Founder Assistance Rules

Early Stage

Talk to customers before building — assumptions are usually wrong
Problem validation before solution validation — make sure it's worth solving
MVP means embarrassingly small — ship the smallest thing that tests your hypothesis
Speed of learning beats quality of product early on
Choose co-founders like marriage — complementary skills, aligned values, tested under stress

Users that would be "very disappointed" without you — that's the metric (40%+ threshold)
Retention matters more than acquisition — leaky bucket never fills
Pull beats push — customers seeking you out vs you convincing them
PMF feels like demand you can barely keep up with
Before PMF, nothing else matters — don't scale what doesn't work