This is a terrible take. If you’re a founder running in elite founder circles, you’re an idiot for not investing in your top founder friends. One of my biggest regrets as a founder is not having angeled early in my journey: TalkDesk ($10b) and Intercom ($3.6b) were both in my accelerator batch. I also met the Stripe and Airbnb founders around 2012/2013 🤦🏻♂️
i) OP is not the founder of zcash, this is fake news lol
ii) OP is a world-class cryptographer cited directly by Satoshi lol
iii) idc about identity politics, but if this upsets you, I've got bad news about who maintains the bulk of Rust, security, and cryptography code
Merchants of complexity have convinced a shocking number of developers that they're too dumb to do their own authentication. Of all the things you could outsource, I think you could do no worse than your app's front door.
reflected on my creative journey and pulled 5 key pieces of advice
the advice may sound mundane but before dismissing it, remember that sometimes the answers are simpler than we think, but simple doesn’t mean easy
The unconventional strategy doola used to acquire 10,000 customers (3-minute breakdown):
Most people think customer acquisition is a mystery. It’s not. It comes down to three things: paid, direct, and partnerships.
Here’s exactly how we did it at doola:
→ 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 – Some say paid ads are a waste of money. I disagree. If you could spend $1 to get $1 (or more) back every time, how much would you spend? The answer: as much as possible. Because once you own the customer and wow them, they’ll keep coming back, and you can sell more.
→ 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 (𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡) – Founders know founders. When you deliver an incredible experience, they tell their friends. And when those friends need Formation, Bookkeeping, or Taxes, they come straight to doola.
→ 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 – Most companies focus only on paid or organic growth. We bet big on partnerships—and it worked. If you run a course, community, newsletter, or YouTube channel that teaches e-commerce, we should talk. Your audience needs help with Formation, Bookkeeping, or Taxes—and we’re the best at it.
And here’s where we do things differently:
𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐖𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 $1,500 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞.
Most companies try to squeeze every dollar out of a partnership...
𝐈’𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭, 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞.
Think about it like this:
• Short-term thinking = 1 marshmallow now (maximizing every dollar today)
• Medium-term thinking = 2 marshmallows later (waiting for a bigger reward)
• Long-term thinking = planting marshmallow trees (creating exponential, compounding growth). 𝐈’𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 100 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬, 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞.
And that’s exactly how doola scaled to its first 10,000 customers.
***
PS: Want to partner with us, help e-commerce founders with Formation, Bookkeeping, or Taxes, and earn up to $1500 per referral?
Follow me by hovering over my name (@ArjunMahadevan) and DM me—let’s grow some marshmallow trees together.