Chris Homer

If you’re an early-stage founder, finding out what your customers *really* want so you can build the right product is critical. I’m excited to share some of First Round Capital's PMF Method program with Gagan Biyani on Friday! Gagan has founded 3 companies including Udemy, Sprig, and Maven. We’re hosting this live conversation for product leaders & founders on how to reach PMF. You’ll learn: - How to identify your customers' real problems - How to test demand by selling before building - When to write code vs. build a no-code MVP RSVP to join on June 14th (it’s free): https://bit.ly/3VBAK69

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Loved getting the chance to sit down and catch up with Katherine D'Zmura Friedman, CEO of Thumbprint Furniture. They’re creating a design tool for the commercial furniture industry that engages interior design teams and furniture manufacturers. Time to augment some more clunky processes with technology (and by default, yes, AI). 🕰️🛋️🪑🏭🏢 Watch the video and learn more below!

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Product Market Fit, a new framework. I've been working on this for a little while now and figured it's time to "eat my own dogfood" and test it out in the market. In this framework I provide a visual outline of the journey from "day zero" to PMF. Along the way founders must iterate on their product as well as their market to close the Product Market Gap in order to get to PMF. More details in the article. Let me know what you think 🙏 https://lnkd.in/gyF8V--x

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Before you launch a CPG brand with any sort of DTC strategy, make sure you do this… I promise it will take you 15 minutes or less. I see brands going straight into product development and selling without checking a crucial detail: Will the economics actually work if launched as a DTC brand? So many founders dive in because they’re excited about their product. But if they don’t understand the full payback period, they risk serious financial setbacks down the road. We created a simple 15-minute tool to help founders calculate if their DTC model is sustainable. Here’s why it’s worth it: - It considers real margins - It factors in customer acquisition costs - It gives you clarity before you commit Instead of risking time, money, and sanity, get a quick gut check. Spend those 15 minutes and see if your numbers add up. Starting strong is better than starting over. Download the free template below (link in the comments👇).

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At Beacon Angels, we see a lot of companies with an interesting idea that talk about their 'market traction' but have yet to achieve meaningful revenue results. We also see portfolio companies returning to us with a need for additional capital to 'pivot'. Those companies are still searching for product-market fit...and it's crucial to their success.

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What's preventing your store from loading this fast? https://lnkd.in/gVANey-H ⏱ I met Michael Bower yesterday and loved what he's doing at Nyla to deliver blazing-fast sites like Paradox Outdoor as a simple no-code solution for brands. Building something really bespoke on Hydrogen? Check out solutions like Pack. The point is, you shouldn't have a slow and cumbersome site in 2024. We build mobile apps based on web components at Kin so we often help brands see their website through a fresh lens 👓 ➡ how does my site look and feel as a mobile application? Sometimes, they don't love what they see through this fresh lens. The experience is clunky and doesn't feel native because it's slow. This is the wake-up call the brand needed! Do you think customers who are willing to hop into the app store and download your mobile app are the ones turned off by your underperforming site? They might not love it, but at least they're very interested in what you're selling! It's the person who just clicked your IG ad and had never heard of you before you need to worry about. They don't care about you. They aren't sure they want your products. They liked the look of an image or the hook of some copy... but they are literally plugged into an instant dopamine machine continuously optimized by machine learning PHDs worth more than your company. You really want to make them wait a couple seconds? Then expect them to navigate through something clunky? They're gone... So fix your site.

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Strategic alignment across product and field is complex and not easy to get right, but it's a pleasure to work alongside Brett Crane, Trevor Jett (Childers), and Jarod Greene. It's wonderful to be in conversation with them, sharing what we have learned, in this webinar: https://lnkd.in/gc-qp7Hk

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Paul Graham’s article on ‘Founder Mode’ versus ‘Manager Mode’ for managing a company is spot on! It aligns closely with what Peerdom facilitates. "In effect there are two different ways to run a company: founder mode and manager mode. Till now most people even in Silicon Valley have implicitly assumed that scaling a startup meant switching to manager mode. But we can infer the existence of another mode from the dismay of founders who've tried it, and the success of their attempts to escape from it. There are as far as I know no books specifically about founder mode. Business schools don't know it exists. All we have so far are the experiments of individual founders who've been figuring it out for themselves. But now that we know what we're looking for, we can search for it. I hope in a few years founder mode will be as well understood as manager mode. We can already guess at some of the ways it will differ. The way managers are taught to run companies seems to be like modular design in the sense that you treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it's up to them to figure out how. But you don't get involved in the details of what they do. That would be micromanaging them, which is bad." Source: https://lnkd.in/e3dPKa9e

