Kareem Amin

The "80/20 Principle" for Founders—explained in 1 minute 👇 𝟭. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 80% distribution, 20% product Focus on getting your product out there more than perfecting the product. 𝟮. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: 80% retention, 20% acquisition Keeping customers is far more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. 𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: 80% existing customers, 20% new leads The majority of revenue will come from upsells and renewals over leads. 𝟰. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: 80% positioning tweaks, 20% actual price changes How you present the value of your product over constantly changing the price. 𝟱. 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% customer experience, 20% logo design A strong brand is more about delivering a great customer experience than having a great logo. 𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: 80% listening, 20% pitching Understand your customer’s needs BEFORE pitching your product. 𝟳. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% empowering users, 20% company-led initiatives Empower your users to engage over top-down company initiatives. 𝟴. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁: 80% core features, 20% nice-to-haves Keep improving essential, high-impact features over adding new ones. 𝟵. 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲: 80% executing, 20% strategizing Planning is useless without the execution to make real progress. 𝟭𝟬. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: 80% user feedback, 20% user behavior Gathering user feedback will tell you more than observing behavior. 𝟭𝟭. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% value perception, 20% actual costs How customers perceive the value of your product can be a lot more than its cost. 𝟭𝟮. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% word-of-mouth, 20% paid ads Organic growth is far more sustainable than relying heavily on paid ads. 𝟭𝟯. 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% aha moments, 20% feature tutorials Creating aha moments is more impactful than explaining it. 𝟭𝟰. 𝗨𝗜/𝗨𝗫: 80% intuitive flow, 20% aesthetic appeal Make it easy to navigate first, and then add aesthetics. 𝟭𝟱. 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: 80% reducing friction, 20% incentivizing sharing Making it easy for users to adopt your product works better than incentives. 𝟭𝟲. 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽: 80% market pull, 20% vision push Build what the market is asking for over trying to push a vision. 𝟭𝟳. 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 80% context setting, 20% direct orders Providing the context and vision is more effective than micromanaging. 𝟭𝟴. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀: 80% observing, 20% asking Observing how they react can tell you more than direct questions. 𝟭𝟵. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 80% owning a niche, 20% broad appeal Owning a niche will bring more success than trying to appeal to everyone. 𝟮𝟬. 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: 80% working on the business, 20% in the business Focus on the 80% that impacts the most growth and less on day-to-day operations. Share, save, bookmark, or print this goldmine for any founder. #strategy #startups #growth #technology #i5growth #i5invest Image Credit: Greg Isenberg

1

The only podcast you might not have to listen to at 1.5X speed 😂 . Thanks for having me, EXPLORE84! I appreciate you sharing the latest and greatest of what we have been up to!

39

6 Comments

Chat with Miles Clements about building Linear For me companies are like design problems: you have context, constraints & goals unique to you. Then you look for a solution that has a good fit to your unique problems. The company problem also evolve over times the solution Directly applying what others have done doesn’t work that well, yet there is lot emphasis on playbooks, pattern matching and playing copying what other companies are doing in industry. https://lnkd.in/ghxjJwYU

84

YC application tip: never ask a YC founder you don't know to recommend you. It should be somebody who worked with you or knows you well. YC is much more interested in a person rather than the idea they're applying with. You can change the idea, but not the person.

27

As company-builders, we hear that values matter. But often, they feel like words on a page — established with great care, however easily forgotten. At Garden Labs, we work with companies (some startups, some publicly traded) who are at inflection points. They are scaling after a major funding round, pivoting strategically, restructuring for more efficient growth, turning over leadership. These all have the potential to be company and org-defining moments, where teams emerge with renewed energy to continue the ever-winding journey that is ahead. Or, they have the potential to bring on immense churn, burnout and loss of momentum. One observation that’s jumped out at me over the last year is this: Companies with a clear set of values navigate inflections with more clarity and conviction than those without. In these moments, as a founder / CEO: --> Are you being brave and principled? or fearful and reckless?  --> Are you executing with care and foresight, or are you creating more problems than opportunities? --> Are you taking input to inform your path, or are you allowing recency bias to determine your fate? In all cases, clear and internalized company values can act as a compass. And while you may not need a compass everyday – when you’re lost in the woods, I bet you’re thrilled that you have one.

