Founder guides
How to run a small company, one question at a time.
Practical answers to the questions founders actually search: where users come from, how long the money lasts, what to charge, when to hire. Worked numbers, real templates, and the free calculators built in.
Getting users
Where your first users and customers actually come from, channel by channel.
Start here · 3 min read
How to get your first users: a channel-by-channel guide
Where a startup's first 10, 100 and 1,000 users actually come from, how to pick the right channel for your product, and a guide to each one.
3 min read
How to find beta users for your app
Where to find beta testers for an app or SaaS before launch, how many you need, what to ask them, and how to turn beta users into your first paying customers.
3 min read
How to get your first B2B customers
A step-by-step way for founders to land their first 10 B2B customers, from defining who to sell to and finding them, to running the first sales calls and closing.
3 min read
How to get your first users from Reddit (without a ban)
How founders can use Reddit to find early users without breaking subreddit rules, with how to pick communities, what to post, and what gets you banned.
3 min read
How to launch on Product Hunt: a founder's checklist
How to prepare and run a Product Hunt launch with or without an audience, from timing and assets to launch-day steps, and what results to realistically expect.
3 min read
How to market a developer tool to developers
How to get users for a developer tool or API when developers dislike marketing, using docs, open source, technical content, communities and product-led growth.
3 min read
How to turn free users into paying customers
How to improve free-to-paid conversion for a SaaS or app, covering activation, what to put behind the paywall, upgrade prompts, trial length, and the numbers to track.
3 min read
How to use cold email to get your first customers
How to write cold emails that get replies for a startup or SaaS, from building a list to a three-email sequence with templates, deliverability and the rules to follow.
Money and runway
Burn, runway, churn and unit economics, with the numbers worked through.
Start here · 3 min read
How much runway do you need? A guide by stage
How many months of runway a startup needs at each stage, why 18 months is the usual target after raising, and what to do when you drop below six.
3 min read
Default alive vs default dead: how to check which you are
What default alive and default dead mean, how to calculate it from your revenue growth and burn, and what to do if your startup is default dead.
3 min read
How to reduce your burn rate without killing growth
A practical order for cutting startup burn rate, from unused software to payroll, plus the revenue moves that lower net burn without cutting anything.
3 min read
LTV to CAC ratio explained, with worked examples
How to calculate LTV, CAC and the LTV:CAC ratio for a SaaS business, what a good ratio is, why CAC payback often matters more, and how to improve both.
3 min read
What is a good churn rate? SaaS benchmarks and how to lower it
What counts as a good churn rate for SaaS by customer type, why monthly churn compounds, and the fixes that reduce churn fastest for small companies.
Decisions
Pricing, hiring and the other calls that shape the company.
Start here · 3 min read
How to price your SaaS: a guide for first-time founders
How to set your first SaaS price using value, not costs or competitors, how many plans to offer, monthly vs annual, and how to tell if you're too cheap.
3 min read
How to raise prices without losing customers
When to raise your SaaS prices, how to grandfather existing customers, how much notice to give, and an email template for announcing a price increase.
3 min read
When to hire your first employee as a founder
The signs it's time to make your first hire, how to check you can afford it, contractor vs employee, and which role founders should hire first.
Running the company
The day-to-day work of keeping a small company on track.
Start here · 3 min read
The founder weekly review: a routine to run your company
A 45-minute weekly review for solo founders and small teams: the numbers to check, the decisions to make, and a template you can copy.
3 min read
How to chase unpaid invoices (with email templates)
A polite follow-up schedule for late invoices, three reminder email templates, when to call, and how to set payment terms so clients pay on time.
Founder glossary
Plain definitions of the numbers founders get asked about, each with the formula and a worked example.
Sjo · AI executive for founders
Bring the real decision to Sjo.
Sjo learns your numbers and how you decide, checks every option against your own rules, tells you what it would do and why, and remembers what you chose.