Startup Hathbanger Fridas Choppers Gtm

---
name: startup
description: The startup journey from idea to scale, informed by Paul Graham + Garry
  Tan wisdom.
---

# Startup Skill

The startup journey from idea to scale, informed by Paul Graham + Garry Tan wisdom.

---

## Philosophy

**Vision is emergent.** You don't know what you're building at first. The skill adapts to where you are.

**Do things that don't scale.** Early stage is about learning, not efficiency.

**Talk to users.** Every week. The answers are in conversations, not spreadsheets.

---

## Commands

```
/startup                      # Where am I? What's next?
/startup stage                # Assess current stage from docs
/startup next                 # The one thing to do this week
/startup validate [idea]      # PG-style idea critique
/startup mvp [idea]           # Scope to 2-week MVP
/startup customers            # How to find your first 10
/startup launch               # Launch playbook
/startup fundraise [stage]    # Fundraising by stage
/startup diagnose [problem]   # What's actually wrong
/startup pg [topic]           # What would PG say?
/startup garry [topic]        # What would Garry say?
```

---

## THE STAGES

### Stage 0: Idea

**Goal:** Validate that real people have this problem and will pay to solve it.

**Key questions:**
- Who has this problem? (Be specific—names, not personas)
- How are they solving it now?
- Why will they switch to you?
- What's the insight that makes this work?

**PG frameworks:**
- "How to Get Startup Ideas" - Live in the future, build what's missing
- "Schlep Blindness" - The best ideas look like work
- "Organic Startup Ideas" - Build what you need yourself
- "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas" - Think bigger

**Actions:**
1. Talk to 10 potential users this week
2. Document their exact words (not your interpretation)
3. Find the hair-on-fire problem

**Anti-patterns:**
- Building before talking
- Asking "would you use this?" (ask about their current behavior)
- Targeting everyone (niche down)

---

### Stage 1: MVP

**Goal:** Build the smallest thing that delivers value to one person.

**Key questions:**
- What's the one thing it needs to do?
- Can you build it in 2 weeks?
- Can you describe it in one sentence?

**PG frameworks:**
- "Do Things That Don't Scale" - Manual before automated
- "The Airbnbs" - Professional photos changed everything
- "Ramen Profitable" - Survive while you figure it out
- "Default Alive or Default Dead" - Know which you are

**Actions:**
1. Cut scope until it hurts
2. Ship something this week
3. Get it in front of one real user

**Anti-patterns:**
- Building for 6 months before launching
- Adding features before anyone uses it
- Waiting until it's "ready"

---

### Stage 2: First Customers

**Goal:** Get 5-10 paying customers manually.

**Key questions:**
- Who are the first 10 people who will pay?
- Can you name them?
- How will you reach them?

**PG frameworks:**
- "Do Things That Don't Scale" - Recruit users manually
- "Relentlessly Resourceful" - Find a way or make one
- "Be Good" - Make something people want
- "Mean People Fail" - Nice founders win

**Garry frameworks:**
- "Default alive matters" - Grow profitably if you can't raise
- "Six skills for startup success" - What to develop early

**Actions:**
1. Make a list of 20 potential customers (names, not categories)
2. Reach out to 5 today
3. Offer to do it for them manually

**Anti-patterns:**
- Waiting for inbound
- Mass marketing before product-market fit
- Discounting instead of learning

---

### Stage 3: Launch

**Goal:** Create a moment that gets attention and establishes your position.

**Key questions:**
- What's the story?
- Who will amplify it?
- What's the one thing people should remember?

**PG frameworks:**
- "Startup = Growth" - Launch is just the beginning of the curve
- "How to Convince Investors" - Same principles apply to users
- "The Submarine" - PR is a game

**Actions:**
1. Line up 5 people who will share on launch day
2. Have a specific, concrete demo
3. Ship, don't wait for perfect

**Anti-patterns:**
- Launch as a one-time event (it's a process)
- Waiting for the "right moment"
- Announcing without showing

---

### Stage 4: Growth

**Goal:** Find repeatable acquisition and scale what works.

**Key questions:**
- What's your growth rate?
- What's the one channel that's working?
- Are you default alive?

**PG frameworks:**
- "Startup = Growth" - If you're not growing, you're dying
- "The Fatal Pinch" - When growth and runway cross
- "How to Raise Money" - Raise when you don't need it
- "Founder Mode" - Stay hands-on longer than feels right

