Today, we'll talk through a framework that'll help you evaluate whether you're building something useful enough to anchor a business. Most startups fail because the thing they built doesn't make a big enough dent in their customers lives. We'll make sure you don't make this mistake with help from Habit Kangaroo, a startup Brian ran back in 2014, and a GMAT training program his friend ran that helped people get into Harvard.

• Tacklebox
• Byldd
• Greenlights

0:30 Building a Wildly Useful Startup
2:12 Why Measuring Usefulness is Hard
7:00 Byldd
7:53 Habit Kangaroo
12:50 The Usefulness Framework
13:24 What is your Secret?
13:51 Three Categories of Secrets: Customer
14:45 Three Categories of Secrets: Acquisition
15:16 Three Categories of Secrets: Product
17:08 Rivers and Dams
19:00 GMAT over 700 Product
23:02 Hire Yourself

Today, we'll run through a Concierge MVP example live on the pod. Brian chooses an idea specifically because someone wrote in and said it was "un-Concierageable," which isn't a word but is the reason this podcast exists.

We go through the four-part framework that'll help you build a Concierge MVP - The Three Components of Wild Success, Acquiring Customers, The Test, and Feedback Loops. And we get a little help from an alum helping people get grants and our old friend - the Monkey on the Pedestal.

• Tacklebox
• The Luge
• Tackle the Monkey First
• Miro

00:30 The Concierge MVP
02:05 The Grant Concierge MVP Example
04:56 Pushback
06:30 Smooth Jazz
07:00 David’s Idea
09:23 Concierge MVP Step One: The Three Components of Wild Success
10:43 Monkey and the Pedestal
14:08 Concierge MVP Step Two: Acquiring Customers
18:22 Concierge MVP Step Three: The Test
21:03 Concierge MVP Step Four: The Feedback Loop
22:52 The End - 85% of the Way There

Today, we talk through the Silk Sheet Problem - how to do something new and hard when your life is fairly... comfortable. We help a listener get started on their idea - an AI tutor's assistant - with three shortcuts to set their life up in a way that makes it easier to start a startup than to not. We talk through Just-In-Time Prep, Forcing Functions, and life design. This episode is meant to be a blueprint for you to take action and keep momentum.

• Tacklebox
• Kevin running from the furnace

00:34 Intro
03:30 The Idea: AI for Tutors
07:27 Jazz - Customer Interview Workshop
07:57 Just-In-Time Prep
11:55 Search for Hooks
14:14 The Three Step System
15:40 Forcing Function Examples
18:13 Reinforcing Markers
20:06 The End: Jump in the Ocean

Today we'll talk through how to test out and build a startup idea in ~10 days by answering four questions. We'll use an idea that's oddly popped up a bunch lately: Kitchen Organizer. We do this with a little help from a story about a poker player and my good friend, Penne Vodka Pete.

• Join Tacklebox (CODE WINTER2025)
• Wix

Today, we’re talking about startup identity—why you need one, and how it makes every decision you face way easier. We’ll talk swimming and nervous systems, walk through the Decision Equation, and help our good friend Carl figure out which customer to start with for his AI tool that helps adults learn Spanish. Then we’ll wrap with a simple framework to help you clearly define your startup’s identity. It’s practical, a little weird, and really important. On to it.

• Tacklebox
• Hero

Timestamps

00:30 Your Startup Identity
01:30 How to Swim
04:17 How to Learn Something New
06:34 Re-learning How to Make Decisions
08:45 Tacklebox
09:15 Carl’s Idea - AI for Learning Spanish
13:13 The Decision Equation
14:15 Picking a Customer
19:30 Identity: Your Decision Filter
21:30 Four Identity Exercises
24:13 The End: What Do You Want?

Today, we'll help you get your first customers. We'll do it by learning how to use the trust to risk ratio - a way to identify the big risks that are holding your customer back and shoulder those risks early on to build trust. We talk through risk and trust with Find Your Lobster, Soona, and a finicky water pump.

• Tacklebox
• Soona

Today, we'll help you find a differentiator powerful enough that it can support your business. We'll talk through what a differentiator actually allows you to do, five prompts to help you uncover and test one for your business, and Brian's favorite current differentiator - Popup Bagels.

• Tacklebox
• Popup Bagels
  

00:00 Tacklebox
00:33 Differentiator intro
04:00 What do you hire a differentiator to do?
05:44 The Attention Pie
09:03 Smooth Jazz
09:28 Popup Bagels
16:30 Five Prompts for Your Differentiator

Today, we'll lay out a framework to help you identify and kill bad ideas. It's hard to objectively evaluate your idea early on - this framework helps you rise above your idea to do it effectively. A side-effect is that the framework will help you find and pursue the good ideas.

We talk through 1) Finding and Evaluating the Real Risk, 2) Predicting Organic Growth Potential, and 3) Predicting the Likelihood of Converting Early Customers, using a startup idea from a listener as an example.

• Tacklebox
• Kunal Shah Delta 4
• Dig out of a Hole Idea to Startup Episode - The Four Characteristics of Great Startup Ideas

00:25 - Killing Bad Startup Ideas
02:00 - The Three Pillars of the Will Your Idea Fail Framework
02:45 - The Startup Idea - AI Messaging for Plumbers and Electricians
03:15 - Dig out of a Hole Markets link to episode
05:56 - Smooth Jazz
06:24 - Part 1 - How to Find and Evaluate the Real Risk
07:35 - Flipping your biggest risk to your biggest strength
11:00 - Decisions aren’t made in a bubble
13:45 - Part 2 - Predicting the Organic Growth Potential
14:00 - Kunal Shah Delta 4 Scale
17:41 - Part 3 - Predicting whether you’ll actually be able to get first customers to convert
18:49 Managed by Q