The Physics of Startups

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...

The Lightspeed-funded startup Rocksalt had some traction, but it wasn't clear they had really found Pull. They had sales, but there was friction in the sales calls. They were trying to decide between three different ICPs. And retention and consistent use wasn't as consistent as they wanted. In this conversation, cofounders Arjun Moorthy and Anita Moorthy join Rob to discuss how they used the PULL...

Whatever you're doing, make time to read through Rob's latest deck: "Notes on the Physics of Startups" Access here (free): LINK Work with Rob: robsnyder.org

When someone buys something, they get a bunch of benefits and they may use a variety of different features, all of which provide an array of different benefits. After they buy, they explain what they like about our product based on these post-hoc benefits they received after they purchased it. But the benefits do not *predict* why someone buys. In this conversation Rob gets into the difference bet...

Rob is zooming out this week to look at what PULL means in the context of capitalism, and in particular, why it is the only system that can possibly serve people. It's taking a micro-understanding of how demand and PULL work, and thinking about its broader implications - and what this means for social entrepreneurship and alternative economic organizations. Rob's Substack post here: ⁠LINK⁠...

One of the most challenging things about identifying PULL in customers is understanding what they are telling you. In this conversation, Rob discusses the “hairball” that customers often spit out - a mix of demand, supply, history, random red herrings - and how to translate that into Demand.  Rob's Substack post here: ⁠LINK⁠ PMF Camp / Work with Rob: ⁠LINK⁠ Pre-order Rob's book ("The...

Rob's B2B Sales Call Script: LINK You asked, Rob answered. Rob is open-sourcing his sales call script that he uses with founders and heads of sales to identify PULL and pitch supply in a way that customer's want (and actually understand and buy). In this conversation, Rob discusses common failure modes in sales calls that he sees and walks through key elements of the sales call script - fr...

Palash Soni founded Goldcast, a video-first B2B event marketing platform which was acquired by CVent in December 2025 reportedly for $300M . Palash and Rob have known each other for several years, and in this conversation they discuss the evolution of Goldcast, why Goldcast survived when better funded competitors didn't, the acquisition process, choosing the right market, the experience of being a...

A startup is not many things - it's "one thing" - and it obeys laws of evolution. The best way to understand how the evolution works is through the PULL framework, and Rob sheds light on the continuum - from outreach and discovery to demo and onboarding / delivery. Reserve your spot in the next cohort of "The Physics of Sales." Spots are limited! https://bit.ly/4aQcuWa or r...

Why do some startups take off ($25M ARR within 2 years) while others - with equally talented founder teams, with equally unique tech, with equally attractive markets, … - struggle to reach $500k, $1M or just feel like they’re pushing instead of customers pulling? Rob jumps into that question in this week’s Substack and this podcast. The answer is that PULL is not linear - it’s logarithmic - and th...

Today we’re learning from true masters of their craft - the heroes behind infomercials and “As seen on TV” product - who understand PULL more intuitively than the best marketers. Rob breaks down the “TurboPump” infomercial, which communicates just about everything a customer needs to know within 16 seconds. Lessons include: Sequencing a sales call How to describe how your product works How to impr...

There are two types of PULL out there. If a customer has either of them - and if your Supply fits - they will rip a product out of your hands. Here is how Rob defines them: COPING PULL : A buyer who is prioritizing a project right now, but their current approach is sufficiently bad that they are COPING - struggling against their current approach. BLOCKED PULL : A buyer who would prioritize a proje...

Cyberstarts (VC focused on cybersecurity) has an insane hit rate - its first fun turned $50M into $2B within 3 years investing in 9 founders. Founded by Gili Raanan, their approach (which they call "Sunrise") inverts the pre-idea / pre-product stage. Instead of choosing a market / technology to bet on, they invest in founder teams pre-product, use a network of CSIOs to identify demand, v...

A frequent critique Rob hears of "Sell then build" is that it's fine for a 'lifestyle business' but can't possibly result in a unicorn or generational company. ...Right? So Rob dug into the histories of some of the leading tech (Microsoft, Oracle, Hubspot), Deep-tech (NVIDIA) and consumer (Nike, Starbucks) companies. ... turns out, they follow similar themes: Figure out s...

Rob discusses the evolution of sales calls from the first version (often awkward, typically clunky and uncomfortable for the prospect, and not effective) to the various iterations he sees with each step improving incrementally. The discovery sharpens, then the customer targeting, then the pitch, the demo, the sequencing of calls, and the offer / conversion. This is a very practical episode and Sub...