(2024-04-27) Maurya As A Founder You Are Investor1 In Your Startup

Ash Maurya: As a founder, you are Investor #1 in your startup. As a founder, you are Investor #1 in your startup. And, you need to be even harsher on your numbers than a professional investor.

‍I. Time is more valuable than money.

2 Underlying Strategies at Play

Money can fluctuate up and down, but time only moves in one direction — down.

Professional investors diversify their capital across multiple buckets in a portfolio of varying risks. You, on the other hand, place all your time into a single high-risk bucket — your startup.

II. Ideas can easily consume years of your life.

A typical startup takes about 2-3 years to find product/market fit and 80% of startups never get there. That equates to spending up to 10-15 years in search of a good idea!

You have to constantly optimize for speed, learning, and focus in order to reduce your cycle time between ideas.

3 Actionable Tactics

I. Cover your downside while shooting for the fences.

Minimum Success Criteria (MSC): The smallest outcome that would deem your project a success 3 years from now.

Spend an afternoon to determine your MSC.

Turn it into a measurable customer traction goal. Chart a traction roadmap.

II. Determine your 90-Day Goal.

determine your next 90-day goal. (Quarterly Review)

This is the only macro metric that matters.

III. Run small, fast, additive experiments.

Your true job as a founder is to systematically de-risk your business model before running out of resources.

Use discovery experiments to uncover the obstacles or constraints standing between you and your 90-day goal.
Shortlist possible campaigns for achieving your goal.
Then run small and fast additive experiments to test and double down on your most promising strategies.