Podcast
The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten
Hosted by Steli Efti, Hiten Shah
Smash Notes has 73 notes from 28 episodes of The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten, hosted by Steli Efti and Hiten Shah. Each note answers one question with the moment it was said, so you can read it or play just that part. Topics: Business, Careers, Management & Marketing.
Unfiltered insights and actionable advice straight from the trenches of startup and business life.
On this show
↑↓ to move · Enter to openEsc to close
People
Trending questions
- 01What Are the Pros and Cons of Sharing Your Work in Progress528: Pro Tip: Share Your Work
- 02How Can Startup Founders Regain Their FeelingsA Founders Guide to Feeling Feelings
- 03Why Do Startup Founders Lose Touch With Their FeelingsA Founders Guide to Feeling Feelings
- 04How Do You Get Through the Grind of SalesThe Sales & Marketing Grind
- 05Why Are Sales and Marketing Such a GrindThe Sales & Marketing Grind
- 06What Is the Most Difficult Part About Sales and MarketingThe Sales & Marketing Grind
- 07Can You Make Money Through GoodwillCreating Opportunities in a Time of Crisis
- 08How Do You Get Confident on a Brand-new Problem?How to Stop Worrying About Your Business
- 09What Are the 3 Types of Worries in Business and How to Solve ThemHow to Stop Worrying About Your Business
- 10How Do You Stop Worrying About the FutureHow to Stop Worrying About Your Business
Most-covered episodes
Episodes with Notes
-
![]()
528: Pro Tip: Share Your Work -
![]()
A Founders Guide to Feeling Feelings -
![]()
Creating Opportunities in a Time of Crisis -
![]()
How to Stop Worrying About Your Business -
![]()
How to Control Employees 101 -
![]()
Should Have Done This Earlier -
![]()
141: the Importance of Teaching -
![]()
How to Use Affiliate Programs to Fuel Growth -
![]()
How to Set Up Successful Partner Programs? -
![]()
Business Intelligence for Startups -
![]()
Listening Skills for Startup Founders -
![]()
Revenue Sharing Models for Startups -
![]()
How to Set Clear Expectations to Get Good Results? -
![]()
The Fear of Doing Something Insignificant -
![]()
Should You Be the Face of Your Company? -
![]()
Thoughts on Sleep for Founders -
![]()
How to Get Unstuck -
![]()
How to Overcome Creative Blocks -
![]()
Doing What Scares You -
![]()
What to Do After Your Startup Failed? -
![]()
Not Your Typical Advice -
![]()
Product Management in a Crisis
368 more episodes without notes
- 530: Inbox Insanity? Archive All Your Emails Now!
- 529: Self-Management Is the Best Management
- 527: Should Founders Be Doing Sales? Will Prospects Take Their Startups Serious?
- 526: Is There Too Much SAAS?
- 524: How to Acquire and Cross-Promo SAAS Apps
- 522: How to Improve Cashflow During a Crisis
- 521: the Power of Encouragement
- 519: The HEY launch: Pick a fight to get attention
- 518: Reinvention Causes Everything to Thrive
- 517: How to Plan in 2020?
- 516: There’s No Mastery in Inner Work
- 514: How to Keep Your Sanity in 2020
- 513: Online Meetings & Virtual Events During COVID-19
- 511: Starting a Startup During COVID-19?
- 510: How to Get Good at Taking Critical Feedback
- 509: Questions to Ask Yourself During This Crisis
- 508: How to Ruin Your Reputation During a Crisis
- 507: How to Stop Your Customers From Churning During COVID-19?
- How to Instill a Sense of Urgency in Your Business
- 505: How to Be a Good Wartime CEO
- 504: How to Notice Your Own Bias
- 503: How Do You Negotiate With Yourself?
- 502: How to Maintain Mental Health During a Global Pandemic
- 500: What We Have Learned From Each Other in 500 Episodes
- 499: How to Sell During the COVID-19 Crisis
- 498: Marketing During the COVID-19 Crisis
- 497: How to WFH Without Losing Your Mind During the COVID-19 Crisis
- 495: How to Give Presentations to Your Team
- 494: How to Deal With Rejection
- 493: Dare to Be Different in All That You Do. for Your Future Happiness.
- 491: 100 Ways to Count Your Blessings
- 490: Hobbies for Founders
- 488: What Role Does Your Childhood Play in Entrepreneurship?
- 487: Are Entrepreneurs Made or Born?
- 486: How Zoom Became the Best Web Conferencing Product in a Decade
- 485: Product Hunt Do’s and Don’ts
- 484: Want to Sell Your Startup? Avoid These Mistakes!
