Guides
Pricing, positioning, prioritization, product strategy. Each guide gives you the named framework, links every claim to a real source, and shows where the experts genuinely disagree, so you can decide against your own situation, not the internet's average.
Pre-PMF startup advice is the opposite of scaling advice, so an AI advisor must know your stage: Sean Ellis and Paul Graham before fit, Hormozi and Ramanujam after. The cited, stage-aware map.
Read the guideAn AI business advisor should cite named operators, show where they disagree, and remember your context, not hand you the generic average. Here's what to demand from one, and why generic ChatGPT falls short.
Read the guideAn AI co-founder should bring cited operator frameworks to your hardest calls, remember your context, and show where experts disagree, not hand you the generic average of the internet.
Read the guideThe B2B cut on pricing models: per-seat vs usage vs tiered vs hybrid, how to choose a value metric that expands the account, and why freemium misfires in B2B.
Read the guideMake better founder decisions: use a named framework not your gut, move fast on reversible calls and slow on irreversible ones, and seek where operators like Hormozi and Ellis disagree.
Read the guideChatGPT is useful at a startup for drafts, code, and research, but weak on the decisions that move the company: pricing, positioning, and product-market fit. Here's the cited operator answer to use instead.
Read the guideThere are only four ways to get customers: warm outreach, cold outreach, content, and paid ads. Here's Alex Hormozi's Core Four, how to pick one, and where operators disagree on going all-in vs building owned distribution.
Read the guideOne canonical operator framework per founder decision: positioning to Dunford, pricing to Ramanujam, PMF to Sean Ellis, first customers to Hormozi. The cited map, applied to your situation.
Read the guideA real founder decision tool does four things a chatbot does not: names the framework, shows both sides of a fork, fits your stage, and records your reasoning so you can revisit the call.
Read the guideA jobs to be done statement reads: When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]. Here are worked examples, the template, and where experts differ.
Read the guideThe core JTBD templates are the job statement, the four forces of progress, and the switch interview. Here's each one with an example, from the operators who built the method, and where they differ from personas.
Read the guideA positioning statement names your target customer, category, key benefit, and what makes you different, in one paragraph. Here's the classic template, worked examples, and where Geoffrey Moore and April Dunford disagree on using a template at all.
Read the guideA pricing framework is the sequence operators use to set a price on purpose: value metric, willingness to pay, anchor, package, ICP. Here's each step, cited, and where the experts disagree on freemium.
Read the guideRICE and ICE score initiatives so you can rank them. Here's how each works, and why operators say the scoring is the easy part: the real skill is picking the one constraint and committing.
Read the guideThe product launch checklist that moves the needle: build the list before launch day, recruit users by hand, ship janky (Garry Tan), pick one channel, and set the number that proves it worked.
Read the guideA product launch plan as a timeline: pre-launch weeks (waitlist, pre-sell), the launch window (ship janky, charge from day one), and post-launch (lifetime deal for cash and feedback). Cited to operators.
Read the guideProduct launch strategy is the bet you make before the checklist: audience-first or product-first, distribution as the moat (Evan Spiegel), one channel, and treating launch as a process, not an event.
Read the guideProduct positioning is the context that makes buyers instantly get what you are and why you're the best pick. Here's the five-step operator method, cited.
Read the guideMost product strategy is a goals list in disguise. A real one has three parts: diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action. Here's Rumelt's kernel and the 4Bs, cited, plus where deliberate strategy meets 'find the one constraint.'
Read the guideFlat, tiered, per-seat, usage-based, or freemium? The right SaaS pricing model follows from your value metric. Here's when each fits, cited to operators, and where they disagree on freemium vs free trial.
Read the guideA SaaS pricing strategy sequences the moves over time: pick a value metric, price to willingness to pay, expand revenue, reprice on cohorts. Cited to operators.
Read the guideBefore you commit a price, run five checks: value metric set, priced to willingness-to-pay not cost, anchored high enough to gasp, the high-WTP 20% protected, and the ICP that renews.
Read the guideUsage-based pricing works when the metered unit is your value metric. The case for it, the real risk of bills buyers can't predict, and the hybrid that fixes it.
Read the guideThe Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter is four questions put to real buyers. Here's how to run it on your SaaS, how to read the chart, and where operators disagree on trusting the result.
Read the guideProduct positioning is the context you set so buyers instantly get what your product is, who it's for, and why it's better. Here's a working definition, the steps operators use, and where they disagree.
Read the guideChatGPT gives generic startup advice for four structural reasons: the averaged internet, no retrievable citations, built-in agreeableness, and no memory of your context. Here's what a cited answer looks like instead.
Read the guide