The Physics of Startups

There are two types of PULL out there. If a customer has either of them - and if your Supply fits - they will rip a product out of your hands. Here is how Rob defines them:

1. COPING PULL: A buyer who is prioritizing a project right now, but their current approach is sufficiently bad that they are COPING - struggling against their current approach.

2. BLOCKED PULL: A buyer who would prioritize a project right now if they could - but th...

Cyberstarts (VC focused on cybersecurity) has an insane hit rate - its first fun turned $50M into $2B within 3 years investing in 9 founders. Founded by Gili Raanan, their approach (which they call "Sunrise") inverts the pre-idea / pre-product stage. Instead of choosing a market / technology to bet on, they invest in founder teams pre-product, use a network of CSIOs to identify demand, validate by selling, then begin to b...

A frequent critique Rob hears of "Sell then build" is that it's fine for a 'lifestyle business' but can't possibly result in a unicorn or generational company. ...Right?

So Rob dug into the histories of some of the leading tech (Microsoft, Oracle, Hubspot), Deep-tech (NVIDIA) and consumer (Nike, Starbucks) companies.

... turns out, they follow similar themes:

• Figure out some sort of a market need by sel...

Rob discusses the evolution of sales calls from the first version (often awkward, typically clunky and uncomfortable for the prospect, and not effective) to the various iterations he sees with each step improving incrementally.

The discovery sharpens, then the customer targeting, then the pitch, the demo, the sequencing of calls, and the offer / conversion.

This is a very practical episode and Substack for founders and early sales h...

A lot of the advice around "understanding / empathizing with customers" or "being customer centric" advises interviews or maybe even visiting customers. But it doesn't go far enough. Rob discusses why "forward deploying" is critical - and not just visiting customers, but what to actually do when you're there. Rob discusses what to look for, and how the "calendar" and "to-do list&...

Discovery is very important - but it's poorly understood what exactly you should be looking for in the first moments of a sales call and founders almost always screw it up. This leads to a confused customer being grilled with random questions and the founder struggling to connect with the customer and generate interest in their product (the wrong way to think about it).

In this episode, Rob discusses how to properly run demand ...

Highly recommend reading this week's Substacak as the language around supply and demand is precise: LINK

Rob Snyder dives into how to think about Demand as it relates to AI - using both historical (Ford) and contemporary (Jump, Loveable, AI SDRs) examples.

This convo should be helpful for entrepreneurs, investors and marketers thinking about AI, product positioning, categories, identifying AI-related demand.

Info and work with R...

If you wonder if "PULL" is relevant for your business ("But I sell into enterprise!" "I'm in B2C!" "I sell hardware!" ... " so PULL doesn't apply"), this week's conversation is meant for you.

Rob and RC discuss some common examples of selling into large businesses / deep tech / hardware / B2C from a "PULL" perspective.

Leave comments with questions for upcoming...

PULL (Project-Unavoidable-Looking for options-encountering Limitation) is the key concept that founders need to understand to sell and find PMF.

Rob has refreshed his definitions and this conversation dives into topics like:

• Defining PULL (when customers "rip a product out of your hands")
• How to use PULL in sales calls
• SUPER common misconceptions about customer demand (e.g., desire for a product, pain points)
• Understandin...

Rob and RC dive into three common (and self destructive) sales pathologies that Rob sees in founders:

• The "Helpful" founder who thinks s/he can sell by showing how helpful they are to customers
• The "Smart" founder, who thinks that by impressing customers with deep knowledge (or avoiding embarassing oneself), customers will buy
• And the "Noble" founder, who is deeply focused on their mission and thinks...

Blog post: "Strict Productivity" on https://howtogrow.substack.com/

Work with Rob: www.robsnyder.org

Rob and RC discuss productivity based on a foundational understanding of *what is a startup* which is the necessary foundation for doing productive things. Conversation addresses the constraint-theory approach to understanding your startup, identifying bottlenecks, and practical ways Rob sees great founders tackling bottlene...

Full Substack post "Customer Success": https://howtogrow.substack.com/

Work with Rob: Info

Rob's Miro: https://bit.ly/4q9JiP3

Rob and RC focus on the "post-sell" part of PMF in this convo - customer success and retention. They discuss Rob's thinking on how to define success, what to focus on, and why so many founders are focused on the wrong metrics or doing customer success wrong ("Throwing the produc...

Read "The Divine Lever" in Rob's newsletter: https://howtogrow.substack.com

November Bootcamp info: LINK

Rob and RC explore one of Rob's newest ideas - "The Divine Lever" - with its dual elements of "a causal lever" and "divine / objectively good." They discuss how these elements interact, why they interact in a way that creates valuable businesses, and how to think about each in the c...

Rob and RC dig into what you should do when you have lukewarm demand or something isn't working quite like it should and you aren't sure why. Includes pragmatic discussion of how to do a Demand Audit, and the difference between several "Demand problems" and "Execution problems" (the tl;dr - your problem might not be that you don't have Demand).

Links

• Full post in Rob's Substack, "T...

Full post on Rob's Substack: LINK (Post: "Force against the status quo")

Info on working with Rob: LINK

Rob has sharpened his theory on what exactly is demand for startups. Rob and RC dive into this, exploring how Demand behaves like a "Force against the status quo" - which has both magnitude (how much the customer wants change) and direction (what shape they want).

This theory builds on Rob's Demand, Supp...

*Kind of hilarious retraction*: Rob's wife let him know they use Huggies, not Pampers.

Substack post: Bend the world to fit demand

More about Rob's November bootcamp: GOOGLE DOC

Rob and RC dive into the concept of Supply today (mostly "product" focused), specifically taking the approach of where does supply originate? The conversation goes into how supply should take shape, how to understand demand before developing...

This week's newsletter: "What is your operating philosophy?"

Rob's Substack: https://howtogrow.substack.com/

Rob's "Unifying Theory of Startups" Miro board: LINK Rob and RC jump into the concept of the "Founder Operating Philosophy" - discussing different types of operating philosophies, what different operating philosophies lead to, and ways to diagnose what your operating philosophy. Also...

Link to Rob's newsletter: https://howtogrow.substack.com

This week's newsletter: "Pipeline mega-post"

Rob and RC dive into one of Rob's least favorite, but most in-demand topics: pipeline. Conversation covers how to get to 5-10 calls per week even before you have a product, how to craft outbound that people don't hate, and when to convert to a 'toll-booth' approach.

----Rob's website: www.robsnyd...