Strategy Memos

• Why?
  1. Internal: Navigating the Idea Maze on paper, instead of just in your head. Just like designing systems - the more complex your idea maze is, the more valuable this becomes. There are a number of tactics that are valuable and actionable here:
     1. Explicitly identifying “critical” hypotheses/assumptions
  • External: As a standing resource to share with other **founders, investors, future employees.
    1. [early days] pressure test your strategy with external feedback more comprehensively and efficiently than you might be able to do with verbal pitches alone
    2. [ongoing] document changes to your strategy (like a changelog) so you can reflect upon those changes
    3. [ongoing] tell the story of “what we’re building and why” with little aid required, such that even complete noobs (who have value but not context) can go from 0 → 1 on your idea and market
• Who? In my opinion, everyone. It’s a lot of work to invest in writing these kinds of intensive documents (and do it right), but it will absolutely pay dividends to obsess over thoroughness and clarity of thought and learn how to write passionate & compelling stories. If this is a strength, double down on it. If it’s a weakness, cover your ass. Relying on only verbal OR written communication is brittle, because both have their advantages & tradeoffs, and successful founders (especially CEOs) need to be generalists more than any other role
• Heuristics for Success:
  • Proactivity: The ideal version of this should, in theory, pre-empt 90% of qualitative “market” and “strategic” questions that would arise in a fundraising process - and make predictions about the future
  • Understandable:
  • Actionable & Measurable:
• References:

Examples of long-form strategy writing that documents key market insights/predictions and answers the “what are you building” question (from startup founders)

Vesta’s 10-Year Market Thesis

Vesta Company Strategy

Rippling Series A Strategy Memo

• Bonus (Other Strategy Memos): https://sriramk.com/memos.html
  • Note: Need to pluck out the best & most actionable ones

Examples of market & product thesis writing (from VCs)

• https://future.com/fintech-scales-vertical-saas/
• https://future.com/every-company-fintech-company/
• https://www.nfx.com/post/real-estate-3-proptech-the-ownership-revolution
• https://future.com/reputation-based-systems/

Examples of one-pagers (sales & marketing)

Spectrum Labs