• Pick a broad set of advisors
  • 3 ~ 5 years ahead of the startup’s current status with fresh experience that they could recall things and provide immediate help
  • Late-stage advisors: better in strategic thinking; not good for too specific details.
• Compensation: Advisor option grant: 0.25% ~ 0.75% monthly over two years

What doesn't work?​

• Throwing money at the problem
  • Sponsor a hackathon without proper docs that help devs to get started.
  • Not seeding your community with ideas & examples
• Build excellent tools but tells no one about them and how to use them.
  • Assuming you have provided ==enough context== in your contents
• Spend too much time on low-leverage work like answering questions

What works?​

• Set clear goals: foster apps, integrations, mutual help, and word-of-mouth built with your tech.
  • a system of new useful apps built on top of your tech
  • integrations between your tech and existing products
  • helping other devs in your community
  • telling their friends about your tech
• Provide useful content: Libraries, APIs, docs, tools, smart contracts, education, etc.
• Establish long-term relationships: tutorials, videos, podcasts, workshops, meetups.
• Ride the hype: explain how your tech works with the popular tech and dev tools.
• Create superstars in your community.

How to improve docs?​

• Improving docs is high-leverage work.

  • ==Every minute spent making your docs better is worth an hour of answering individual questions - stack overflow.==

• Understand your developer personas.

  • Listen to your customers every day.
  • Categorize your customers.

• Developer's questions are useful clues to improve your doc.

How to categorize your developers?​

Segment by skill level - seeing the table of skill levels to what they need:

Segment by role / intent

How to support superstars in your community?​

• Make them feel special and highlighted
• Promote what they are doing
• Create sharing opportunities for them to reach border community

How to run a better hackathon?​

• Know your customer - are they willing to build on your tech?
• Know your co-sponsor - are they as high quality as you?
• Know how to get started - people are unprepared, having limited time, and over-whelmed by your and others' techs

How to run a better bounty?​

• It doesn't work to Incentivise people to do simple and stupid tasks.
• What works is to make productive and derivative improvements.
  • Get smart devs to develop something new
  • Crowdsource tutorials and educational content

What do you mean by useful content?​

• periordical sharing
  • web3 research
  • tech deep dive
• official websites/doc/demo
• articles to various channels

It takes time for good technology to gain popularity. From the chart below, we can see that, even for the Internet, it still takes 17 years for 50% of US households to adopt it, no matter how profoundly it has changed our lives today.

That’s why I am always respectful towards all kinds of innovations - no matter how small it appears today, who would imagine it will take over the world tens of years later?

As a builder or businessman, we have a product or service to sell, and the question is - how to speed up the process for it to take over the market?

The Model​

Everett M. Rogers came up with Five Intrinsic Attributes of Innovation in his Diffusion of Innovation Theory :

• Relative advantage: how much is the product perceived as better than the existing standard? We often ask, is this product 10x better than the existing one?
• Compatibility: how easily can I apply my experience to the new product? Customers hate changes even with new versions of an existing product, not even mention utterly new products with entirely new features.
• Complexity: Is it easy to use?
• Trialability: Is it easy to try?
• Observability: Is it obvious for people to observe the change?

The Chasm​

In addition to the intrinsic attributes above, there are interactions between the innovation and the market segments. We call it the technology adoption lifecycle (TAL), which categorizes customers on the market into five pieces.

The Chasm theory indicates that there is no smooth transition from early adopters to the early majority because those two market segments want different value propositions. Crossing the Chasm applies the “D-Day analogy” to solve the problem - focus, focus, focus! Focus is all it takes to attack each segment one by one - like D-Day - you take over the beach first and then move to the next target.

The Math​

Every entrepreneur would dream of a beautiful S-curve for their innovation to diffuse into the market. So to unveil the math curtain, let’s see how Scott Page explains it in the book model thinker, Chapter 11: Broadcast, Diffusion, and Contagion.

The abstraction here is to partition the population into two groups:

• informed: people who know or have something and
• susceptible: those who do not.

Group informed starts empty, and group susceptible is all the relevant population exposed to conversion. The growth curves are in various shapes with various models to convert people from susceptible to informed.

r-shape for broadcast model​

This model assumes that

1. people capture info from public channels, and there is no word-of-mouth / mutual reference between individuals
2. once converted, there is no moving-back

And then we get this formula

• $P_{broad}$: the broadcast probability
• $I_{t}$: the number informed at time $t$
• $S_{t}$: the number susceptible at time $t$
• Initially, $I_{0} = 0$ and $S_{0} = N_{POP}$
• $N_{POP}$: relevant population
• $N_{POP} = I_{t} + S_{t}$

We could learn from the model that...

• In this broadcast model, all susceptible will be eventually converted to informed, and it is just a matter of time how soon it will complete.
• To maximize informed, we should maximize susceptible first. It means that our ads should reach as many potential customers as we can.
• To speed up the conversion, we should make our ads as high-frequent and impressive as possible.
• With the formula above, we could make a rough prediction for future sales with the ones in the previous two periods.

s-shape for diffusion model​

This model assumes that

1. people capture info by mutual reference and there is no public channel
2. once converted, there is no moving-back
3. people are randomly mixed

And then we get this formula

• where $P_{diffuse} = P_{spread} \bullet P_{contact}$

We could learn from the model that...

• How fast the conversion happens is determined by how frequently those people contact each other and how much they would like to share the info.

mixing of r-and-s-shape for Bass model​

Most consumer goods and info spread through both broadcast and diffusion. Usually, for the same product, companies are running ad campaigns; meanwhile, customers are referring new customers.

susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model​

All the models above assume no moving back from informed to susceptible. We seldomly abandon our adoption of many home appliances - dishwashers, air dryers, etc. However, it is not the same for fashion styles, diseases, and ... your brand in the real world. In this case, things are contagious only for a particular time. People may forget your product as time passes by and then get recovered.

Let's introduce $P_{recover}$ the probability of recovery, then we get the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model.

For disease control, the infected will rise first, and we hope it will eventually drop.

However, we hope the informed will rise to the top for our products. The SIR model produces a ==tipping point==, aka, ==basic reproduction number ($R_{0}$)==.

Products with $R_{0} > 1$ spread through the population, while products with $R_{0} < 1$ dissipate.

Take COVID as an example. Its $R_{0}$ is 2 to 3. $P_{diffuse} = P_{spread} \bullet P_{contact}$ and that is why people wear masks, keep distances from others and avoid crowds to lower the diffuse probabilities.

$R_{0}$ is the ultimate question for marketing - would your marketing be contagious enough to fight against forgetfulness?

By the formal definition, the mass media version of the tipping point is usually wrong. For example, a kink is not a tipping point in the chart below for the number of Google Plus users in the first 14 days. Instead, $R_{0}$ is the real tipping point.

Elements of GTM - Reach, Frequency, and Quality​

Finally, here is the summarization of all components that are worth optimizing for go-to-market campaigns. Please note that spreading information carries costs, unlike diseases, so we need to consider ROI.

• Reach channels
  • Customer Segment Size: Make sure your ads are going to the susceptible targets, as many of them as possible.
  • Customer Segment Attributes: The more each person in the segment is likely to contact and share the info, the more contagious the group is. It would help if you prefer people with a strong frequency and willingness to share information. (Attacking visionaries first!)
• How-to
  • Frequency: Make sure people cannot ignore your message by conveying it multiple times.
  • Quality Conversion Rate: Make the ads likable and memorable. It's usually something they are familiar with but still a surprise.
  • Make it big and fast. Don't forget that people will forget! Ideally, make diffusion rate > recovering rate.
• ROI. Don't spend too less or too much on customer acquisition (LTV:CAC = 3:1).

Infuse the IOZ personal growth loops with a triangle of faith.

Template for writing an investment memo to capture the learning process before spending a large amount of money.

## 20XX-XX-XX Company Name Investment Memo

| Attribute            | Value |
| -------------------- | ----- |
| Category             |       |
| Round                |       |
| Raising              |       |
| Pre-money Valuation  |       |
| Post-money Valuation |       |
| Allocation           |       |

## Summary

The decision is yes / no with an amount of X, because of the most significant argument Z.

- highlight 1, could be pros and cons.
- highlight 2
- highlight 3

Ratings: X out of 5 (benchmark against past deals)

| Attribute            | Value |
| -------------------- | ----- |
| Traction             |       |
| Team                 |       |
| Product              |       |
| Social Proof         |       |
| Pitch / Presentation |       |
| Total                |       |

## Introduction

- What does the company do?
- What is the problem the company solving?
- How does the world work now in relation to this problem?
- How does the company solve the problem?
- How does solving the problem change behavior and make money?
- What is the scale of the opportunity?

## Traction / Metrics

- Discuss traction up to now (include a chart).
- Discuss main related metrics, such as churn, ACV, rake.
- Discuss revenue drivers.
- What does the go-to-market look like?

## Challenges to Growth

- What's prevented you from growing even faster?
- How will raising money solve this problem?

## Market

- Who are the customers?
- How do those customers think / act?
- How big is the opportunity these customers represent?

## Future States

- What happens to the market as the company starts to win?
- How does the company change the market and where does that lead the company?

## Compatitive Landscape

- What is the competitive landscape and how does the company defeat it?

## Team

- Who are the team and what makes the team special?

## FAQ

- The main objections the company is likely to face, and eloquently knock them down. Data is good here.
- This is probably the part where the memo is most powerful relative to a deck.

## Use of funds

- How much have the company raised in the past?
- How much the company is raising and what are they going to do with it?

Decision Making Process​

- [ ] sort qualitatively
  - [ ] apply filtering criteria
  - [ ] create market map
- [ ] assess risks at each life stage (TAL)
  - [ ] quantify uncertainties

| Stage       | Early Stage Success | Cross Chasm | Mass Market Success | Mass Market Share |
|-------------|---------------------|-------------|---------------------|-------------------|
| Market      | | | | |
| Product     | | | | |
| Team        | | | | |
| Financial   | | | | |
| Total       | | | | |


- [ ] perform sensitivity analysis
- [ ] calculate risk / return

PRFAQ means press release and fequently asked questions. People at Amazon adopt it to write down requirements and important features of yet to be developed products.

Why does it matter?

1. it is customer-centric - Starting with the customer and working backward.
2. it clarifies uncertainties early on and simplifies the following-up work of engineering, product, design, marketing, and sales.
3. it tests people's excitement of the product.

Press Release​

Copied and modified from this article.

Heading: short name for the product that the target customers will understand​

Subheading: One sentence saying who the market is and what the benefit is

Summary: 2–4 sentences that gives a summary of the product and the benefits. Should start with customer and be self-contained so that a person could read only this paragraph and still understand the new product/feature.

Problem : 2–4 sentences describing the problem that a customer faces, which this product solves. Tests your assumptions about the pain-points that you are addressing.

Solution : 2–4 sentences, describing how the new product/feature addresses this problem. Tests your assumptions about how you are solving the pain-points.

Getting started: 1–3 sentences describing how someone can start using this product/feature (if it’s baked into the existing product, say this explicitly). Tests your assumptions about how easy the ramp-up is for your customers to take advantage of the new product/feature.

Internal quote: Someone within your company being quoted about what they like about the product/feature. Tests your assumptions about the value you are creating for your customers and how you position this product within your broader product offerings.

Customer Quote(s): a hypothetical customer saying what they like about the new product/feature. Tests your assumptions about how you want your customers to react to the new product/feature and your ideal customer profile. They should be doing something that they couldn’t do before, doing something much quicker and easier, saving time and effort, or in some other way making their life better. Whatever the benefit is, their delight in the benefit(s) should be exhibited in the quote. This should be multiple quotes from different customers if you have multiple profiles of ideal customers, example: mid-market and F50 customers.

Call to action: 1–2 sentences telling the reader where they can go next to start using the product/feature. Tests your assumptions about whether this is a feature that is automatically on, something they need to turn on, a beta-release, etc.

FAQs​

A set of public frequently-asked questions and their answers. This should be a comprehensive list of everything that a customer might want to know about the product. It should include any reasonable question that comes up when discussing the new product/feature with customers and customer-facing teams during the development of the product/feature.

Internal FAQs​

A set of private, internal frequently-asked questions and their answers in a format that can be understood by every other stakeholder. An FAQ might include wireframes of a product with a strong UX component, or a link to separate wireframe documents, but the PR should rely on text alone. This will allow all internal stakeholders to get clarity on the product/feature.

