Tag: founder playbook
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Customer Discovery Interviews: Your 2026 Playbook
You probably have an idea open in one tab, Figma in another, and a notes doc full of product thoughts you want to turn into something real. I get it. Building feels good. Talking to strangers does not. But if you're skipping customer discovery interviews because they feel slow, awkward, or fuzzy, you're walking straight…
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Market Research for New Products: A Founder’s Playbook
You've probably got a note on your phone, a half-baked Figma file, or a sketch on a diner napkin. You keep coming back to it. Part of you thinks, “This could work.” The other part thinks, “If I tell people, they'll steal it. If I build it first, I might waste a year.” I get…
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Product Launch Strategy: A Founder’s No-BS Playbook
You shipped the product in your head a hundred times already. You've pictured the signup spike, the kind replies, the first paying customer, the friend texting “this is slick.” But when the actual launch gets close, your brain stops playing the movie and starts running disaster drills. What if nobody cares? What if people click…
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Outsource E Commerce: A Founder’s No-BS Playbook
You're probably in the same spot I see over and over. Sales are coming in. Orders are moving. Your store looks healthy from the outside. But behind the scenes, you're answering support tickets at night, fixing product listings on weekends, chasing a warehouse for updates, and checking ad accounts before breakfast. You don't have a…
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Early Stage Companies: Master Metrics & Traction in 2026
Most advice about early stage companies is built for a tiny slice of founders. It assumes you're raising VC, building software, and chasing the same milestones as everyone on startup Twitter. That's bad advice for many founders. If you're building a product brand, an ecommerce business, or a practical service company in Chicago or the…
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How to Create a Referral Program That Attracts Givers
Most advice on how to create a referral program is built for brands that sell socks, software, or meal kits. It tells you to slap a discount on a page, send a blast, and wait for “growth.” I think that advice is wrong for community-first founders. If you’re building around trust, taste, and actual relationships,…
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