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...
May 16, 2024•24 min•Ep 141•Transcript available on Metacast Today we talk through a system to help you start the business you don't feel ready to start. We do this because that's the only type of business there is. You're never going to feel prepared so you can't let that fear paralyze you. We talk through the three main gaps that keep founders from starting - the Knowledge Gap, the Network Gap, and the Product Gap - and describe a method that'll help you navigate each. We get a little help from a startup idea Brian's been kicking around, a turtle swimmi...
May 08, 2024•24 min•Ep 140•Transcript available on Metacast Most people's startup approach is haphazard. It's a combination of instincts and reactions and luck or happenstance. People who succeed are far more purposeful. Today, we'll help you take your idea and yourself seriously. We'll build your entrepreneurship handbook - the thing that'll let you make tough decisions at scale. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Byldd "I'm a Neuroscientist, and these are 5 things I do every day" 1:00 Your Entrepreneurial Self 2:35 The Dads 7:00 Byldd 8:04 Why Find Y...
May 01, 2024•22 min•Ep 139•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help all the non-storytellers tell a compelling story about their business. We've got a framework that'll walk you through the ingredients of a compelling story, and a mise en place-inspired approach that'll help you get to story market fit. We've got some rules, some variables, some accelerants, and an example about a service that helps Airbnb hosts launch their own interior design businesses. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Building a Story Brand Your New Life Will Cost You Y...
Apr 24, 2024•25 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll talk about one of the most common hurdles entrepreneurs run into - getting tempted by a new idea a few months into working on their main idea. We lay out a framework to identify the first principles of the new idea fast so you can decide if it's worth a pivot. We also dig in on why the urge to pivot shows up, procrastination, and how to win a baking contest. And, English Lords from the 17th century. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter 00:26 Intro 05:40 Chronic Pain Side Idea 08:30 ...
Apr 10, 2024•24 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you pick your startup's first customer segment. This decision dooms a huge percentage of first time entrepreneurs - if you don't understand what the job of your first customer segment is, you'll likely pick a customer incapable of doing it. Your first customer has a unique responsibility that no other customer will have - you need to choose them carefully. Conversely, if you choose the right first customer, you'll set yourself up for serious growth. We go through the five chara...
Apr 03, 2024•33 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we help you become the type of founder who relishes uncomfortable things that lead to successful startups. There are no real secrets in the startup world - the hard, proactive, uncomfortable work leads to businesses that matter. This work doesn’t happen without a system. Today we help you build that system, using The Costanza Swap, The Three Levers of Resilience, and The Failure Case. Hoo ahh. Byldd Tacklebox 00:24 Doing Things You Don’t Want To Do 02:45 Why the Eisenhower Box Doesn’t Wor...
Mar 21, 2024•23 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast Today's classic episode will help you get the first version of your product up and out this weekend. We use a three-part framework to help you focus in on the one core feature you've got to nail that can be built by someone with no technical or product building skills in an afternoon. We also find your customers inertia and ride that wave to make it easier to use your product than not. We get help from an airbnb for lawn equipment startup and move the ball forward on the chronic pain idea. Byldd...
Mar 06, 2024•29 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we talk through a 4-part system to generate ideas - one that'll tap into your brain's natural ability to develop novel solutions rather than just waiting (hoping) inspiration will strike. We'll do it with a little help from a baseball training facility, a corked wine bottle, and an MRI startup. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Fermenting Ideas Pod: Customers speak Problem Pod: How to Create a Strategy for your Startup Readwise Idea to Startup Bot 00:26 Idea People 02:47 A Baseball Tra...
Feb 29, 2024•24 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast Today's classic ITS episode discusses the Concierge MVP, an indispensable tactic early stage entrepreneurs can use to get the feedback of a full product without the money and time required to build one. We go through the 4-step method that'll get you data from customers you can use to raise funding, hire, or recognize the opportunity actually isn't worth your time. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Idea to Startup Bot More Concierge MVP Examples 00:00 - Opening and introduction 02:00 - The ch...
Feb 21, 2024•26 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll talk about strategy - what good (and bad) strategy looks like for startups, and how most early-stage companies lack any strategy at all. Using a framework from Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, we'll explore the three core elements: diagnosis, guiding policy, and coherent action. We'll examine strategies from a stand-up comedian and GoPro as examples, before applying the framework to craft a strategy for launching a successful children's book. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter The Skep...
