romotif

when you do something you enjoy, you might not have a glorious future but you have a glorious present

hierarchy is a workaround for low intelligence density

@marty_kausas you have not really won... especially in customer support. your true competitor is not any of those companies

Three of our early competitors are shutting down. Why? Here's what I know about each 👇️ Before I get into it, I want to say that I respect each one of these companies and their founders. It's incredibly hard to start a company, and even harder to win. Being in the arena is not easy. With that, here's my perspective on each. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗔 This was one of our fiercest competitors for a long time. For a year, we'd see them in almost every deal. The founders were strong, especially in GTM. They built community well, were good at appearing bigger than they were, and had an original leg up in marketing. During our Series A we were constantly asked about them, and they had a year-long headstart. Why we won: → We shipped product faster. In early deals, the same story would play out again and again. The prospect would ask for a feature neither of us would have, and then we'd build it within hours. Meanwhile, it would take their team days or weeks to ship the same thing. This won us trust. → We nailed brand. Although they had great in-person presence, we struck lightning with LinkedIn. We started creating content and our brand presence outgrew theirs. → We nailed positioning before they did. In the early days we were a bit of an ambiguous product. We were originally a Slack app that sold to many members of the post-sales team. A year into the company, we decided it made the most sense to double down on customer support for the B2B segment. This is when the term "B2B support" came into existence and we created a subcategory of the support market. It also allowed us to focus in on replacing larger incumbent products like Zendesk and Intercom. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗕 This competitor had been around a couple of years before us, and they had one "killer feature" that they loved to showcase. We wouldn't see them much in deals, but we were not excited about building this one thing that neither we or anyone else had, and it meant that their customers base (albiet small) was decently sticky for them. We won for all the same reasons as competitor A, BUT we also built a superior GTM. This is one of the biggest challenges for companies founded by engineers (this includes Pylon). Sales and marketing are on the opposite side of engineering, but equally important. We embraced it and built a real GTM team while I suspect they did not. → 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗖 Possibly the least interesting of the mix. This company had been around for 3 years prior. Unlike the others, they were not SF-based but would show up occasionally in deals. Two additional reasons we competed well against them: → They split their focus across IT ticketing and customer ticketing. Their core product wasn't developed enough for them to be able to make this tradeoff. → They were effectively bootstrapped. I don't think a bootstrapped company can afford the same level of talent and ambition when competing with a company with a grander vision that's more well-resourced.

@josusanmartin From gemini: The company was founded by seasoned international banking veterans, notably ex-executives from the Russian neobank Tinkoff, to target the underserved credit market in Mexico

Absurd valuation.

even if luck gives you the opening, you have to earn the position.

invetsigate

write any idea on claude, document it as md, another idea, another md. same convo. each md evolves. eventually the dots connect.

conviction that avoids scrutiny is just momentum

venture capital is debt

@hamptonism you just revealed your position

The number one rule in Game Theory, Never reveal your position.

non-attachment to outcomes. full commitment to action.

biased agency is just efficient wrongness

if your principles are conditional, they're not principles.

The fight isn't IF AGI aligns with humans. It's WHICH humans. State-controlled LLMs → optimization function: stability, control Corporate LLMs → optimization function: engagement, retention, shareholder value Personal LLMs → optimization function: individual flourishing

stop trading power for safety