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founders.menu 016 » the IF triangle to close sales & product-market fit archetypes
Understand your prospect's non-negotiables better, get last week's top startup news, new resources and learn about 3x product-market fit archetypes.
Julian Paul
April 21, 2024
Happy Sunday. ☼
Read time this week → 3.87 minutes.
A warm welcome to 5x new subscribers who got a template, an account or signed up directly for the founders.menu newsletter – it’s great to have you!
Starter » a mental model
The IF Triangle to close sales ↓
During a sales, there are usually three variables at stake: timing, price and quality. A prospect is usually flexible on up to two of these variables, but never all three. They even go as far as asking themselves:
1. When can I have it? (timing)
2. How much will it cost? (price)
3. Will it do the job? (quality)
How to action this? If the product is [premium], then it may deliver [slow] and the quality should be [high]. OR → if the product is [cheap], then should deliver [fast] and the quality may be [low].
The through-line? Find two tops or two bottoms that your prospects expect from you and be aware of the weak point on the other side of the triangle – the opposite of your top or bottom alignment – that’s where your customer is not flexible.
In a negotiation, you can further apply the IF triangle like this: “If I have to deliver by X, then the price will increase” or “if you want to reduce the price, I will need longer to complete the job”.
This model shows us there is always a tradeoff, where two variables reach symbiosis, but another cannot suffer to satisfy a prospect’s expectations. So make sure you are always reaching alignment between two variables.
Ponder this → Where is your prospect’s weak point and what can you do to hack around their objections to close more sales?
ϟ Tools | ䷀ Reads | ⦿ Streams | ⟐ Templates |
|---|---|---|---|
583 [+29] | 72 [+5] | 18 [-] | 9 [-] |
ϟ Tools update highlights
With 29 Tools added in the Distribution category, there are plenty of great customer support options alongside lead automation services now discoverable. Here are my top 4x tools added to help with LinkedIn outreach:
䷀ Reads update highlights
This week’s Read addition saw most additions in the [2] MVP → Business stage with a focus on PMF, monetization and operations.
What’s next? The blog is taking much longer than expected as I will incorporate it into a /guides section with more resources like terms and members-only guides yet to come. It should go live next week.
Desert » past week’s startup highlights
 | [1] Carl Peid released the Ear (a) at nothing.tech, at a much cheaper price point with a first splash in their product lineup. The Ear (2) also made its debut with a re-engineered sound core, for crystal-clear audio. After selling over 100,000 units of the Phone (2a) in 24hrs post-release this year, Nothing is ramping up its global presence with the intent to stay. |
 | [2] Dan Siroker launched The Pendant by Limitless.ai, a personalized AI powered by what you’ve seen, said, or heard with a app, Mac app, Windows app, and a wearable. It already surpassed 10,000 pre-orders a day after its launch & costs just $99. |
 | [3] Vlad Magdalin is expanding the ways Webflow can empower teams to create and optimize incredible web experiences by acquiring Intellimize.com to ensure that Websites & Marketing can sit closer together. |
 | [4] Jaclyn Johnson & Angeline Vuong teamed up to build investwithcherub.com, so ambitious founders, investors and advisors access to the connections and capital typically unavailable outside of traditional VC networks. |
 | [5] Noam Bardin, the Founder of post.news is shutting down the platform within the next few weeks. The Twitter alternative focused connecting on real people, with real news and civil conversations. Why the shutdown? Not enough rapid growth, a requirement for consumer apps. |
Sides » this week on early.tools
W16 2024 in review ↓
‣ @missingfonts [Waitlist] by @flornkm
‣ @costops [MVP] by @heyrafie
‣ @wordpressdotcom Studio [Waitlist] by @photomatt
‣ @thebreakfastapp [MVP] by @eteri_s
‣ @getairchat [MVP] by @navalCuration resumes 22/04/24.
Check the #linkinbio ⇪
— early.tools (@earlytools)
Apr 21, 2024
Fín » food for thought
Product-Market Fit is the holy grail of any startup journey, so making sense of the different markets and product types can deliver a ton of clarity as you will always be subject to your customer’s awareness of the problem and the novelty of your solution – PMF will always require varying tactics to achieve.
Are you currently solving a HAIR ON FIRE, HARD FACT or FUTURE VISION problem with the startup you are building? 👀 More context here.
Product-market fit is a critical goal for every startup. We developed the Arc PMF framework to help founders self-identify their path to PMF.
The framework outlines 3 distinct PMF archetypes, based on how customers relate to the problem you’re solving.
— Sequoia Capital (@sequoia)
Apr 10, 2024
See you next week. ☻
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