Feb 14, 2024•23 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you tackle the big question for entrepreneurs with startup ideas and jobs - when's it time to quit the job and focus on the startup full-time? You should think about this question the second you start working on an idea, and you should use the Skeptical Startup framework - a goal of $8k per month in 10 hours per week - as a guide. The Skeptical Startup framework is magical, and Brian will show how it'll help you focus with an example startup. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newslette...
Jan 31, 2024•21 min•Ep 130•Transcript available on Metacast Today is an ITS classic - an episode that was listened to and shared a ton. It hits on a fundamental question for idea-stage entrepreneurs - what if the problem you're solving isn't an urgent, painful, bleeding neck problem? What if it's just something you think will improve people's lives? Should you still pursue it? How? Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Idea to Startup Bot...
Jan 17, 2024•22 min•Ep 129•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is for everyone who struggles to summarize their startup in a sentence. We lay out a framework to do this well with help from a sticker on the street, a hedge fund, and a Vietnamese coffee shop. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Idea to Startup Bot 00:33 One Sentence Marketing 01:10 Train to NYC 03:04 The best marketing Brian’s seen in a while 06:42 Smooth Jazz 07:28 Choosing a Customer and the Knowledge Spectrum 08:54 Air Quality Idea 13:07 Inflection Points + The Conference ...
Jan 11, 2024•16 min•Ep 128•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we dive into a practical, resilient system to help you carve out and hold time for your startup amidst the craziness of your life. Most startups fail because the founders lose momentum when predictable life things pop up - you were supposed to work on your startup but your kid was sick or your job gets busy. You need to build a system that adjusts to this constant "failure state" - one that doesn't require Herculean willpower (wake up every day at 4am) and makes working on your startup ea...
Jan 04, 2024•17 min•Ep 127•Transcript available on Metacast Seth Godin (!) and Brian go through startup ideas. Seth gives his opinion on how he’d start everything from a pasta truck to an updated CSA program. We dive into risk, emotion, tension and doing things that matter. Seth talks about the distinction between entrepreneurs and freelancers and the danger of thinking you’re one when you’re really the other. We talk about marketplaces and domain expertise and knowing what it is you’re actually selling. This is Brian's favorite episode ever. The Song of...
Dec 27, 2023•49 min•Ep 126•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we’ll teach you how to avoid sabotaging your startup. Most founders think the best way to build a startup is to mitigate risks - to optimize for worst case scenarios. But the actual way to build a successful startup is to optimize for tasks with the highest ceiling - to do the things that might give you asymmetric gains, if they work. This is unnatural and hard - the Problems and Opportunities Method, the second in our Method series, will help. Tacklebox Idea to Startup Newsletter Day One...
Dec 20, 2023•23 min•Ep 125•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you build a system to be different. We dive into the Persona Venn Diagram Method - a tool designed to help you identify and capitalize on your unique strengths - and we'll talk through how the path you might think holds the least risk actually guarantees the most. This is the first in a series of episodes on the Methods we use at Tacklebox to help our founders build differentiated businesses. Tacklebox Beehiiv (Idea to Startup Newsletter) Day One Journal 00:25 How to be Differe...
Dec 14, 2023•20 min•Ep 124•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll kick off a new series where we'll start an idea live on the pod. Actually, we'll start two. One in the healthcare space, one in the AI space. The hope is that you've got an idea and can follow along with us. Today we'll cover when your idea is ready to start, how to structure the first couple of weeks, and how to think about the giant boulder sitting in front of you. Also, there's a brief Ruby cameo because she's been absent for a few weeks. Tacklebox AI Brian 4000 Weeks...
Dec 06, 2023•23 min•Ep 123•Transcript available on Metacast Today we'll help you find an identity. An identity is something unique that you can organize your business beneath. A north star that can act as a lens for every decision you make. We talk through how to use category shifts and first principles to find and evaluate possible identities and when to stick with an identity vs when to jump ship. We use a bunch of examples - from an Italian restaurant to a skincare company called Jolie to the 1994 Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team. Tacklebox Jolie P...