15

1 Comment

Today, I’m incredibly proud to announce a major milestone for PayZen: we’ve just closed a $232 million Series B round in equity and debt, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). This round includes $32 million in equity and a new $200 million credit warehouse from Viola Credit and a syndicate of insurance companies. I’m thrilled to welcome Mohamad Makhzoumi, NEA’s Co-CEO, as a PayZen board member! Partnering with the right investor at each stage of our company’s growth is both an art and a science (with a bit of luck thrown in). We were fortunate to find strong alignment with the NEA team in terms of business philosophy, mission, market, and strategy. With their extensive experience and stellar track record, I look forward to collaborating with the NEA team as we guide PayZen into the future. This funding will enable us to continue leveraging our AI-powered platform to tackle healthcare affordability. Our proprietary AI/ML models and seamless EMR/EHR integration simplify patient payments for health systems while making it easier for millions of patients to access and afford the care they need. We’re committed to driving innovation in the Revenue Cycle Management market and are excited to expand our affordable, customized healthcare payment options to even more Americans. This partnership with NEA brings back memories. Twenty-five years ago, I fondly recall pitching Webex Communications to NEA alongside my then CEO and mentor, Subrah. That investment certainly worked out for everyone! Time seems to fly, but it’s comforting to know that some things remain constant. I want to thank all the investors and individuals that supported us along the way (Viola Ventures, Omry Ben David, SignalFire, Chris Scoggins, 7wireVentures, Lee Shapiro, Alyssa Jaffee, Ido Vigdor). Mostly, I want to thank my team for raising the bar every day, creating magic and making all of this possible. #healthcare, #fintech, #affordability, #RCM,

466

89 Comments

🎙️ Exciting insights from SaaS Academy's CEO Johnny Page on the Expertise Economy podcast! Johnny breaks down their two-step approach to helping SaaS founders: 1️⃣ The Discovery Call: Uncovering the founder's "why" and long-term vision 2️⃣ The Strategic Game Plan Session: Creating a 90-day action plan to achieve 12-month goals 🔑 Key focus: Identifying and solving business constraints Want to dive deeper on the secrets of building a successful SaaS business? Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dju-Be2u #SaaS #BusinessStrategy #SaasAcademy #ExpertiseEconomy #Podcast

6

Hi everyone! I don’t share too often on here, but we’re at a very exciting moment at AptDeco, and I wanted to let you all in on it. AptDeco opened a community investment round and the response has been incredible. We’ve raised over $2M so far from institutional investors, customers and supporters. Nothing is more validating than customers doubling down with their own capital. And now, I’m inviting you, my network, to be part of our journey. When we started AptDeco, we set out to make buying and selling furniture easier. Over the years, many of our competitors have come and gone, but AptDeco continues to thrive. Why? Our technology, logistics and branding continues to set us apart and that's why major retailers including West Elm, Pottery Barn, La-Z-Boy, Article and 30+ more have partnered with us. The beauty with this investment round is that anyone can be an investor. Learn more and invest directly at wefunder.com/AptDeco.

186

16 Comments

Halfway through our Y Combinator batch, over 60% of the startups in our cohort (including us) were stuck pivoting. That’s when Paul Graham flew in from England to talk about finding a great startup idea. Here’s what he told us: 1️⃣ Turn off the three ‘bad idea filters’: By turning off the ‘bad idea filters’ in your head, it instantly becomes easier for good ones to emerge. 1/ The sanity filter: Often, the greatest startups come out of ideas that originally seemed insane. So don’t shut down ideas because they seem impractical. For eg, when Airbnb started, no one ever thought people would let strangers sleep in their homes. 2/ The money filter: Money is important for a startup, but if you’re able to drive strong growth without generating revenue, don’t discard the idea. For eg: JustinTV (now Twitch), began with a guy live-streaming his life with a camera strapped to his head. There was no revenue stream initially. 3/ The schlepp filter: Don’t dismiss an idea just because it seems like too much work. For eg: Stripe had to handle unholy amounts of legal and regulatory work to get banks onboard their payments platform. Still, they did the hard work, and Stripe solved a problem that hundreds of their contemporaries were afraid to work on. Often, the impractical hard work becomes the moat that protects your startup from competition. 2️⃣ Don’t build for boomers   If you’re only building for boomers, your company will die with them. Whatever you’re building needs to become popular amongst the younger generation. If you’re a college student and you find a lot of your peers using what you’re building (and not just because they’re your friends), it could well be the start of something big. 3️⃣ Stop thinking all the best ideas are taken As founders, we often come up with an idea only to realize another company has already built it. We then find ourselves wishing that such other company didn't exist. You need to throw that mentality out the door. One quote I’ll always take away from PG’s talk is that there are billions of years of existence left. It would be practically impossible (and quite frankly depressing) for all the good ideas to run out by 2024. These tips really helped us zero in on what we’re building today. At our last startup, Desklamp, we’d spend weeks on end producing each feature launch video. During our pivot phase, PG’s talk inspired us to ask ourselves if we could automate that process using AI. That bold question led us to Clueso (YC W23): end-to-end AI automation for producing software videos for companies. #startups

