Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Jacobson: Non-growth startup tasks are a misallocation of founder time

Phil Jacobson · Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp · Jul 10, 2015 · at 18:22

Phil Jacobson, founder of fitness social platform PumpUp, discusses how he prioritizes tasks and maintains focus on The 20 Minute VC.

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“Anything that I'm doing that's not focused on growth or engagement is likely not the right spend of time.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Phil Jacobson

Insight
Motivation, not instruction, is the primary problem in health and fitness
“We're solving the problem of providing users direction, such as what do I do when I want to work out or when I want to be active, when we recognize that that was a secondary problem from talking to users, where the primary problem in health and fitness is, is …”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 2:36 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PumpUp's community flags inappropriate content within 30 to 90 seconds
“If someone posts something inappropriate or someone posts a negative comment on someone's post, the community is so strong at this point that We'll know probably within, like, 30 to 90 seconds, and it will go straight to our community management team, and we'l…”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 9:22 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Disclosure
PumpUp acquired its two million users without buying any paid ads
“We don't buy ads. We haven't yet. We don't really believe in that.”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 10:00 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Assertion Partly supported
Jacobson: No mobile app directly competes with PumpUp in social fitness
“When it comes to our category, most players, especially the successful ones, are utility products. You look at Fitbit or Fitness Pal or MapMyFitness or RunKeeper tracking apps or pieces of hardware. When it comes to social and community and the health and fitn…”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 10:50 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Insight
Founders should budget 18 months of runway plus a cost buffer
“You really have to do your best to build out how much money you think you're going to need for about 18 months, and that should provide you enough time to get, to hit the goals you need, or the milestones you need to raise the next round, and then assume every…”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 13:33 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Insight
Founders should seek advice from peers just 6 to 18 months ahead
“Talk to people who have been in your shoes recently in the last six, 1218 months, and it's fresh in their mind. They have a lot of lessons to learn, and they're more than often happy to share.”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 14:01 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
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