pascal's notes

August 28, 2025

Selling towards a budget that doesn’t exist

Going upmarket in a new category? Throw out the rip-and-replace enterprise playbook.

August 27, 2025

Enterprise or bust

Enterprise readiness is a company‑wide, long term push - not a simple feature release.

August 22, 2025

Burn is borrowed urgency

Burn rate is a risk lever. Treat it as such. With intent and conviction.

August 21, 2025

Titles are traps early on

Why early: “VP” / “Head” badges backfire and how scope‑based promotions preserve speed and talent.

August 20, 2025

Avoid dead equity at all cost

How vesting and buy‑back agreements can stop silent shareholders from choking future fundraising and team morale.

August 14, 2025

Kill happy-ear forecasts

Hunt the loss, not the win - why surfacing objections early on is the best thing you can do during a sales process.

August 13, 2025

Your funnel never lies

Funnel discipline surfaces trouble months before the P&L screams, giving you cash and time to do something about it

August 8, 2025

PMF needs to grow up too

How PMF has to evolve with your company

August 7, 2025

Boring, existing market, violent speed

When to bet on execution speed over market creation

August 6, 2025

The Leap Checklist

How to de-risk walking away from your dream job to start a startup

August 1, 2025

Scare 90% Away To Hire The 1% Killers

A brutal final interview prevents costly mis‑hires.

July 31, 2025

7 Filters That Protect Your Culture

Attention’s 7‑point screen to avoid mis‑hires.

July 30, 2025

5 non-obvious tactics for sales hiring

How Anis Bennaceur (Co-Founder / CEO of Attention.com) pressure-tests sales candidates

July 26, 2025

Raising Prices Is Easy. Closing Bigger Deals Is Not.

(4/4) Founder guide to building a repeatable sales engine with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy, Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc.

July 25, 2025

The Valley of Death: ACV from $10K–$36K ARR

(3/4) Founder guide to building a repeatable sales engine with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy, Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc.

July 24, 2025

Set Sales Quotas The Right Way

(2/4) Founder guide to building a repeatable sales engine with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy, Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc.

July 23, 2025

You Closing Deals Doesn’t Mean You Have PMF Yet

(1/4) Founder guide to building a repeatable sales engine with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy, Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc.

July 19, 2025

$20M+: The Perpetual Reinvention Machine

(4/4) How to scale from $1M to $50M+ ARR with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc through every stage of growth.

July 18, 2025

From $10M to $20M ARR: Building the Machine

(3/4) How to scale from $1M to $50M+ ARR with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc through every stage of growth.

July 17, 2025

From $3M to $10M ARR: Widening Without Losing Your Way

(2/4) How to scale from $1M to $50M+ ARR with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc through every stage of growth.

July 16, 2025

From $1M to $3M ARR: When 'Do More' Means Do Less

(1/4) How to scale from $1M to $50M+ ARR with Russ Thau, a seasoned sales leader who helped scale Intercom, Box, Envoy Airtable, LaunchDarkly, etc through every stage of growth.

July 12, 2025

The Hidden Costs of Partnerships

(4/4) How to nail partnerships from Day 1 with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Founder and CEO of Surfboard where partnerships drove 55% of revenue early on and contributed to them getting acquired by Dialpad

July 11, 2025

The Framework for Thriving Partnerships

(3/4) How to nail partnerships from Day 1 with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Founder and CEO Surfboard where partnerships drove 55% of revenue early on and contributed to them getting acquired by Dialpad.

July 10, 2025

How to Turn Partnerships Into Actual Revenue

(2/4) How to nail partnerships from Day 1 with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Founder and CEO of Surfboard where partnerships drove 55% of revenue early on and contributed to them getting acquired by Dialpad

July 9, 2025

Partnership Economics: Trading Margin for Velocity

(1/4) How to nail partnerships from Day 1 with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Founder and CEO of Surfboard where partnerships drove 55% of revenue early on and contributed to them getting acquired by Dialpad

June 28, 2025

The Hidden Complexity of Enterprise Sales

(4/4) Finding your first customers and nailing your design partnerships with Alexa Grabell, Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus.

June 27, 2025

The Design Partnership Playbook

(3/4) Finding your first customers and nailing your design partnerships with Alexa Grabell, Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus.

June 26, 2025

The Art of Not Leading the Witness

(2/4) Finding your first customers and nailing your design partnerships with Alexa Grabell, Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus.

June 25, 2025

The Brute Force Reality of Early Customer Discovery

(1/4) Finding your first customers and nailing your design partnerships with Alexa Grabell, Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus.

June 21, 2025

Does AI change what we know about building startups?

To date, most startups that started with technology instead of customers failed - but there are arguments to be made that AI has changed this now.

June 13, 2025

Speed Is Your Only Advantage

(3/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.

