Founder, OSMOS™ | Forbes 30 Under 30 | Building & Scaling Digital Products | Building @ Stealth
If I were a first-time founder with just an idea, here's the exact 8-week playbook I'd use to reach my first $1M in ARR: I've helped multiple founders go from idea to $10M+ valuations without writing a single line of code. If I had to start from scratch, here's how I'd do it: Week 1-2: Talk to 50 people who will pay (not 3 who are "interested") Stop building for your mom, co-founder, and best friend. Find 50 people who actually have the problem AND would pay to solve it. Get pre-orders, not just validation. Week 3: Kill 90% of your features, monetize ONE Most founders want to build everything. I'd pick ONE differentiator that people will pay for and ship that. Tinder had swipe. Snapchat had disappearing photos. That's it. Week 4-5: Use APIs and data scraping for instant value Fill your product with real data from day one. Nobody pays for empty platforms. Fake it till you make it with legitimate data sources that solve real problems. Week 6-7: Partner and get advice from professionals who've built million-dollar products Work with an ethical development team (in-house or outsourced) that can execute fast. Don't give away 50% equity to a college student who's never shipped anything that made money. Week 8: Launch ugly and charge immediately (or as soon as you can) Perfect is the enemy of profitable. Your paying customers will tell you what the other 90% of your product should be. Speed + revenue beats perfection. Every single time.
It took me 3 months to build an audience on here, I solved and provisionally patented a multi billion dollar problem the logistics industry.. it is now month 5 into the journey and going great. I got my target audience.
Great advice 👏 🥰
this is gold! one paying customer teaches you more than 100 "interested" ones ever will 🙌
This is great. I've also seen founders usually screw up hiring in two ways: They either hire a bunch of people they don’t really need and burn runway… or they drag out interview processes so long that the people they do need walk away. Both kill momentum. The best founders move fast and hire for impact, not headcount.
This is one of the clearest playbooks I’ve seen — no filler, just steps that force real decisions fast. I’ve seen similar thinking work in engineering too, where the best-performing systems start with a single purpose and grow based on real use, not assumptions. Which of these steps do you see most first-time founders skipping or resisting — and what usually changes their mind?
No.8 - spot on! Launch MVP without perfection....test with paying customers....gives better clarity what to build
gr8 playbook !
Thanks for sharing it. Much needed advice!!
Everyone seems to have forgotten the point of a business is revenue. I love this post. Stop building ideas and start building businesses!
Too many first-time founders chase perfection instead of speed + revenue. The “one feature + ugly launch” mindset is exactly how real traction starts.