Founder Decision Frameworks
Decision trees for the calls every founder eventually has to make about people, pricing, and platforms.
40 posts · page 1 of 2
- Founder Decision Frameworks
Should You Open Source Your Product? A Strategic Read
Open sourcing your product changes your distribution, your competition, and your monetization permanently.
7 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
Should You Build a Mobile App at All?
A mobile app adds cost, complexity, and app store friction. Here is when it is actually worth it.
7 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
Should You Build a Marketplace, a SaaS, or a Service Business?
Three business models, three very different bets. Here is how to pick the one that matches your actual situation.
8 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
Build vs Buy vs Partner: A Founder Decision Tree
Build versus buy is the well known frame. Partner is the option most founders skip. The partner path delivers capability you cannot build and depth you cannot buy. Here is the tree I use to pick.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Walk Away
How to know when the right move is to stop, what walking away actually costs, and how to do it without destroying what you built.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Sunset a Product
How to shut down a product responsibly, handle paying customers with respect, and close a chapter without burning relationships or reputation.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Sell the Company
What makes an acquisition offer worth taking, how to evaluate the terms beyond the headline number, and when walking away is the right call.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Sunset a Feature
How to remove a feature customers are actively using without breaking trust, creating churn, or leaving the codebase worse than before.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Build a Second Product
Why most second products fail and what the founders who succeed with them do differently from the beginning.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Productize a Service
When turning a services business into a product is the right move and when it is a way to avoid the harder work of scaling services.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Add Enterprise Sales
When to build an enterprise sales motion, what it costs to run it, and the signals that tell you the timing is right.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Change Pricing
How to reprice a SaaS product without losing existing customers, alienating prospects, or leaving revenue on the table.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Remove a Free Plan
When removing a free plan is the right call, how to handle the migration for existing free users, and what to expect on the other side.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Add a Free Plan
When a free plan accelerates growth and when it cannibalizes revenue, and how to tell the difference before you ship it.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Outsource Customer Support
When outsourcing customer support improves response time and cost, and when it erodes the customer relationship and product feedback loop.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Hire Your First Operations Person
When operations headcount pays for itself, what the role should cover, and why hiring too early is more damaging than hiring too late.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Build a Customer Success Team
When customer success is the highest ROI investment a SaaS company can make and when it is a cost center that does not change retention.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Hire Your First Marketing Person
When to hire your first marketing person, what the role should focus on, and why most early marketing hires fail to change the growth trajectory.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Move to a Tech Hub or Stay Remote
What a tech hub actually provides that remote cannot replicate and when the trade is worth making for an early-stage founder.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Apply to an Accelerator
What accelerators actually provide, when they accelerate, and when they are a distraction from the work that actually matters.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Hire a PR Firm or Stay Indie
What PR firms actually deliver for early-stage companies, when the investment makes sense, and when founder-led media is the better bet.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Build a Channel Partnership
When channel partnerships create distribution leverage and when they create dependency on a partner who has different incentives than you do.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The Decision to Charge Money Before You Have a Product
Why charging before building is the most honest validation method and how to structure an early commitment that does not oversell what you have.
12 min read
- Founder Decision Frameworks
The First Customer Decision: Land or Anchor?
How to think about the strategic difference between your first customers and how the choice shapes the company you will be able to build.
12 min read
More than blog posts.
The Labs folder has the experiments themselves. The Systems folder has the stack and architecture. The Journey folder has the timeline. Pick whichever pulls you.