- 483: The First 90-Days Onboarding Plan
- 482: Remote Work Worries? Are People Working Hard Enough?
- 480: Startups Grow You as You Grow Them
- 478: [Encore Episode] Beginning of the New Year – How to Reflect and Plan Ahead
- 477: [Encore Episode] Your Startup Isn’t Your Baby
- 476: [Encore Episode] How to Handle Private Life Challenges While Running a Startup (Forgiving Yourself)
- 475: Why Founders Need to Schedule Quiet Time to Think Deeply
- 474: How to Earn the Trust of a Team You’re Taking over as a New Manager
- 473: Encore Episode: What Founders Can Learn from Death
- 472: Encore Episode: Even Seasoned Founders Feel like First-Time Founders
- 471: Startup WTFs: Not Dedicating Enough Time to Your Most Important Customers & Team Members
- 469: Fundraising for Startups—There’ve Never Been That so Many Options
- 467: the Challenger, Helper, Victim Cycle
- 466: What Color Is Boredom
- 465: Scheduling Principles for Startup Founders
- 464: How to Foster a State of Flow in Startup Teams
- 461: the Messy Middle
- 460: the Enneagram Personality Test
- 459: How to Build a Remote Sales Team
- 458: the Heart of Your Startup
- 457: Founder Distractions
- 454: the Ways We Relax
- 453: Should You Make Exceptions for Employees?
- 452: the Need for Speed vs. the Need for Focus at a Startup
- 451: What Perks and Benefits Should You Offer Your Employees?
- 449: How to Know If Your Conversion Rates Are Good?
- 447: Launching a Starter Plan
- 446: Should You Let Your Employees Work on Side-Projects?
- 445: Why Focus Is so Important and How to Get More of It
- 444: How to Increase Your Productivity
- 443: We’re All Dreaming Our Own Realities
- 442: How to Become Customer-Obsessed
- 441: What to Do When Your Customers Don’t Pay on Time?
- 440: Tradeoffs – a New Show by Hiten Shah & Patrick Campbell
- 438: Hiring Service Providers
- 437: Why Hacks Are Not Enough for Growth Anymore (Live from Growthhackers 2019)
- 436: Due Diligence During Fundraising
- 435: How to Deal with Bullies as a Founder?
- 434: Money Management for Startups
- 433: How to Listen & Learn from Those with Less Success Than You
- 432: Comparing Yourself with Other Founders & Startups
- 431: Should You Run a Ton of Experiments Early on as a Founder?
- 430: How to Get Marketing Attribution Right
- 428: What We Recently Learned as Dads That Helps Us as Founders
- 427: Lies Founders Tell Themselves and Others
- 426: How to Create a Successful Pilot Program for Your Startup
- 425: the Value of Overcommunicating
- 424: How to Keep Your Team’s Morale Up
- 423: Steli’s Outbound Recruiting Hack
- 422: Introverts That Learned to Talk
- 421: the Benefits of Therapy for a Founder
- 420: Semi-Remote? Good/Bad?
- 419: Remote Work Isn’t Going Away. How to Do It Well
- 418: Changing Your Domain Name? Here’s What You Should Consider
- 417: Building the Content Muscle
- 416: Effort vs Leverage
- 415: New Positioning for the Startup Chat?
- 414: The Energy-Thoughts-Actions Framework
- 413: How Important Is Choosing a Good Market for Your Startup?
- 412: Is Bragging Bad? Is Being Humble Good?
- 411: Hiten’s Billion Dollar Mistake
- 410: the Value of Generating Hype for Your Startup
- 409: Meditation for Founders
- 408: Quantity vs. Quality in Content (Is More Always Better?)
- 407: How to Deal with Investor Conflicts?
- 406: Mistakes Startup Founders Make When Asking for Advice
- 405: Steli Needs Your Help Finding the Right Person
- 404: Why Your Biggest Strength Is Your Biggest Weakness
- 403: 4 Lessons for Podcasters After 400+ Podcasting Episodes
- 402: Personal Finances for Founders
- 401: How to Work with Designers
- 400: Identifying & Focusing on Growth Customers
- 399: How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile?
- 398: How to Use Documentation to Get the Right Things Done in a Remote Business
- 397: Creating a New Category as a Startup
- 396: Should You Be Secretive About Your Startup Ideas?
- 394: What’s Your Level of Incompetence?
