10 Steps to Startuplandia Enlightenment

A rough quality solution to an unmet 1st order problem will be celebrated, an amazing solutions to a lower order problem will likely be ignored
The honey badger of product provides 80/20 support as PM & UX designer - the focus is on shipping a stable product.
Services enabled by Software, not Software as a Service - people don’t want or need more software, people want/need services that solve problems.
Founders succeed by staying in the game for enough product feedback cycles to correct their understanding of the problem while simultaneously selling a service/solution.
Reduce your burn rate by not hiring full time employees (FTE) - trusted contractors who will work variable rate months 60-140 hours/month (engineers) and 20-80 hours/month (designers).
Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Tech - use all tools as built w/o deep customization, force your product your expectations through this constraint and you’ll go far on small budgets.
CTO’s primary focus is on making sure tech and product support sales and growth.
Design and engineering team should have min 5 years early stage experience and worked at at least 2 “real” startups.
CTO should have a long time horizon w respect to decision making, CTO must be capable of selling things.
Prefer intuitive conversations to excessive scoping and ticketing - in the beginning creativity is driven by rough feelings about what might work - precise tickets will never capture this nuance, rely on great communication and constant feedback.