Yin Wu
@yinyinwu
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Co-founder & Customer Success at @pulley . Startup helper. I heard people like profiles pics with dog 🐶.
San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2009
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Pinned Tweet
1/ Pulley just had our best quarter ever.
More companies are switching to our platform than ever before.
We bringing back our "Switch to Pulley" offer to give more companies the opportunity to experience better cap table management.
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Congrats to all the founders in the midst of
@ycombinator
S23!
First time founders obsess over the product. Second time founders obsess over distribution & sales.
Here's what I learned about founder lead sales to close
@pulley
's first $1m 🧵
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1K
Most founders only optimize for valuation when fundraising.
This a mistake.
You can work on a startup for years, sell for millions, and walk away with nothing if you fundraise on poor terms,
Here are terms you should know when raising to protect your upside 🧵
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1K
0/
@pulley
raised $40M led by
@rabois
at
@foundersfund
!
We're excited to keep working with
@stripe
,
@eladgil
,
@avichal
,
@ycombinator
, and the many angels below.
We are launching a new *free* tier, Pulley Seed, to help more startups navigate equity👇
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793
Overheard from an investor that they had one portfolio company that never missed a quarter for nine years.
Their secret: regular investor & employee updates.
Here's why investor updates matter & how to write an effective investor update 👇
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715
I've been chatting with a lot of founders prepping for YC interviews. There's a sentiment that the world is falling apart and funding is about to dry up🤯.
While growth & public markets may stagnant, the seed stage is different.
Now is a great time to get started 👇
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1/ Congrats to all the companies starting
@ycombinator
's winter 2023 batch!
I often talk at YC about how to launch and get traction before Demo Day. "If you build it - they will come" doesn't happen.
Here's my advice on how to scale in three months 👇
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505
0/ Compensation is hard to get right.
I gave a talk to
@ycombinator
founders on hiring & comp for startups on the lessons we learned scaling
@pulley
from 15 to 50.
Here's what I shared on startup comp👇
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OpenMarketCap is a new crypto tracker that calculates price and volume using data from the 10 trusted exchanges on the
@BitwiseInvest
report.
A 95% drop in trading volume means the market for most alts is extremely illiquid / non-existent:
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For the 8th straight batch,
@pulley
is, by far, the most popular cap table solution for YC companies.
170 out of 247 Demo Day companies use pulley.
Thank you to all of the
@ycombinator
founders for trusting us. Good luck raising and congrats on getting through Demo Day.
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We ran our own process to announce the funding for
@pulley
and received coverage from
@TechCrunch
,
@axios
,
@VentureBeat
.
Here's how to pitch your story to get coverage without a PR agency 🧵
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There's a lot of advice on how to scale a startup...
But there's little on how to shut down a company when things aren't working.
Here are the tactics for dissolving a startup, and what to tell investors to get them to fund your next bet 👇
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Had a great conversation this morning with
@jaredfriedman
at
@ycombinator
for
@startupschool
Excited to come back to share share a few lessons from being a 3x YC alum who's spend a decade of working on many startups that have failed.
Thread below👇
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I have a soft spot for drip campaigns from founders.
I never mark them as spam because I get it. It's tough to be a startup figuring out outbound. I don't want to be the one who tanks their deliverability score.
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My mom used GPT-3 to help her write holiday notes to co-workers.
This usually takes her 2+ hours because English isn't her first language.
She's not a first adopter by far. She's usually the last to try a new tool and loved
@OpenAI
.
Really excited by what's to come.
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188
Applications for
@ycombinator
are due TODAY!
I've been through YC 3 times because the community is so valuable.
@pulley
would not exist if it were not for the support of the YC community.
DM me if you want a review of your application.
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@karrisaarinen
@joeblau
Common misconception is that it's difficult. It's not.
Here's what it involves: export a cap table from Carta, import cap table to new system.
You do need to contact your stakeholders on the switch, but given the recent news, many folks will welcome the switch.
Many Pulley…
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140
Many of the best companies start in these moments - Airbnb (2008), Uber (2009), Pinterest (2010).
The founders who are in it for the quick return, leave.
And the builders stay. If you are a builder, you have less competition.
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Stay nimble and use your size to move quickly.
