Jitsu

If you're ever selling your company, learn one word before signing an LOI: Retrade. Here's how it works: 1. A buyer agrees to a price. 2. You sign the LOI and agree to exclusivity. 3. You stop talking to other potential buyers. 4. Due diligence starts. Suddenly, the buyer finds reasons to lower the price. Now you're stuck negotiating with one buyer, with all your other options gone. And here's the catch: The purchase price in an LOI is usually non-binding. The exclusivity clause can be binding. I asked @rohitdotmittal how @heliumventureco approaches this. His answer: "We never retrade. We close every LOI we offer." That's a pretty important principle in M&A. A buyer's offer means very little if they don't stand behind it.

How to grow your app from 0 to 100k users (PLAYBOOK): by the end, you'll know how to: - get your first 10 paying customers without a funnel - build organic growth that compounds monthly - know exactly when to spend money and when not to - turn your users into your best acquisition channel here's the full 7-stage roadmap: Stage 1 (0-10): find your niche and sell one person at a time the biggest mistake is building for "everyone" you don't need a market. you need 10 people who feel the pain so badly they'd pay you today how to find them: > pick one specific audience (who can potentially buy the solution) > go where they already complain: X, Reddit, Slack communities, Discord servers > read their exact words. the language they use to describe the pain = your marketing copy > DM 50 people. not pitching. just asking "what's the most frustrating part of [problem]?" your first 10 customers should feel like you read their mind with my own product, I went to a conference and just talked about the problem I was solving 5 people wanted to buy before I had anything to sell, 50 are ready to test (at 2x price from basic costs) metric to watch: conversion from conversation to "shut up and take my money" mistake to avoid: building features before talking to humans -------- Stage 2 (10-100): do things that don't scale forget funnels. forget ads. forget automation this stage is manual and it's supposed to be how to get to 100: > send 20-30 personalized DMs daily on X, Reddit, LinkedIn (not cold outreach!) > post daily in communities where your audience already lives > jump in free onboarding calls, watch how people use your product > when someone leaves, always ask why (it happens often lol) what this gives you: 1: real feedback that shapes your product into something people actually need 2: language and objections you'll use in marketing for the next 2 years 3: early advocates who tell their friends the first 100 users will teach you more than any analytics dashboard ever will don't scale until you've fixed everything these 100 people found broken metric to watch: how many users come back after week 1 mistake to avoid: automating too early and losing the human feedback loop -------- Stage 3 (100-500): fix retention before chasing growth this is where most apps die silently they keep acquiring users while losing them out the back door before you spend a single minute on growth, answer these: 1: what % of users are still active after 7 days? 30 days? 2: where exactly do people drop off in onboarding? 3: what does your "WOW moment" look like and how fast do users reach it? how to fix retention: > cut time to value. 10 steps to feel the product? make it 3 > one email sequence that gets users to their first win in 24hrs > remove features that confuse more than they help > talk to churned users. after 10 calls the pattern is obvious your target: get churn below 5% monthly before moving to stage 4 because growing with 15% churn is like filling a bucket with a hole in it metric to watch: monthly churn rate and day-1 retention mistake to avoid: adding features instead of fixing the experience -------- Stage 4 (500-1k): build your organic engine and referral system now you've got the right to scale two engines to build simultaneously: content engine: - pick 2 platforms max (X + LinkedIn, or YouTube + TikTok depending on your audience) - post 5x/week minimum. document your building process, share insights, show results - every post should teach one thing or prove one result - repurpose: one idea = 1 long post + 3 short posts + 1 thread across platforms referral engine: - trigger "invite a friend" right when users feel the most value - reward both sides: extended trial, premium feature, or credit - make sharing one click with a pre-written message - track top referrers and treat them like VIPs this is where growth starts compounding. content brings strangers. referrals bring warm leads. both are free metric to watch: viral coefficient (how many new users each existing user brings) mistake to avoid: spreading across 5 platforms and doing all of them poorly -------- Stage 5 (1k-10k): partnerships, affiliates, and first paid experiments organic alone hits a ceiling. now you layer partnerships: > find products with the same audience but no competition > propose co-marketing: joint webinars, shared newsletters, bundles > one right partnership can bring 500+ users overnight affiliates and BDs: > launch an affiliate program with 20-30% recurring commission > recruit creators who already talk to your audience > find 2-3 BDs to sell your product on commission base first paid channels: > only test ads when you know your CAC and LTV cold > start with retargeting (cheapest and highest intent) > test one cold channel: Meta for B2C, LinkedIn/Google for B2B > $500-1k/mo to test. scale only what's profitable in 30 days metric to watch: CAC to LTV ratio (aim for 1:3 minimum) mistake to avoid: spending on ads before your funnel converts organically -------- Stage 6 (10k-50k): scale what works, kill what doesn't at this stage you already know your channels. now it's about efficiency what to do: 1: double down on your top 2 channels. kill the rest 2: make your first growth hire 3: automate onboarding, emails, and referral tracking 4: build a community around the product: Discord, Slack, or Circle the community is your moat: > users help each other (reduces support costs) > feature requests come directly from power users > community members have 2-3x higher retention than non-members > it creates switching costs that competitors can't copy metric to watch: revenue per employee and growth rate month over month mistake to avoid: hiring too fast and burning cash before the model is proven -------- Stage 7 (50k-100k): brand, moat, and paid scale you're no longer just an app. you're a brand how to think about this stage: > brand is why someone picks you over 10 alternatives without comparing features > invest in design, storytelling, positioning, make the product feel inevitable > go bigger: conferences, podcasts, media, Product Hunt at scale paid acquisition at scale: - increase ad budget on proven channels - test new channels (influencer marketing, sponsorships, programmatic) - build lookalike audiences from your best customers - keep CAC under control as you scale, it will try to climb protect the moat: 1: deepen community engagement 2: build integrations and partnerships that make leaving painful 3: create content flywheel that compounds (SEO, YouTube library, newsletter archive) metric to watch: brand search volume and organic vs paid ratio mistake to avoid: letting paid acquisition become your only growth channel -------- CONCLUSION most apps die between 100 and 1,000 users because founders skip retention and jump straight to ads the truth is: the first 3 stages are ugly, manual, and slow but they build the foundation that makes stages 4-7 feel like gravity start narrow. fix retention. then scale Growth is a system, make it effective ♥️ P.S. i lead growth at a YC startup and post practical stuff like this regularly. follow if you want more of these playbooks. drop your product link below - i’ll tell you which stage you’re actually stuck in.