- 393: How Not to Make Dumb Mistakes Under Pressure
- 392: Why Steli Is Always Looking to Understand the Person Behind the Message (People Research Episode)
- 391: How to Create Effective Comparison Pages
- 390: How Not to Get Ahead of Yourself
- 389: the Dangers of Being Overprepared
- 388: How Do You Define Your Identity
- 387: How to Make Increasingly Better Choices Each Day
- 386: How to Sleep and Rest up as a Founder
- 385: Firing People Too Slow Will Kill Your Startup
- 384: Customer Development Mistakes to Avoid
- 383: What Makes You Come Alive at Work? What Drives You?
- 382: How to Hire People Who Are More Senior Than Yourself
- 381: Self-Serve Sales: How to Get People to Upgrade Themselves in Your App
- 380: How to Become Good at Copywriting
- 379: How to Design/Write Great CTAs (Call to Actions)
- 378: Do You Have to Sacrifice Your Life & Health in the Early Days as Founder?
- 377: Should You Wake up Super Early in the Morning as Founder?
- 376: Learning to Ask for Help
- 375: the Second Time Around as a Startup Founder
- 374: Encore Episode: Big Picture Thinking / How to Prioritize
- 373: Encore Episode: How It All Began
- 372: Encore Episode: Tips to Generate Customer Insights
- 371: Encore Episode: How to Find Product Market Fit
- 370: Changing a Startup Team’s Culture vs Hiring a New Team?
- 369: How to Stay Mentally Healthy in a Startup
- 368: Creating or Working with a Company Builder?
- 367: How to Rebrand Your Startup
- 366: How to Name Your Startup
- 365: Replacing Yourself as CEO or Founder
- 364: How to Help Your Customers Through Change
- 363: SaaS Pricing: Using Starter Packages to Attract Smaller Customers
- 360: Being Cynical in a Startup – Good or Bad?
- 359: How to Create a Great Take-Home Assignment for New Job Applicants
- 358: the Value of Consuming Opposing Opinions
- 357: It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small. It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow.
- 356: Are Startups Really the Right Vehicle to Gain Freedom in Life?
- 355: What Is Killing Your Startup Growth?
- 354: How to Create Vision & Mission Statements
- 353: Growing from $1MM to $10MM
- 352: Speaking at Conferences Worth Your Time?
- 351: Encore Episode – How to Use Scripts to Empower Your Sales Team
- 350: Who Am I? (How Do You Figure out Who You Are)
- 349: Encore Episode – How to Optimize Your Sales Funnel
- 348: Weird Side Projects We’ve Worked on That Failed and What We Learned
- 347: How to Get to $1MM in Revenue with Your Business Today
- 346: How to Talk to Yourself
- 345: Encore Episode – Cold Calling 101 for Founders
- 344: Startup Karma
- 343: Knowing Who You Really Are as an Entrepreneur
- 342: Coasting on Your Past Accomplishments
- 341: Employee Retention in Startups
- 340: Doing Business with Friends – Lessons Learned?
- 339: How to Build Add-Ons, Extensions, or Apps
- 338: Staying Humble with Success
- 337: How to Compete in a Hyper Competitive Space
- 336: How to Define Your Company Values
- 335: How to Run an Early Access Program
- 334: Too Many Ideas – How to Chose What to Work on
- 333: How to Deal with Fraud in Your Startup
- 332: How We Read Books
- 331: Managing up – How to Manage Your Managers
- 330: Startup Babies – How to Manage the Other Side of Growth in Your Team
- 329: What to Do Post-Launch?
- 328: The Pre-Launch: How to Do It Right (With or Without Hype)
- 327: The Benefits of In-Person Meetings & Relationships
- 326: Steli’s Most Important Career- (and Life-) Advice
- 325: Consistency in Execution
- 324: Lessons Learned Launching FYI
- 323: GDPR? How Does This Effect Software Companies?
- 322: Changing Your Mind (If You Can’t You’re Fucked)
- 321: How to Become Resilient: Overcoming Any Startup Obstacle
- 320: How to Optimize Your Lead Response Time
- 319: How to Do Competitor Analysis
- 318: Don’t Treat Your Worst Customers the Best
- 317: How to Optimize Your Sales Funnel
- 316: Don’t Wanna Work for Other People?
