# Strategy 1. Focus on the fastest growing highest potential business, offload others via sale or full time management 2. AI and automation usage will define and grow a gap in the business world over the next 2-5 years 3. Productized Services can all be turned into a Marketplace, Community, or SaaS 4. Revenue solves everything 5. Funding is for fools unless it's gasoline on a fire ### Distribution 1. Distribution Partner led, they bring the audience that determines the rest 2. Audience determines the product 3. Audience must be identifiable and score well on the [[Audience Scorecard]] 4. First sales should occur before service launch 5. A Distribution Partner should be able to bring in $1MM+ (Min $250K) in annual enterprise value 6. We prefer Outreach (Sales, PR, Podcasts, Channel Partners), Ops Led Growth (Referrals, Other Ops), and Content (Social, SEO, Podcasts) ### [[Operational Excellence|Operations]] 1. Must be improve-able via automation or AI 2. 90 Days to $5K+/month and $10K+ total sales - If not, shut down or sell 3. 180 Days to $10K/month 4. Bootstrap whenever possible 5. Max launch investment of $2,000 6. MVP should be free to test (first sale = MVP) 7. Profit/Cashflow over everything 8. Contractors > Employees ### Pricing/Product 1. It should solve a single pain or problem for a single high value target group 2. Customers should save time or make more money as a result (measurable impact) 3. Single sale products must be over $8K with a $10K+ average 4. Recurring Service or Staffing otherwise 5. We love selling to the SMB $1-10MM, especially the Digital SMB (who thinks they're the startup) ### Secret Sauce 1. [[Operational Excellence]] is our differentiator 2. Competition makes the game fun (we like bloody waters) 3. Distribution > Innovation 4. $100K-$2MM is the first year target 5. Copy what works & sells, don't reinvent the wheel - [[GOTBook/4. Ideas To Be Expanded or Written/Buy, Borrow, Steal - Simplify]] 6. There should either be a SaaS product, paid community, marketplace, or media flywheel we can build with it 7. We want to build small giants, not dragons and unicorns 8. Start with a thesis that defines the reason for the business. We're not communists, so we don't write manifestos. ## Process ### 1. Pick An Idea or Find A Partner: - Bloody waters or a big audience ### 2. Do The Reverse: - Develop a product for the audience - OR partner with a great creator in the community - Write the Thesis (Manifesto) ### 3. Testing Sprint (First Sale): - Proof of concept (sale, positive ROI) ### 4. Prove The Model ($10K): - Sales Funnel - 90 days to $10K ### 5. Spin To Win - Spin out with GM/Apprentice - Quarterly review to stay in portfolio