if you have an MCP, this is a HUGE day Google just launched its Connected Apps Store this means your MCP can now reach their 4.3 BILLION active users across both Gemini and AI Mode this is yet another app store moment not only can your product can be discovered and used by those people, without them ever having to leave AI Mode or Gemini but Google is now ORGANICALLY surfacing these MCPs at the moment of intent after prompts what a time to make your product agent-first with an MCP in every major store if you want to track the ecosystem daily and see whose going live in your niche, go to: agentdiscoverability .com/track Gemini will be live imminently... P.S. I lead growth at a YC Startup and keep posting useful content like this. So follow me :)

Claude has no video model. But it just made these production-ready animations in under 15 minutes. No After Effects. No editor. No video generation model. Just Claude Code + HyperFrames. It writes the HTML/CSS/JS, then renders the MP4. Here’s the process: 👇 1. Install the HyperFrames plugin in Claude Code 2. Give it a detailed prompt or a visual reference 3. It builds the composition 4. Preview → tweak → render 5. Stitch the clips together This is now how I make product demos and explainers for some of the fastest-growing YC and a16z-backed startups I work with. Way faster than briefing a designer or screen-recording + editing. Want the full prompts + exact setup? Comment “ANIMATE” and I’ll DM them. (First 10 also get a short loom walking through one from scratch.) Disclaimer - I lead growth at a YC startup and keep posting practical stuff like this. So follow me :)

