The one thing I noticed that is super different in San Fran than in Toronto is that there are always amazing founders... bootstrapped founders that have done $100m exits that speak and share about their experiences.
In Toronto... we have nothing... no cool founder stories
and even if they’re there, we can't speak to them at events because they're so idealized & on a pedestal that they're untouchable... But in San Fran, it's like "Hey what do you need help with?" or "Let me tell you how I did it" & in Canada, it's... crickets.
Founder-led sales initially isn't about generating revenue.
(read that one more time)
It's about deep discovery from Day 1, doubling down, knowing where to focus -- and, most importantly, where not to focus re: crossing things off the list via invalidation.
These early insights (1) fuel product (2) align the entire team around a very specific target market to generate initial $1MM.
Imagine waiting on the product before starting founder-led sales. By doing so, you significantly stack the odds against yourself. This is when folks run out of time.