Don't worry seed-stage founder, this may be a great time to get started 🚀
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Pivots are far more common than most founders think.
Today
@davj
@tangjeff0
and I are chatting with
@ycombinator
startups on pivoting.
Join us:
How to pivot successfully 👇
1/ when & how to pivot at the early stage
2/ how to come up with new ideas
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Your job as a seed-stage founder is to:
1/ find the right idea
2/ raise enough funding to get to product market fit
3/ build the team to scale product market fit.
This is a very different set of challenges than the ones faced by pre-ipo companies.
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Sales is a repeatable process.
Charisma matters far less than you may believe.
Let's break down each step in the sales process:
- Lead gen
- Discovery: understand the customer's problem
- Pitch
- Buying process: get the decision makers in the room
- Close: ask for $
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Ownership matters for economics and control.
I'm excited to collab with
@femstreet
to write a series on how equity works. We want more women (and men and all) to own more of the companies they start.
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10
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It's important to build a culture that encourages sharing really bad ideas publicly - especially for remote teams.
Otherwise, people start to self-censor thoughts that are half-baked. Bad ideas could be good ones in hiding that just need a few iterations.
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0/ Lead gen
Biggest mistake with early stage founders is having an unclear buyer persona.
Bad: people who want a productivity tool
Better: customer success leaders managing remote teams
Your product, marketing, and sales all needs to obsess around a persona.
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Candidates: How do you convince a startup to hire you?
As a 3x founder, here are 4 things I've seen the best candidates do 👇
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@ycombinator
@pulley
10/ We made it easy for you to explain comp in your offer letters on
@pulley
.
Founders can plug and play different comp packages, making it much easier for candidates to understand their options.
Walk through a sample here:
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0/ Closing a great candidate is almost as hard as finding them. What's in an offer letter? How do you explain equity?
We built an offer letter tool to help startups close great candidates.
Thread below on how to make an offer👇
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Startups are hard.
Took me time to learn these lessons:
1. Unfair advantages are where real startups shine. Ask "Why me?"
2. Your idea shouldn't be a secret. Seek feedback.
3. Charge money. People don't buy unless you create value. "Costs too much" means not enough value.
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Practical advice -
This market is tough. Your ability to negotiate depends on how well you're doing. Your first priority is to stay alive, and you may need to make tough calls.
Avoid optimizing only on the valuation. Understand the terms so you the impacts to your future.
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I'm giving a talk on how to navigate comp and hiring in a downturn. Looking forward to meeting with 300+ founders at
@ycombinator
’s women founders summit!
If you’re a YC alum, would love to see you there
If you can't make it, LMK if you want
@pulley
to host an event on this
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Growth is also relative.
Getting 10x growth for a company at $100k in revenue is getting to $1m. $900k in revenue is achievable in any macro climate.
Google has different struggles. Its growth depends on a healthy economy because it's an index on the global advertising market.
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So sad to see SVB collapse overnight. It’s an institution that’s helped startups grow for the last 40 years. Pulley didn’t partner with SVB.
To all the founders dealing with this crisis, I’m so sorry. 💔 Startups are hard enough without a black swan bank run.
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Bitcoin trades at 7x not 2x the volume of Eth when considering only trusted exchanges.
Bitcoin marketshare by volume doubles. It increase from 32% to 64%.
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1/ Pulley Seed lets early stage startups model different funding scenarios, issue SAFEs, grants equity to employees, and automatically update the cap table.
All at no cost.
Equity mistakes are expensive. Seed helps the earliest startups hire and fundraise better from day 1.
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7/ Thank you to our amazing investors in this and prior rounds for supporting us:
@jaltma
,
@lachygroom
,
@sama
,
@ljxie
,
@emilykramer
,
@kloughlin
,
@stanine
,
@lafamigliavc
,
@tonsing
,
@sniyogi
,
@jeff_weinstein
,
@karimatiyeh
,
@adrianaoun
,
@haridigresses
,
@sherwingandhi
,
@HHorsley
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@ycombinator
@pulley
4/ Tip 1: Create a growth plan
Set your goal and work backward to hit the numbers.
Avoid the situation where you are 2 weeks from Demo Day and realize that you need to close 100 customers to raise.
