BC STARTUP

Saved by @AnmolNarula11

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji 4 years, 9 months ago 713 views

Save to PDF Share See On Twitter

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…

More from Jesse Pujji

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

The question I get most often in my DMs is: "Will you invest in my company?"

But a close #2 is for book recommendations...

Here are 11 of my favorite business books, each one is worth reading twice👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

This book changed my life.

2/ Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

A must read for anyone who's job depends on persuasion. That's everyone BTW.

3/ Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

@jesslivingston wrote this book and founded Y Combinator. It's a case study in high growth startups.

4/ The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

One of my favorite memoirs, documenting a startup rollercoaster from beginning to end.

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

Advertisement

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 $.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

1 Year Ago Today, I co-founded a business. Totally bootstrapped.

Today, it’s doing >$3 MILLION in ARR growing 20% per month.

Here’s the story...

I keep a long list of biz ideas that I've come up with over the years

Last Jan, I decided to stop trying to find the “perfect” biz

Instead, I’ll start a few!

If there is a big mkt, a clear value prop, I can build the right team and I have an “unfair advantage” I will start it

Worst case, I shut it down.

But I wanted more shots on goal...

So here’s the story: I’ve invested in 10+ DTC brands. I meet with their marketing teams regularly.

I am consistently surprised by how UNproductive the “in-house” teams are. What they get done in a quarter takes an @ampush team <1 month.

I started to ask why…

It turns out in-house marketing teams don’t typically leverage “off-shore” talent.

Both McKinsey and Goldman had huge teams overseas to do all the “rote” work of consulting/finance.

Formatting slides, reporting data, reach outs, simple research, etc.

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.

More from Startup

Lenny Rachitsky
@lennysan

The clearest sign of finding product-market fit is feeling "pull" from the market.

But what does "pull" look like?

👇 Read on 👇

1/ Sign 1: A sudden inflection in organic growth

Netflix: "Where before we were struggling to get traffic, all of sudden we couldn’t keep up." - @mbrandolph

Tinder: "Downloads started to skyrocket" – @badeen

Uber: "Word of mouth was uncontrollable" – @ryangraves

2/ Sign 2: Customers ask to pay for the product before you ask

Carta: "I've been trying to get to your sales people for weeks!!! Why won't you take my money???" – @henrysward

Github: "To our surprise, users started writing to us asking ‘Can we pay for this??’" – @mojombo

3/ Sign 3: Users flip from excited to upset

Datadog: "When we hit early product-market fit, our users switched from being excited at all the things our product could be to them to being upset about all the things it didn't do yet." – @oliveur

3b/ Segment: "The thing that flipped was, people would previously tell us they wanted a feature, but not use it. Whereas now, people were using it and they would want a second feature." – @reinpk

GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

Anyone else love a useful how-to?

I put together a mega-thread of mega-valuable how-tos that can transform your startup, career or life

All you have to do is read these 10 how-tos:

How to write a cold email:

- Be short
- Humanize it. Record a 60s selfie video
- Write a cold DM instead of a cold email if possible
- Never follow up by saying “just following up”

How to write copy that isn’t boring (and that sells):

- Don’t write copy, write stories
- Can be long or short, but must take you for a ride
- Focus entire story on the problem the customer has
- Share credibility
- Use inviting, warm words
- Create a clear call-to-action

How to come up with compelling startup ideas:

- Framework #1: X for Y (Robinhood for Canada)
- Framework #2: Anti-incumbent (Anti-Spotify, Anti-Amazon)
- Framework #3: Unbundling of X (Reddit, Facebook etc)
- Framework #4: Ask your community, they’ll tell you

How to sell a company:

- Spend 5% of your energy building allies at incumbents
- Get them excited about what you’re doing
- Make them feel invested and jealous
- Get them to ask if you’d be open to selling
- Profit $$

I've seen this strategy work for $10k-10B size deals

Advertisement

$Joe Speiser \u26a1\ufe0f$

Joe Speiser ⚡️...
@jspeiser

I've launched over 10 startups in the past 10 years.

Here's how to get your startup off the ground in 15 days

It will be intense, but doable.

Let me show you exactly how 🧵

We will cover:

Part 1. How to Launch an awesome website (10 Hours)
Part 2. How to build your MVP (5 Hours x 7 Days)
Part 3. How to get your first 100 customers (5 Hours x 7 Days)

Part 4. How to manage and organize your operation (5 Hours)

Total Time - 80 Hours

Part 1. How to Launch an awesome website in 10 Hours

1. https://t.co/qzi3JRPWzg
- Buy a domain in 5 minutes
- Get a professional emails like [email protected]

Time - 15 minutes

2. https://t.co/EsAldktfff

- Get logo inspiration from https://t.co/Mpedds2OzF
- Design Slick Brand Logos on Figma

Time - 45 minutes

3. https://t.co/nWr3RlzSNf

- Pick a matching template from their 500+ template gallery (it's like having someone do the work for you)

- edit the headline, the features, and add stock photos from the internet

- Keep it simple

Time - 2 hours

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.