What success looks like?​

Why is [this product] important to us?​

What are the objectives [this product] trying to achieve?​

How can [this product] fail? Would it cause customer dislikes?​

What is the rollout plan?​

What are the dependencies?​

What are the risks?​

Customer FAQ​

Why does [this product] matter to me?​

How to [use this product]?​

How do I know if [this product] is a right solution to my problem?​

ADR means Architectural Decision Record, a mini-doc to capture significant architectural changes that are not worth a full design doc.

# [short title of solved problem and solution]

* Status: [proposed | rejected | accepted | deprecated | … | superseded by [ADR-0005](0005-example.md)] <!-- optional -->
* Deciders: [list everyone involved in the decision] <!-- optional -->
* Date: [YYYY-MM-DD when the decision was last updated] <!-- optional -->

Technical Story: [description | ticket/issue URL] <!-- optional -->

## Context and Problem Statement

[Describe the context and problem statement, e.g., in free form using two to three sentences. You may want to articulate the problem in form of a question.]

## Decision Drivers <!-- optional -->

* [driver 1, e.g., a force, facing concern, …]
* [driver 2, e.g., a force, facing concern, …]
* … <!-- numbers of drivers can vary -->

## Considered Options

* [option 1]
* [option 2]
* [option 3]
* … <!-- numbers of options can vary -->

## Decision Outcome

Chosen option: "[option 1]", because [justification. e.g., only option, which meets k.o. criterion decision driver | which resolves force force | … | comes out best (see below)].

### Positive Consequences <!-- optional -->

* [e.g., improvement of quality attribute satisfaction, follow-up decisions required, …]
* …

### Negative Consequences <!-- optional -->

* [e.g., compromising quality attribute, follow-up decisions required, …]
* …

## Pros and Cons of the Options <!-- optional -->

### [option 1]

[example | description | pointer to more information | …] <!-- optional -->

* Good, because [argument a]
* Good, because [argument b]
* Bad, because [argument c]
* … <!-- numbers of pros and cons can vary -->

### [option 2]

[example | description | pointer to more information | …] <!-- optional -->

* Good, because [argument a]
* Good, because [argument b]
* Bad, because [argument c]
* … <!-- numbers of pros and cons can vary -->

### [option 3]

[example | description | pointer to more information | …] <!-- optional -->

* Good, because [argument a]
* Good, because [argument b]
* Bad, because [argument c]
* … <!-- numbers of pros and cons can vary -->

## Links <!-- optional -->

* [Link type] [Link to ADR] <!-- example: Refined by [ADR-0005](0005-example.md) -->
* … <!-- numbers of links can vary -->

Guiding Policies​

1. Keep it simple, easy to be refer to, and easy to be measured.
2. Separate core objectives from stretch objectives.
3. At least 60% of them should be defined by the executors.

OKR Template​

20XX Yearly OKRs

* Core Objective 1:
* Core Objective 2:
* Core Objective 3:
* Stretch Objective 1:
* Stretch Objective 2:

20XXQX OKRs

* Core Objective 1:
  * KR:
  * KR:
* Core Objective 2:
* Stretch Objective 1:

Templates make it easy to think and design clearly and rule out blind spots. (Though it may also introduce blind spots...) Here is a collection of templates that help you build better products.

1. PRFAQ - Press release and frequently asked questions
2. ADR - Architecture decision record
3. OKR - Objectives and key results
4. Eng Design Doc
5. Github Issue and PR
6. Investment Memo

Overview​

@[toc]

1. Intelligence/Decision-Making​

• One Yang Finger: Extreme approaches, breakthrough at a single point. Focused strategy. One of Michael Porter's three competitive strategies.
• Finger Flicking Mastery: Cost leadership strategy. One of Michael Porter's three competitive strategies.
• Dugu Nine Swords: Differentiation strategy, winning without moves. One of Michael Porter's three competitive strategies.
• Four Ounces to Move a Thousand Pounds: Using leverage to create a greater impact. Andy Grove said that a manager's output equals the output of their own team and adjacent teams under their influence. The key to high output is high leverage.
• Taixuanjing Divine Skill: Mysterious and profound, the gateway to all wonders. Starting from the fundamental laws of the universe, deconstructing and recombining to find the optimal path to achieve goals. Also known as first principles.
• Nine Yang Divine Skill: Economies of scale, a type of economic moat. The larger the scale, the lower the cost, making it more competitive in the market.
• Masterful Hands Empty: As Steve Jobs said, "Good artists copy; great artists steal."
• Rain of Flowers/Pointy Punches: Describing entrepreneurs who take two shots regardless of the outcome, then pivoting wildly based on validated learning.
• Killing Two Birds with One Stone: If you do one thing that is needed by two parties, it’s like doing two things. Reuse, resell. Achieving alignment.

