Founder Lesson
I left my last startup about two years ago. Ever since then the topic that has most fascinated me is how disruptive companies are launched from the earliest moment that the founder has a special insight...what I call the "idea stage."

In order to focus full-time on this problem, I joined a long-time friend and co-founder to build a B2C startup hub in downtown Atlanta called Switchyards Downtown Club. Our belief was that we could pull together the best elements of consumer-focused startups and then create a playbook to help the best founders validate, launch and scale beautiful startups that consumers love.

About two months ago we announced a program called Switchyards Studios. This was a program that we had been planning for almost a year. It's our official playbook for launching B2C startups.

You can find more about it here...

Launch announcement
Studios homepage
What is Switchyards Studios?
Why did we decide to launch a program like this?
Who is the ideal candidate for the program?

When I was writing the copy for the Studios landing page, I needed a phrase that captured my best thoughts on the playbook to launch startups. I chose to describe the Studios process as “doing the right things in the right order at the right speed" because I believe this is the biggest problem that new founders face in 2017.

In a world where startup advice is everywhere, growing awareness of your startup has never been easier and there are lots of ways to get your product built (including some amazing off-the-shelf tools), the challenge becomes what to focus on and in what order.

As this very experienced founder says in this podcast, the content is out there to learn anything that you want about launching startups. When asked about the single most important tip he could give new entrepreneurs, he talked about prioritization & focus.

He says that problem today is...

• What to to focus on?

• What order to be working on different tasks?

To first-time founders this advice might sound basic & obvious. What’s so special about knowing what’s important and focusing on it? The answer is that any new startup founder can choose to focus on one-of-one-hundred things every day. Plus all plans go out the window when you wake up and realize that no ones cares about your product.

If you are a first-time founder working on a new idea, surround yourself with startup founders who have done it before. The advice from this group will cut through the clutter and will typically sound like…

Are you working on the right thing right now?

Get Right to the Lesson
I’d recommend listening to the entire thing, but to get right to the point go to minute 19:48 of this podcast.

Thanks to these folks for helping us all learn faster
Hiten Shah (@hnshah)
Rocketship.fm (@RocketshipFM)
Michael Sacca (@michaelsacca)
Joelle Goldman (@JoelleGoldman)
Matt Goldman (@SDMattG)

Please let me and others know what you think about this topic
Email me privately at dave@switchyards.com or let's discuss publicly at @davempayne.