- 315: How to Do 1-On-1s
- 314: How to Handle Private Life Challenges While Running a Startup (Forgiving Yourself)
- 313: How to Deal with Abusive Customers
- 312: Why You Shouldn’t Trust Headlines (And How to Use Today’s Headline-Culture for Your Startup)
- 311: How to Get User Onboarding Right
- 310: HUCA (Hang Up Call Again)
- 309: How to Use Social Proof in Your Emails, Copy, and Sales Pitches
- 308: Feature Creep
- 307: Outbound Email Sequences
- 306: How to Find Product Market Fit
- 305: How to Create Customer Testimonials That Sell
- 304: How to Do User Testing for Your Product
- 303: Using Video in Marketing Today
- 302: How to Sell to Startups? (Startup To Startup Sales)
- 301: How to Hire Interns for Your Startup
- 300: the Startup Bus Fallacy
- 299: Finding Your Ideal Customer (or Switching Who You Sell to)
- 298: How to Run Multiple Products at Once
- 297: How to Start a Side Hustle
- 296: How to Do Product Prioritization
- 295: Being a Nice-To-Have vs Must-Have Product. How to Know the Difference?
- 294: How to Manage Your Energy as a Founder
- 293: What Tools Should You Use to Run Your Startup?
- 292: Free Tools as Marketing
- 291: Discipline in Startups
- 290: What People Really Think About You
- 289: Coach Your Team Members’ Weaknesses or Double-Down on Strengths?
- 288: Startup Lies
- 287: Hiten’s Outcome-Based Hiring Framework
- 286: Mindfulness
- 285: Giving Discounts to Your Customers
- 284: Remembering Where You Came From
- 283: How to Create a Good Email Newsletter
- 282: the Most Common Product Mistakes Startups Make
- 281: How to Use Process to Grow Your Startup
- 280: How to Figure out the Right Pace of Hiring
- 279: How to Run a Virtual Summit
- 278: Anger Management in Startups
- 277: How to Start a Startup Without a Technical Co-Founder
- 276: How to Hire a Head of Culture
- 275: How to Create an Ecosystem Around Your Startup
- 274: Hiring or Nurturing Managers Within Your Startup
- 273: How to Give Company Updates to Investors, Advisors & Friends
- 272: Beginning of the New Year – How to Reflect and Plan Ahead
- 271: Encore Episode – Freemium
- 270: Encore Episode – Minimum Viable Products: How to find out fast if your idea is legit
- 269: Encore Episode – How to Start a Side Business
- 268: Encore Episode – How to Get Your First 10 Customers
- 267: Crying About Your Startup? What We Tell Our Founder Friends in Dark Moments
- 266: Steli Efti’s Inside Sales Tips for Startups
- 265: How to Use NPS Surveys to Grow Your Company
- 264: How to Use Inspiration to Your Advantage
- 263: Being a People Pleaser Is Bad (in Startups and Life)
- 262: How to Write Killer Email Newsletters
- 261: Big Picture Thinking / How to Prioritize
- 260: Account-Based Marketing for Startups – What you should know
- 259: What is Product Marketing
- 258: Why Trello Failed to Build a $1 Billion+ Business
- 257: Scaling a Services Business (Challenges)
- 256: Hiten Shah’s Inside Sales Tips for Startups
- 255: Tips to Generate Customer Insights
- 254: How to Launch Your Product
- 253: Should You Blog?
- 252: Startup Branding – Does It Matter and How to Do It Right
- 251: How to Enter the US Market With Your Startup
- 250: How and Why to Do Freemium in Your Startup Today
- 249: How to Manage Your Emotions During the Startup Rollercoaster
- 248: How to Use Conferences to Grow Your Startup
- 247: Vulnerability in Startup Leadership
- 246: How to Create Online Courses to Grow Your Startup
- 245: Startup Fraud – What to Do When an Employee Is Stealing From You
- 244: How Do You Do Engineering Estimates
- 243: Losing Your Child at the Playground Is a Bad Idea
- 242: How to Do Marketing AGAINST Your Competition
- 241: How to Save Money as a Startup (Improve Cashflow)
- 240: What KPIs to Track as a Startup
- 239: How to Balance Marriage and Startups
- 238: Deadly Shortcuts Founders Should Avoid
- 237: Disadvantages as a Founder
- 236: How Startups Should Go After Enterprise Customers
- 235: When Growth Hacks Can’t Save You
- 234: How to Use Webinars to Grow Your Startup
- 233: Fear of Missing Out Among Startup Founders
- 232: How to Ask for Help in Business & Life
- 231: Competitive Combativeness
- 230: Transitioning From Services to Software Business
- 229: DO THE WORK
- 228: What to Do When Employees Always Break the Rules
- 227: the Art of Cutting Your Losses
- 226: How & When to Use NPS Surveys in Your Startup
- 224: How SaaS Founders Should Do Competitor Research
- 223: What Do You Wish You Knew When You Started as an Entrepreneur?
