Heuristics and Hunches

Topic	Replies	Views	Activity
About the Heuristics and Hunches category	0	334	February 18, 2021
“Design Partners are Just Early Customers” and Other Notes on Structuring Early-Stage Research with Spellbound’s Founder, Akshaya Dinesh segments , pmf , customer-research , design-partners	1	75	March 21, 2023
“In B2B, Don’t Just Know Your TAM, Ask How Many Users Will Likely Become Experts” and Other Essential Reminders with Dragonboat’s Founder, Becky Flint pmf , operating-principles , product	1	197	March 7, 2023
When to Switch on the Customer-Led Mode, Pivoting (4 Times) towards PMF, and Other Discerning Realizations with Summit’s Founder, Matt Wensing pivots , pmf , founders-self , gtm , integrations	4	482	March 2, 2023
Starting with the Price, Making (Hard-Fought) Peace with Platform Risk, and Giving Up Adderall Superpowers with Rodeo’s Co-Founder, Ben Fisher crowded-markets , pricing , founders-self , platform-risk	3	200	February 15, 2023
"No One is Coming to Save Us," The "Need to Reestablish PMF," and Other Earnest Founder Commits for 2023 pmf , operating-principles , founders-self , constraints	1	695	February 13, 2023
SaaS Founders at Work '22 Edition: 42 Inspiring Heuristics and Hunches from 194 Years of Building bootstrapping , fundraising , pmf , operating-principles , founders-self	1	704	January 22, 2023
Finding (and Navigating) the Middle Ground Between a Hypergrowth Startup and a Lifestyle Business with Sudowrite’s Co-Founder, Amit Gupta bootstrapping , fundraising , pmf , operating-principles , founders-self	2	381	January 12, 2023
Things That Matter During Any Crisis, Developing a Combination of Muscle Memory and Scar Tissue, and Other Earnest Founder Missives to Probe the Current SaaS Moment operating-principles , founders-self	0	532	June 9, 2022
Growing Sustainably, a Realistic Take on the Current Moment in Tech, and Lessons from Grab with Momos’ Co-Founder, Andrew Liu fundraising , capital-efficiency , underserved-markets	1	458	December 12, 2022
Designing Thoughtful Workweeks, Decisions, and Feedback at an Async-First Workplace with Panther’s Co-Founder, Matt Redler culture , working-remotely , operating-principles , founders-self , async	2	519	December 1, 2022
The Mechanics of Commercializing and Scaling an AI-First, B2B Startup with Thematic’s Co-Founder, Alyona Medelyan pmf , ai , product , mvp , capital-efficiency	2	470	November 21, 2022
Validating and Selling a Technically-Difficult Idea, Serving 2 Personas, Fundraising in a Tough SaaS Setting, and Working In-Person with Merge’s Co-Founder, Shensi Ding fundraising , hiring , pmf , founders-self	2	809	November 12, 2022
Evolving the Many-Sided Levers of Positioning and Expansion with Slite’s Co-Founder, Christophe Pasquier positioning , product-led-growth , product , competitive-markets	2	424	November 7, 2022
Aiming for a "Won-and-Done" Category, Acquiring a Newsletter before Making the Product Public, and The Merits of Being Async-First with Loops’ Co-Founder, Chris Frantz crowded-markets , working-remotely , operating-principles , product , async	2	355	October 19, 2022
Founder-Led Customer Success, Bringing in a Senior First Hire, and Other Early-Stage CS Lessons with Claap’s Head of Customer Success, Angela Guedes customer-research , operators-series , customer-success	1	407	October 3, 2022
Why You Shouldn’t Build for an Obviously Large Market, and Other Notes on Creating a “Default Possible” Startup with Pulley’s Co-Founder, Yin Wu fundraising , hiring , product , gtm	1	303	September 23, 2022
The Why Behind 78 Pre-Product User Interviews, The Difference Between Pitching and Research, and Why MVPs Don’t Work Anymore with Cord’s Co-Founder, Nimrod Priell customer-research , product , mvp	2	887	September 11, 2022
“How Moving Away from Per-User Pricing Helped us 4X our Growth, Why We Were Moving Back, and Why We Won’t (For Now)” with Tability’s Co-Founder, Sten Pittet pricing , categories , product	10	683	August 28, 2022
Iterating Minimum Viable Funnels, Evolving Freemium for Reach and Focus, and Other Growth Lessons with Sendspark’s Co-Founder, Bethany Stachenfeld growth , operating-principles , freemium , experimentation	2	407	August 10, 2022
Bringing Early Adopters on to the Cap Table, Being COOs of Potential Users, and Other Community-First Ways of Building with Passionfroot’s Co-Founder, Jennifer Phan pmf , operating-principles , community	2	361	August 9, 2022
Ignoring MRR for the Self-Serve Switch, “Dogfood upon Dogfood upon Dogfood,” and other Lessons in Breaking out of Constraints with Lately AI’s Co-Founder, Kate Bradley Chernis customer-centricity , culture , product-led-growth , founders-self	2	1038	July 26, 2022
Early stage startups and mental health founders-self	5	632	July 12, 2022
(Calmly) Competing Against HubSpot and Mailchimp as a One-Person Team with Bento’s Founder, Jesse Hanley bootstrapping , operating-principles , founders-self , product	4	1012	June 27, 2022
“How We Deleted a 1/3rd of Our Product and Made it 10x Better” with Arrows’ co-founder, Daniel Zarick customer-centricity , operating-principles , product	4	1193	June 22, 2022
Adopting the Collaborative Operating System, Confronting a Common Leadership Error, and Fixing the “Untrained Muscle” of Alignment with Plum’s Co-Founder, Caitlin MacGregor culture , operating-principles , founders-self	2	1213	June 7, 2022
Why You Don’t Need to be “Enterprise-Ready” or “Scalable” as Yet and Other Notes on Crafting B2B Software with Contenda’s Founder, Lilly Chen culture , scaling , product , engineering , enterprise	3	18889	May 26, 2022
Pivoting Despite PMF, Why You Don’t Need Top Talent across Functions, and Other People-first Insights with Eduflow’s Co-Founder, David Kofoed Wind hiring , pivots , pmf , operating-principles	2	690	May 17, 2022
Taking on Zoom by Targeting a Beachhead Market, Pricing as a PMF Filter, and Other Lessons in Early Traction with Butter’s Co-Founder, Jakob Knutzen founder-market-fit , pricing , pmf , competitive-markets	1	776	May 6, 2022
Setting up Finance as an Impact Multiplier, Defining Your Own Metrics for Success, and Other Strategic Lessons from Knak’s Head of Finance, Christopher Chan operating-principles , operators-series , finance	0	592	April 28, 2022