Sugar Coated Broccoli

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to Stocks To Space, where I curate the best ideas, tools and resources I’ve found each week as I explore my curiosities.

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IDEAS
Sugar Coated Broccoli

Every founder has a vision for how their product solves their target customer’s problem.

Their vision might form from some early insight, but primarily, it will be based on assumptions.

The disparity between a founder’s insight and their assumptions demands tactfulness when developing the early product.

The founder’s ultimate vision might not be what the customer wants at all, initially.

A framework to bridge the gap between insight and assumption is not to flip-flop the product between the customer’s ever-changing short-term wants.

Instead, give them what they want with the initial product so they can get what they need in the long term.

A simple example of this is the founder of a gym business promoting a ‘10-day weight loss challenge, guaranteed to shed pounds from anyone’s frame.’

They know this is what the customer wants rather than what they need. 

But to give them what they need, they must get the customer in the door. And to get the customer in the door, the founder needs to give them what they want.

It’s like sugarcoating broccoli—we get what our impulses crave now to get what we need in the long term to be healthy.

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INSIGHTS
1 Chart

Small Startup Teams

A report from Carta found that startups raising VC funding in 2024 had the smallest teams of the last five years.

As Peter Walker said on X: “If AI is taking startup jobs, this is probably how the data would look... Maybe instead of AI, it's just [that] startups are hiring fewer people today than they used to because they are being better capital allocators. Or maybe it's because they are using AI to enhance current teammates.”

My feeling is that it's a bit of everything.

Tiny teams like Cursor, Lovable and ElevenLabs are winning big in ARR. It just so happens they are all focused on AI-powered software, the most significant trend pumping SaaS startup valuations.

Whatever the key driver is, the insight for founders is clear:

• Keep your team small and hyper-focused

• Enhance your team with AI productivity tools

• Keep burn low and minimise unnecessary fundraises

• Build an incredible product that customers obsess over

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THOUGHTS
Quote I’m Pondering

“People want to follow people (not brands).”

— Tyler Denk, Co-founder and CEO of beehiiv

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Thanks for reading,

— Luca

P.S. Sci-fi novels are a great place to look for startup ideas…