Will Moss

Most founders make a pivotal mistake when entering a new market.  And they don't realise until it's too late... They fail to test local demand. If you fail to understand this and you will: - waste time - waste money - potentially sink your business So, what can you do to test demand?  (before investing heavily in the market) You sell your product or service into that market! And you, as the founder, should be the person to do it. Here's how: ✅ Start with ONE potential ICP.  ✅ Get a list of ~100 potential customers ✅ Get ~20 meetings  ✅ Seek to understand their world first ✅ Qualify ~10 as prospects ✅ Convert 1 - 5 into customers (leveraging existing relationships, investors, partnerships & direct outreach to get to those 100) Yeah, sometimes regulatory issues will mean you can't start selling into a new market without additional foundations. But for a lot of B2B companies you can sell first. Which is the ultimate test of demand. Because remember: No sales = No demand = no business in that market. So test it EARLY. Need some help? 👇 Get immediate access to GTM resources that will help you sell into a new market in the Snowballn' Sales Vault: https://lnkd.in/g-NSPeR2 🔔 Follow me (Michael Lovegrove) for more like this PS - thanks Marcel Wijermars for having me share common mistakes founders make when trying to expand internationally at the Amsterdam Founders Club meet up last week!

118

78 Comments

Replo's engineering team is locked in right now. I took this picture when I left the office at 12am last night. This time 6 months ago, morale had hit rock bottom. People were leaving the company because we weren't shipping fast enough. Engineers felt like cogs in a machine. Features were taking months to ship. We changed a few very simple things. 1. We moved our entire engineering team in person in San Francisco. 2. We gave engineers control of our product roadmap and allowed them to make design and product decisions. Every 10x engineer wants this. 3. We stopped writing non-technical product requirements nobody reads. Engineers write a short plan and own the problem from idea to production. Hire builders, give them autonomy and environment to do their best work.

414

84 Comments

In 2.5 years since incorporation, we've scaled Unify to 56 people. There's plenty I would do differently. But if I had to start over tomorrow, these are the 9 things I'd do again:   (1) Pick a lights out Co-Founder. Being a founder is so much harder than I imagined. Having a Co-Founder (Connor Heggie) who is all-in like I am makes the journey so rewarding. I'd personally never be a solo founder.   (2) Pick a social channel and work at it every day. The teams that understand viral content today have an unfair distribution advantage. As a founder, its so important to figure out how to nail one. For us that's Linkedin.   (3) Hire the insanely optimistic. Startups feel impossible until they work - you want a team that enjoys the challenges, not one that uses challenges as a reason to quit. Avoid the people who want to flock to proven ideas and brands, you're too early for them.   (4) Be 100% in person. Serendipity is important in startups, you'll come up with some of your best ideas while walking to get coffee or talking over dinner. Tapping someone on the shoulder is infinitely better than sending Slacks.   (5) Be extremely intentional about the tone you set. Your culture should be polarizing because the right people are not looking for a "regular" job. I'd set the tone from day 1 that this isn't a 9-5 job and that its going to be intense.   (6) Be open minded about unorthodox talent. When I first spoke to Rhea, we weren't hiring. So we did a 2-week work trial, and her ability to tackle tasks with little input shined. So we created a role. You don't have the cash to compete for traditional talent in traditional ways, so get creative.   (7) Hire 2 Account Executives early. Once you have signs of product market fit, its time to scale. Bring on 2 sellers of different archetypes so that you can find out what qualities work with your buyers. Hiring 2 instead of 1 will accelerate learnings.   (8) Bet on outbound early. I'd hire 2 SDRs who have 6+ months experience before hiring AEs. The best companies always nail outbound, and outbound will help you hone PMF in the early days.   (9) Don't be afraid to experiment and fail. You're going to try a lot of things that won't work. That's okay, cut your losses quickly and learn from them. Velocity is the name of the game.   Being a founder at Unify is the most rewarding job I've had - hope these learnings are helpful 🙌

208

21 Comments

The Thin Line Between Confidence and Arrogance Being a founder is incredibly tough. You’re constantly getting told “no” by investors, customers, and sometimes even your team. And the mental load can be overwhelming when things go wrong (as they inevitably do). To survive that rollercoaster, founders MUST have confidence, a deep, almost irrational belief in themselves and their vision. But here's the catch: there’s a very thin line between confidence and arrogance. So what’s the difference? Confidence is believing in yourself and your mission, while recognising that you don’t know everything. Others, including your team, customers, and even investors, might have valuable perspectives that can help you refine your approach. Arrogance, on the other hand, is believing that you do know everything. That no one else gets it. That feedback is a nuisance; people are either on your train or in your way. At Cocoon Capital, we back visionary founders, but we also challenge them. That’s part of the value we bring. For many of the founders we work with, this is their first time building a company. And we’ve seen too many startups fail because of basic, avoidable mistakes. That’s why we see our relationship with founders as a true partnership, not just a bank transfer. The best founders, the ones who go the distance, listen. They adapt. They value input from their team and surround themselves with people smarter than they are in certain areas. They build strong cultures because people feel heard and respected. Arrogant founders? They don’t last. They ignore data that contradicts their narrative. They struggle to retain top talent. They usually want money with no strings attached – “just give me your cash and stay out of my way.” We run from those. Now, of course, there are outliers. Elon Musk. Steve Jobs. But let’s be honest, for every one of them, there are a hundred brilliant, humble founders who win because they know how to listen, learn, and grow. So if you’re a founder, ask yourself honestly: Am I confident enough to take the hits, but humble enough to learn from them? We’re betting on the ones who are. #startups #founders #venturecapital #humility #confidence #entrepreneurship

46

7 Comments