Nov 30, 2023•21 min•Ep 122•Transcript available on Metacast Today we'll outline two frameworks that'll help you find a meaningful differentiator. We'll use a bunch of examples to show how Inversion + Before and After can change your business. A baseball academy, Krispy Kreme, and Nutrisystem help show us the way to a product your customers will happily overpay for. Tacklebox
Nov 22, 2023•19 min•Ep 121•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll talk about why so many entrepreneurs can't effectively explain what they're doing to their customers. The short answer is they speak the wrong language. Customers speak Problem, entrepreneurs speak Solution. It's like two people trying to have a conversation when one only speaks Latin and the other only speaks Dutch. We go through how to start speaking Problem, and show the power of Problem Language through a live idea test - two landing pages for an AI bot to help people get out of...
Nov 16, 2023•22 min•Ep 120•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you build an SOP for testing startup ideas. We'll use an example from a listener - a startup in the homeschooling space - as a guinea pig. The best way to have a great startup idea this time next year is to test out a bunch of ideas in the interim. This SOP will help you do it, and scale the process. Tacklebox Byldd 00:00 Tacklebox 00:30 Pros and Amateurs 02:08 Homeschool Idea 05:47 The Story of Future You 06:16 Entrepreneur Pro Tactic Number One - Working Backwards from Dreams...
Nov 08, 2023•25 min•Ep 119•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll talk about pros and amateurs. Pros build businesses that have a shot - amateurs never leave the starting gate. Unfortunately, most amateurs don't know they're approaching their idea the wrong way. We talk through your vision and your internal system - the internal process you'll build, automate, and scale to help you execute that vision. We do it with a little help from the best run solo business I've encountered (an interior designer), and the best tool for your internal system (Za...
Nov 01, 2023•22 min•Ep 118•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we talk through how to write compelling copy. We go through a few counterintuitive archetypes you can use to dramatically increase the clarity of your messaging, which will allow you to increase your conversion rate and get more people involved earlier in the process. Copywriting is an idea-testing superpower. Tacklebox AI Brian Byldd 00:00 AI Brian 00:33 When Copy Becomes Important 02:40 Why You’re a Bad Writer 05:40 Is This Anything? 06:50 Byldd 07:55 The Big Misunderstanding 10:45 Reve...
Oct 25, 2023•19 min•Ep 117•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you embrace risk, uncertainty, and chaos. The only way to get asymmetric results in life is to spend a lot of time in what we call the "chaos" zone - the uncomfortable place where you're finding things no one else has yet. This type of work (life) is uncomfortable and stressful, so people don't do it. But, it's where all the potential asymmetric value is. So, we go through tactics to make this stage feel safer, allowing you to spend more time in it and increasing the chances yo...
Oct 18, 2023•24 min•Ep 116•Transcript available on Metacast Today we talk through the three types of problems that deserve a solution. We start off with a few higher level thoughts about problems and startups - specifically around achievement incentives and how some bad early decisions usually can't be salvaged by good decisions later on. Then we talk through Hole Problems, Teleporter Problems, and Status Level Jump Problems. Byldd Tacklebox Getting God at the Wrong Thing Bad Early Decisions 00:40 The Types of Problems Customers Will Solve 01:00 Manhatta...
Oct 11, 2023•24 min•Ep 115•Transcript available on Metacast If you can't get traction, you likely need a wedge. Today, we talk through how to find one. We leverage a few frameworks we use at Tacklebox - the Bleeding Neck Problem, Productizing the First Step, and the 100 Character Landing Page. The goal is to solve an immediate, painful problem that'll build trust and allow you to pitch your bigger, North Star vision. Wedges get you started, and life is 100x harder without them. Tacklebox...
Oct 04, 2023•20 min•Ep 114•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we'll help you think through a deceptively tough question - are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur? Every decision you make needs to nest neatly below this core decision for your business to work, but tons of founders are either trying to do both simultaneously or think they're one when they're really the other. We clarify the difference between freelancer and entrepreneur, help you decide which will make you happier, and get you started on the path for whichever you choose. BYLDD Tackle...
Sep 27, 2023•25 min•Ep 113•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we help you become the type of founder who relishes uncomfortable things that lead to successful startups. There are no real secrets in the startup world - the hard, proactive, uncomfortable work leads to businesses that matter. This work doesn’t happen without a system. Today we help you build that system, using The Costanza Swap, The Three Levers of Resilience, and The Failure Case. Hoo ahh. Tacklebox 00:24 Doing Things You Don’t Want To Do 02:45 Why the Eisenhower Box Doesn’t Work for ...
Sep 20, 2023•22 min•Ep 112•Transcript available on Metacast 
