Tim Griffin

Founder: Craftwork (YC S23) |⁠ Prev: Cloosiv (YC S19), Odeko |⁠ Investor: @mpgfund

[Slope @slopepay]

We are excited to announce that we have completed our 1st forward-flow loan sale of $8.5M with @3janexyz, a cryptonative credit protocol. This is the 1st phase of a broader $50M program and one of the 1st whole-loan purchases of a U.S. fintech loan book by a DeFi protocol.

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

The fallacy of this is that more creates more. More hours, more hiring, more something.

And it is true in a sense. If you put in more work, more work will happen. But I think for most startups, the leverage is really in how differently you approach the problem, how well you cultivate your team, and the strategy.

Any large company can outspend you on hours. They have thousands or tens of thousands more people, spending more hours. If hours worked were the metric, every large company and government organization would always win and do the best work. More hours, better output.

This thinking is often representative of younger founders, where the startup becomes their identity and life. They have a hard time doing anything else, and cannot understand that your work is not the person that is you. But activities outside of work can grow you as a person too and make you do better work.

I’ve never worked this way. As a designer, I always saw the need to take a step back, to take a break. At times, I might work 12 hours or 16 hours, or whatever amount was needed, but it wasn’t the norm. You just can't grind design, you need inspiration. But taking that step away from the work, would give me more perspective, inspiration and I could approach the problem differently or I could just see the solution.

Grinding is never good for any creative problem, and startups or creating new products are often mostly about creative problem solving. Grinding works ok for email jobs, or where you just executing on very clear playbook.

With Linear, we’ve never worked this way. We work reasonable hours, 5 days a week. All of us founders have families. Many of our employees have families. I personally stop every evening, spend time with the family, cook dinner for the family, eat dinner together, and focus on things outside of work. Sometimes I work in the late evenings or weekends, but to me the pride is that I don’t need to. Company should be succesful without it.

My goal is to build a company that is sustainable in the long term, and doesn’t require heroics or personal sacrifices every single day.

There are times when our team is heroic. Launches, incidents, some other work that just needs to be done. They will work late into the night because they know it is the right thing. But we don’t require that every day or every week, and the more this happens, the more I think it is a failure of our company and leadership. The team and the leaders should always keep a reserve to use when something is needed.

Our thinking was also that quality, which we value, doesn’t emerge from working more or stressing people more. It emerges when you create the conditions for it to emerge. Often it is the appreciation, space, time, and how the person feels. A person who is rested will do better work.

I wouldn’t attribute much of our success to working a lot. The success came from having clear thinking, ideas, and focus to do the right things.

I sometimes wish we could move the culture more toward a Zen master.

Real mastery is not exerting the most effort. It is achieving the outcome with the least necessary effort.

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

If the model description is right it means $4.4M of their revenue is from SaaS fees.

The other $5.6M comes from a 20% profit share with 7,500 companies that each generate ~3,700 in AR, which feels very low to be considered a proof point for the model.

https://t.co/WX3k7SQWet

[rico @_heyrico]

"The buyer changed forever. They don’t want another tool to learn. They want the work done"

Here’s why:

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

AI-Native Service Companies
@gustaf

The total spend on services is many times larger than the spend on software, and a lot of those services are already outsourced, which makes them easier to replace with an AI-native product.

We're excited about companies that don't sell a tool to help you do the work: they just do the work.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

The biggest opportunity for would-be startup founders is AI. But the most underpriced opportunity is probably non-AI ideas. So if you have a good non-AI idea, go for it, because everyone else is going to overlook it.

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

@pitdesi @davidu @pronounced_kyle Best done in the field, vocational training and upward mobility are embedded into the fabric at Craftwork.

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

@davidu 👋

[Jason Shuman @JasonrShuman]

The US needs 500,000 new electricians this decade.

Apprenticeships take 5 years.

Microsoft’s Brad Smith says it’s the #1 thing slowing data center expansion.

The AI bottleneck isn’t chips. It’s the trades.

[Julien Bek @JulienBek]

https://t.co/hsKrbn1gEq

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

@alexisohanian Craftwork is already on it!

[James Dyett @dyett]

There is far more outrage from tech leaders over a wealth tax than masked ICE agents terrorizing communities and executing civilians in the streets.

Tells you what you need to know about the values of our industry.

[John Mitnick @JohnMitnick]

I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the homeland security portfolio as a White House Counsel and served as General Counsel of the Department.

I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty.

Impeach and remove Trump—now.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

If there was ever a moment for libertarians and conservatives to step up and join the rest of us, we’re in it.

Americans have to unite and stop this descent from a freedom-loving nation into the kind of place where masked, militarized government agents are sent to politically noncompliant areas to roam the streets, terrorize civilians, and deploy violence with impunity.

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

For all the people who “didn’t think” any of these events would happen, this is exactly what you voted for in full.

Willful ignorance isn’t an excuse for allowing democracy to crumble in our lifetime - this is your fault.

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

We’re bringing on a part-time design engineer to help us improve site conversion with a high bar for brand, UX, and visual quality.

If you’re a frontend / design engineer who enjoys turning clarity and trust into conversion, let's chat!

https://t.co/Zk3DufAu6A

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

@SportsCenter @NFL How is no one talking about how this was pass interference?! The defender made no attempt to play the ball.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

ICE just shot and killed a woman Minneapolis. A US citizen. How long before we say "Enough is enough?"

[Triangle Business Journal @TriangleBIZJrnl]

A Charlotte startup is expanding to Raleigh with its platform to simply the home painting process. https://t.co/4JFhRM56xu

[Tim Griffin @timgriffin77]

Huge congrats to @LawLM, @alicevdeng and the @slopepay team - watching them grow from the early days to now working with Amazon has been incredible!

[Slope @slopepay]

When Slope founders Alice & Lawrence came up with the idea in 2021, @amazon was the dream partner. Four years later, that dream is reality. Thank you @CNBC and @business for covering!