Heuristics and Hunches

Topic	Replies	Views	Activity
About the Heuristics and Hunches category	0	476	February 18, 2021
The Trouble with Building too Close to User Love, Why PLG Requires Balancing Four Different Roadmaps, and Other Earnest Notes from Winding Down a Startup with Kairn’s Co-Founder, Patricia Bernasconi pivots , pmf , product-led-growth , founders-self , product	1	57	October 3, 2023
How Early Adopters Don’t Have to be Ideal Customers, Founder-Done Customer Support as a Growth Strategy, and Other Notes on Building with Reasonable Ambition with Missive’s Co-Founder, Philippe-Antoine Lehoux bootstrapping , early-stage-growth , founders-self , product	2	152	September 28, 2023
“It’s Tempting to Start Selling Something We’d Build Six Months Down the Line” and Other Notes on Early Validation with Alphadoc’s Co-Founder, Job Rietbergen product-led-growth , customer-research , product , idea-validation	2	157	September 25, 2023
“No One Can Represent All Sides of an Argument Better Than You Can” and Other Instructive Notes on Early-Stage Product Marketing with Vanta’s VP of Marketing, Sarah Scharf customer-research , operating-principles , operators-series , product-marketing	2	275	September 8, 2023
“I Think I’m a Historian” — Pivots vs Hops, HubSpot’s Singular Self-Awareness, Why Bundling Gets Rebranded Every 3 Years, and Other Discerning Lessons with Nira’s Co-Founder, Hiten Shah pivots , founders-self , enterprise , bundling , strategy	2	267	August 23, 2023
Scaling an Open Source Tool While Running an Agency, Giving Back Control with On-Prem Deployments, and Bootstrapping Decisions with Flagsmith’s Founder, Ben Rometsch bootstrapping , fundraising , pmf , dev-tools , open-source	2	257	July 18, 2023
Prioritizing Engineering Momentum over Accurate Timelines and Building on the Merits of a Car When Users Might Want Faster Horses with Compose’s Co-Founder, Rami Kalai pmf , operating-principles , metrics , product , competitive-markets	2	234	July 4, 2023
How the Founder Persona Likely isn’t Your ICP, Why Biz Fundamentals Trump All Silicon Valley “Must-Haves”, and Other Recognitions with Basis’ Founder, Bebe Kim growth , pmf , metrics , founders-self , capital-efficiency	1	328	June 19, 2023
Interviewing 200 Prospects (and as Many End Users), Building a Quality/Quantity Waitlist, and Invaluable Lessons from Hotjar with trumpet’s Co-Founder, Rory Sadler customer-centricity , culture , customer-research , operating-principles , waitlist	2	264	June 12, 2023
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 , serial-founder , pricing , pitches , yc	5	403	June 5, 2023
Pursuing an Open Source, Bootstrapped, Long-Run Path towards Serving the Fortune 1 Million with Typesense’s Co-Founder, Jason Bosco bootstrapping , fundraising , smbs , pricing , open-source	6	385	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 pricing , pmf , operating-principles , segmentation	2	375	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 crowded-markets , pricing , founders-self , platform-risk	8	756	May 4, 2023
Pivoting from a Promising Idea, Getting to Default Alive, and Building for/Selling to Developers with Onboardbase’s Founder, Dante Lex fundraising , pivots , operating-principles , dev-tools , default-alive	4	460	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 pmf , operating-principles , product	2	491	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 ai , founders-self , competitive-markets , mvp	2	532	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 , operating-principles , product , community	2	546	April 11, 2023
“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	2	376	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 pmf , operating-principles , product	1	572	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	867	March 2, 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	1038	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	1127	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	649	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	761	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	715	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	877	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	777	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 , founder-led-sales , pmf , founders-self	2	1471	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	698	November 7, 2022