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3 years of pricing lessons at Equals condensed into one blog post. Since starting the company, we've tinkered a lot with pricing and packaging. It's one of the single most impactful levers early stage companies can pull. I think folks *don't* experiment with pricing enough, or take big enough bets when they do. We've tried free. We've tried completely sales led. We've tried not listing pricing on the site. Matt Hodges details all the plans we've had, why, and what we've learned in our latest installment on Wrap Text. https://lnkd.in/ecckEDba

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Last week, Zach and I headed to Seattle for 2 days of our executive offsite. The goal? To set our vision for 2025. We focused on: → Solidifying our vision, → And allocating resources across our 3 product lines. We answered critical questions like → How can we get our customers to find even more value? → How can we be the rising tide that lifts all boats for our target industries - moving & insurance → How and when can we scale Yembo beyond our first two verticals I think this was our most productive offsite yet! Looking forward to executing on these priorities in 2025 - making ideas into code and into customer life improvements!

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📈 It's not 100% clear where the economy is headed, but given how busy this summer has been for Cervin Ventures and other investors I talk to, there is momentum building in early-stage B2B tech (and yes, beyond just the AI app companies). Read more about the state of the market in Cervin's Q2 recap -- as well as some recent updates from portfolio companies such as Catch+Release, LaunchDarkly and Anvilogic.

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Sharing some news today: Sunflower Fund I is officially fully deployed and we will not move forward with a Fund II. 🌻 The story... For those who don't know, I work with founders and funds on storytelling, messaging and design for their investor pitch decks. And I absolutely love it. 3 years ago I decided to launch a venture fund after never having before angel invested. Disagreed with the others that I couldn't raise without a track record because I could point to, at the time, the 150+ companies I had worked directly with to help them successfully fundraise. Being in the spot of working with companies before they went out to formally fundraise was a special spot to be in...especially as an aspiring investor. So I raised a small fund from epic LPs - mostly GPs at other funds and founders/operators because they totally got the strategy of Sunflower Fund: an actually helpful VC who sees companies before most and will do the dirty deck work! It's been an absolute blast, but in deep reflecting, I am passionate about working directly with founders and I don't feel the fire under my butt when it comes to manage and operate an additional fund...solo. With that said, I am open to meeting exceptional investor/operators for a potential Fund II one day. For now, I'll continue to support our portfolio in all things storytelling and design, and continue to work with founders and funds directly. Our 20 company portfolio is in full bloom. 🌻 Track record 250+ companies/funds strong. Tough decision as folks expect you to continue with a lifetime of Funds, but a good reminder that you can always write your own story.

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I had lunch yesterday with a revered VC that's been investing for 10+ years and known as one of the GOATs. I asked if his behavior/communication changes towards founders doing well compared to those that are struggling: "I'm extra hard on founders doing well to help them reach their full potential and founders struggling I tend to be more comforting. I find that struggling founders have enough anxiety so why should I add to it?" Everybody has their own style but given the fluidity of company building and founder maturation, this comment feels incredibly short-sighted: - Biggest problem is that it removes the human element and categorizes founders into success buckets. Not only is this a debilitating way to act as an investor but how can you even attempt to maximize founder potential without leaning into the human element of this impossible job? - Implies that a founder facing difficulties doesn't want to be challenged and pushed to focus on the biggest issue(s) to improve their business. This is false. - Perpetuates the notoriously laissez-faire VC attitude and work ethic that founders feel when times are tough. I think the time a VC shines is when there are issues and you're able to tap into your experience, acumen, and network to bring real value. Track records can be blinding and this will never be the experience any founder has when working with 640 Oxford.

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Hi everyone! I don’t share too often on here, but we’re at a very exciting moment at AptDeco, and I wanted to let you all in on it. AptDeco opened a community investment round and the response has been incredible. We’ve raised over $2M so far from institutional investors, customers and supporters. Nothing is more validating than customers doubling down with their own capital. And now, I’m inviting you, my network, to be part of our journey. When we started AptDeco, we set out to make buying and selling furniture easier. Over the years, many of our competitors have come and gone, but AptDeco continues to thrive. Why? Our technology, logistics and branding continues to set us apart and that's why major retailers including West Elm, Pottery Barn, La-Z-Boy, Article and 30+ more have partnered with us. The beauty with this investment round is that anyone can be an investor. Learn more and invest directly at wefunder.com/AptDeco.

