“Pre-product market fit, I would say, is Shoe Dog”
Shoe Dog
By Phil Knight
3 recommend/use · 3 sourced episodes
Every sourced reference
Short attributed excerpts only. Timestamps are approximate.
“And then third is shoe dog where I just find it to be a really inspirational story.”
“love love Shoe Dog like think that you know it's epitome of like starting a company.”
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Don't test people on doing work without AI — hand them the tools and score what they can build in an hour
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Invest in domains where making people 10x more productive increases demand rather than reducing it
Founder-Led Marketing as a Goodwill Bank
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Patient-Then-Floor-It Hiring
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Reactive Pricing After Demand Signal
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Have an expert define success criteria and a rubric once, then let AI reinforce the capability — more scalable than labeling examples
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In human data the only durable moat is a trusted, targetable audience — not recruiters or ads
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The First 30 Seconds Onboarding Bet
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The Micro-Influencer Wide-Net Playbook
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The Middleman-Signal Disintermediation Play
When middlemen and end-customers both come to you directly, that's the signal to build the business yourself
The Quality-Volume-Speed Priority Stack
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The Same-Day Prototype Validation Loop
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The Word-of-Mouth Machine PMF Test
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