, @pmarca

4/ https://t.co/GOQJ7LjQ2t domain 🍻

It started with a cold email. Guess what? He was using BuyMeACoffee on his blog, and was excited to hear about what we're building next. Within 2w, we signed the deal at @Escrowcom's SF office. You’re a pleasure to work with @MichaelCyger!

5/ @ycombinator's invite for the in-person interview arrived that evening. Quite a day!

Thanks @patio11 for the thoughtful feedback on our YC application, and @gabhubert for your directions on positioning the product — set the tone for our pitch!

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Andrew Chen
@andrewchen

👇Thread.

Published a new essay: The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics – 80 slide deck included!

This was a deck that I created on my (longish) interview process with @a16z. It was a long path, starting with meeting folks at the firm 10 years ago. But the purpose of the deck was to explain how I would use my superpower in an investing context

Here's what I explain in the deck. As investors (whether angel or VC) we're often confronted with an up-and-to-the-right graph. Is it going to go up? Or down?

One solution to forecast these growth curves is the Growth Accounting Framework, where you add up New+Reactivated and subtract churned users. In each time period that gives you the difference in monthly actives.

The problem with this is that it's a lagging metric, not a leading one. We need to go one level deeper and look at the underlying loops that drive these numbers, to understand the quality.

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@HiteshAwasthi89

Varahi Amman, Madurai, Tamilnadu

Vaarahi is one of the Saivite Shakti deities with the group of goddesses known as SAPTAMATAS.
They are: Brahmi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Vaarahi, Mahendri and Chamundi. 1/n

They are the Shakti (female) equivalents of their male counterparts. Vaarahi is the Shakti of Bhairavar who is one of the Amsam of Bhairavar.Created from the boar avatara of Vishnu, Vaarahi is often associated with Goddess Kamala (one of the Mahavidyas). 2/n

She is also called Dandini (Lady Commander of the forces of the Mother-Goddess, symbolizing the might of SriVidya). As Vaarahi ("hog-faced" or "the great consumer") she destroys evil forces that obstructs the devotees' progress, paralyses the enemies 3/n

and led the devotees ultimately to SriVidyas. She is also called Panchami). With Kurukalla, she is accorded the parental status to Sri-Chakra (Lalita Tripura-Sundari). While Kurukalla represents the full moon, Vaarahi represents the new-moon. 4/4

Jai Maa Varahi 🙏

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