2. Martial Power/Expertise​

• Left-Right Mutual Combat Technique: Experimenting and iterating wildly, improving through results without relying on others. "Damn it, no one can stop me from coding!" "Whether the code is right or not, just run it to find out."
• Jade Maiden Skill: Standing firm without desire, as long as I don't care, no one can hurt me; if I don't want to win, I won't lose.
• Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill: Playing a much larger game. Flowers bloom at times. A garage does not produce a company; a company produces a company.

3. Leadership/Execution​

• Deceiving the Sky to Cross the Sea: In NASA's Apollo moon landing program, there are three sayings: cutting in line, sandbags, and umbrellas. Ideally, new tasks are prohibited from cutting in line, hiding task delays under sandbags, and using others' overdue tasks to cover one's own delays. A sandbag that can't be hidden may lead to major problems, like Elizabeth Holmes.
• Small No-Form Skill: Fake it until you make it. Duck typing: "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck." "As long as the exterior looks like a master, works like a master, and sounds like a master, then I am a master."
• Mighty Golden Bell Palm: Boldness brings miracles; one force can overcome ten skills. Fast and rough.
• Seductive Leg: Making money is business, nothing to be ashamed of. The only standard for testing investment ability is whether real money is made. Without grand ideals, one can still do the current tasks well.
• Evil-Repelling Sword Technique/Sunflower Manual: Simplifying life by discarding unimportant matters and focusing on what needs to be done, thus unleashing tremendous power.
• Pulling the Roots from the Bottom: Changing the engine while flying; "As long as you replace the system you rely on with the one I wrote, no one can take my job."
• Lifting Weights as Light: Either secretly working overtime like a rogue or truly being exceptionally skilled and faster than others.
• Flowery Fists and Embroidered Legs: Seeking speed over substance; a system hastily put together may lead to numerous regressions once launched.
• Wing Chun: The power of small wins snowballing; of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work.
• Mount Tai Pressing Down: So good that they can't ignore you.
• Big Dipper Divine Fist: North Star goal-setting method; some companies use layered OKRs.
• Heavy Sword Without Edge, Great Skill Without Craftsmanship / Xuan Tie Sword Technique: Details determine strength; strength conquers all.
• Tai Chi Sword Technique: This sword technique consists of various circles, big and small, straight and diagonal. If one were to speak of techniques, one could say there is only one move, yet this move is endlessly adaptable. Using a series of sprints to recommend project progress; emphasizing continuous improvement; avoiding burnout because "a soaring dragon has regrets," and abundance cannot last long.

4. Charisma/People and Culture​

• The Benevolent Have No Enemies: Empathy can clarify what the other party is thinking. One of the virtues in the Book of Virtues.
• Hidden Needles in Cotton/Knives Hidden in Smiles: Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to eliminate everyone you meet.
• The Tide of the Blue Sea: Persuading others using their desires.
• Flattery: Excessive praise or flattery can make the praised arrogant and complacent, leading to stagnation or even downfall. Many companies have a habit of sycophancy, which can be used appropriately to spoil the arrogant.
• Shifting Blame/Eel Skill: Appearing near the credit while hiding from the mistakes.

5. Qualifications/Product Power​

• Taizu Long Fist: Intuition triumphs over data-driven approaches; it may seem simple, but its impact is immense. The iPhone is not a data-driven product.

6. Politics/Resource Integration​

• Stopping Thirst with Plums/Painting Cakes: A grand vision has two sides; it can either deceive or be the first step to conquering the stars and the sea. Those who achieve it are great men; those who do not are frauds :)
• Turning the Universe: Steve Jobs' reality distortion field.
• Buddha's Palm: If peers can't resolve it, do you know there's a set of heavenly palm techniques? Escalate the issue to a superior.

What interesting and useful martial arts techniques or moves have you encountered in Silicon Valley? Feel free to fork our GitHub repo and submit a PR, or star it to follow future updates.