Every founder has a million different things they could be doing, but where should they focus? What will actually move the needle and unlock their business to take off?

In this episode, we get an inside view on how Rob works with a new startup that comes to him. Objective #1: Find the right place to focus. For you to run this same diagnostic on your startup or product, you need a conceptual model of what a startup is (the case study factory), a causal model of why startups take off (PULL) and then a practical approach that identifies where you should focus.

Resources for each spot you might find yourself in:

• Developing a causal model: Because / Despite
• Conceptual model of your startup: The B2B standard
• No idea or customers: Inverting the idea stage (with Cyberstarts)
• Can't get sales calls: Phenomenology of cold outbound
• Multiple different case studies: No more PULL hypotheses
• More push than pull: Are they pulling?
• Getting calls, not converting to sales: Buying is weird and rare
• Converting sales but churn: Retention is the hard part
• Attacking the bottleneck: Strict productivity

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

There's a lot going on with a first sales hire - When? Who? What to hire them for?

It's a question that Rob sees from a few angles, often taking the form of: "I can't sell my product but I think someone with sales experience can" or "My sales calls are showing promise but aren't closing and I think someone else would do a better job."

Rob's take: You need to understand your case study and the way that your startup is operating like a factory. When volume is running through and you become the bottleneck, that's the moment. Rob and RC dig into this concept and what it means for founders in this situation.

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

Sorry, folks. The PULL Hypothesis is out. Rob observed that founders and teams were holding too tightly onto the PULL Hypothesis and too tempted by abstractions, which prevented them from understanding and serving customer demand.

BUT - fear not. Today, we discuss the PULL Anecdote, which, speaking personally (as Rob's cohost), I think is a hugely liberating concept and I'm excited to put into action. By tying explicitly to a single, real human being's real PULL, the PULL anecdote overcomes important limitations that were making it hard for founders to get out of "abstractions" to "reality" and really seek to understand what customer's are trying to accomplish but are blocked.

PMF Camp! Interested in the Sept PMF Camp? Info here: LINK or reach out directly to me: rc@reframeb2b.com

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/