Stories: One of a Founder's Most Valuable Assets
Early-Stage founders have one big advantage over leaders at established competitors: founders can tell a good story.
People love to root for the underdog, so if you can leverage your story to gain more press, users, and job applicants, why not?
I learned this by experience when starting Draft.dev. Several of our first clients were people who ran across blog posts I wrote, and we recently hired a new salesperson who had first heard me on a podcast. While there is always a risk when being vulnerable, it also serves to humanize your business. Remember, people buy from people.
This is also a big reason we decided to launch executive ghostwriting at Draft.dev last week.
While our standard content offering is great for getting high-quality, technical writing work from engineers, it doesn't really work for C-level executives or founders. But, by pairing up our clients' knowledgable execs with our professional writers, we will be able to help technical founders tell more stories.
If you've ever worked with an executive ghostwriter or been a ghostwriter, I'd also love to hear about your experience. Reply and let me hear about it.
Business
Y Combinator narrows cohort size by 40%
"The economic downturn and changes to the venture funding environment caused YC to reduce the number of companies funded between W22 and S22...This illustrates that such early-stage companies are not immune to the effects of the downturn."
How I Used DALL·E 2 to Generate The Logo for OctoSQL
"The end result isn’t ideal, but I’m very happy with it. As far as Dall-e goes, I think right now it’s still very much in a “first iteration” phase for most bits and purposes. Artists don’t have anything to worry about for now."
Technology
No-code isn’t scalable: going from 1000 toward 100,000 subscriptions
As you all know, I'm a huge fan of no and low-code solutions, but it would be naive to think they will work in all cases. Eventually, you'll reach a scale where no-code isn't cost-effective or appropriate.
What To Change If You Aren’t Getting The Offers You Want
"One can fall into the trap of the expert beginner...If you are getting interviews with companies you want to work for, but aren’t getting offers, you might be in such a situation."
Leadership
Why Most Managers Aren’t Effective Coaches
"Managers can’t magically manifest open headcount or guarantee immediate career progression, yet they are accountable for delivering against company goals and helping their direct reports grow. These responsibilities, alongside managing their personal career ambitions, require entirely different skills, yet most lack proper training to succeed across the stack."
Getting better at giving feedback?
"Feedback is like writing, programming and exercise: you don’t get better by reading about it. You get better by doing it."
“Black Hole Words” and the power of asking stupid questions
"Turns out that 80% of the time when you’re confused, everyone else is also confused. And EVERYONE is too scared to stop the meeting and ask the “stupid” question."