A month after YC interview

The big question: What does YC want to see?
When I first started building my startup I was pretty confident with my stats (500 daily active users, 80% retention) I went to YC interview with those and they asked me “That’s the wrong way to think about goals. How much revenue do you have?

One month after getting that feedback, I got 40 paying customers, VC money, 10k MRR, and a great team!!

Your goal should be to get revenue as quickly as possible.

If you don’t have revenue, something needs to change ASAP.

I find that when founders have lots to do, they CHOOSE easy and known over hard and unknown.

My biggest takeaway is that everyone says you should talk to users, get early paying customers but founders hardly ever follow the process. Technical founders put off marketing/sales, and instead, code an app. Business founders put off marketing/sales, and instead, make a pitch deck. Product founders who put off marketing/sales, and focus on product. This practice makes you confront the reality of your business, so that you stop avoiding the hard thing, because it’s right in front of you.

The Goal Grid
I spoke with Ben Sand (x2 YC), read Traction (method used by 80k companies), and developed this goal system I use to hit my weekly revenue goals.

If you want to download the Goal Grid, feel free to grab it here: https://founderscafe.io/resources/goal-grid