5 minute read on: sales strategies, conversations about exploring ideas and my new go to AI tools.
A list of what Im consuming this week
This week, I have been catching up on overdue reading and sharing how the most likely place to find a startup idea is in your friend’s expense reports.
Let’s dive in.
Q&A from my network
After sharing my recent LinkedIn post on finding PMF, a bunch of people reached out to discuss their ideas (btw, I love when people reach out).
Tip - Share and discuss ideas with others often. No good idea ever arrives when you are sitting at your desk alone.
Top Questions & Answers:
“I want to work on something, but I don’t know what; how do I identify and prioritize opportunities in my industry?”
Step 1 - Reach out to a profile of people you have the best access to.
Step 2 - Ask them for their recurring monthly business expenses.
Step 3 - Ask what solutions they are paying for that they are least happy with.
Step 4 - Assess what they hired the solution to do and where it failed.
Step 5 - Identify if a trend emerges; the problem is something you could help solve for them, and there is a willingness to pay for your solution.
“Should I focus on getting a co-founder or developing the idea?”
No easy answer: do both.
The team is everything, but it can help to have a starting point. Make sure to ideate on problems where your combined skills have a compounding unfair advantage. Your first idea is rarely ‘the’ idea.
“How did you find your first paying customers for your current idea?”
Method 1 - I ran user interviews with people in my network, followed up with the ones with the validated pain point, and proposed a solution.
Method 2 - For people who did not have the problem, I asked if they knew people who did fit this description. They then kindly introduced me to them.
This is my go-to process;
Sales
Alex Hormozi $100m Offers
This book is the ‘Mom Test’ of sales; read it and reread it.
Here are my biggest takeaways:
Starving Crowd (market) > Offer Strength > Persuasion Skills
You’ll never become world-class if you stop after a failed attempt. - “I have coined the term “niche slap” to remind entrepreneurs in my communities to commit once they pick. All businesses and all markets have unpleasant characteristics. The grass is never greener once you get to the other side.”
People pay for certainty, speed, and ease. Focus on the value equation:
Dream outcome: How will this improve my life?
Perceived likelihood of achievement: How likely is this to happen?
Time delay: How long will this take?
Effort & sacrifice: How much work will this take?
How to handle when a client says your price is too high.
Finding leads on X
Go to your competitor's company account on X, reach out to all their followers via DM saying, “ I saw you are a user of x; I’m looking for solutions in this area; what is one thing you wish ‘Product Y’ did that it doesn’t today?
Tooltip - Cold Close helps you DM these people at scale
Self-learning for AI
If you want to learn as much as possible about AI, a16z AI-Canon and Google Cloud Skills Boost have everything you need to start.
AI tools you may not have used
Perplexity - Connected to the internet, this is my new Google.
Typing Mind - Combines all popular models together, so you don’t have to keep switching between them all for different use cases.
Startup programs worth applying for
Greylock has also released an ‘Idea Map’ of the top areas they are investing in.
Y-Combinator (Deadline 13th October)
Articles
What CEOs need to know about Generative AI.
Companies can participate in 4 ways - using off-the-shelf tools, building custom solutions with APIs, fine-tuning models, or training models from scratch. Examples are given of companies using generative AI to boost productivity in software engineering, customer service, sales, and drug discovery.
Costs, technical requirements, and risks vary widely depending on the application. Proper governance and risk management are critical.
CEOs play a key role in organizing teams, prioritizing use cases, enabling the tech stack, building proofs of concept, balancing risks and benefits, managing partnerships, and directing talent strategies.
The key is to start experimenting thoughtfully and learn by doing, as generative AI presents unique speed and risk considerations compared to past technology advances.
Question?
Has anyone tried Rewind yet? If yes, how is it?
P.S. Thank you, Uzair Hayat (CreativeLog), for all those introductions