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Want Startup Success? Get These đź’Ż Things Right, According to 7+-Figure Founders
Published 5 months ago • 7 min read
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ISSUE #46
Welcome to the Forward Obsessed Founder, my newsletter with insights, awesome tools, and real-world advice to grow your business and career.
GO FORWARD THOUGHT OF THE WEEK ➡️
Want Startup Success? Get These đź’Ż Things Right, According to 7+-Figure Founders
You’ve probably heard this stat: 90% of startups fail.
There are lots of reasons for not making it, but we’re not going there in today’s newsletter.
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I'm more interested in the 10% that make it, specifically those with seven- and eight-figure exits.
I study founders who think differently. I speak to them regularly — there have been 58 guests on the Forward Obsessed podcast so far.
So, my team and I dug into the data and found the top 100 pain points first-time founders struggle with.
Why do they struggle?
Because to succeed in business, you have to get ALL of these things right.
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In today’s Go Forward thought, I’ve curated advice from the most resilient, ingenious, and, yes, successful founders I know. I’m not covering all the topics listed in the top 100 — just 14 to jump-start you.
Read their advice carefully. Maybe jot down your favorites on a Post-It and hang them on your computer. But keep it handy because, as a forward obsessed founder yourself, you'll need it!
On Finding Product-Market Fit
​Kat Hantas, Founder of 21Seeds Tequila ​(Acquired by Diego for $160M)
It’s much easier to design for one person and scale to many. When we design for many people, it’s hard to sell to one.
“You’ve got to make your product for a very specific demo. When you solve the pain points of that demographic — you know all of them — and you think about that demo in its entirety, you end up solving the pain points for a broader demographic that you're not necessarily looking to reach but that you end up reaching inevitably because you've created such a great product.”
I always say that when you ask for money, you get advice, and when you ask for advice, you get money. Interestingly enough, Aaron and I agree.
“I was actually providing value, and I was offering something that was an additive to their lives. When you change your mindset to that rather than you’re asking for a favor, you’re empowered.”
Get out of your comfort zone — go to industry events, join online communities, and participate in startup pitch competitions. There’s gold in your network.
“It was one of the early believers who had brought me in, and it was his investors that would say, 'Hey, let's put money in this company if Jason comes in.’”
Adi Eckhouse Barzilai, Exited Co-Founder and CEO of RealFace ​(Acquired by Apple for the underlying tech that became FaceID)
Different is better than better. And it doesn’t take much: just one key point.
“Solve one thing really well, and it will be valuable to somebody that has money at the end. If you’re a tech company, you have to have a differentiated IP in the world of technology and try to solve one thing really well.”
It’s all about MVE: minimum valuable experience. This is how JetBlue won in a notoriously tricky industry.
“If people hate airlines that much, then if we can just consistently deliver a good product with the right attitude, we'll blow the rest of them away. And that's what we're here to do.”
David Cancel, Founder and Executive Chairman of Drift
Don’t follow the leader. Forge your own path.
"If you're building a SaaS company today, you can't win on features; you have to win on brand. The market leaders will be the ones customers love and trust more because all of the options will have similar features."
Jenny Lawton, Former CEO of MakerBot ​(Acquired by Stratasys for over $400M)
Innovation is a discipline.
“Innovation at its best has structure inside of its process. Processes actually make things work better, so having some sort of operating system for how you do something means that you're able to move further faster with something. You're able to fail faster. And you have a mechanism to understand how you're succeeding with innovation or not.”
Miles Lasater, Founder, Purpose Built Venture Studio, Co-founded HigherOne, SeeClickFix, and OneUni ​(2X exit Founder. Took HigherOne Public; IPO)
Choose wisely.
“We had some project experience — not the same as starting a company— but you had some sense of how people worked and what they were good at from a day-to-day perspective. Seeing that it fit together was important… We weren't all good at the same things. I think the way that overlaps… that you reinforce each other's weaknesses… that you have some basic level of trust. The fact that it didn't start as friendship — it was important to me to say, “Look, this is a work relationship that we believe we can build things together. And that was the first most important reason that we chose to start a company together.”
Ryan Shank, Exiting founder of PhoneWagon ​(Acquired by CallRail)
Your health is your wealth.
“I have four non-negotiables: bed by midnight…morning cardio workout… do something intellectually stimulating… and good sleep every day. That’s the foundation for everything else.”
Michael Kalman, Chief Strategy Officer for PersonalRX; Exited founder and CEO of MediaCrossing ​(MediaCrossing acquired by Kubient)
Plan your exit from the get-go.
“There are no shortcuts to selling your business. If you want to command a premium price at exit, you have to formulate a strategy of governance really, really early on. So, don’t put your personal expenses on the business… you can’t have a summer rental through the business. You also have to be in a position where when they assess what you're paying your employees, you're within industry norms. So, all these things have to fit within this box perfectly, or there's no deal.”
And here’s my advice, which I’ve learned by having in-depth conversations with ambitious founders who’ve started one or more successful ventures:
Think differently, win differently.
Creative problem-solving = unique solutions and results. ​ Working with integrity fosters cohesive teams, better collaborations, and trust. And the possibilities are truly endless if you keep evolving.
The only way to do this is to abandon conventional wisdom and thinking. That’s what makes you forward obsessed.
Why do startup founders get our best ideas in the shower? Want help actualizing them?
As a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ll always have early access to things I’m cooking up with my teams in the lab.
Give my app, Founder Fixer, a try. It’s the latest AI-driven tool I’ve been working on to help entrepreneurs and founders turn their raw thoughts into actionable ideas with some supporting data to help them take the next step.
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We’re working on finishing up an integration with a capital partner so founders and entrepreneurs (like you!) can apply for funding for their new ideas. And we’ll match you with an advisor to help you take it to the next level.
My Obsession of the Week đź–¤:
Going down the rabbit hole
A few people have recently asked me “how I do it.” By do it, I mean fixate on a topic so deeply that I drop into a flow state and quickly grasp almost everything there is to know about it. Sure, it’s a weird obsession, but it’s a big part of how I build and scale businesses.
Bottom line:No need to hold your breath to discover how I take deep dives. I’m cooking up a guide on how I do it, so just hit “reply” to this newsletter or DM me on LinkedIn, and I’ll send you a copy.
Thanks so much for reading this edition of The Forward Obsessed Founder — you can also check out this issue on the web [Link]. ​ ​Spread the word and grow my mission together
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