Step-by-step playbooks for founders.
18 end-to-end, scannable guides for the moves founders make most. No protocol-level depth, no RFC commentary — just what to do, in what order, with the failure modes called out.
Every playbook links into the dense reference chapters when you want the why. Skip the depth if you just want to ship.
Get your first customers
Pre-PMF and early-stage motions.
Get your first 10 paying customers
Warm network first, then 10-20 named target accounts, in person, offer value before asking, charge from day one.
For: Pre-PMF B2B founders. Post-YC-batch teams. Anyone going from 0 to first commercial signal.
Find your first 3-5 design partners
The ask hierarchy, hair-on-fire filter, formal Design Partner Agreement (not LOI), paid conversion at end of term.
For: Pre-PMF B2B SaaS founders, especially YC founders during or just after the batch.
Run customer discovery without poisoning data
The Mom Test in playbook form. Ask about past behavior. Tell real demand from polite interest.
For: Pre-PMF founders running interviews, user research, or design-partner conversations.
Build outbound
The infrastructure and tactics for cold outreach.
Set up cold email from zero
Validate messaging with 50 manual emails first, then domains, mailboxes, auth, warmup, sequencing.
For: Founders sending their first cold outbound.
Stand up LinkedIn outbound from zero
Real accounts, warmup, ~100 requests/week, short or no-message connection notes, hybrid automation+human.
For: B2B founders targeting mid-market or enterprise — whose buyers live on LinkedIn.
Build outbound for SMB (replaces LinkedIn)
Phone-first cold calling with area-code matching, in-person at small conferences, Meta lead-form ads, fast follow-up.
For: Founders selling to SMB owners — restaurants, dental, HVAC, retail, services.
Run a conference for real ROI
Pre-event outreach (where 80% of ROI is made), scrappy alternative to a $50K booth, sponsor dinners, 24h follow-up.
For: B2B founders attending industry conferences, especially in vendor-search industries.
Build the Tier 1 account list your ABM motion deserves
Three separate scores — static fit, decaying engagement, lookalike-derived contract value — routed through a 2x2 that decides who gets ABM, who gets velocity sales, and who should never be cold-called.
For: B2B teams about to spend real money on ABM, gifting, or outbound against a 'Tier 1 list' that is currently a rep's gut feel.
Break into Tier 1 accounts with gifting and direct mail
Office-first list building, remote-worker filtering, on-brand gifts with unique QR codes, shipment-triggered ads, delivery-triggered 'did it land?' outreach.
For: B2B teams with a defined Tier 1 list where contract size justifies $25-35 per touched account.
Turn your closed-lost list into pipeline
AI extraction over transcripts and threads recovers why deals really died, external signals decide when to go back in, and a self-refreshing query means no dormant deal is ever forgotten.
For: B2B teams with a year or more of closed-lost opportunities sitting untouched in the CRM.
Fix deliverability when emails stop landing
Diagnostic: open-rate check, Postmaster + SNDS, MXToolbox blacklists, auth, recovery sequence.
For: Founders mid-crisis. Cold email was working last week and isn't this week.
Turn a fundraise announcement into 30 days of compounding pipeline
Harvest LinkedIn engagement on your raise post, filter to ICP, route across waitlist / outbound / founder DM, send during the 7-21 day window.
For: B2B founders who just announced a raise, launch, or other newsworthy milestone — especially Series A-C.
Run sales
Convert pipeline into closed deals.
Run a 30-min sales discovery call that advances
Opening, agenda, problem deep-dive, multi-thread mapping, locked next steps. The 70/30 listen-talk rule.
For: Founders running sales calls. Early AEs ramping into the motion.
Multi-thread enterprise deals
Map the buying committee, arm your champion, ghost-write intro emails, get an executive sponsor.
For: Mid-market and enterprise sellers running $25K+ ACV deals with a buying committee.
Handle the 4 canonical objections
Timing, budget, authority, fit. Acknowledge → reframe → asymmetric offer.
For: Anyone running sales calls who's lost deals to 'let me check with my CTO' or 'we just don't have budget.'
Price your B2B product
Value-based pricing, 10X rule, 5%/20% raise rule, model selection by deal size.
For: B2B founders setting first price or raising prices. The highest-ROI growth lever.
Scale the team
Post-PMF transitions.
Hire your first AE the right way
When to hire, what profile, the comp plan, the 90-day ramp, the failure modes that kill 60% of first hires.
For: B2B SaaS founders approaching $500K-1.5M ARR considering the founder-led to AE-led transition.
Before the next sales hire
Audit AI coverage on every open req. Cancel what AI now runs, hire deliberately for the rest. The hyperscaler math has shifted; most hiring plans haven't.
For: Founders, CROs, and heads of sales with 1+ open SDR, AE, BDR, SE, or RevOps req on the books.