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Big news from WeaveGrid! We are excited to announce that we have raised $28M in strategic funding led by Woven Capital, Toyota's Growth Fund. I came to WeaveGrid three years ago with the goal of building a real ecosystem of OEM partners to create a more efficient grid full of EVs. Today we're taking that one step further in announcing investment from the world's largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation. With this strategic round fundraise, I look forward to continuing to scale our solutions across brands, utilities, and geographies, allowing us to support grid resilience and enable widespread EV adoption. Consider the grid… WOVEN 🪡 ⚡ 🚘 Woven Capital 🤝WeaveGrid = #WovenGrid #electricvehicles #ElectricFabric #climatetech #sustainability #energy

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Who says fast-track expansion has to be difficult? 🚀 When Oats Overnight needed a larger facility for its rapidly growing DTC brand, they weren’t sure how to time the investment. Should they spend more today to unlock better margins or wait until real estate costs come down? They used Drivepoint to pinpoint the perfect moment to capitalize on the opportunity for a bigger space. And the results? 📈 $4M EBITDA increase 📈 $20M Series A 📈 98% forecast accuracy Check out how Oats Overnight unlocked this growth in the full case study: https://lnkd.in/gPhbxHHD

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A lot of pre-product, pre revenue startup clients approach Calibrate to architect, design, and develop their first web or mobile app. One common theme we see among many of these ambitious co-founders is trying to launch with a larger feature set based on what they THINK their users will find valuable. In scenarios such as this, our team always advises our clients to consider pairing back the feature set to an MVP (minimum viable product). We start this process by asking our clients “what are the critical features absolutely necessary to launch your product and start getting valuable feedback from the user base?”. Anything beyond that is speculation and unnecessary. In the startup world (or even with software SMBs are launching), it’s imperative to get to market as quickly and cost effectively as possible to start establishing a POC (proof of concept) and collecting feedback; MVPs ensure that happens. Through collecting real user feedback, clients can prioritize and execute on their roadmap (aka new features) with FACTS (aka data driven insights) v. CONJECTURE (aka speculating on what users want). Check out the blog article on our site for some tips to help narrow down the feature set of a product to an MVP: https://lnkd.in/gHTeynVb

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𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆-𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀! We're conducting a benchmarking study to define success metrics specifically for vertical software companies. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Existing SaaS benchmarks just don't cut it for your unique industry needs. This research will provide the data-driven insights to measure and optimize your vertical software business. 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽? A few minutes of your time can make a big difference.

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It's been a little while since I last posted here. I know. I know. It's not the way to build up a "thought leadership persona" or "LinkedIn Top Voice", but hey, I've been busy. Busy building after a pivot, speaking to customers, and having conversations for our first institutional fundraising round, which feels a lot different than the 'friends and family' angel raise that I got used to. I realized that as I prep, the most helpful and most honest feedback I've gotten about the actual pitch deck and presentation has been from other founders or *operational* folks in the tech ecosystem, like marcom leaders, sales geniuses, public speaking experts, etc. Of course there's all of these "share your pitch to a panel of investors" meetups here in Tel Aviv, but often, I realized as an audience member at lots of these events, we founders don't really walk away with 'tachlis' (the Hebrew version of 'get shit done') action items... But when I pitched to other founders or smart friends in general, I really got a lot of really good and super helpful critique – not just about how I am framing Folio itself, but about how fast/slow I spoke, how I stood, how wordy my slides were, how defensive I got when answering questions, etc. So, thanks to the amazing support of the Intel Ignite team, Alon Leibovich, Maya Zimerman, and Amit Gorin, where myself and my team are currently working from and where the event will be hosted, and to Nevo Network, a network that I'm part of for Olim in tech and are providing the snacks, I'm excited to invite Israel-based early-stage founders to a "Founders for Founders" practice pitch night in two weeks, on August 28th, that I'm co-hosting with two early-stage founder friends Matias Sigal and Joel Liurner. If you're a founder looking to get *real feedback* on your pitch without the stress of impressing investors or decision makers in the room or you're a founder that's pitched in the past, a marketer that knows words, a communicator that knows how to stand, or tech-lover that simply wants to meet others and support the founder ecosystem from the inside, please join us! For pitchers:  - 7 founders will be chosen to pitch - each one will have the option to have their pitch recorded on video and shared with them after - in addition to opening each pitch up to 3 public feedback responses, every audience member will get a "scorecard" to fill and space to give written feedback for each pitcher For audience members: - willing to give real feedback - not an investor - wanting to drink, snack, mingle, and learn The pitch-slots are going fast, so if you want to pitch, get in on it! See you there! ❤️🚀

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