Tyler Germain

Controversial take — it's OK that your metrics live in a spreadsheet. Just make sure you're measuring what matters. The best teams regularly review — Dashboards: • Performance metrics • Usage patterns • System health Weekly Reports: • Trend analysis • Optimization opportunities • User feedback Monthly Retros: • Strategic alignment • ROI calculation • Goal adjustment 🔑 Result: faster development cycles and better strategic decisions. Start by creating one source of truth for your metrics and start reporting from there. #startups #founders #growth

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We turned a $$$$ N8N workflow into a 3-click set-up. Here's how: We used to build complex N8N workflows for clients. Expensive, hard to maintain, not scalable. Now? We've simplified it down to 3-5 clicks. This new job portal robot: 👉 Scans LinkedIn Jobs daily 👉 Converts hiring companies into leads 👉 Finds relevant contact info 👉 Uses AI to personalize outreach 👉 Checks for relevancy 👉 Launches multi-channel campaigns same-day It's not just for recruiters. These job portals reveal company strategies and buying signals. Signals like planning an expansion? New product launch? It's all there if you know how to look. The best part? No coding required. Just point, click, and let the robot do its thing. We will be running a webinar next week to show you how to make this work for you. Want to try it out? Comment "JOB PORTAL" below and I'll send you access to the robot and webinar invitation.

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I have a portfolio company that consistently converts 1000 paying subscribers every month, and referrals are a key source of these new subscribers. Here are a couple of lessons we’ve learned: 1. Boost referral conversions by integrating PLG features early on. People often forget about referral programs, so use transactional or marketing emails as gentle reminders. 2. Maintain user awareness of the referral feature with a counter for referral conversions and send "congrats, your invitation was accepted" emails to celebrate successful referrals. 3. Introduce referral programs even during the waiting list phase before your product is fully launched. If your product solves a real problem, people will wait for it. Think about the Cybertrucks Tesla has yet to deliver despite the massive number of orders, or how long Oura ring buyers waited after Prince Harry was seen wearing one (I waited almost a year for mine!).

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How did Jetson get 40,000 users and close $3M in funding? 🚀 🎙️ Will Rush joins the podcast to talk about how he built one of the top apps for future founders: 💰 Fundraising tactics 📊 Standout pitch decks 👥 Community-led growth 🔄 Pivoting to tech 🏃 CEO lifestyle 👇 Full episode below!

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Most founders follow up too much. Or not enough. Here's the sweet spot (so you can 3x your response rates) First, 85% of follow-ups fail because of: • Generic "just checking in" DMs • Following up daily (desperate energy) • Copy-pasting the same message • Giving up after 1-2 attempts Most investor DMs get deleted or forgotten after 15 seconds. It’s just the way it is... Follow-up solution: The 3-7-14 method: If your first message gets ghosted, wait 3 days. Then launch this sequence. DAY 3: Share Relevant Industry Insights "Saw this analysis of AI startups' unit economics. Reminded me of (relevant application) ... " No response to that? Bide your time until 7 days after the initial message. DAY 7: Offer Specific Value: "Saw your recent post about enterprise sales. We’ve interviewed 5 CIOs this week. Here are 3 surprising findings..." If you hear crickets after this, don’t stress. Give it another week. Then slide in with an update: DAY 14: Update On Progress: "Since our first message, we've (Specific Outcome Unlocked) and signed XYZ client. Still interested in connecting?" You can use a simple tracking table and create specific follow-up templates in a tool like Notion to track this. No need to go overboard. Tips to run this strategy smoothly: • Add calendar reminders for each follow-up • Track response rates by message type • Follow their social media for conversation starters • Give without asking for anything If you don’t hear back after this, give it two weeks, then circle back with another update. Benefits of the 3-7-14 method: • Non-pushy relationship development • Regular investor feedback loop • Top-of-mind positioning • Stronger network over time Persistence without pestering is an art. The difference between funded and ghosted often comes down to follow-up strategy. Make yours count. ____________________________ Hi, I’m Richard Stroupe, a 3x Entrepreneur, and Venture Capital Investor I help early-stage tech founders turn their startups into VC magnets

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When you're scaling a DTC brand from $5m to $30m, don't try to optimize for lowest cost of capital when you raise debt financing... The lenders out there who can offer the lowest cost of capital usually can't offer the capital flexibility and deal terms that you need as you scale. Low cost of capital lenders don't love DTC. It scares them because there is little to no A/R and inventory is a riskier collateral base. As such, they'll either offer you way too little capital availability or their offer will come with hefty protective provisions that feel punitive. Non-bank lenders tend to be the best fit for a DTC-heavy brand that is scaling profitability beyond $5m in annual sales. Traditional bank lenders, which offer lower cost of capital, tend to become a better option after you hit $30m+ in annual sales. Obviously, there are always exceptions to this rule, but the advice I'm offering here turns out to be true most of the time in my experience. __ Want more tips like this? Consider reposting or giving me Jon Blair a follow.

