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Free Playbook · Hiring & People How to Hire Your First Engineeras a Non-Technical Founder Hiring your first engineer when you can’t code is one of the highest-stakes hiring decisions you’ll make — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here’s how to evaluate technical candidates, structure the process, and avoid the traps that … Read more
Free Playbook · Ops & Automation The Founder’s Guide to Setting OKRsThat Actually Work Most startup OKR implementations fail within two quarters — not because OKRs don’t work, but because founders apply an enterprise framework to a 10-person company and create bureaucracy instead of focus. Here’s the lightweight version that actually creates alignment. What’s in … Read more
Free Playbook · Product & Growth How to Write a Partnership ProposalThat Gets a Reply Most partnership proposals fail before they’re read — too long, too one-sided, or pitched to the wrong person. Here’s how to structure a proposal that creates genuine mutual interest and moves quickly to a yes. What’s in this playbook Why … Read more
Free Playbook · Founder Mindset How to Run a Difficult ConversationWith a Team Member Founders avoid difficult conversations more than almost any other task — and the cost compounds quietly. Missed feedback. Unaddressed underperformance. Resentment that builds until someone leaves. Here’s the framework that makes hard conversations productive instead of damaging. What’s in this playbook … Read more
Free Playbook · AI Prompts The AI Hiring Stack5 Tools That Replace Your First Recruiter A good recruiter charges 20-30% of first-year salary. At seed and early Series A, that’s money you don’t have for every hire. Here’s the AI-powered hiring stack that does most of what a recruiter does — without the retainer fee. … Read more
Free Playbook · Ops & Automation How to Run a SprintWhen You Have No Product Team Sprints aren’t just for engineering teams. A two-week sprint discipline applied to any part of a lean startup — sales, content, ops, hiring — creates focus and velocity that ad-hoc work never does. Here’s the lightweight version that actually … Read more
Free Playbook · Fundraising The Founder’s Guide toManaging Up Investors, board members, and advisors can be your most powerful assets or your most draining relationships — often depending not on who they are, but on how you manage them. Here’s the system that keeps these relationships working in your favour. What’s in this playbook Managing … Read more
Free Playbook · Hiring & People How to Write a Job Offer LetterThat Closes the Deal Most offer letters are either too cold and corporate or dangerously vague. Both lose candidates. Here’s how to write an offer that conveys excitement, covers everything legally, and gets a yes — with prompts for every scenario including counteroffers. … Read more
Free Playbook · AI Prompts The AI Ops Stack fora Lean Startup Team Most founders use AI for one-off tasks — a draft email here, a quick summary there. The real leverage comes from building AI into your weekly operating rhythm. Here’s the stack: which tasks to systematise, and the prompts that make it work … Read more
Free Playbook · Founder Mindset The Survival Guide forYour First Time Managing People Nobody trains founders to manage people — you’re just suddenly responsible for someone else’s growth, performance, and wellbeing. Here’s what actually matters in the first 90 days of managing someone for the first time. What’s in this playbook The shift nobody tells … Read more