Instagram story viewer> @t_rich> Tagged

t_rich

@t_rich

undefined

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

New podcast episode with the founders of @chatbooks ! 🎙️

Nate @nquigley and Vanessa @vanessaquigley share how three years of building the wrong product led to a breakthrough when they finally listened to what customers wanted.

The lesson for founders: adding more features won’t fix a product nobody wants. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is the simpler idea you keep dismissing.

Watch the full episode on the Startup Ignition Podcast! @si_pod

123

8

Idea or execution, which matters more? ⛳️

John and Tyler made their picks. What’s yours?

This is a par 5 hole, this is question #2 of 5.

Follow to see question #3 and more unfiltered startup advice.

146

0

AI has founders measuring the wrong progress.

A polished product can create confidence you haven’t earned yet. The question is whether you’ve learned enough about the customer to justify what you’re building.

Getting to the wrong destination faster still costs you time.

Watch @johnstartup and @t_rich discuss this in Episode 58 of the Startup Ignition Podcast: “Is Your Startup Idea Actually Good?” @si_pod

185

1

What kind of business should you start?

On the Startup Ignition Podcast Travis Cook talks about a good place to start. Do something that you love so much that would do it for free.

17

0

What’s the biggest lie founders unknowingly tell investors?

“We just sold $30,000.”

Maybe. But if it’s a 12-month contract, you didn’t generate $30,000 in monthly revenue. You booked a $30,000 contract that represents $2,500 in MRR.

Contract value, bookings, cash collected, and recognized revenue are not the same thing.

Investors don’t expect enormous numbers from an early-stage startup. They do expect founders to understand their numbers and describe them accurately.

Know the difference between bookings, revenue, ARR, and MRR. Credibility is much harder to rebuild than a financial model.

304

0

How you treat people determines whether they recommend you, introduce you, or choose to work with you again.

Your reputation follows you into every new venture and opportunity.

Cydni Tetro @cydtetro talks about this in her full episode, #39, on the Startup Ignition Podcast @si_pod.

124

6

New Episode #63 of the Startup Ignition Podcast @si_pod !

Peter Harris, co-founder and partner at University Growth Fund, talks shop with John and Tyler, explains why VC money can become addictive, and shares the story of passing on SpaceX.

Awesome investments, missed opportunities, hard lessons, and an unfiltered take on startup funding.

Watch the full conversation on episode #63 of the Startup Ignition Podcast. 🎙️

What would you do? You investing?

75

8

"You should never raise money”. 👀

That's coming from Tyler @t_rich, someone who runs a venture fund.

Tyler's point: new founders get stars in their eyes about VC, the big check, the headline, the validation that someone finally said yes. But venture capital is the most expensive money you will ever take, and almost every experienced founder lands in the same place: if you can avoid it, avoid it at all costs.

Full episode 40 with Dave Bateman: who did just that, bootstrapping to a unicorn. 🎧 You know where to watch!

158

0

New podcast episode featuring @bubbapage who raised $1.25M, went through Techstars, and built his whole startup on LinkedIn's data. Then LinkedIn shut it off 👇

→ listen to his story about paying out investors in office chairs
→ he says "don't tie your business to someone else's platform"
→ having success and then failure, he said he lost myself
→ what one investor told him after it all fell apart
→ the only thing he wants to talk about on his deathbed

Full episode out now · link in bio
🔊 sound on

#StartupIgnition #BubbaPage #Techstars #StartupFailure #FounderStory #Entrepreneur #StartupStory #Bootstrapping #AngelInvesting #VentureCapital #LinkedIn #StartupAdvice #UtahTech #SiliconSlopes #FaithAndBusiness

42

10

The goal of an early-stage startup isn’t to prove the founder right. It’s to find the truth fast.

The whole customer development framework treats your first product, customer, pricing, and go-to-market assumptions as hypotheses to test, not facts to defend.

@johnstartup and @t_rich say founders who win usually aren’t the ones who cling hardest to version one. They’re the ones who learn, adapt, and pivot before they burn through their time and capital.

Be stubborn about the problem. Flexible about the solution.

20

1

Arian Lewis (@lewis.arian) bet on a coworking company right as the most famous one in the world was imploding.

Today @kiln.co serves 3,500 companies a day, from billion-dollar corporations down to the startup looking to leave the garage.

On WeWork, "You can't fill a Ferrari full of tequila and then get mad that the kid who likes tequila drove the Ferrari and wrecked it."

And his advice for founders is the opposite of what you usually hear, he doesn't think you should follow your passion.

Full episode #61 out now. 🎧

#startupignition #entrepreneurship #coworking #founders #utahtech #siliconslopes #smallbusiness #startuppodcast

31

5

There’s no such thing as “just money.” There are two kinds of investors, and the kind you take changes everything.

The unsophisticated ones, friends, family, doctors, dentists, your uncle Harry. They write checks on gut feel and a belief in you. They skip the diligence. And because they skipped the diligence, they show up six months later with expectations you can’t meet: a quick return, a payday, an exit. Software startups average 8+ years to exit.

The sophisticated ones don’t invest in belief and simple “trust” you. They invest in a validated business model and real traction, often looking for months of consistent growth and low churn. The diligence is rigorous, and that’s not them being difficult. That’s how they avoid losing.

Here’s what most founders miss: the stage you’re in determines who will fund you. → Before your business model is proven: only friends and family (prior relationship). → Between business model validation and go-to-market fit: family offices and angels with real domain expertise. → After sustained traction: institutional money shows up.

You don’t graduate from one tier to the next by pitching harder. You graduate by de-risking your business.

Two takeaways: 1️⃣ Don’t raise from unsophisticated money just because it’s available. It’s cheap now and expensive later. 2️⃣ Educate yourself on the financial game. In any negotiation, the side with more knowledge wins, and that side is rarely the founder.

#founders #venturecapital #angelinvestors #entrepreneurship #fundraising

40

0