Lolly Lessons…
Bullet point lessons because no one has time to read a book.
Lesson 1:
There is no going back when you raise venture dollars, expectations around consumer growth must be organically exponential. Being top 20 on the charts is an expectation. Once you choose that path, you are locked in on that rollercoaster.
Lesson 2:
Raising capital is a waste of time, most exceptional consumer social companies build products like hackathons and go viral before raising a single dollar. Do not optimize for fundraising; fundraising is inevitable, product market fit is not. You will be sitting on millions in the bank without PMF wasting away your 20s, it sucks. So many of my venture-backed consumer friends are in this position right now.
Lesson 3:
Testing PMF does not require any capital. The founders of NGL, formerly the #1 app on the charts in social networking, ran a simple process; bring the app to a high school and see if a couple of people would share the app with 2–3 friends. Not interviewing them, literally sending them the app on IG, and measuring the interactions for those accounts to see if the app was spreading like a plague. If it was then it was only a function of time before it reached millions, if it wasn’t then they needed to add more k-factor and more viral loops to the core product experience. They could even completely scrap the product and build new products immediately.
This simple test allows you to spend millions as an after fact knowing that you have PMF. I know apps that you could give to a controlled growth of 100 people and in a week it would grow organically grow to millions of people like a plague because the k-factor is there. Tinder, Bumble, and Meta could spin up apps all day — they are incredibly capitalized, but those products will never grow exponentially because they don’t have PMF.
Lesson 4:
If you have good enough numbers, any investor would write a check. It is all a function of metrics, stop wasting your time schmoozing.
Lesson 5:
Do not overhire. Stick to as few people as possible, no more than 3–4 at inception. Motivating people is really difficult. They could be qualified but if they do not have enough work to do, they will sow dissent and be unhappy which will affect the rest of the team. Put more emphasis on will vs skill. Don’t be that startup that hires interns when you don’t have true traction.
Lesson 6:
Testing PMF is as simple as putting your app on pre-order (it can barely be functional) and hiring small TikTokers to make videos about your app and see if you drive pre-orders. If people hear your concept and want to download it, or your videos about your concept go viral you have PMF. If none of the videos go viral or reach the main feed, your storyboard sucks or you do not have PMF in its current form.
We had a second app on the App Store called, Link. The app was set to pre-order, and we would always test features by having TikTokers promote new Link features, that did not exist, they were just Figma designs that we measured virality + how many pre-orders it would drive. We promoted apps that weren’t real to see if people actually wanted them. So much easier than building an entire app A-Z just for you and your team to be disappointed. Can literally test 10 concepts in the time it takes to make 1.
Lesson 7:
Burnout is real. Do not work with the people you live with beyond trips/temp visits. Make time for your wellness or you’ll make time for your illness. There is nothing cool about working 12 hours a day for six months, then burning out for 3 months. This is a marathon of sprints, it is not a marathon you run sprinting.