Here is a growth template for SAAS:
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1500 people signed up for this
@stripe
fireside chat on raising your seed round.
What questions do you have for
@FiroziParinaz
and me?
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35
@ycombinator
@pulley
11/ Most common question I'm asked: How do I compete against FAANG?
TL&DR: Don’t compete. You can’t win on cash comp.
Win candidates based on:
Culture
Equity growth
Team
Growth opportunities
Your goal is not to close every candidate. You only need to close just the right one.
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A good lawyer can help your company stay alive.
Here's how to work with lawyers AND keep legal costs low 👇
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Late-stage companies with a high burn need to restructure their teams to stay afloat.
Returning an $100m investment is very different than the $1m check.
Each round of funding closes opportunities. At the early stage, acqui-hires for a return are still possible.
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6/ Reason to do a startup: You really want to help a group of users and solve their problems better than anyone else.
You have to love the users you are working to serve.
Who you help is the north star that keeps you going through hard parts.
2
8
35
I'll be speaking about crypto and
@DirtProtocol
at this year's Forbes
#Under30Summit
. Thanks to
@DelRayMan
, I have free tickets to give away. Msg me if you're interested!
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34
Launch early to drum up inbound leads.
Be your biggest advocate.
Multiple launches doesn't matter because no one is paying attention.
@ycombinator
@pulley
11/ Tip 5: Launch early
The closer to demo day, the harder it is to stand out.
More companies launch, and reporters are busy. Going early reduces your competition for attention.
A general rule is to launch before you think you’re ready.
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If your buyer persona is unclear, return to square one.
Clarify who you are trying to serve and rebuild with a clear user in mind.
Here's more on identifying your customer:
@ycombinator
@pulley
6/ Tip 2: Identify your customers
Your ICP needs to be clear enough that an upworker contractor can build a customer list.
Unclear:
- People looking for a better Zoom: there isn't a repeatable way to find them
Better:
- Finance leads at series A startups
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Why do investor updates matter?
Investors can be your best advocates. Share your problems to help them help you.
- Stay top of mind: investors help companies they remember
- Tap into their rolodex: leverage for customer intros & hiring
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We have two guidelines around meetings
@pulley
:
- No agenda, no attenda
- Reset every month: prevents the recurring meeting that last in perpetuity
One value I've found of meetings is teaching. You can teach async, but miss out the most valuable part of the Q&A.
Meetings are a usually a bug.
If you properly root cause them, you will find a trust issue, a clarity issue, or a missing API. Meetings can paper over these, but it’s much better to fix root cause.
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People sometimes say that you can work smart and not hard to succeed.
The reality is that you need both because you're competing against smart people who are working really hard.
0
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Excited to partner with
@TechCrunch
to share the 3 questions on seed funding we hear founders ask the most👇
1. How much should I raise?
2. How do I determine my valuation?
3. What are gotcha terms?
I didn't know anything when raising for the first time.
1
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2/ We work with
@altas
and
@clerkyinc
to make it easy to onboard to Pulley immediately after incorporation.
Our team reviews every startup's cap table. For the rest of the year, we'll waive our standard onboarding fee.
Get started here: !
2
1
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This is how you build for founders. Everyone should use Atlas to incorporate.
@pulley
loves partnering with
@jeff_weinstein
and
@stripe
to make it easier for anyone to start and scale their companies.
0
3
32
@VitalikButerin
1/ The data type matters. TCRs are useful for objective, publicly verifiable data (ex: erc20 token and their smart contract address for decentralized exchanges). Trusting a central source for this info is a single source of failure.
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1/ Liquidation preferences
In an acquisition, preferred holders (investors) are paid out before common (founders, employees).
The liq pref is the multiplier that determines how much investors receive before everyone else.
1
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Biggest benefit of writing the update is for the writer.
Use the update as a way to understand the state of the business. Share the update with the team to get everyone on the same page.
Updates are simply a forcing function for clarifying your own thoughts.
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OpenMarketCap removes fake volume from our stats. Visit OMC for an accurate picture of the crypto markets:
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5/ Our north star is creating a future with more founder-led companies and employee owners.
30% of the team is former founders, and we are opinionated about our culture ().