- 222: Job Titles in Startups
- 221: Be a Student. Always
- 220: How to Buy or Sell a SaaS Business
- 219: Why You Should Invest in Diversity in Your Startup (and Life)
- 218: Investor Meetings Do’s and Don’ts
- 217: Is Sales Natural or Learned?
- 216: How to Make Your First $1k as an Entrepreneur
- 215: What Role Does Luck Play in Startups?
- 214: How to Communicate With Your Customers During Crisis
- 213: the Value of Good Design in an Early Stage Startup
- 212: How to Do Customer Surveys
- 211: How to Distribute Equity in the Early Days of Your Startup
- 210: How to Grow Your Startup With Referral Sales & Marketing
- 209: How We Chose the People We Surround Ourselves With
- 208: What to Do When Your First Customer Cancels / Churns?
- 207: Why We Keep Doing This Podcast
- 206: How to Move Faster (and Make More Things Happen in Less Time)
- 205: How to Increase CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
- 204: How to Cultivate a Bias Towards Action
- 203: Productivity Tips for Remote Workers
- 202: How to Generate Customer Insights
- 201: How to Kill Features in Your Product
- 200: the Art of the Follow Up
- 199: How to Fly a Fighter Jet
- 198: How to Build a Board of Directors
- 197: Top Tier College: Does It Help as an Entrepreneur?
- 196: Fundraising: How to Raise Your Series a
- 195: Stop Treating Service Workers Like Servants
- 194: How to Successfully Manage Customer Objections
- 193: Top 5 Fundraising Mistakes Founders Make
- 192: How to use scripts to empower your sales team
- 191: How to Overcome a Plateau in Business
- 190: How to Crush it on Demo Day
- 189: How to Infuse a Human Touch in Inside Sales
- 188: How to Create a Killer Pitch Deck
- 187: How to Be Confident
- 186: Website Teardowns (with conversion tips & tricks) part 3
- 185: Website Teardowns (with conversion tips & tricks) part 2
- 184: What to Do When Your Mind and Gut Are at Odds with Each Other
- 183: Website Teardowns (with conversion tips & tricks) part 1
- 182: What to Do When Your Financing Falls Through in the Last Minute
- 181: How to Manage Remote Teams
- 180: B2B Customer Acquisition Q&A (Part 2)
- 179: B2B Customer Acquisition Q&A (Part 1)
- 178: Sales Hiring for Startups
- 177: Hiring First 10 Team Members for Your Startup
- 176: How to Hire Your First Startup Team Member
- 175: How to Hire Marketers for Your Startup
- 174: Self-Service vs Human-Touch in SaaS
- 173: Startup Work Ethic: Match Yours and Your Team Members Work Ethic for Maximum Results
- 172: Your Startup Isn’t Your Baby
- 171: Founders Dilemma: How to Make Decisions When All Options Suck
- 170: What You Don’t Know About Angel Investors
- 169: the Lazy Hustle
- 168: How to Build Your Personal Network… Without Networking
- 167: Not How but Yes
- 166: How to Think About Hot Trends in Business & Technology
- 165: Sales & Marketing Tactics that Died in 2016
- 164: Email Marketing for SaaS Startups
- 163: How to Announce Product Updates
- 162: How to Do Team Retreats
- 161: the Power of Gratitude
- 160: Closing – the Art of Creating a Decision
- 159: What to Do When Someone Screwed You Over
- 158: the Content Marketing Playbook
- 157: Stop Worrying About the Bad News, and Start Creating Good News
- 156: How to Grow From 100 to 1000 B2B Customers
- 155: Thinking Small & Intimate in Business
- 154: How to Manage Your Fear of Failure
- 153: Is Customer Success BS? (And how to really help your customers win)
- 152: How to Conduct Great Customer Development Interviews
- 151: How to Create a Winning Startup Culture
- 150: Cold Calling 101 for Founders
- 149: What Founders Should Know About Working With Lawyers
- 147: How to Transform Limiting Beliefs Into a Winning Mindset
- 145: Overcoming Laziness – How to Stop Avoiding Crucial Tasks
- 144: How to Become More Thoughtful
- 143: the Slow & Stressful Way to Kill Your Startup: Lack of Urgency
- 142: Why We Love to Read
- 140: the Power of Writing
- 139: How to Do Effective Postmortems
- 138: Building Products in Hyper-Competitive Markets
- 137: What We Learned From 1000 Minutes of Interviewing Founders About Fundraising
- 136: Are You Too Old (or Too Young) for Entrepreneurship?
- 135: What You Should Know About Startup Accelerators & Incubators
- 134: How to Do Due Diligence on People
Missing an episode? Request notes