The Physics of Startups

Why is it so hard for founders to see real demand, even when it's all around?

Rob breaks down "the demand lens," the practice of removing your product from the picture entirely so you can see where people are actually stuck, versus the "supply lens" most founders default to without realizing it. That difference is what decides whether you're solving a real problem or just shouting into a world that was doing fine without you. 

L...

Why do founders waste so much energy thinking about things they can't actually know?

Rob breaks down his "no speculation rule," the topics he treats as off limits because they waste time without ever being answerable. The three traps: guessing the future, assuming what customers mean, and building abstractions like personas.

Get in touch

Thinking about onboarding team members to PULL or something else? Email RC: rc@reframeb2b.com ...

Does selling to a Fortune 100 company need a different playbook than selling to a small business? 

Rob's take: enterprise sales runs on the same physics as other deals - you're still looking for one person with PULL. We discuss why procurement isn't actually your buyer, how to spot the person inside a big org who can buy, and why the "project plan to purchase" is where deals quietly stretch from one month to six or twelve.

Bonus...

What should a founder's calendar actually look like? (and if someone looked at your calendar, would they believe finding product market fit or growing your business is your #1 priority?)  

Rob introduces the Calendar Standard: a simple framework for how founders should spend their time if they're serious about reaching product-market fit and scaling from $0 to $1 million ARR. Includes a practical weekly schedule you can use tod...

Why do some people with obvious pain points never buy? 

Rob explains why founders are often taught to look for the wrong thing. Pain points may create interest, but they don't create purchases. Instead, he introduces the concept of PULL points, the conditions that make a customer unable to delay a project and unable to solve it with their existing options. Use these to stop mistaking enthusiasm for buying intent and start ident...

How do you know if your startup is actually on track?

A founder recently asked Rob a simple question: What does good actually look like? Rob realized that most founders don't have clear standards for evaluating whether their startup is making progress or quietly stalling. In this episode, Rob introduces a practical framework for assessing startup health across the entire customer factory - from pipeline and PULL to close rates, cycl...

What do startups that reach $1 million ARR have in common?

Rob has helped more than 50 startups grow from $0 to $1 million ARR. In this episode, he reflects on the patterns that show up across startups and industries, including five lessons from those journeys.

Covered in this episode:

• Why PULL is the underlying cause of startup growth
• Why nearly every successful startup "unfolds"
• Why the product customers want is usually much small...

People with PULL try to buy. People without PULL often sound interested, ask questions, and give positive feedback - but don't initiate purchase-shaped actions. 

Rob explores one of the most costly mistakes founders make: confusing enthusiasm with PULL. We explore why things customers say like "This would solve our biggest pain point" or "This would save us millions" often lead founders down dead ends. 

Covered in this epis...

Your startup has customers. Revenue is growing. So why does growth still feel harder than it should? 

Rob tackles one of the most frustrating challenges founders face: knowing your product works, but not knowing why growth isn't accelerating. Rob explains why the issue is almost always traced back to just two causes: 

1. You haven't identified who truly has PULL for your product, or 

2. You're doing something that preve...

Sales teardown #1: https://youtu.be/3TsrrMSXIfg 

Sales teardown #2: https://youtu.be/9a78RWkaALM 

Links

• GTM Accelerator: https://robsnyder.org/gtm-accelerator
• 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/
• Rob...

Your pilots are going well. Users are getting value. Usage is increasing. So why aren't customers buying? Or buying still is painful?

Rob unpacks a common startup assumption: if a pilot succeeds, the customer will buy. He explains why pilots, demos, procurement reviews, and other parts of the sales process never cause a purchase. Instead, they can only prevent one. 

Understanding that distinction helps founders design shorter sa...

When founder is getting started, they might be juggling multiple different ICPs and value props. Rob in this episode discusses why the goal is to eliminate all the "might work" and get to "weird if it didn't work" --> then translate that into a "weird not to meet" when a customer is in that situation. 

Links

• GTM Accelerator: https://robsnyder.org/gtm-accelerator
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:...

Rob's buddy found PMF a few months ago and went from ~bankrupt to more than $1M ARR in less than three months. What happens in that case?

Rob and RC discuss what changed to find PMF, and what the experience is post-PMF. Also, what do you do as a founder - where do you focus? And how does your approach pre-PMF affect your post-PMF life? (tl;dr: a lot)

Preorder Rob's book - "The Power of PULL" - ⁠and take a screenshot of your receipt! ...

Rob has distilled PULL into its most important elements - arranged in hierarchical order so that a founder knows where to focus first. This conversation includes the common error of getting the order wrong, Rob's commentary on the three most important parts of PULL, and examples of how these show up with founders.

Highly recommend reading the full substack post, "The PULL Quickstart Guide", available on Rob's substack: https://theph...

This is about VCs but also isn't about VCs. PULL can be found all over a startup - obviously with customers, but also, investors have PULL and they're trying to accomplish something specific. Rob works with founders to shape pitch decks and has fundraised - there's a hard-won lesson about what VCs are trying to accomplish, and the HUGE trap that smart, thoughtful founders building solid businesses fall into. 

This is an example...

Founders are inherent optimists - that's why (despite all the warnings of battle-scared entrepreneurs) we continue to start businesses. It is the cheerful burden we carry as we march into the abyss.

But GIVEN THAT'S THE CASE - how can we avoid that optimism crippling our chances at finding product-market fit? In this convo, Rob discusses the cold, harsh reality of launching a startup, the risks that optimistic founders run, and how...

The Lightspeed-funded startup Rocksalt had some traction, but it wasn't clear they had really found Pull. They had sales, but there was friction in the sales calls. They were trying to decide between three different ICPs. And retention and consistent use wasn't as consistent as they wanted.

In this conversation, cofounders Arjun Moorthy and Anita Moorthy join Rob to discuss how they used the PULL way of thinking to change their appr...

Whatever you're doing, make time to read through Rob's latest deck: "Notes on the Physics of Startups"

Access here (free): LINK

Work with Rob: robsnyder.org

Links

• GTM Accelerator: https://robsnyder.org/gtm-accelerator
• 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 L...

When someone buys something, they get a bunch of benefits and they may use a variety of different features, all of which provide an array of different benefits. After they buy, they explain what they like about our product based on these post-hoc benefits they received after they purchased it.

But the benefits do not *predict* why someone buys. In this conversation Rob gets into the difference between cause vs. benefits of a purchas...