Kennedy Muteti
@kennymuteti

@realjondavids @jayvasdigital @awilkinson Please do! Would love to listen to this.

You May Also Like

$Tej Dosa \U0001f602\U0001f9e0$

Tej Dosa 😂🧠...
@ComedicBizman

(A THREAD)

18 Things I Would Do At 18:

I was a dumb 18-year-old. I thought I had the world figured out. I didn't.

I stayed up till the wee hours. Drank every liquor invented.

Partied non-stop. Woke up after noon.

Surfed the web aimlessly.

Read BS self-help.

Repeat.

If I could do it all over again, here's 18 things I would do...

PHASE ONE: GET MY MIND RIGHT

ACTION #1: Break the chains - I wish I made the decision earlier. I didn't. I was scared. Anxious. Nervous. I knew once I made the decision, there was no going back.

Don't be like me.

Make the decision at 18. The decision to pave your own path in life. To go against the herd. To choose your own adventure. To commit to whatever sets your heart on fire.

ACTION #2: Cut off every negative person in your life.

Scroll through the contacts in your phone...

Notice how the names make you feel.

Delete any and all names that fill you with doubt and negativity.

ACTION #3: Condition your mind to embrace the producer mindset instead of the consumer mindset.

Consume 20% of the time. Produce 80% of the time.

Case closed.

ACTION #4: Set an intention to make $10k a month and write it out every MORNING and NIGHT as if you already achieved it (in the past tense).

Visualize yourself already having the money as you write.

Cheesy?

Yes.

Does it work?

Yes.

PHASE TWO: EDUCATION

Elizabeth May
@_ElizabethMay

This is NONSENSE. The people who take photos with their books on instagram are known to be voracious readers who graciously take time to review books and recommend them to their followers. Part of their medium is to take elaborate, beautiful photos of books. Die mad, Guardian.

Beautifully read: why bookselfies are all over Instagram https://t.co/pBQA3JY0xm
— Guardian Books (@GuardianBooks) October 30, 2018

THEY DO READ THEM, YOU JUDGY, RACOON-PICKED TRASH BIN

If you come for Bookstagram, i will fight you.

In appreciation, here are some of my favourite bookstagrams of my books: (photos by lit_nerd37, mybookacademy, bookswrotemystory, and scorpio_books)

Advertisement

STEALTH JEFF
@drawandstrike

So it's now October 10, 2018 and....Rod Rosenstein is STILL not fired.

He's STILL in charge of the Mueller investigation.

He's STILL refusing to hand over the McCabe memos.

He's STILL holding up the declassification of the #SpyGate documents & their release to the public.

I love a good cover story.......

The guy had a face-to-face with El Grande Trumpo himself on Air Force One just 2 days ago. Inside just about the most secure SCIF in the world.

And Trump came out of AF1 and gave ol' Rod a big thumbs up!

And so we're right back to 'that dirty rat Rosenstein!' 2 days later.

At this point it's clear some members of Congress are either in on this and helping the cover story or they haven't got a clue and are out in the cold.

Note the conflicting stories about 'Rosenstein cancelled meeting with Congress on Oct 11!"

First, rumors surfaced of a scheduled meeting on Oct. 11 between Rosenstein & members of Congress, and Rosenstein just cancelled it.

Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep. Matt Gaetz say DAG Rod Rosenstein cancelled an Oct. 11 appearance before the judiciary and oversight committees. They are now calling for a subpoena. pic.twitter.com/TknVHKjXtd
— Ivan Pentchoukov \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8 (@IvanPentchoukov) October 10, 2018

Stephen Bush
@stephenkb

Some quick thoughts on Sam Gyimah's resignation after conversations with various Conservative MPs: 1) the chances of a second referendum are a lot higher than I thought:

2) At this point, if you are a young and ambitious Tory MP it is now so overwhelmingly in your interest to vote against the withdrawal agreement. V v hard to see how Julian Smith can cap rebellion at under 100:

3) Really just to reiterate 1) Gyimah is the kind of "No, never gonna rebel" vaguely pro-EU Tory you'd need to get on side to outweigh Labour Leavers and Real Concerners.

$Andrey \uf8ff Azimov$

Andrey  Azimov
@AndreyAzimov

The best way to know if people like your product is NOT:

- Have a lot of emails in the waiting list
- Become #1 on PH
- Become #1 of HN or Reddit
- Have people that saing "I'll pay"
- Have a lot of free users

The best way to know if they're actually pay for it.

The only thing that matters is your product providing a value, and you can't know this until people will pay money for it.

We can have a first signal of a product/market fit after the launch by check how many sales we've got in the first 24h. Some scale:

200+ This has a high potential.
100+: This has a potential.
50+: Some people need it.
10+: People almost don't need it.
0+: People don't need it.

This is for a single time payment product. For a subscription probably it should be less because people hate subscription.

And obviously, you should have a lot of traffic like 3-5k+.

Here is a stat for my products (macOS apps) for the first 24h after the launch: