Founders Courier is a guide to the decisions a founder makes, from the first question (why start a business at all?) to the last one (should you sell it?). It is written for people building something of their own: solo founders, small teams, people with a side project and people running several businesses at once.
The route
Most advice for founders arrives in the wrong order. You read about scaling before you have customers, or about fundraising when the real question is whether to quit your job. Founders Courier is organized as a route instead: nine milestones in three phases, each one a decision you have to make before the next one makes sense.
- Decide: Why Start a Business?, How to Come Up With a Business Idea and Should You Quit Your Job to Start a Business?
- Launch: How to Validate a Business Idea, How to Get Customers for a New Business and How to Price Your Product
- Sustain: When to Pivot, Push On or Quit, How to Grow Your Business and Should You Sell Your Business?
The route is the same for everyone, but the person walking it is not. A solopreneur, a pair of cofounders and someone running three businesses face the same milestones and answer them differently. That is the second axis of the site, Types of Entrepreneurs.
Who writes it
I’m not a journalist. I’m a founder who talks to other founders.
I started building projects back when there was no AI. Everything was done by hand and knowing how to do it was worth more than it is today.
I’ve spent years having these conversations, and there’s always, and I’m not exaggerating, something to learn. At some point I realized the ones that helped me would help other people too, so I started publishing them.
And I keep at it despite AI, because even if knowledge is worth less now, experience is worth exactly what it always was. We all benefit from knowing what works, what doesn’t, and why.
I still build my own stuff. It’s just not what the interviews are about.
Adam J. Peters, AJ
What you will and will not find here
You will find patterns: what tends to happen at each milestone, where founders usually go wrong, and what the decision really depends on. Facts and figures come from sources you can check, listed at the end of every article.
You will not find stories presented as recipes. One founder’s path is a data point, not a method. And you will not find anyone’s story retold here without their permission.
The newsletter
The conversations behind this site go out by email in three editions: Indie Hustle on Tuesdays, Founders Struggles on Thursdays and Founders Scars on Saturdays. One subscription brings all three. The newsletter page explains what each one covers.
How it is made
How the articles are researched, where AI tools are used and where they are not, and how the site is paid for are set out in the editorial policy.
Contact
Corrections, questions and suggestions are welcome at [email protected]. If you are a founder with a decision in front of you that this site does not cover yet, that is exactly the kind of email I hope to get.