June 12, 2025

If, when, and how to Pivot: Lessons from 8 Pivots in 14 Months

(2/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.

June 11, 2025

Bet on a Space You Care About, Not a Specific Idea

(1/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.

June 6, 2025

Revenue is the Only Truth

(3/3) Building a sales muscle as a technical founder / CEO: Santiago Suarez Ordoñez, Co-Founder and CEO of Momentum who built a thriving AI sales company after 15+ years as an engineering leader.

June 4, 2025

Outbound Can’t Wait For Product Market Fit

(2/3) Building a sales muscle as a technical founder / CEO: Santiago Suarez Ordoñez, Co-Founder and CEO of Momentum who built a thriving AI sales company after 15+ years as an engineering leader.

June 4, 2025

Everyone Loves to Give Advice, No One Wants To Buy

(1/3) Building a sales muscle as a technical founder / CEO: Santiago Suarez Ordoñez, Co-Founder and CEO of Momentum who built a thriving AI sales company after 15+ years as an engineering leader.

June 1, 2025

The ultimate startup moat: Building in public

(5/5) Growth lessons from one of the best: Austin Hughes, the co-founder and CEO of Unify GTM and a former early growth lead at Ramp

May 31, 2025

Build your growth team now

(4/5) Growth lessons from one of the best: Austin Hughes, the co-founder and CEO of Unify GTM and a former early growth lead at Ramp

May 30, 2025

To win, move from cold to warm outbound

(3/5) Growth lessons from one of the best: Austin Hughes, the co-founder and CEO of Unify GTM and a former early growth lead at Ramp

May 29, 2025

Start with outbound from day 1

(2/5) Growth lessons from one of the best: Austin Hughes, the co-founder and CEO of Unify GTM and a former early growth lead at Ramp.

May 28, 2025

Experimentation speed is everything in growth

(1/5) Growth lessons from one of the best: Austin Hughes, the co-founder and CEO of Unify GTM and a former early growth lead at Ramp.

May 27, 2025

Why Most Startups Don't Focus on Growth Early Enough (+ New Podcast Launch)

Lessons from the growth lead who helped scale Ramp and Unify + meet our newly launched focal podcast where we go deep with founders and operators on ONE crucial lessons from the early days each week.

April 19, 2025

May 22, 2025

(6/6) How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

The final (step 4) of removing yourself from the sales process as a founder is to split CS into implementation, retention, and expansion. With that, you're set up for scale.

April 18, 2025

May 22, 2025

(5/6) How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

Step 3 of removing yourself from the sales process as a founder is to bring on AEs to move customer through the pipeline and close. If achieve that, you can start focusing on conducting the orchestra.

April 17, 2025

May 22, 2025

(4/6) How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

Step 2 of removing yourself from the sales process as a founder is to build a predictable pipeline engine. Without solving for pipeline first, most sales reps you bring on will fail.

April 15, 2025

May 22, 2025

(2/6) How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

Getting to $1M ARR is all about founder magic. But magic doesn't scale. To get to $10M ARR fast, founders have to bring on specialists to remove themselves from the sales process step-by-step.

April 14, 2025

May 22, 2025

(1/6): How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

There's a lot written about the $0 to $1M ARR journey. A lot less about the $1M to $10M journey - even though that's where lots of promising companies die. This is the 1st piece of a 6 part series.

April 8, 2025

May 22, 2025

If you're not doing it already, you're extremely late!

At Shopify, reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation - the same should have been the case at your startup for a while now.

March 28, 2025

May 22, 2025

If you build it, I'd love to try it.

These are famous last words too many startups hear before they run out of runway.

March 18, 2025

May 22, 2025

Opportunity in ambiguity

The larger the ambiguity, the bigger the upside - in both startups and venture investing. Here's why everyone should read "Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable".

March 11, 2025

May 22, 2025

Singularity of Purpose

Startups succeed not by doing more, but by doing less exceptionally well. Now more so than ever before.

February 15, 2025

May 22, 2025

Decision-making in early-stage investing

Understanding how VCs make decisions / their biases will meaningfully impact your fundraises and working relationships with them. For most, it's a black box. This in-depth write up aims to change that.

January 29, 2025

May 22, 2025

How to win in this era of software

Building and backing startups has changed as software has evolved from a system of engagement to a system of intelligence. This changes what it takes to win for founders and investors.

October 31, 2024

May 22, 2025

Always be the driver, not the passenger

One of the hardest aspects of a successful fundraise is managing other people's timelines. Don't ever become the passenger. Stay in the driver's seat.

October 24, 2024

May 22, 2025

The emerging startup playbook

Few to none of the new generation of Ai native startups follow the classic B2B software startup playbook anymore. A new one is emerging fast that proves to be very powerful.

