Two years ago a group of women founders came together at @DardenMBA to level the playing field for women founders. Biwkly, student-led grind. Yesterday, 3 of those #kpiclub members earned $40k of the prize $ in the @BattenInstitute ecup Launch competition. mini 🧵

x) mine, not school's & open source so use if you want y) I imagine there are better & welcome suggestions z) this was followed up w some salty analogies in class about the olden day teachers that clung to the abacus v the calculator

Updated syll for @DardenMBA #VentureVelocity ChatGPT – feel free to use this tool (or any other, including getting human helpers). But since AI now delivers generic in 60 seconds; generic work is now an D grade so use the tool as a starting point not finished work. /2

Great thread on startup pitches and raising.

How to Never Give Up 🧵 We often hear that success boils down to just not giving up. But I had to learn on my own *how* to not give up. So I wrote for myself some of the lessons learned from years in the arena. Here I’ll share them hoping they serve you.👇🏽

Struck me today that I have been seeing a ton of great pitches and talking with a lot of grounded founders this week. Signal to noise stronger than norm, by a lot. At a time when negatively and headwinds are in surplus, I feel energized and grateful for 2023.

100%. Re-read the para of @bfeld personal experience when "bad" got worse. Expect same. Still, massive opportunity on horizon for founders who adapt & biggies w solid balance sheets. But those hoping for normal fundraising in a few months are likely to feel pain. Or worse.

Students wrestling w ADHD/ADD in homework, new tool for the new year. Students of mine that seem to be getting good results & have coaches referring. Solved the prob for a co-founder & they care deeply. Plus they show up at trade shows w a massive rubber duck & bubble wrap.

Technical founders - ALMOST NO PRODUCTS JUST SELL THEMSELVES!! A dashboard for customers might to self onboard is not going to increase revenue trajectory.

Remember those that most want you to success will often push you the hardest The rest might seem nicer, but they usually don't really care

12/Been in board/exec mtgs leading to lg price⬆️. IMO most dangerous part is the binary finale. Price hike v hope for other soltn. Bruising, emotional argument. Some lose hope. Emotion spills into comms/culture. Really, it is step 1 to future. Comms after is key. Gd luck.

11/ How? - share reasons behind abruptness - own blindspots/mistakes - describe other things you are doing so not all on price increase - address their fears that this might happen again - be humble

10/ When abrupt price increase is necessary, and testing time is non-existent, talking about why is delicate, but crucial. - Hastily concieved carrots rarely help w that messaging - Gaslighting provokes anger - Authentically opening the veil to the situation is best hope.

9/ Those type competitors may later face same economic realties, but right now they need users and can burn to get them. Exposing that flank is dangerous. The price increaser arguing "foolish" competitor will eventually fail is yelling for the iceberg to move.

8/ The competitor w smaller installed base can attack on price. The irony of price war rules of thumb. In this case, the little co with the slingshot has a huge, momentary advantage over giant coming up against cash crunch. See lemon squeezy attacking on socials. Land grab.

7/ and that emotion is anger or whatever comes from perceived disrespect. "Meh, it's been too cheap, I love it, not too much $ vs pain/risk of switching" v "Fine, if that's how you think about me, I can go over there for less. They seem to actually care about me." ++

6/ Any big change is a churn catalyst even if well executed bc it makes an autopilot expense into a higher involvement repurchase as far as the brain is concerned. That undermines the predictable benefits of SaaS to provider. + if it lands poorly then emotion is in the mix.

5/ Think of the subs you pay for. If the fee is the same monthly, most people tend to let it ride until some life event prompts us to review. Exception - if the amount or value prop changes a lot. Now we're tuned in. Then we reevaluate.

4/ Customers tend to understand small annual increases. Going up a little every yr reduces need for big jumps. Abrubtness combined w big jumps is the worst. Abruptness tends to come when facing cash crunch or Board trying to prevent that.

3/ Installed base makes testing on current customers harder, but makes testing on incoming customers easier. The tests are then lower risk. Testing in tiers also enables lower risk testing to opt premium users into higher fees w features they endorse via opt in pilots & betas

2/ @robwalling hits on the tactical lines crossed here. Agree 100%. WRT installed base, risk is losing the whole biz w bad announcement. Not all at once, but 10-30% easily can start down that path & incite a death spiral due to smaller base. Jarring customers is never good.