- Minimum Viable Founder
- Posts
- Purpose. Process. People.
Who
My name is Damiano, but I go by Dom (because nobody gets it right).
I've been in and around startups for ~15 years and have worked with some notable founders, including those of Napster and Facebook, but I'm saving those stories for my autobiography.
Past ~5 years
- Civic first designer at the company
- Cuebiq joined so early that I came up with the name
Stuff I do
- Jones School of Business, Rice University guest lecturer and mentor for the New Enterprises program, etc.
- The Ion subject matter expert on no-code
- Italian Consulate digital product consultant for scientific efforts by Italian researchers in the States
Purpose
These experiences gave me, at the very least, some visibility into the process of building a startup.
A pattern I noticed in successful founders (define success…) is that they had some type of unique insight, what I call "unfair advantage” or founder-market fit, which allowed them not only to move faster and with more clarity than the rest but also to be the ones making the first move.
In business, the term MVP (minimum viable product) is used to define shipping (launching) the lowest fidelity possible version (hence, minimum) usable by early adopters to indicate whether it’s worth pursuing (hence, viable), iterating upon, etc.
I equate this concept to founders.
What is the lowest fidelity version of an entrepreneur that will indicate whether they have the potential for success (define success…) and what are the things they can learn that will inform the next iteration?
My purpose is to shine a light on startup founding mechanics in 3 ways:
Expert: I only know what I know, but I’ll pass that down directly.
Reporter: I’ll share insights on what I’ve observed others do.
Broker: I'll bring in people from my network to share their expert insights.
The motivation is a mix of my innate passion for education and a sense of responsibility, wanting to warn others about the common perils and blindspots (I'll write about things like "The Feature Trap" in the following articles) in the early days of operating a startup.
Process
It all starts with an idea.
I annotate that idea anywhere I can: pen and paper, Notion, Apple Notes, Google Docs, Grammarly, and Voice Memos; sometimes I use X or Slack as my sketchpad. The point is that I must document it somehow.
One of my heroes growing up said:
“Ideas are fleeting, they're like a FedEx from God…If you don’t capture it and hold it, it’s gone! And it’s because God wants someone else to have it.”
I have a lot of sticky notes around the house.
I take notes to capture a thought or concept I want to retain or communicate, and pretty much anything I think adds value to me, I also think can add value to others, so I’m excited to share it, hence me writing this post.
Current Content Pipeline
Writing: ~1000 words to fully articulate a concept, process, or anecdote.
Publishing: Blog + Newsletter, currently using Beehiiv.
Social: I'm on X and might remix the concepts from a blog and newsletter for posts, threads, talk tracks for videos, etc.
I don’t necessarily resonate with LinkedIn or Instagram audiences, but that might be a blindspot. I hear Reddit is better than X and will likely add to my pipeline.
Time Management
I naturally wake up pretty early (between 4 and 6 AM) and get the most focused work in the following 3-4 hours. I can accomplish more than I do in the next 12, where I mostly decompress from that burst of hyper-productivity.
“Don't wonder where your time went. Tell it where to go.”
Hacks
"Do not disturb" on all your devices is an instant productivity boost because you free the part of your mind that either seeks or is worried about incoming information.
Non-verbal, minimal music, and borderline noise set the thought and productivity frequency rate that's necessary for production.
People
Ultimately, an impact can only be made by exercising influence on people, which is something you can only do if you have access to said people.
Paraphrasing something one of my mentors recently said:
“I do well with those who are hungry, but I can’t teach the concept of hunger.”
That just changed everything for me.
I’ve been trying to educate people on concepts like hustle and proactiveness, not realizing those are human traits. I believe you can discover you have those traits, even later in life, and can develop them, but that's the individual's journey, and not my responsibility. Said journey would be guided by need and purpose, which most, I now realize, simply do not possess.
This realization made me want to change my delivery methods, and instead of investing my focus on one person at a time, I now just put it all out there for those who want it.
That same mentor, in fact, taught me:
"Never sell. Simply make yourself findable for those already looking for what you have to offer."
While I can’t teach “hustle,” I can at least provide examples of it. I recently talked about this in my post “Entrepreneurship is Self-Improvement.”
Until then.