If this resonates, join us:
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1/ Discovery
Deals are lost or won based on the discovery call.
If you can't understand the customer's problem, you can't sell them a solution.
Discovery begins with asking "what brings you here"
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A simple framework for founders on how to think about taking large bets.
A good bet should satisfy all three 👇
2
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30
OpenMarketCap is excited to launch an API for our cryptocurrency data for trusted exchange data!
1
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Qualify your inbound leads based on budget, need, and timing.
If the buyer is not ready to make the purchase, move on.
The point is to focus your limited time on the customers most likely to close.
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Happy New Year! 🥂🎉
To finish out the year, here are some of my most loved things from 2022.
These are not hacks. They are so old school they wouldn't make any top 10 list.
The only head-scratcher is why I didn't take advantage of these mostly free resources sooner 😄
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Understand your liquidation preference. This term has an outsized role in determining how much flows to founders & employees in a sell.
Here's an extreme case:
A 5x liq pref with a $20m investments means the investor gets everything if the company sells for less than $100m.
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Happy holidays to everyone celebrating 🎄
Happy Sunday to all the founders! I wish you luck in getting to inbox zero. ✉️
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Disclaimer: TS Reader isn't a replacement for your lawyer.
It's a first step to knowing what you're agreeing to and how the terms impact your outcome. Talk to your lawyer when raising an equity round.
Fundraising is complex, and here are terms we call out 👇
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Taylor Swift's new album the Tortured Poet's Society is out.
For the Swiftie founders out there who are working on a Friday night, here's the track list for the Tortured Founder's Society 😆
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Here is a simple template for an investor update:
- Asks
- Growth metrics
- Summary
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@ycombinator
@pulley
7/ Most candidates don't understand the value of equity.
Walk through:
- growth potential by comparing to similar startups
- relative discount of common vs preferred shares
Do NOT oversell your equity. Good candidates are smart. Acknowledge there is a chance it goes to $0.
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Talked to our CFO firm that works with a number of startups.
Here's what they advised through the SVB crisis:
1/ Email your investors: If you're lucky and not affected, you're sharing good news. If you're affected, be direct on the severity of the impact. Ask for help
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25
7/ This is a screenshot from an XKCD cartoon strip.
I have it framed on my desk because it reminds of the founder journey.
Founders are the ones who keep going when normal people would turn back.
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@ycombinator
@pulley
6/ Tip 2: Identify your customers
Your ICP needs to be clear enough that an upworker contractor can build a customer list.
Unclear:
- People looking for a better Zoom: there isn't a repeatable way to find them
Better:
- Finance leads at series A startups
1
2
26
@ycombinator
@pulley
19/ I'll be tweeting a series on how to make the most out of YC.
We'll cover:
- Founder led sales
- Pivoting
- Fundraising
Comment below if you have other topics you want to learn more about.
Follow
@yinyinwu
and
@pulley
for tactical advice on scaling startups.
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4/ Close
Ask for money.
Be direct, send the invoice and clearly state payment terms. The ask is a formality if you've gotten to this stage.
Believe in your product and the value it provides. You're not taking from customers; you're providing them value.
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Bend the rules and find a workaround for your first 10 customers.
The goal isn't revenue. It's getting feedback so you can learn faster and make the product better.
1
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Do what you love.
Bad advice for founders because you're starting a company and not a hobby. Working on a problem you love isn't enough because you need traction to hire good people and fundraise.
Zoom out from the business and consider the market and business model.
Female founders: What is common startup advice that has been dangerous for you to follow?
@cadran_c
@esthercrawford
@rachellipstick
@APatelThompson
@alyssaatkins
@chewishgirl
@ooshma
@marronelisa
@yinyinwu
@Tracy_Young
@triketora
@CatchKristen
@LisaGelobter
@phaedrael
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8/ Thank you, continued
@JLehot
,
@kevinhartz
,
@ramnikarora
,
@jubos
,
@dksf
,
@generalcatalyst
,
@HustleFundVC
,
@vincenzo
,
@combinevc
and many others without twitter accounts
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Side note - If the close is too easy, you are pricing too low.
The price you set should cause you to lose some customers.
The goal is maximizing revenue, not # of customers.
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