The Physics of Startups

This one is for all the analytical founders in our audience. "Me-search" (the act of analyzing your own experience and projecting onto a group, like in marketing) is a villain in business schools, but Rob argues that it does hold an important insight within your reach: Understanding how humans are not robots and more deeply grasping what PULL is and "feels like" - which is the...

There's a frequent question that Rob gets from founders who are developing new technologies - it takes forms like:  What if I'm creating a new category?  What if the customer doesn't know they need our product?  Today, we're digging into the concept of "Latent Demand" - what a customer prioritize right now if only there was a way.  The critical concept here is that a...

There's a bug in a founder's brain (or at least mine) that likes to fantasize about all the benefits for customer (alleviating pain points, delivering value, helping differentiate, ...), while ignoring the more important question:  "Could they * not * buy?" Rob helps us understand a different standard from what founders have historically used, which is requisite for a startup t...

Customer discovery can be very intimidating. What do I ask? How do I build a connection? How do I improvise?  We're digging into how Rob thinks about discovery, common mistakes, and ways that Rob uses to uncover real customer PULL that leads to purchases. For anyone who has waded into the murky waters of untangling what customers say, hopefully this helps to develop your intuition around what...

Every founder has a million different things they could be doing, but where should they focus? What will actually move the needle and unlock their business to take off? In this episode, we get an inside view on how Rob works with a new startup that comes to him. Objective #1: Find the right place to focus. For you to run this same diagnostic on your startup or product, you need a conceptual model...

There's a lot going on with a first sales hire - When? Who? What to hire them for? It's a question that Rob sees from a few angles, often taking the form of: "I can't sell my product but I think someone with sales experience can" or "My sales calls are showing promise but aren't closing and I think someone else would do a better job." Rob's take: You ne...

Sorry, folks. The PULL Hypothesis is out. Rob observed that founders and teams were holding too tightly onto the PULL Hypothesis and too tempted by abstractions, which prevented them from understanding and serving customer demand.  BUT - fear not. Today, we discuss the PULL Anecdote, which, speaking personally (as Rob's cohost), I think is a hugely liberating concept and I'm excited to p...

Why does a startup with a great product, a strong team, and glowing pilot feedback still fail to sell? But others with rudimentary products, ugly sales materials, and first-time teams take off? Rob gives a way of understanding startup success (or lack there of) - including "because" factors and "despite" factors, a way to separate what actually causes someone to buy from what t...

Everyone's favorite topic - outbound!  Think about your LInkedIn or email inbox - what makes most cold outbound so bad? Rob breaks down what actually causes someone to take a meeting from a cold message, and what you are probably doing that's shooting yourself in the foot.  Rob introduces the "hierarchy of interestingness," a way to rank what's actually interesting to your...

Why is it so hard for founders to see real demand, even when it's all around? Rob breaks down "the demand lens," the practice of removing your product from the picture entirely so you can see where people are actually stuck, versus the "supply lens" most founders default to without realizing it. That difference is what decides whether you're solving a real problem or...

Why do founders waste so much energy thinking about things they can't actually know? Rob breaks down his "no speculation rule," the topics he treats as off limits because they waste time without ever being answerable. The three traps: guessing the future, assuming what customers mean, and building abstractions like personas. Post: The "No Speculation" Rule Get in touch Thi...

Does selling to a Fortune 100 company need a different playbook than selling to a small business?  Rob's take: enterprise sales runs on the same physics as other deals - you're still looking for one person with PULL. We discuss why procurement isn't actually your buyer, how to spot the person inside a big org who can buy, and why the "project plan to purchase" is where dea...

What should a founder's calendar actually look like? ( and if someone looked at your calendar, would they believe finding product market fit or growing your business is your #1 priority? )   Rob introduces the Calendar Standard : a simple framework for how founders should spend their time if they're serious about reaching product-market fit and scaling from $0 to $1 million ARR. Includes...