**Garry frameworks:**
- "Why startups are growing 5x faster" - AI enables smaller teams
- "Micromanagement is toxic" - Delegate as you scale

**Actions:**
1. Measure weekly growth rate
2. Double down on what's working
3. Kill what isn't

**Anti-patterns:**
- Premature scaling
- Hiring before product-market fit
- Multiple channels before one works

---

## DIAGNOSIS FRAMEWORK

When something's wrong, find the root cause:

| Symptom | Likely Cause | Prescription |
|---------|--------------|--------------|
| No users signing up | Distribution problem or wrong audience | Talk to 10 more people, find where they are |
| Users sign up but don't use | Onboarding or value prop problem | Watch 5 users try it, fix the friction |
| Users use but don't pay | Pricing or value problem | Ask them what they'd pay for |
| Users churn | Not solving real problem | Talk to churned users, find why |
| Can't raise money | Traction or story problem | Focus on customers, not investors |
| Growing but unprofitable | Unit economics problem | Fix before you scale |

---

## INTEGRATION WITH DOCS

The skill reads your docs to understand where you are:

```
knowledge/VISION.md     → EMERGENT = still figuring it out
                       → DECLARED = you know what you're building

knowledge/CRM.md        → Who you're talking to, what's resonating

content/articles/       → How you explain it to the world

drafts/                 → Active outreach, what's working
```

---

## KNOWLEDGE BASE

```
knowledge/startup/
├── 0-idea/
│   ├── HOW_TO_GET_STARTUP_IDEAS.md
│   ├── SCHLEP_BLINDNESS.md
│   ├── ORGANIC_STARTUP_IDEAS.md
│   └── VALIDATION.md
├── 1-mvp/
│   ├── DO_THINGS_THAT_DONT_SCALE.md
│   ├── RAMEN_PROFITABLE.md
│   └── SCOPE.md
├── 2-customers/
│   ├── FIRST_10.md
│   ├── RELENTLESSLY_RESOURCEFUL.md
│   └── BE_GOOD.md
├── 3-launch/
│   ├── LAUNCH_PLAYBOOK.md
│   └── STARTUP_EQUALS_GROWTH.md
├── 4-growth/
│   ├── THE_FATAL_PINCH.md
│   ├── HOW_TO_RAISE_MONEY.md
│   └── FOUNDER_MODE.md
└── raw/
    ├── pg/              # All PG essays
    └── garry/           # All Garry content
```

---

## QUICK REFERENCE

### The PG Stack

1. **Make something people want** (the only thing that matters)
2. **Do things that don't scale** (early stage superpower)
3. **Talk to users** (the answers are there)
4. **Launch fast** (embarrassingly early)
5. **Grow or die** (weekly growth is the metric)

### The Garry Stack

1. **Default alive > default dead**
2. **AI enables smaller teams**
3. **Delegation > micromanagement**
4. **Learn or earn at every job**
5. **The best time to start is now**

### Anti-patterns (from "18 Mistakes That Kill Startups")

1. Single founder
2. Bad location
3. Marginal niche
4. Derivative idea
5. Obstinacy
6. Hiring bad programmers
7. Choosing the wrong platform
8. Slowness in launching
9. Launching too early
10. Having no specific user in mind
11. Raising too little money
12. Spending too much
13. Raising too much money
14. Poor investor management
15. Sacrificing users to (supposed) profit
16. Not wanting to get your hands dirty
17. Fights between founders
18. A half-hearted effort

---

## OUTPUT FILES

```
outputs/startup/
├── assessments/
│   └── stage-assessment-{date}.md
├── ideas/
│   └── validation-{idea}.md
├── mvp/
│   └── scope-{idea}.md
└── fundraising/
    └── prep-{stage}.md
```

---

## SOURCES

- Paul Graham essays: paulgraham.com (200+ essays)
- Garry Tan: blog.garrytan.com, YC blog, YouTube
- Y Combinator library: ycombinator.com/library

---

*"Make something people want."* — Paul Graham

*"At every job you should either learn or earn. Either is fine. Both is best. But if it's neither, quit."* — Garry Tan