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Breezi List of the Week

2024 IN vs OUT for startups

By now you would’ve already seen this trend take off on TikTok (470M+ views) so here is my In and Out List for what will make startups successful this year

INs

1. Build MVPs like scooters

2. Talking to your users

3. Growth = content + community + culture

4. Finding the right co-founder

5. IRL activations for acquisition awareness

OUTs

1. Fully remote teams <10 people

2. Raising money off waitlist signups

3. Outsourcing content creation

4. Expensive brand guides

5. Attending events out of FOMO

What does build MVPs like scooters mean?

• I love this drawing because it captures the essence of what an MVP is and is not

• The goal with a startup is always to solve someone’s problem (e.g. the car was invented to help people get from one destination to another destination faster)

• Logically, we all know that the bottom row is the correct path

• But no one talks about how emotionally frustrating, draining and honestly, kind of embarrassing it is to put a skateboard into the world when the user wanted a car

Despite having all these ideas for unique features, our MVP was as bare bones as it gets:

1. Only available on web

2. Create an account

3. Plain text content + 1 image option

4. Leave comments

5. Copy link to share externally

Even though I was annoyed at the fact Breezi felt like a dingy scooter, it started to work and we saw a glimpse of how far we could take this.

Three ways to talk to your users in 2024

1. Daily communication through Discord: drive all sign ups to join your Discord and use the server as a way to stay in contact with users. We use it both to give Breezi updates (new features, bug reports) and also as a fun way to say hi to everyone (sending memes, behind the scenes pictures).
   

2. Weekly 30-minute user calls: I find the biggest mistake people make on user calls is focusing on how they use your product. There are other ways to do that (heat mapping, surveys). Instead, I think the 30 minutes should be used as a way to get a deeper understanding of the emotions behind why they use your product.
   

3. Monthly community events online and IRL: we host bi-weekly town halls for 30-45 minutes where anyone can drop in to chat. Sometimes we play games like Skribbl and other times we screenshare while we work on new features. The goal of community events is providing a way for users to know and meet each other.

What is the most important growth lever in 2024*?

• Founder-Led Content Strategy: My advice is that for pre-seed/ seed startups, majority of your content (video, newsletter, podcast) should be created, produced and distributed by the founder. As a founder, it’s critical that you’re able to tell your story well enough to build up a content strategy that drives growth in early days.

• Doesn’t this take a lot of time? Every piece of content I’ve put out (which includes 100+ TikTok videos, 25+ newsletters, 5+ Youtube videos) have been scripted, filmed, edited and distributed by me. Of course it takes time, that’s why most founders try their best to outsource as soon as possible – personally I think is a mistake.
  

• Keep content in-house for as long as possible: Content used to mean paying a college student $100/ video to churn out and hope one of them takes off on TikTok – consumers see right through that. When you’re so early, the product sucks and nothing works. The only thing you have is your story. Make sure you take ownership in telling it the best.

*More on content and community in the next newsletter

Tips on finding the right cofounder for you

1. Plan for it to take 6-12 months

2. Meet more than one person at a time

3. Work on trial projects together

4. Hang out with each other outside of work

5. Have hard conversations early

My experience doing from a solo founder to now working with the best partner I could ask for

• March 2023: Realized that long term success for Breezi would mean having a cofounder and building a team together

• May 2023: Had a tweet go viral about using Hinge to find a cofounder which led to lots of inbound opportunities

• June 2023: Started working with an awesome engineer from SF on a trial project

• Aug 2023: Shipped an early version of the product but realized we weren’t aligned on long term vision/ personal and professional goals

• Sept 2023: Took a month to understand what I needed in a cofounder

• Oct 2023: Met an insanely talented individual at an event

• Nov 2023: Worked together to ship this current MVP version of Breezi

• Dec 2023: Came back to NY to spend a week together in person

• Jan 2024: Had lots of long conversations on vision, role, conflict management, personal ambitions, and more – eventually came to the conclusion that we both wanted to do this together

How to host events if IRL activations are part of your go-to-market strategy

• The KPI should be awareness, not acquisition: the goal of events is to get more potential users or customers to recognize your brand – not direct downloads or purchases

• Align the event with your target demo: our ideal user are gen-z females and no better way to reach them then by hosting Charm Night as our first ever IRL activation

• Find partners to work with: we’re super excited to be hosting our event at Verci, a community space for entrepreneurs, artists, creators and others on the unconventional path – lots to look forward to!

If you found anything in this newsletter helpful, I'd love to connect on Twitter – tweet me a screenshot of your favorite part and let's chat 👋

I'll be back next week with more lists!