Why do some people with obvious pain points never buy?  Rob explains why founders are often taught to look for the wrong thing. Pain points may create interest, but they don't create purchases. Instead, he introduces the concept of PULL points , the conditions that make a customer unable to delay a project and unable to solve it with their existing options. Use these to stop mistaking enthusi...

How do you know if your startup is actually on track? A founder recently asked Rob a simple question: What does good actually look like? Rob realized that most founders don't have clear standards for evaluating whether their startup is making progress or quietly stalling. In this episode, he introduces a practical framework for assessing startup health across the entire customer factory - from...

What do startups that reach $1 million ARR have in common? Rob has helped more than 50 startups grow from $0 to $1 million ARR. In this episode, he reflects on the patterns that show up across startups and industries, including five lessons from those journeys. Covered in this episode: Why PULL is the underlying cause of startup growth Why nearly every successful startup "unfolds" Why th...

In this episode, Rob explores one of the most costly mistakes founders make: confusing enthusiasm with PULL. We explore why things customers say like "This would solve our biggest pain point" or "This would save us millions" often lead founders down dead ends. People with PULL try to buy. People without PULL often sound interested, ask questions, and give positive feedback - bu...

Your startup has customers. Revenue is growing. So why does growth still feel harder than it should? Rob tackles one of the most frustrating challenges founders face: knowing your product works, but not knowing why growth isn't accelerating. Rob explains why the issue is almost always traced back to just two causes: 1. You haven't identified who truly has PULL for your product, or 2. You&#...

Sales teardown #1: https://youtu.be/3TsrrMSXIfg Sales teardown #2: https://youtu.be/9a78RWkaALM --- Pre-order Rob's book and get his Claude sales call analysis skill: https://robsnyder.org/book Work with Rob: https://robsnyder.org/work-with-me Rob's substack: https://thephysicsofstartups.substack.com/

Your pilots are going well. Users are getting value. Usage is increasing. So why aren't customers buying? Or buying still is painful? Rob unpacks a common startup assumption: if a pilot succeeds, the customer will buy. He explains why pilots, demos, procurement reviews, and other parts of the sales process never cause a purchase . Instead, they can only prevent one. Understanding that distinct...

Access to Rob's Claude skill + AMAs: LINK ( just upload a screen grab of your pre-order ) Rob's book: Amazon , B&N When founder is getting started, they might be juggling multiple different ICPs and value props. Rob in this episode discusses why the goal is to eliminate all the "might work" and get to "weird if it didn't work" --> then translate that into a &...

Rob's buddy found PMF a few months ago and went from ~bankrupt to more than $1M ARR in less than three months. What happens in that case? Rob and RC discuss what changed to find PMF, and what the experience is post-PMF. Also, what do you do as a founder - where do you focus? And how does your approach pre-PMF affect your post-PMF life? ( tl;dr: a lot ) Preorder Rob's book - "The Power of PULL" - ⁠...

Rob has distilled PULL into its most important elements - arranged in hierarchical order so that a founder knows where to focus first. This conversation includes the common error of getting the order wrong, Rob's commentary on the three most important parts of PULL, and examples of how these show up with founders. Highly recommend reading the full substack post, "The PULL Quickstart Guide...

This is about VCs but also isn't about VCs. PULL can be found all over a startup - obviously with customers, but also, investors have PULL and they're trying to accomplish something specific. Rob works with founders to shape pitch decks and has fundraised - there's a hard-won lesson about what VCs are trying to accomplish, and the HUGE trap that smart, thoughtful founders building soli...

Founders are inherent optimists - that's why (despite all the warnings of battle-scared entrepreneurs) we continue to start businesses. It is the cheerful burden we carry as we march into the abyss. But GIVEN THAT'S THE CASE - how can we avoid that optimism crippling our chances at finding product-market fit? In this convo, Rob discusses the cold, harsh reality of launching a startup, the...