Happy Friday.
This week’s briefing is focused on growth. Enjoy!
The Achievement Denominator
There is a tendency among managers to measure their success by the number of teams and people under them. But every achievement has a denominator, and leaders should focus on delivering outsize results with a small team (denominator) rather than simply managing large teams. Bigness itself is costly, but constraints can fuel creativity. The important thing is efficient resource allocation. Having "enough" engineers for a project is not always the best approach. What was the denominator of the last big project you landed? Could you have done it with fewer people? How will you apply those learnings to the next big initiative? Can we find more language and ways to talk about, or take pride in, how efficiently we do big things? At the very least, perhaps we can start paying attention to the denominator of our achievements, and factor that into how we level and reward our leaders. Charity.wtf (6 minutes)
First 1,000
This extremely tactical guide will help founders get to their first 1,000 community members. Here are the six steps: 1) Run cheap tests, do community discovery and build a wedge. 2) Build a scrappy MVP, and earn the right to build more. 3) Nail your onboarding, identify your power users and scale up. 4) Expand beyond your MVP and experiment. 5) Measure what matters, and shore up your team. 6) Leverage the community to supercharge the company. First Round Review (24 minutes)
Outbound Sales
In this conversation with Alex Hormozi and Leila Hormozi of Acquisition.com, you'll learn how to use outbound and inbound sales to scale a company. I’ve read Alex’s book called $100M Offers. To be honest, some of it is cheesy, but I was surprised that there were some really solid nuggets. If you’re interested in improving your outbound, this is worth a watch. YouTube (50 minutes)
Founder FAQ: What are drag-along rights?
Drag-along rights are a term that’s often included in startup financing. It allows a small set of investors, or potentially even a single investor, to force a sale of the company. Founders should pay very close attention to this deal point.This term is investor-friendly, so the best outcome for founders would be to negotiate it out of the deal. However, if investors insist on the term, which is common, the founder should negotiate for a broader set of shareholders to make the decision. Westaway (5 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term by term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Move Fast. Don’t Break Things.
Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.