October 17, 2024

May 22, 2025

Look past the surface

Most founders try to understand venture firms by looking at their fund model, thesis, and value add. However, there's much more to unpack and doing so can provide a real edge to get a round done.

October 10, 2024

May 22, 2025

The increase in distribution risk

In software, product risk is decreasing fast with everything happening in AI. At the same time, distribution risk is increasing at least equally as fast.

October 4, 2024

May 22, 2025

Recharge. Consistently.

I haven't written in a while. Which is a real shame. Here's why and how I'm looking to not let this happen again.

March 14, 2024

May 22, 2025

How much equity should I sell?

A question we get a lot - Carta came out with some good data around dilution across rounds and changes over time. Here's how I think about it.

March 7, 2024

May 22, 2025

The biggest determinant for startup success

There's a high correlation between the speed at which a startup operates / learns and its ultimate success. However, speed can be hard to measure from the outside. Here are a few ways to do so.

February 29, 2024

May 22, 2025

What I wish someone had told me

Sam Altman is known for many things - his writing isn't usually the first thing people think about when hearing his name. Which is a shame, his blog is a fantastic resource. Here's an example.

February 22, 2024

January 29, 2025

Early vesting is broken!

At startups, too often, too much of the cap table is owned by individuals who left before things started to work, causing resentment amongst the ones who made it work. Early vesting needs rethinking.

October 19, 2023

January 29, 2025

What it takes to raise capital in 2023

The fundraising environment remains tricky to navigate for startups. Frameworks, like Point 9’s renowned SaaS funding napkins, offer a good a good temperature check on the early stage funding market.

September 29, 2023

January 29, 2025

Cold Outbound is Under-Appreciated

To get to their initial B2B customers, most founders first tap into their network. That works well for some, but leads many others down a wrong path. Cold outbound is an under-appreciated alternative.

September 21, 2023

January 29, 2025

The Relationship Between Risk and Return

Howard Marks' latest memo dives in on risk / return in the world of investing. Lots of frameworks and lessons from the piece can also be applied to business building.

September 18, 2023

January 29, 2025

Supercharge your Fundraise with an Investment Memo

A pitch (intro) deck is a great tool to get into the initial fundraising meeting. From there, a long form written text document is a much more powerful tool to move the process along.

September 14, 2023

January 29, 2025

8 lessons from YC(S23)

Great read on lessons learned from YC(S23), written by a founder that just went through the badge.

August 10, 2023

January 29, 2025

Get your SaaS Startup Off the Ground

20 tips to getting a SaaS startup going - from Jason Lemkin of SaaStr.

August 3, 2023

January 29, 2025

How to Succeed with Founder Led Sales

July 27, 2023

January 29, 2025

How to Go About Customer Reference Asks

We’ve had a founder ask us at what point during a diligence process with a VC is it the right time to make customer introductions and how to best go about it? Here’s my take.

July 20, 2023

January 29, 2025

It's tough(er) out there for "red ocean" startups

Red vs. blue ocean describes whether a startup goes after a crowded existing vs a “new” market. What bucket the startup is put into has big implications re what's needed for fundraising, selling, etc.

July 13, 2023

January 29, 2025

Write like an Amazonian

Amazon is known for its writing culture - they famously banned powerpoint and force everyone to write 6-page memos for meetings. It's an incredibly powerful tool. Here's how they write.

June 30, 2023

January 29, 2025

Diligence at the Pre-Seed

Every pre-seed fund goes about their diligence differently. Yet, there are common, "more tactical" areas that matter to most and relate to the financing, cap table, etc. Make sure to get these right.

June 22, 2023

January 29, 2025

SaaS metrics 2.0

Read Kyle Polar's piece on "Your guide to SaaS metrics 2.0 - the case for next era metrics playbook in the age of product-led growth".

June 15, 2023

January 29, 2025

3 areas where founders must leverage Gen AI

After diving in, I'm even more convinced that if founders are not thinking about how to boost productivity + create better products for their customers leveraging Gen AI, they will get left behind

June 1, 2023

January 29, 2025

The power of spaced learning

Within two days of learning something new, we only retain ~1/4. This includes products and brands. Spaced learning is an incredibly powerful tool to combat this.

May 25, 2023

January 29, 2025

Intensity beats strategy

At startups, turning up the intensity will far outweigh a shift in strategy almost every time. Here's why...

May 18, 2023

January 29, 2025

What's your "Popsicle Hotline"?

In a world saturated with choices, how do you stand out as a startup? One way is to craft unique, defining moments such as the "Popsicle Hotline". Let me explain...

May 14, 2023

January 29, 2025

150+ places to launch your product

There are lots of places to launch a product but not all are created equal. Figuring out what works best for your target customer / audience is key.

