Heuristics and Hunches

Topic	Replies	Views	Activity
About the Heuristics and Hunches category	0	379	February 18, 2021
Why It’s OK if Your ICP Can’t Pay Yet, Investor Pitch vs Customer Pitch, and Doing YC after 2 Major Exits with Common Paper’s Co-Founder, Jake Stein fundraising , yc , pitches , pricing , serial-founder	2	124	June 1, 2023
Pursuing an Open Source, Bootstrapped, Long-Run Path towards Serving the Fortune 1 Million with Typesense’s Co-Founder, Jason Bosco fundraising , open-source , pricing , smbs , bootstrapping	6	185	June 1, 2023
Why “Charge More” is Way-Easier-Said-Than-Done Advice, and Other Data-Driven Pricing Lessons with Uizard’s Co-Founder, Tony Beltramelli pmf , segmentation , operating-principles , pricing	2	159	May 22, 2023
Starting with the Price, Making (Hard-Fought) Peace with Platform Risk, and Giving Up Adderall Superpowers with Rodeo’s Co-Founder, Ben Fisher pricing , platform-risk , founders-self , crowded-markets	8	439	May 4, 2023
Pivoting from a Promising Idea, Getting to Default Alive, and Building for/Selling to Developers with Onboardbase’s Founder, Dante Lex pivots , default-alive , dev-tools , operating-principles , fundraising	4	268	May 3, 2023
Why “Move Fast and Break Things” is Outdated Advice, Prioritizing Quality and Speed, and Crossing 15K Users with Jam’s Co-Founder, Dani Grant operating-principles , product , pmf	2	326	April 28, 2023
“The AI Hype Can Accelerate Your Growth, Not Create It” and Other Notes on Making a Defensible, AI-First, B2B Bet with Question Base’s Co-Founder, Yana Vlatchkova mvp , competitive-markets , founders-self , ai	2	326	April 21, 2023
“It Takes a Lot of Listening Up-Front” and Other Must-Dos of Placing Community at the Core of Building and Selling with Harlow’s Co-Founder, Samantha Anderl customer-feedback , community , product , operating-principles	2	336	April 11, 2023
“Design Partners are Just Early Customers” and Other Notes on Structuring Early-Stage Research with Spellbound’s Founder, Akshaya Dinesh pmf , design-partners , customer-research , segments	2	221	March 29, 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 operating-principles , product , pmf	1	381	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 pmf , integrations , gtm , founders-self , pivots	4	653	March 2, 2023
"No One is Coming to Save Us," The "Need to Reestablish PMF," and Other Earnest Founder Commits for 2023 operating-principles , constraints , founders-self , pmf	1	825	February 13, 2023
SaaS Founders at Work '22 Edition: 42 Inspiring Heuristics and Hunches from 194 Years of Building pmf , founders-self , bootstrapping , operating-principles , fundraising	1	887	January 22, 2023
Finding (and Navigating) the Middle Ground Between a Hypergrowth Startup and a Lifestyle Business with Sudowrite’s Co-Founder, Amit Gupta fundraising , bootstrapping , pmf , operating-principles , founders-self	2	503	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 founders-self , operating-principles	0	625	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	530	December 12, 2022
Designing Thoughtful Workweeks, Decisions, and Feedback at an Async-First Workplace with Panther’s Co-Founder, Matt Redler async , founders-self , operating-principles , working-remotely , culture	2	645	December 1, 2022
The Mechanics of Commercializing and Scaling an AI-First, B2B Startup with Thematic’s Co-Founder, Alyona Medelyan ai , mvp , pmf , capital-efficiency , product	2	559	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 hiring , founders-self , pmf , fundraising	2	1118	November 12, 2022
Evolving the Many-Sided Levers of Positioning and Expansion with Slite’s Co-Founder, Christophe Pasquier product , competitive-markets , product-led-growth , positioning	2	521	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 working-remotely , async , product , operating-principles , crowded-markets	2	439	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	529	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 , gtm , product , hiring	1	399	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 product , mvp , customer-research	2	1029	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 categories , product , pricing	10	806	August 28, 2022
Iterating Minimum Viable Funnels, Evolving Freemium for Reach and Focus, and Other Growth Lessons with Sendspark’s Co-Founder, Bethany Stachenfeld experimentation , freemium , operating-principles , growth	2	499	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 operating-principles , community , pmf	2	461	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 culture , customer-centricity , founders-self , product-led-growth	2	1137	July 26, 2022
Early stage startups and mental health founders-self	5	713	July 12, 2022