i got to $120k revenue without doing half of this. no product hunt. no 50 chatgpt blog posts. no facebook ads. what actually got me my first 100 users (no bs): 1) dm'ing people who had already complained about the exact problem i was trying to solve on LinkedIn and X. keep it short and simple. 2) replying under every post in the niche for 30 days. not “check out my tool.” actual answers with insights. 3) obsessing over the first 20 users. be it calls, loom videos, or fixing their setup myself. 4) posting the $$ numbers. $0. then $10k. people trust authenticity. ads and blogs only start working after some users are already paying you. before that 90% of the job is just talking to people who already have the problem. are you stuck at getting users for your product? comment the product link and i’ll tell you how i'll go about acquiring your first 100 users. first 10 comments get a loom video. Disclaimer - I lead growth at a YC startup

this is the most common post on r/SaaS right now. someone built a great product. but they have zero users. almost every reply in the thread says the same thing and none of them are useful. these are the only 4 steps you'll need to get your first 100 users (no bs): 1) stop posting about the product. find people who already complained about the exact problem you’re solving. 2) dm them. keep it short. ask if they’ll pay for the solution. 3) reply under every post in the niche for 30 days. not “check out my tool.” actual answers. 4) obsess over the first 20 users. calls, loom videos, or fixing their setup yourself. ads and launches only start working after some users are already paying you. before that 90% of the job is just talking to people who already have the problem. are you stuck at getting users for your product? comment the product link and i’ll tell you how i'll go about acquiring your first 100 users. first 10 comments get a loom video. Disclaimer - I lead growth at a YC startup

Don’t run a fundraising-style process when you’re selling your company. That playbook (controlled timeline, multiple parties, manufactured urgency) works for raising. It doesn’t work for selling. Buyers don’t follow your schedule. They have their own approvals, a CEO who joins later, and a corp dev team that keeps you warm while they figure out strategy. Most of what happens on their side is outside your control. @rohitdotmittal has been on both sides (sold Stilt to JG Wentworth in 2022, raised almost half a billion $$, and now acquires companies at @heliumventureco ). The founders who do best don’t fake urgency or run a fake auction. They: - Focus on what they control (metrics, story, relationships, real alternatives) - Talk to product and line leaders, not just corp dev - Know the buyer’s actual constraints and incentives - Stay ready to walk or keep building @garrytan has said the same thing for years: treating M&A like a fundraising process is one of the fastest ways to kill a deal. Corp dev and VCs have different incentives. Always keep a real BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) If you’re exploring a sale, stop performing a process. The process is theirs. Your leverage is the business you’ve built.

Don't run ads to get your first customers. Especially if nobody knows you exist yet. Before paying for attention, find 5–10 people who have the problem. Get them to pay. Watch how they use your product. Ask what's missing. Warm intros are massively underrated. Your first 10 paying users won't just give you revenue. They'll teach you who your ICP actually is. Ads work better when you know what you're scaling.

raising venture is easy. getting a company acquired is 10x harder - nobody's running after you. that's @rohitdotmittal for you, YC W16 alum, someone who raised $375Mn in equity + dept, sold his company for millions of $$, and is now the CEO of @heliumventureco and @jitsucom. he's seen 9 figure deals die at the finish line because the buyer changed CEOs In the video I speak with Rohit about his journey at YC, raising venture and running his own company to now running his own PE firm and acquiring venture backed companies upto $10M ARR. We also talk about what makes Jitsu a great product for mid market/enterprise customers and what the future roadmap is going to look like. Full session's in YouTube. Link's in the first comment. Super excited for this one

Hey X, I'm doing my first ever LinkedIN Live today in less than 12 hours 🙂 The news is what every founder building a company dreams of. Getting Acquired... @heliumventureco announced last week that it acquired @jitsucom , and i'm hosting @vl_klmn (jitsu's co-founder) and @rohitdotmittal (helium's ceo) on how the deal came together and what's next come hang out with us and say Hi It's gonna be a bangerr session with a lot of insights from 2 YC founders who've raised Millions of $$, built and sold to enterprises and F500s 10am PT / 10:30pm IST, register here: linkedin.com/events/75179372…