Heuristics and Hunches

Topic	Replies	Views	Activity
“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 competitive-markets , ai , mvp , founders-self	2	872	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 community , customer-feedback , product , operating-principles	2	849	April 11, 2023
“Design Partners are Just Early Customers” and Other Notes on Structuring Early-Stage Research with Spellbound’s Founder, Akshaya Dinesh segments , customer-research , pmf , design-partners	2	879	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 product , pmf , operating-principles	1	900	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 , gtm , pmf , founders-self , integrations	4	1246	March 2, 2023
"No One is Coming to Save Us," The "Need to Reestablish PMF," and Other Earnest Founder Commits for 2023 founders-self , pmf , operating-principles , constraints	1	1380	February 13, 2023
SaaS Founders at Work '22 Edition: 42 Inspiring Heuristics and Hunches from 194 Years of Building fundraising , bootstrapping , operating-principles , founders-self , pmf	1	1598	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 , operating-principles , founders-self , pmf	2	1017	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	945	June 9, 2022
Growing Sustainably, a Realistic Take on the Current Moment in Tech, and Lessons from Grab with Momos’ Co-Founder, Andrew Liu capital-efficiency , fundraising , underserved-markets	1	975	December 12, 2022
Designing Thoughtful Workweeks, Decisions, and Feedback at an Async-First Workplace with Panther’s Co-Founder, Matt Redler operating-principles , culture , async , founders-self , working-remotely	2	1184	December 1, 2022
The Mechanics of Commercializing and Scaling an AI-First, B2B Startup with Thematic’s Co-Founder, Alyona Medelyan ai , mvp , product , pmf , capital-efficiency	2	1143	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 , fundraising , pmf , founder-led-sales	2	2220	November 12, 2022
Evolving the Many-Sided Levers of Positioning and Expansion with Slite’s Co-Founder, Christophe Pasquier product-led-growth , positioning , product , competitive-markets	2	1006	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 , product , operating-principles , async , working-remotely	2	836	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	1118	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 product , hiring , gtm , fundraising	1	943	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	1598	September 11, 2022
Iterating Minimum Viable Funnels, Evolving Freemium for Reach and Focus, and Other Growth Lessons with Sendspark’s Co-Founder, Bethany Stachenfeld freemium , growth , experimentation , operating-principles	2	983	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	893	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 , product-led-growth , founders-self , culture	2	1578	July 26, 2022
Early stage startups and mental health founders-self	5	1144	July 12, 2022
(Calmly) Competing Against HubSpot and Mailchimp as a One-Person Team with Bento’s Founder, Jesse Hanley product , operating-principles , bootstrapping , founders-self	4	1666	June 27, 2022
“How We Deleted a 1/3rd of Our Product and Made it 10x Better” with Arrows’ co-founder, Daniel Zarick product , operating-principles , customer-centricity	4	1779	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 operating-principles , founders-self , culture	2	1855	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 engineering , product , scaling , culture , enterprise	3	20117	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 pivots , pmf , hiring , operating-principles	2	1139	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	1445	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	966	April 28, 2022
Setting Up Engineering for Growth: The Workflows and Culture That Drove 1500% YoY Growth with Tara AI’s Co-Founder, Iba Masood operating-principles , product , growth , engineering	3	2903	April 27, 2022