Founder notes
Building the product is only half the work
Practical notes on product, distribution, customer discovery, and finding the first customers who care.
Latest article
Eleven practical notes for early stage foundersFounder marketing
Marketing for Technical Founders: A Simple Weekly Routine
Treat marketing like product discovery: find relevant conversations, contribute something useful, and bring the evidence back into what you build.
Read the articleStartup distribution
Startup Distribution Strategy: A Practical Framework for Early Stage Founders
Create a startup distribution strategy around one customer, one urgent problem, one primary channel, and a weekly learning loop.
Startup distribution
How to Choose Startup Distribution Channels Before You Spread Too Thin
Choose startup distribution channels by customer behavior, problem visibility, learning speed, and your ability to contribute consistently before spreading too thin.
Audience research
How to Find Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out Online
Find where your target audience hangs out online using customer language, real conversations, and a practical process for choosing relevant communities.
Customer discovery
How to Define Your Ideal Customer Profile Before You Find More Users
Define your startup’s ideal customer profile using real conversations, current behavior, and evidence. A practical guide to choosing who to help first.
Early stage go to market
The Complete Go to Market Stack for Early Stage Founders
Why finding customers should connect web research, social conversations, enrichment, email outreach, and learning instead of forcing a founder into five disconnected tools.
Startup distribution plan
A 30 Day Startup Distribution Plan for a Team of One
A practical month long routine for finding customer conversations, contributing useful replies, improving your message, and deciding what deserves another month.
Reddit marketing for startups
What I Learned From 100 Reddit Replies
I spent four weeks learning how to start useful Reddit conversations. Genuine replies mattered more than posting or pitching.
Founder-led distribution
How a Blog Post Probably Got Me My First User
I think a blog post brought Mangos AI its first user. The uncertain attribution may be the most useful part of the lesson.
Early users and distribution
How to Get Your First 100 Users Before You Finish the Product
Use early community conversations, a landing page, a waitlist, and a prototype to learn what deserves to be built before betting everything on launch day.
Product and distribution
Your Product Can Be Ready While Your Go to Market Is Not
A working product does not automatically create a working path to customers. Learn how to identify which side is holding back growth before deciding what to build next.