9 things that don’t matter for your startup

(These are giant wastes of time, energy, and money):

1. A professional website

Our cohort-based writing course, Ship 30 for 30, hit 7 figures in revenue (year 1!) with a Carrd landing page we made in a weekend.

My ghostwriting agency before that signed 25+ clients ($500k+ in revenue) with nothing but cold email outreach.

2. A social media "manager"

Social media isn't something you "manage."

It's an Attention Engine.

With a system you can easily batch & create your own content.

Or, hire a ghostwriter to leverage existing assets & create for you.

This should be a contractor.

Not a full-timer.

3. Paid ads

99% of the time, companies turn on paid ads too early.

First, you should focus on:

Creating an organic marketing flywheel
Validating the product offer
Gathering testimonials
Increasing LTV

Only turn on paid once you've pushed those as far as possible.

4. Funding

Very few businesses actually require funding.

Most can be validated by selling:

Smaller versions of the same thing
Digital education about "the thing"
Pre-selling "the thing" to gauge demand

Founders who say "I need money" are usually lost.

5. A technical co-founder (CTO)

There are 4 forms of leverage (h/t @naval)

Labor
Capital
Code
Media

If you can't code, chances are a code-dependent product isn't your highest-leverage idea.

And you'd be better off using a different form of leverage to start.

6. A pitch deck

Here's an unspoken fundraising rule in Silicon Valley:

The newbie startups raise funding using pitch decks & presentations.

The elite startups say, "Sorry we're busy building—you want in or no?"

Startups that need money don't get it.

Startups that don't, do.

7. A "go-to-market strategy"

Here's your GTM Strategy:

Build in public.

Educate others about your category on Twitter/LinkedIn
Share monthly metrics & lessons learned publicly
Ask people what they want—then build & launch it ASAP

Stop overthinking, start shipping

8. Monday morning "standup" meetings

Most action items don't need to be discussed.

They need to be delegated & measured.

Your startup (especially early-stage) doesn't need to "talk" about things.

It needs to be DOING things.

And most can be done asynchronously.

9. A physical office

Even if you are selling physical goods, you probably don't need a physical office.

And if you are selling digital products, you definitely don't need one.

So, what does your startup actually need?

An LLC/formal entity
A business bank account
An "offer"
A way to reach prospective customers
A way to follow fulfill your offer, consistently

Steps 1 & 2 can be done in an afternoon.

The rest is Entrepreneurship 101.

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