☕️ Welcome back to our Friday newsletter: a weekly deep dive so riveting the line-up to read it is 2x as long as the line-up to watch Barbie opening night.

To keep you on your toes, we’re swapping news for awards this week b/c we’re feeling a little celebratory:

• 🚀 Launches of the week: Shopify CEO, Tobi Lutke, announced an AI assistant called SideKick that’ll change the game

• 🙈 Loss of the week: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund reported an $11B loss for 2022 compared to a $19B gain in 2021

• 🏆 Side Hustle of the week: Somehow on the side of his desk, Sam Altman’s helping take a nuclear microreactor company Oklo public via SPAC

• 🛒  Sale of the week: Amazon’s 2023 Prime Day on July 11th broke records for the most sales per day. Their press team hasn’t shared the number yet, but it’ll be bigger than 2022’s $12B

• 🚂 Steddy Eddy of the week: Threads passing 100M Users

• 🤣 Laugh of the week: Swifties go so hard they don’t disclose their identity in interviews

Let’s welcome in the waiter to tell us what’s on the menu for the day 🍽

Today's Menu:

• 🗳 Vote on our Newsletter Rebrand

• 💡 3 GTM Strategies to Save Under Your Pillow

• 🛠 Would You Use a Library of GTM Strategies?

• 📝 Sahil Bloom’s 50 Life Hacks

• 🐦 Founder Tweet of the Week

We hate to call it as it is, but for a name, the “Kernal Newsletter” is as lame as it gets. To back our claim, we emailed 1,000 of our true fans (90%+ open rates). Spoiler alert, y’all agreed. So we went back to the whiteboard.

The true fans voted on 10 names. Now we’re down to the final 5. The poll below decides it all. So we’re counting on you to guide us to safe waters. Cast your vote below or forever hold your peace 🗳

✨ This Week’s Article is Brought to You by Zendesk

Now onto our meat and potatoes of the newsletter.

🧞‍♂️ We Asked a Genie for 3 GTM Strategies, Here's What He Told Us.

Meet Stan Rymkiewicz, the Head of GTM at Default.com, Founder of CategorySurfers.com and a newly married Kernaler 👋

We caught up with him for a video call earlier this week and the ideas got flowin’. But before we dig into his GTM wizardry, let’s cover some icebreakers so you know a bit about him if you run into him at a party.

• 🇵🇱 He used to compete on Poland’s Olympic Snowboard team: and as a result, he thinks about his life in 4-year sprints

• 💸 He raised his pre-seed round in one email to Jason Calicanis: he replied after a couple hours, they jumped on a 20 min call and J-cal sent him a wire.

• 💍 Stan’s wife and him got married 2 weeks ago and their wedding video hit 1M+ views on Tik Tok

Talk about an impressive newsletter intro, right?

Let’s get to his advice now.

We asked Stan, “What top GTM tips would you give founders in 2023?”

And like every good thinker under the sun, he broke it into 3 buckets 🪣

Let’s start with numero uno.

🪣 Bucket 1: Your Competitors are a Gold Mine

Research the heck out of them to find their gaps and validate your product opportunities. Here’s how:

• 🔍 First, know that competitors validate market opportunity (ie. there’s fish in the pond to catch)

• 📩 Using LinkedIn, Cold Email or Social Media Messenger, reach out to past employees and customers (happy or unhappy) to learn about the problem the brand was trying to solve

• 💭 Ask them if their pain point is being met or if there are ways the problem could be solved differently. Look for re-occurring themes in the convos you have

• 🎯 You’re hunting for hidden clues. Every cookie crumb adds up. Website reviews, Techcrunch quotes or conference talks are a great gem to find folks willing to chat. Hyperlink where you found them in the outreach.

• 🔐 Past employees hold all the secrets, and you can incentivize them by buying them a coffee, lunch or even sending them a business book on their list they’d love to read if you’re too far to meet up

🪣 Bucket 2: Build an Agile Team That A/B Tests

When building Intro.so, this is what Stan says he failed at. So it’s been top of mind ever since. Stan said:

• 🏆 A smart team makes or breaks your GTM plan

• 🧊 Cold email and connections are how he finds his best hires

• 1️⃣ The top trait he looks for in finding a GTM-friendly staff member is their ability to understand, act on and communicate an idea

• 🧠 Being able to digest concepts and communicate them to others is a superpower. The more staff that have it, the more powerful and quick your team can pounce on ideas

🪣 Bucket 3: Build a Media + Distribution Moat

It’s been said before, but we’ll say it again: “First-time founders focus on product and second-time founders focus on distribution”

• 🤳🏾 Stan agrees you need to build a mini media company first, then a startup second

• 📺 The media doesn’t need to be large scale, just enough to test, validate and learn about your end user’s problem

• 📧 Things like an email list, interactive survey, engaging quiz, series of LinkedIn posts so you can consolidate and learn from your key fans

• ✨ Distribute a series of content first, then distribute your product second

• 💪 Start building the content/media muscle as early as possible

  • Could be an email list where you collect sign-ups on your landing page

  • Could be SM content you post on Linkedin/Twitter

  • Could be memes you post on Threads or Reddit

• The important thing is that you build some kind of distribution before you launch

Jazzed to learn more about GTM strategies? Checkout Stan’s newsletter where he goes deep on one spicy GTM tactic per week you can apply to your startup.

🎁 A Little Gift from Zendesk: 6 Months Free

Zendesk recently partnered with OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) and is now leveraging OpenAI's Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance their AI for CX Solutions. They call it it Zendesk AI. ✨

Zendesk AI is built on the world's largest CX-specific dataset tuned to customers' industries & businesses so they can get the intelligence that is relevant to their unique businesses.

Here’s some great reads on Zendesk’s approach to AI:

• Zendesk's Head of AI on the promises & pitfalls of Generative AI

• Turning AI into purposeful platforms for customers

• Advanced AI + OpenAI Feature Demo

• Advanced AI Best Practices

Wanna dig deeper? Email our friend Michaela at Zendesk ([email protected]) or schedule time with her for a chat. As a reminder, all Kernal startups have access to 6 months of free Zendesk which you can redeem here. 🎁

Now, back to the startup idea riff.

Instead of just giving advice, “Stan-the-Man’s” getting into the trenches with you as he chips away at his own startup idea.

Skim below to hear his elevator pitch 👇

Here’s the way I think about Stan’s idea:

• There’s MarketingExamples.com for finding marketing

• There’s unsplash.com for finding stock photos

• There’s giphy.com for finding memes

Why the heck isn’t there a library to choose the best GTM plan idea?

It makes perfect sense.

Stan’s currently running GTM for a company called Default.com (backed by David Sacks and the Craft Ventures team) and in his spare time he breaks downs GTM strategies in his newsletter (CategorySurfers.com).

But he wants to build a searchable database that could inspire the next gen of SaaS founders.

If he put some long nights into building an MVP this month, would you use it? Vote here to let him know if it’s a fire idea 🔥 or a meh idea 🙅‍♀️. The more honest, the better.

Got a friend that comes up with 10+ startup ideas/day? We want ‘em in our community. Share the newsletter with them by tapping below.

📰 Founder Read of the Week

Sahil Bloom put together a great list of life hacks and if you’re looking for one thing to read this week this is one you should pop open.

🐦 Tweet of the Week

If you’re going for coffee with more than 3 people, you’re not looking for advice, you’re looking for attention. Get back to the building.

💚 The Kernal Fam

Liked the newsletter? Let your joy loose below. Thought it was lame-sauce? Smash that 3/10 button.

P.S. Want a list of 500 startup ideas from our team? Grab it here