Definition

Zero to One

The pre-product-market-fit stage. Steve Phillips's favorite part, and the reason he keeps starting companies.

From the episode “How to Automate a Board of Advisors for $29 a Month”

How founders on the podcast use it

The phase of building a company from nothing to its first meaningful product, revenue, and customers. Characterized by extreme prioritization and founder-led everything.

Will VC Destroy Your Startup?

The earliest phase of company building: defining the product, establishing distribution, and generating the first revenue. A fundamentally different skill set from scaling — requires maximum creativity, tolerance for ambiguity, and willingness to operate without institutional support. Josh Furstoss identifies it as his specific specialty and builds company structures that let him stay in this phase across multiple ventures simultaneously.

Everyone Is Building AI Wrong

Hear it on the podcast3 episodes

How to Automate a Board of Advisors for $29 a Month Will VC Destroy Your Startup?Everyone Is Building AI Wrong

Learn the language of AI-native founders

Every week: the new terms, tools, and workflows founders are using, straight from the podcast.

Related terms in Startups & Fundraising

The Mom TestA method for customer interviews that avoids leading questions and false validation.Top-Down Market SizingEstimating market size using industry-level data.ValidationStructured confirmation that a real customer has a real problem they will pay to solve.Venture for AmericaA fellowship placing recent grads at startups, where Endear's founders met.Vertical AI SaaSA software-as-a-service product built specifically for one industry or use case, leveraging AI capabilities that are deeply integrated into the domain's workflows, data sources, and buyer behaviors - as opposed to horizontal AI tools that serve many industries with general-purpose functionality. Vertical AI SaaS requires deep domain expertise alongside AI competence: Loman.ai's team combines restaurant industry sales veterans (first DoorDash sales rep, Toast President's Club) with voice AI engineers (from Deepgram and ElevenLabs). The GTM strategy also differs from horizontal SaaS: distribution runs through industry-specific channels (restaurant owner Facebook groups, trade shows), success metrics are industry-native (labor cost per location, phone order revenue), and word-of-mouth operates within tight industry networks where one satisfied multi-unit operator can refer dozens of peers.Vesting CliffA milestone in an equity compensation schedule at which an employee's shares vest for the first time, typically after one year of employment.Warm introAn introduction through a trusted connector, as opposed to a cold message.Weak Signal vs. Strong SignalIn customer discovery, a weak signal is polite interest, conceptual agreement, or a willingness to 'try it.' A strong signal is urgency, unprompted specificity about the pain, willingness to pay now, or a direct request to be notified at launch. Building on weak signals is one of the most common validation failure modes.

Browse all 1,456 terms