April 20, 2023

January 29, 2025

Cut Through The (Inbox) Noise

Everyone is just an email away. The problem: Most cold outreach emails suck! A well written email can go a long way - here's how I think about writing an email that stands out.

April 15, 2023

January 29, 2025

Two Great Reads

As I spent the week on the road, I'm sharing two great quick reads instead of writing my own newsletters. Both I highly recommend thinking about as an early stage founder / operator.

April 6, 2023

January 29, 2025

Lessons Learned From Two Startups

I came across a Reddit post from a 2x tech founder/CEO. He wrote down what he learned across the two startups. Lots of great lessons for others to learn from.

March 30, 2023

January 29, 2025

Fundraise Deliberately

Don't enjoy fundraising? You're not alone. Unfortunately, if you want to make it far as a VC backed startup, you have to master it, there's no way around it. Deliberately trying to get better pays off

March 23, 2023

January 29, 2025

Tell Me How You Work

Stripe, Netflix, Hubspot, etc are doing it and so should you - even as a small startup: Have everyone write a "working with me" guide. Its benefits are vast, especially when you start scaling.

March 16, 2023

January 29, 2025

Keep Calm & Communicate Well

We all just went through a crash course on crisis communication. Witnessing many founders do an exceptional job at it, I captured what stood out in terms of great crisis communication.

March 9, 2023

January 29, 2025

Your #1 Job: Don't Run Out Of Runway

A startup CEO's most important job is to not let the company run out of runway. Easier said than done - especially in today's fundraising market. Here are ways to make more with less.

March 2, 2023

January 29, 2025

What can you help me do better, right now?

I argued against bringing on advisors for early startups to focus on angels instead. If you still want to add them, then read today's post. It discusses when to consider them & how to best go about it

February 23, 2023

January 29, 2025

Angels > Advisors!

Adding advisors early on rarely adds much value to your startup. Oftentimes, it's even a net negative. Rather, bring on the right angels. It aligns incentives better and is a much stronger signal.

February 18, 2023

January 29, 2025

Our breakup message is SO successful

Cat Noone, Co-Founder & CEO of Stark, shares her breakup message and the why behind its success.

February 9, 2023

January 29, 2025

Send A Breakup Message

We’ve all been there: You had a great meeting and follow up promptly. Then a second follow up. No response - getting ghosted sucks. What now? Send a breakup message!

February 3, 2023

January 29, 2025

Execution Trumps Strategy

Spinning your wheels? Not moving as fast as you like? Thus eager to pivot to “the next big thing”? Sounds tempting but don’t be too quick to do so - great execution compounds!

January 27, 2023

January 29, 2025

Sell The Value, Not Your Product!

When articulating your product’s value proposition, focus on “what value are your customers buying” vs. “what are you selling to them”. Sounds obvious? Reality shows it isn't.

October 8, 2021

January 29, 2025

Price Before Product

As an early stage startup, understanding your customers' willingness to pay should happen as early as possible. Ideally, before you even start building your product.

June 18, 2021

January 29, 2025

Speed Is Your Greatest Ally

Today’s insight is from: Ron Goldshmidt, the Chief Revenue Officer and co-founder of Briq, a startup building the construction data cloud and a new way to look at financial data in the construction industry. Briq’s clients are among the largest builders in the world and use Briq to drive their processes and decision making. They also just raised their $30M Series B lead by Tiger Global (we are proud investors in the company).

June 4, 2021

January 29, 2025

Iterate Until You Nail It Before You Scale It!

Today’s insight is from: Connor Murphy, the CEO and founder of Bridge, a startup that helps you own, build and help your personal network—starting with intros. Prior to founding Bridge, Connor was a Managing Director at Techstars and the CEO and founder of Datahug (exited to Nasdaq: CALD). On top, he’s also a prolific angel investor and writer.

May 21, 2021

January 29, 2025

As an Entrepreneur, Nurture Your Brain, Body and Soul Like an Elite Athlete

Today’s insight is from: Lizelle van Vuuren, the co-founder and CMO of Undock, a startup that provides the fastest way to find time and meet with anyone – i.e. the super calendar with scheduling that works like autocomplete. Lizelle is also the founder of Women Who Startup, a learning community for female entrepreneurs, and Mile High Tech, a community for all things entrepreneurial and tech in Denver and Colorado.

May 7, 2021

January 29, 2025

Forget MVPs, create Minimum Lovable Products

Today’s insight is from: Cat Noone, the co-founder and CEO of Stark, a startup that aims to make the world’s software accessible to everyone. More than 500,000 designers, developers and product managers at companies of all sizes use Stark’s integrated suite of tools already to make their software products more accessible and compliant. Cat is a product and design expert as well as a prolific writer herself.

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