618

29 Comments

Learn how to fine-tune your product to meet market demands with strategic customer conversations and data-driven feedback mechanisms 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Brian Long, CEO & Co-Founder at Attentive 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Nick Moran, General Partner at New Stack Ventures and Nate Pierotti, Principal at New Stack Ventures ✏ “The Playbook to Finding Product-Market Fit, When Founders Should Begin to Scale, and Lessons from Building Attentive” ⭐ 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀: 💬 "I think that what we got right were two things. One, I think that we talked to a tremendous amount of customers, before we started building things. So we learned to hear their problems, hear their issues, and then start building and assaulting those, you know, rather than kind of just jumping right into build-build-build, so that saved us a lot of time." ⭐ 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸, 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀: 💬 "I think you're also looking at things like NPS, you know… because if that number starts dropping, it's often because you're no longer solving the problem." ⭐ 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆: 💬 "I think that we've taken an even longer term focus. We know what can be big. And we know it's dangerous to start getting an ego to think you can do things because it's always very hard. You've always got to think towards taking a longer term view, having a thesis around that view, and then understand how the pieces can come together for success." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

1

Aspiring founders: If you’re unsure what to build, start an agency first. Not because agencies are the end goal. But because they're the perfect container to find your next big idea and master it. I see founders every day obsessing over: ➝ What product to build ➝ What problem to solve ➝ How to know if there's real demand Here's the truth: You're asking the wrong questions. Instead of guessing what the market wants, start working 1:1 with clients. Get in the trenches. Learn their problems firsthand. When you run an agency, 3 incredible things happen: ➝ You get paid to learn an industry inside and out ➝ You see the same problems surface again and again ➝ You build relationships with future customers The best startup ideas don't come from brainstorming sessions. They come from real-world experience solving real problems for real customers. And an agency gives you exactly that—while generating revenue, not burning cash. Look around at successful SaaS companies today - especially in the ecom world. So many started as agencies or consultancies. That's the route I took and I would do it again every time.

36

7 Comments

I am coming to Boston! I don't remember the last time I visited Boston, but I can't wait =) 🔉 Calling all founders. Join me next Wednesday (April 24) at this workshop "How to Pitch Your Startup 101". I will be judging at Techcrunch Early Stage 2024 the next day 👉 https://lnkd.in/gYyzvMBU ​There is "no love at first sight" in startup pitching. An investor will not, cannot, and would never invest in you the first time they meet you. ​At this talk, I will cover: - ​What do investors want? - ​What do founders want from your 1st pitch meeting? ​- What should a founder say and do in the first pitch? ​- What should a founder NOT to say or do in the first pitch? ​- What should a founder ask a potential investor? ​- What should a founder do to follow up? Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gK9Yvmya #venturecapital #funding #pitching #founders #startups #investors #pitchmeeting #fundraising #harvard #MIT #techcrunch #VC #pitch #pitch101 #investing #TC cc Calvin Chin, Pracheer Gupta, Aidan Ryan, Jonathan Kay, Eliran Sapir, Race Capital, Dave Schappell, Brian Skerry, Adam Honig, Luke Stephan

67

13 Comments

So inspired by Lila Ibrahim, COO of Google DeepMind! In our latest conversation for Think with Google, she shares powerful advice for women in tech: “Find your personal board of advisors.” Watch the full episode for more of Lila’s incredible insights ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ebb3akYZ #WomenInTech #ThinkWithGoogle

86

3 Comments

I used to work with Ethan Eismann and always admired his passion for craftsmanship and high-quality experiences. My main takeaways: ▀ There’s a real shift today toward making enterprise tools as high-quality as possible, creating fantastic work environments for employees. ▀ The best companies focused on quality blend roles and phases of building. ▀ They don’t spend too long defining something; they make a bet and start building and shaping (planning and building blended) ▀ Engineers, PMs, and designers collaborate in the design process, working together to refine the solution through prototyping and feedback (blending roles)

109

5 Comments

YC partners (video in comments) say AI startups are growing faster and cheaper than ever. But here's what I think is really happening: (1) Everyone's excited about AI right now. They're eager to try new AI products, even if they're not perfect yet. (2) It's easier to build AI products now. The hard work is already done by big AI models. Startups just need to add a user-friendly layer on top. So it's not that companies are suddenly super efficient. It's more about good timing and easier tech. What do you think? Is the AI boom about better business or just good circumstances?

53

8 Comments

Early stage founders often conflate the ability to pay people with recruiting good people. Money does not solve motivation. You cannot turn a mercenary into a missionary with money; they simply become bigger mercenaries. Early employees need to be missionaries.

39

3 Comments

On this episode of Building Jam w/ Retool + ex-Stripe eng leader Tamar Ben-Shachar: 1. How to get out of fire-fighting mode and back to proactive engineering 2. Slowing down short term to add observability to move faster long term 3. The importance of aligning on what does "Done" mean on your team 4. Why the best dev teams are good at saying no 5. What are the best engineering interview questions to ask Hope you enjoy the episode! YT link below

32

2 Comments