Infinity - 0

Consistent updates are the best way for anyone measure progress on difficult non-linear tasks regardless of the interval. Otherwise, I've found things can feel like you're in a minimum or sloping down. These updates makes space to show all the parts that are continuing to evolve while also celebrating the highs and lows. No matter what, as long as you are periodically reflecting on your consistent work, you will be on an upward trajectory. Whether or not that trajectory or your velocity is enough to be 'successful' is a different story.

Where This Update Fits

The 'Infinity - X' (read: Infinity minus X) series is dedicate to getting me to 1 by subtracting from infinity rather than adding to zero. For more context, see Yet Another Startup Framework.

This is the first entry for now it'll be pretty free-form, but will likely become templated so I'm laser focused on asking myself the right questions week over week.

What Moved Forward

I restarted my building process around Rob Snyder's case study framework.

What’s Still Open

I'm pretty clear on my next steps and for now, I just need to bullet out the following for next week. I'm setting myself up to 'observe' in order to figure out my hypothesis case study and sell in the next two weeks.

Commitments

First four are based on Rob's suggestions, the rest are mine.

I will sell in order to earn the right to think about marketing or PLG
I will commit 90 minutes every day to outbound prospecting, where I will EXECUTE, not THINK
I will commit 60 minutes every week to reflecting + planning next week.

Structured thinking exercises (no existential angst allowed)
Detective -> What worked / didn’t? What to change? (Start here)
“Hell Yes” -> What part of your GTM can you make into a “Hell Yes” for customers?
“Async” -> What part of your GTM can you automate?

OUTPUT: 1 TACTICAL THING YOU CAN CHANGE IN 1-2 HOURS
(Keep running notes in 1 doc / notion)

I will checkout daily using a digital popcorn counter. Rob's example.

Today:
✅ 30 mins outbound = 50 sequences
✅ 30 mins cold calls = 10 calls
🚫 30 mins referrals = got distracted, will fix tmrw
Results: 1 demo booked
Other: Trying to figure out how to close a customer who’s gone dark
Tomorrow:
Same prospecting goals PLUS 2 demos - will report back
Need help: Ideas to drive urgency

I will post those reflections every week here.
I will execute each step with a full week of the simplest version of the step before I iterate on the implementation.
- It is much more important to be consistent than perfect. Only after a week, will I reflect on changes and implement 80/20s.

Time Boxes

Each of these have been blocked off in my calendar. To make the outbound successful, I need to follow the 'execute' instead of 'think' methodology. In order to get to the 'execute' part, I may need 1-2 cycles to scrape and gather this data and information.

90-Min Prospecting Block (daily M-F)
- 30 minutes: Cold emails (~30 p/ day)
- 30 minutes: Cold calls (~6 p/ day)
- 30 minutes: Referrals (1-3 p/ day 4x p/ wk) & LinkedIn (30 adds, 6 new conversations 1x p/ wk)

I've edited this down from Rob's number because I do not think I can do 50 emails a day or 10 cold calls. Maybe one year.

5-Min Slack Check-Out Block (daily)
30 minute look ahead block (weekly - F)
60-Min Reflection Block (weekly - F)

I've also created a physical tracker system to help motivate me. I counted out 150 pennies. I'll receive 1 for every outbound block (3 p/ day and 15 p/ week). After 10 weeks of outbounds, I'll give myself a treat.

Who do I want to observe?

My current idea revolves around verifying, minting, brokering, and retiring RECs. So I can learn from everyone in each of those components, but my real customer will be the asset owner at the end of the day.

Anyone that owns solar: commercial, industrial, REITs, residential, government, etc.

My hypothesis is:

Large asset owners are struggling to manage, profit, and audit their REC portfolios every quarter. They need to submit forms across various agencies for multiple projects every MW, sell minted RECs, retired sold RECs, and continue to verify they are upholding the amount of RECs that's already been purchased. Without this, they can hurt their chances at financing deals because the selling of these RECs was factored into the project financing.

The current solutions are very old and overly complex, especially for large portfolios. They are looking into alternatives, but have not landed on a clear winner.

How do I observe them?

Outreach

Tap into my network at 9zero, personal, and extended.

Who at a EaaS, REIT, large asset owners gives a shit about RECs?
When does it become the top item on their plate?
How does their job affect the business outcomes?

Research

Reading

Re-read assets and conversations from Potential Customer #1 and review GPT conversation.
Research the brokers out there and how can I become one

Writing

Create an interconnection.fyi for REC data

Help Wanted / Feedback Loop

Accountability!