Yet Another Startup Framework

Here I write about things that I'm trying to understand and let go of notions that I have to provide authoritative opinions. These are just my current understandings so these pieces may feature strikethroughs or entirely new versions as my thinking shifts. The prior versions will always be preserved to maintain the core idea that I am always trying to gain a better understanding.

Why I’m Chasing This

I've been trying to found a company for a little over a year, but one guy (Rob Snyder) is helping me cut through the cognitive dissonance. There's this tension between what I've been told through various frameworks and what I'm coming to understand from experience. It has led to a lot of self-doubt, frustration, and burn out. When I found Rob's work, it felt like he ripped off the founder-mask that I'd been unknowingly LARPing. So I'm reading through his work and plotting a path.

In this first installment, I'm tackling Step 0 of Rob's 'Infinity to 1' stage. This stage is an intentional reframing of the classic '0 to 1' format. It embodies two core shifts:

Your job in this stage is to subtract
This stage is highly volatile, frustrating, desk-flipping if you are not doing 1

Basically, he think that when you don't have an idea there's infinite possibilities rather than zero. So rather than adding you are subtracting¹ and if you are not being crystal clear in focusing what you're doing, you will be overwhelmed and lose track. This is much more than just a reframing. For lack of a better understanding, I had this 'adding' mindset in my '0 to 1' stage and found myself adding all the wrong things. Just being given permission to throw everything off your plate that isn't driving you to 1 is SO freeing compared to the deluge of crap I'd think has to get done.

What I’m Learning So Far

Rob's entire framework for businesses revolves around producing repeatable case studies that demonstrate increasing amounts of PULL. You get there by 'unfolding' hypothesized case studies with PULL until it's no longer hypothetical and then keep unfolding as you hone in.

To start, I want a stronger understanding of his framework for the super early stage so I can look ahead just a bit. From the past, I know that things accelerate fast and can often times leave you struggling to read the next step of the 'framework' versus getting shit done. In my experience, this difficulty can lead to sub-optimal next steps and since I spent the last year developing bad habits, I want a stronger grounding in this framework before I run around making decisions off-book.

What I’m Testing Next

Grounding in the Framework

See Businesses as a Case Study Factory

Actionable Steps

See 'Infinity - X' Series where I slowly subtract from the possibilities until I get to 1.