Say No Like a Doctor

Founders: Be like doctors, not sellers early on.

Founders hate saying no. They don’t want to disappoint. They want the win.

That instinct gets expensive fast. Say yes too often, and you build the wrong thing.

Rather, show up to early customer calls like a doctor:

Diagnose. Prescribe. If the treatment isn’t right for this patient, say so.

Don’t apologize for the no. Frame it: “We can’t solve this today, but here’s what we’d try.”

Many of these nos become yeses later. Trust compounds. Sometimes fast.

If they seem fine with the status quo, tell them: “You probably don’t need us.” Nothing breaks inertia like the fear of missing out.

When saying no early feels hard zoom out and remind yourself: saying yes now usually means having to fire them later.

Better to have a mutually respectful “not yet” now than a painful churn post‑implementation.

Your pipeline shrinks; your conversion spikes.

That’s a good thing.

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Enjoyed reading this?

Then check out my conversation on the focal podcast with Adit Abraham, the co-founder and CEO of Reducto ($108M raised from Benchmark, a16z, and First Round)

Youtube | Apple Podcast | Spotify

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