28 Startup Founder Fundamentals

• You can’t half-ass a startup. You have to be all in.
• Always bet on your strengths. Don’t try to become something you’re not.
• If you have no competitors, you have no market.
• Total Addressable Market is more important than you think.
• Mind your own vessel. Your competitors will probably self destruct.
• Cash is oxygen. Know when you will suffocate at all times.
• Culture starts at the top.
• Put employees before customers.
• Put customers before profits.
• Master fundamentals before optimizing.
• Engineer growth into the offering.
• Be data driven. Measure. Improve.
• Gamify mundane repetitive tasks for your team.
• Use technology to make it effortless for your customer.
• Always strive to be as clean, organized, and efficient as possible.
• Know your customer.
• The best marketing is when they don’t know it’s marketing.
• Inbound marketing is the future, interruptive is the past.
• Create valuable content consistently.
• Never bait or trick your customer.
• Be transparent and authentic.
• Don’t just offer deals, offer a story.
• Build a daily customer acquisition process.
• Top line revenue is the only metric that matters.
• Stay in the black every month. Revenue > Expenses.
• Always mind the margins.
• Legacy > Currency.
• Only take investments to grow faster.

I’d love to read your suggestions, comments, or feedback on how to improve this list. Thanks for reading.