Today we'll talk through how to test out and build a startup idea in ~10 days by answering four questions. We'll use an idea that's oddly popped up a bunch lately: Kitchen Organizer. We do this with a little help from a story about a poker player and my good friend, Penne Vodka Pete.

• Join Tacklebox (CODE WINTER2025)
• Wix

Today, we’re talking about startup identity—why you need one, and how it makes every decision you face way easier. We’ll talk swimming and nervous systems, walk through the Decision Equation, and help our good friend Carl figure out which customer to start with for his AI tool that helps adults learn Spanish. Then we’ll wrap with a simple framework to help you clearly define your startup’s identity. It’s practical, a little weird, and really important. On to it.

• Tacklebox
• Hero

Timestamps

00:30 Your Startup Identity
01:30 How to Swim
04:17 How to Learn Something New
06:34 Re-learning How to Make Decisions
08:45 Tacklebox 
09:15 Carl’s Idea - AI for Learning Spanish
13:13 The Decision Equation
14:15 Picking a Customer
19:30 Identity: Your Decision Filter
21:30 Four Identity Exercises
24:13 The End: What Do You Want?

Today, we'll help you get your first customers. We'll do it by learning how to use the trust to risk ratio - a way to identify the big risks that are holding your customer back and shoulder those risks early on to build trust. We talk through risk and trust with Find Your Lobster, Soona, and a finicky water pump. 
 

• Tacklebox
• Soona

Today, we'll help you find a differentiator powerful enough that it can support your business. We'll talk through what a differentiator actually allows you to do, five prompts to help you uncover and test one for your business, and Brian's favorite current differentiator - Popup Bagels. 

• Tacklebox
• Popup Bagels
   

00:00 Tacklebox
00:33 Differentiator intro
04:00 What do you hire a differentiator to do?
05:44 The Attention Pie
09:03 Smooth Jazz
09:28 Popup Bagels
16:30 Five Prompts for Your Differentiator

Today, we'll lay out a framework to help you identify and kill bad ideas. It's hard to objectively evaluate your idea early on - this framework helps you rise above your idea to do it effectively. A side-effect is that the framework will help you find and pursue the good ideas.

We talk through 1) Finding and Evaluating the Real Risk, 2) Predicting Organic Growth Potential, and 3) Predicting the Likelihood of Converting Early Customers, using a startup idea from a listener as an example. 

• Tacklebox
• Kunal Shah Delta 4
• Dig out of a Hole Idea to Startup Episode - The Four Characteristics of Great Startup Ideas

00:25 - Killing Bad Startup Ideas
02:00 - The Three Pillars of the Will Your Idea Fail Framework
02:45 - The Startup Idea - AI Messaging for Plumbers and Electricians
03:15 - Dig out of a Hole Markets link to episode
05:56 - Smooth Jazz
06:24 - Part 1 - How to Find and Evaluate the Real Risk
07:35 - Flipping your biggest risk to your biggest strength
11:00 - Decisions aren’t made in a bubble
13:45 - Part 2 - Predicting the Organic Growth Potential
14:00 - Kunal Shah Delta 4 Scale
17:41 - Part 3 - Predicting whether you’ll actually be able to get first customers to convert
18:49 Managed by Q

A 20(ish) minute skills episode on sales 101 for entrepreneurs who hate sales. We go through three tactics and a bunch of examples to help you build a system for sales that'll help you grow without making you feel slimy. We set up sales for a sabbaticals as a service startup. And we talk through why entrepreneurs hate sales and how to reframe the whole thing.

• Tacklebox (Code WINTER2025)
• Text Expander
• Streak
• Pipedrive

Today we'll talk about why people hand their keys over to random strangers on the street in New York City, how a person selling cures for baldness converts 80% of the people he speaks with, and how you can build a strategy to cultivate trust with your customers, too.

• Tacklebox (20% off with code WINTER2025)

Today we talk about two methods to help make your big startup plans for 2026 manageable. We borrow Short Assignments and Shitty Drafts from Anne Lamott, we get a little help from Martin Scorsese and a Bronx Tale, and we talk through a startup that's helping 40 year olds deal with loneliness. All in like 14 minutes. Not bad. 

• Tacklebox WINTER2025 for 20% off
• Bird by Bird
• The To Do List Monster
• The Saddest Thing In Life

00:00 Tacklebox
00:28 Actionable Motivation
01:08 How to Actually Take a Swing at Your Potential
04:15 The Two Best Ways to Make Progres
05:59 The One-Inch Picture Frame
10:20 Shitty Drafts
12:55 The End: The Saddest Thing In Life

Today, we'll talk through how you'll find customers in-person. This is the single most important acquisition tool for early-stage founders, and there's no excuse - any business targeting any customer can do it. We use a few Tacklebox examples and give you a framework to make it happen. 
 

• Tacklebox CODE "HOLIDAY2025" for 50% off month one)
• Tacklebox Sunday Emails
• Tally (online form builder)

Timestamps:

00:45 Your In-Person Growth Strategy Intro
01:30 Cropped
04:20 For the People Who Can’t Do In-Person
05:26 Your In-Person Acquisition Plan: A Date Wingman
07:34 Places to Find Hard to Find Customers
09:54 The Script
11:42 The Media
12:32 The End

Today, we're digging into the mailbag for your Thanksgiving commute. First, what idea would Brian start if he had to start an idea? We go deep on why a coffee truck idea is the best possible business for this moment. Next, we talk through how to get your spouse on board with your idea, and finally we hit on the best gifts for new entrepreneurs.Take that, Kyle. 

• Tacklebox 50% off with code HOLIDAY2025
• Disciplined Entrepreurship
• The Personal MBA
• The Power of Habit
• Atomic Habits
• Four Thousand Weeks
• Focusmate
• Weber EG 1
• Pluribus

Timestamps

0:30 Mailbag!
01:25 Question One - What Idea Would Brian Start?
03:05 The Four Idea Criteria
06:40 Idea-Founder Fit
07:51 A Coffee Truck
14:50 Smooth Jazz
15:25 Question Two - How do I get my spouse on board?
19:26 Question Three - Best Gifts for Entrepreneurs