Fluent

Today I participated in a truly special event on Martha’s Vineyard. While highlighting and celebrating 25 new ventures led by founders from Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. And rather than hype these founders for their ability to potentially build billion dollar businesses - which they may end up doing - the event focused on responsible and socially impactful wealth building. We can solve important problems and make choices - from the very beginning - that create wealth for all.

It was an especially meaningful event, given it was hosted at Villa Rosa, MLK’s summer home. What a gift.

I’m optimizing for customer success within my first batch of Capital Fluency subscribers rather than focusing on growing the biggest subscriber count I possibly can as fast as possible. It isn’t as sexy but it’s the work. And when I nail this stage, then I can focus on growing from 10 to 100 and beyond.

The earliest phase - the zero to not zero phase- has so much uncertainty. It’s basically a big ball of uncertainty. There are fewer known than unknowns at this point. A big part of being a founder through this phase is our ability to be comfortable with that uncertainty.

Step one in building a new product is getting a tight fit between customer / problem / solution. Right now, I’ve got my first batch of customers, but early data is showing they aren’t all using it. They bought the subscription but then haven’t really engaged. So are they the wrong customers or have I not yet given them the right solution? This is what I’m working through right now.

No magic bullets

Entrepreneurs have two customers from the very beginning. Both need to be developed with intention. It’s not enough to just focus on the customers for your product. You need to also develop the “customers” for your business - the capital customers that could someday inject outside capital into your business when you need it.

Word soup. Thats what I call the nonsense gibberish that sometimes Claude gives me when we’re a few hours into a multi-step project with deep context. Over time, Claude starts to name ideas and concepts with its own shorthand. The hardest part of working with Claude at that stage isn’t knowing what to say, it’s the translation work of taking that shorthand and turning it back into normal human language. So I created word soup, a skill that tells Claude to do that! It probably saved my sanity over the past few days of 12-14 hour Fable sessions

Capital Fluency is for all founders who couldn’t right now (yet) text a group of investors and get their help thinking about a potential raise. If that’s you, tell me - what’s blocking you? What’s blocking you from building this network?

Leave a comment with your blockers or questions. I’m doing live CF workshops at Venture Café Cambridge this month and will answer all of your questions there and share them here on IG.

Learn more about Capital Fluency - link in bio

If you’re a founder, you need a capital network, a group of investors who deeply believe in you and your business. Learn more about Capital Fluency, my new product that helps you build one, even if you’re starting from scratch.

I’m offering free workshops at Venture Café Cambridge , starting July 2. And a small-group private cohort online starting July 9. Link in bio!
Link in bio