The Startup Help Desk

In this episode we answer questions about finding a co-founder and managing your relationship with your co-founder for the road ahead. Co-founder conflict is one of the top reasons for startup failure; many argue it is the primary cause of startup failure in the early days. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: How do I find a co-founder? Can I add a co-founder later?...

In this episode we answer questions about managing your time. Startups are all about speed, so you need to make the most of every hour of every day. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: Where should I spend my time as the CEO? How often should we have team meetings? Is our product development velocity high enough? All of these questions were submitted by listeners ju...

In this episode we answer questions about complex exit options. While we all hope for a bit exit, startups more often face complex and difficult exit options including low sale prices, mergers and wind downs. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: What happens if my investors want to sell but I don't? Is a merger ever a good idea? How do I know it's time to s...

In this episode we answer questions about handling problem customers. If you make money you have customers, and if you have customers some of them will cause problems for you. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: What should you do if a customer plans to compete with you? How do you handle abusive customers? Should you let customers invest in your company? All of the...

In this episode we answer questions about choosing and using metrics. Metrics are one of the best tools you have to run your startup, but only if you use them well. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: What metrics should I put on my dashboard? What do we do if our competitors are lying about their metrics? How do we report metrics like revenue, which have many defin...

In this episode we answer questions about managing your board of directors. If you have investors, you have a board and managing your relationship with them is one of the most important, and hardest, jobs you have. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: How do I handle a board member who is ignoring me? What do I do if my board tells me to fire someone? How do we recov...

In this episode we answer questions about turning around your startup. Startup journeys are hard, and it's likely you'll need to turn things around when they start to go  badly. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: What do I tell my investors about a big pivot? How do I hold my team together when people start leaving? How can I recapture growth after it sto...

In this episode we answer questions about managing conflict. Conflict is inevitable in the high pressure, fast-paced startup world so managing it is critical to your success. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: What do I do when my co-founder wants to leave? How do I resolve conflict between product and engineering? How do I repair a broken investor relationship? Th...

In this episode we answer questions about marketing! Marketing is one of the most challenging things to do well, but essential to success for your startup. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: How do we scale faster after our first few customers? Are we doing something wrong or do ads not work? When is the right time for me to hire our first marketing person? This ep...

In this episode we answer questions about finding product/market fit! The market has gotten harder on startups in the past 12 months, and finding product/market fit is more important than ever. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: Should you keep going or give up on your startup? How do I guide my team without concrete goals and traction? How do I know if I should pi...

In this episode we answer questions about navigating uncertainty! The market and funding environment are changing every day, and managing those ups and downs is hard. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including: How do I know what metrics I need to raise money in 12 months? How do I know if I should spend more to grow faster or cut costs? How do we handle re-orgs at our big...

In this episode we answer questions about how to build relationships with your investors! Most startup companies have investors, and your relationship with them is critical to your success. We are here to help and in this episode we answer questions including: How honest should I be in my investor updates? One of my investors just invested in a competitor, what do I do? My investors have stopped r...

In this episode we answer questions about how to manage risk! Startup companies face mountains of risk, and it can be hard to know which risks to focus on and what you can do about them. We are here to help and in this episode we answer questions including: What do I do if I think my VP of Sales is looking for another job? How do we handle unusual requests from our biggest customers? How do we sta...

In this episode we answer questions about how to handle competition! We all have competition and how we handle it is the difference between winning and losing in our markets. We are here to help and in this episode we answer questions including: How much time should we be spending thinking about our competition? How do you handle entirely new kinds of competition, like LLMs & GPT? What do we d...

In this episode we answer questions about how to handle a crisis! There have been no shortage of crises recently, including the COVID pandemic and the recent banking crisis. We are here to help and in this episode we answer questions including: What, if anything, can I do to prepare for a crisis? How do we handle crises that are bigger than we are, like the recent banking crises? What do I tell my...

In this episode we answer questions about the problems that come from scaling your startup, and how to fix them! We answer questions including: How does the Founder role as a company grows? What do I need to change as my team goes from 5 to 25 people? What do I do if my co-founder isn’t growing with the company? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit quest...

In this episode we answer questions about your employees, how to know if they are happy and how to ensure that they are! We answer questions including: How do you measure employee satisfaction? What do you do if employee morale is low? What's an MVP of performance reviews? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our websit...

In this episode we answer questions about how to set the price on your product! We answer questions including: How do I decide on a price for my new product? Should I raise my prices if I think they are too low? Should I raise prices on existing customers or only new customers? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our websit...

In this episode we answer questions about making money and profitability! We answer questions including: Should I focus on Growth or Profitability? How do I figure out my Unit Economics? How do I know if I'm making enough money? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartuphelpdesk.com/ or on T...

In this episode we answer questions about how to hire your first employees! We answer questions including: How do I find the right co-founder to join you?  How do you convince people to join your very early stage startup? What should you pay a co-founder? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartu...

In this episode we answer questions about how to build your first product! We answer questions including: How do you decide what to include in your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? When does good design matter? How do you start selling, with just a prototype or an MVP? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://ww...

In this episode we answer questions about how to get your product in the hands of customers, also known as distribution! We answer questions including: Should you build an audience or product first? What are the secrets to cold outreach? What are channel partners and should you use them? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on...

In this episode we answer questions about doing effective Customer Discovery, including: How do you hold a Customer Discovery interview? What to do if you hear inconsistent feedback? How much time should you put into it? All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartuphelpdesk.com/ or on Twitter @thest...

In this episode we answer questions submitted by founders just like you, including: When is my product ready for launch? When will I know if my fundraising process is working? How do I hire for positions where I don’t have any experience myself? You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartuphelpdesk.com/ or on Twitter @thestartuphd - we'd love to hear from you...

We discuss questions on the minds of many companies these days: How do we sell the company? Whether you want to sell or need to sell, few people have experience doing it and even fewer have ever done it well. We address common questions about the selling process based on years of experience selling and buying companies including: When do you need to start planning a sale? How do you sell a company...