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Just started watching a $1000 course of Samuel Woods on A.I. Hyper Drive Here's one golden nugget I learned that is worth entire course AI/CHATGPT = Huge Pool Of Data + Thinking Powerhouse Huge pool of Data Means = Bad Data (wrong strategies, wrong insights) + Good Data (Right Strategies, best examples) So in order to become the best marketer "YOU DON'T NEED A HIGHLY CREATIVE BRAIN" You just need to have the right knowledge from the right expert you trust and then feed that data to chatgpt and teach him by giving the right inspiration... Step #1- Pick the best ad Step #2- Ask ChatGpt why it is the best ad Step #3- Then ask Chatgpt to learn from the ad a create a similar one for me NEVER LET CHATGPT DECIDE WHICH AD INSPIRATION WILL WORK OR NOT "CHATGPT KNOWS EVERYTHING BUT MAYBE NOT ABOUT THE STRATEGIES THAT ARE RIGHT FOR YOU AT THAT TIME" Always Teach Him Like A new smart intern

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not all genius gets noticed. start posting online about what you're building. it is not about fame. it is about attracting - free mentorship - free review - access to investors - access to other builders - initial users build in public, literally. #buildinpublic

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If you want to scale your business, stop doing this: → Getting stuck in analysis paralysis Stop researching. Stop looking at data and other stats to figure out what you should be doing to grow your revenue. Instead, increase your revenue through what you KNOW works: • Talk to your customers • Have conversations • Implement feedback immediately If they give you feedback or suggestions, do it the next day. Do not take months and months. Don't do all sorts of work to research what your customer needs, they will tell you. It's very easy: • Get in touch with your customers • Talk to them • And your revenue will grow

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What does a baseball player's batting average have to do with a SaaS company's ability to go public? Introducing the "SaaS Mendoza Line" - an under the radar SaaS concept... ⚾ Mario Mendoza was an average Major League shortstop, with a batting average below .200 in 3 of his first 4 seasons and was released despite being an above average defensive player - Analogy: Growth = Offense and Profit = Defense 📉 The Mendoza Line is the average hitting percentage below which a player is likely not a major league player 🦉 Rory O’Driscoll, Scale Venture Partners first introduced the SaaS Mendoza line in 2018 to identify the growth rate which below says a company is not on an IPO trajectory 💯 Back in 2018 one thesis was that a company must be at $100M ARR with a 25% growth rate to be a potential IPO candidate 🔮 In 2023-2024 the ARR number to go public has been closer to ~$500M ARR using the Klaviyo, Rubrik and OneStream IPOs as examples 📈 The 2024 update to the SaaS Mendoza line says a SaaS company starting at $10M ARR needs to have at least a 100% growth rate in combination with a 80% - 85% Growth Endurance 📖 Growth Endurance measures the growth rate retained Year over Year in a SaaS/Cloud company - If a company has an 80% Growth Endurance rate and grew at 100% last year it suggests it would grow 80% the next year and 64% the following year ⁉ Is your company above or below the SaaS Mendoza line 🎧 Dave Kellogg - CAC and I discuss the history of the SaaS Mendoza line, the updated version and of course include a little SaaS Metric history including the T2D3 and 56789 Growth Rate models #b2bsaas #metrics #benchmarks

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The single most important thing that changed the trajectory of Gem wasn’t raising money, getting into YC, or hiring a team. It was getting our first 2 customers. I’ve seen this first-hand at Gem. I’ve also seen it in the 50+ companies I advise + angel invest in. And I think it probably holds true for anyone looking to bring a new product to market in a larger company. Here’s why: ➡️ ‎You stop wasting time building features that don’t matter. Before you have customers, you’re guessing at what features might matter. As soon as you have a few customers, you very quickly uncover a TON of features you didn’t even know you needed, and most of the “great” features you dreamed up will quickly fall below the fold in terms of priority.   ➡️ ‎Most startups spend time building entire companies that don’t matter. The biggest failure mode I see is when smart technical founders spend a ton of time heads down (sometimes years!) building a company in search of a problem without validating that the problem is even worth solving. The best way to validate whether a problem is worth solving is to see if a few customers will pay you for it. If you can’t, you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. ➡️ ‎Motivation. Getting customers kicked us into high gear. There’s something magical about waking up every morning and solving real problems for real people.   To this very day, customer focus is one of our core values at Gem and is probably the single biggest value that influences how we build our product & company. Super grateful for our Gem customers. You are why we do what we do each day.

