The startup community is failing founders
Reflections on PMF Camp
Hi all —
Two weeks ago, I posted on LinkedIn that, if I got 10 founders signed up, I’d do a weeklong “PMF Camp” on how to go from 0-10 customers.
It was partially a joke, and partially out of frustration from having the same conversation with founders 4x in a row.
Something like 50 founders have been joining me for 1hr lessons each day this week, and there are 50+ on the waitlist for the “next one.” Which is great and all, but leaves me with one big reflection:
The startup community is failing founders.
There are a million communities, influencers, books, and courses about building a startup. PMF Camp shouldn’t need to exist.
But it’s clear from founder feedback that something like PMF Camp is desperately needed & wildly unique.
Which leaves me with 3 reflections:
There’s a lot of hand-waiving noise about building a startup, but nothing that’s actually helpful to founders who are “in it.” Most stuff is about how to LARP your way to funding, build a hip product, scale a team, and swing blindly for a lottery-ticket outcome.
The most viral/popular startup advice I see is also the dumbest. At best: “wet streets cause rain.”
It’s not clear that anybody understands product-market fit very well. (Except for, “here’s what it’s like after you have PMF.”)
VCs, accelerators, fucking someone should be helping founders deeply understand the path to product-market fit and their first 10, 50, 100 customers.
So while I am so grateful about the response to PMF Camp — I’m also left feeling that the startup community is failing founders. Maybe I wasn’t crazy when I was trying to figure this out alone as a founder, and felt like nothing out there was actually helpful. If you feel this way… you’re not alone.
Step 1: Open-sourcing PMF Camp materials
I pulled together something like 300 slides for this week’s sessions. See all the materials below:
Day 1: Four core mental models about $0-$1M ARR
Day 2: GTM - building your customer conversation engine
Day 3: GTM - building your v1 sales process
Day 4: Delivery - building your v1 product & CS process
Day 5: Execution to PMF & failure modes
Feel free to share these slides around, and/or reach out with questions, comments, & ideas for what PMF Camp should be!
And if you’d like to get on the waitlist for the next version of PMF Camp - click HERE
Many founders have spent the bulk of their careers in the ZIRP (low interest rate) era. In my experience, a deep understanding of PMF was not necessary because the market was in a secular bull market. Currently (2024) we are in a double hangover due to demand that was pulled ahead in 2020-2022 by the lockdowns and disastrous fiscal policy in 2021 (looking at you American Rescue Plan Act). So to some extent, dont hate the players, hate the game.
Love the idea of the camp. Reminds me of the 5-day challenge model that is working well in the coaching space.