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The biggest financial mistake a founder can make: Accidentally blowing up QSBS status Let me explain... QSBS (or Qualified Small Business Stock) is the single most generous tax break in America today. If you hold shares in a startup for 5 years, you could end up paying ZERO tax on up to $10 million Every single shareholder gets their own $10M limit, including: • Founders • Employees • Investors Collectively, that could be hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes saved across the company! However, if a founder is not careful... they can accidentally blow up QSBS status for every single shareholder Here's what you need to watch out for: • Set up a C-Corp - only C-Corps are eligible for QSBS, and your 5 year clock only begins from that point • Active Business - a dormant company won't work. 80% of the company's assets must be in a qualified trade or business. Be wary of opening a services business, as that could blow up QSBS status • Share Buybacks - don't buy shares from a departing investor, founder or employee without talking to a tax attorney • Balance Sheet Investments - if you have a large percentage of your balance sheet in non-cash equivalent investments like mutual funds & corporate debt, it could make you ineligible for QSBS When in doubt, talk to a professional... it might just save you millions of dollars. Want to learn more about money for founders? I'm teaching a free workshop tomorrow on Personal Finance for Startup Founders, where I give you my full QSBS guide to ensure you don't accidentally mess this up, sign up here: https://lu.ma/9oefp40t I'm curious... is this the first time you are hearing about QSBS?

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My best deals have been the least competitive. Every other VC "hated the category". My worst deals have consistently been the most competitive (at seed). They raise too much for the seed ($5M) lose speed and get distracted. Deal heat is not the same as company quality. #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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First time founders in AZ don’t need a $100k check to get going. They simply need a check of any size (>$1,000), so they can build their confidence and skillset on how to convert investor interest to money in the bank. Once they get a check, the next one comes easier because they have taken an investment already. They act like they’ve been there before because they have been. Let’s stop pretending like we need to cut a $50k check or nothing. A $5k check is also quite meaningful for a first check. And if you’re a first time founder with a min check size of $50k or something like that, please let your ego go for a sec. You need any size check. You dont have leverage at the start. Play the game on the field.

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Founders - You must have a internal dashboard with the following metrics updated each week.  💵 Revenue / MRR/ ARR 💵 Revenue Growth Rate 💵 Churn 💵 Cash Flow 💵 Burn Rate 💵 Months of Runway 💵 Margins 💵 CAC 💵 LTV 💵 any other meaningful KPIs for your business like downloads, monthly active users, # of customers, value of your pipeline, tally of revenue generating activities, revenue/employee, etc. This dashboard will alert you to the areas that need attention, early on. From this dashboard, you can easily choose your top 3 KPIs to share in a monthly investor update. What KPIs am I missing? #fundraising #startups #founders

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Founders - You must have a internal dashboard with the following metrics updated each week.  💵 Revenue / MRR/ ARR 💵 Revenue Growth Rate 💵 Churn 💵 Cash Flow 💵 Burn Rate 💵 Months of Runway 💵 Margins 💵 CAC 💵 LTV 💵 any other meaningful KPIs for your business like downloads, monthly active users, # of customers, value of your pipeline, tally of revenue generating activities, revenue/employee, etc. This dashboard will alert you to the areas that need attention, early on.  From this dashboard, you can easily choose your top 3 KPIs to share in a monthly investor update. What KPIs am I missing? #fundraising #startups #founders

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sold nfts on solana in 2021. sol was $200. i had $30k in sol. kept funds in sol. then, crash. sol down to $12. i had $1.8k in sol. gut screamed sell... it was not worth anything. i'd been here before in 2017... crypto market cycles are brutal, but temporary. why holding wins: 1. emotions lie -> fear is loudest at the bottom. 2. fundamentals matter long-term -> if you believe in the tech, short-term price is noise. 3. timing the market is a fool's game -> even pros can't do it consistently. today, sol's > 200$, higher than when i received it. was i happy seeing 90% down? hell no... it was painful AF! patience paid off. build a strategy that removes emotion. mine is i check the price every year. i don't trade. step away from the charts.

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What small VC companies do is: They play it safe to stay in the game. What top tier VC companies know: You can't play it safe and stay in the game.

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