What "Good" actually looks like for startups

How do you know if your startup is actually on track? A founder recently asked Rob a simple question: What does good actually look like? Rob realized that most founders don't have clear standards for evaluating whether their startup is making progress or quietly stalling. In this episode, he introduces a practical framework for assessing startup health across the entire customer factory - from pipeline and PULL to close rates, cycle times, and customer success. Covered in this episode: The six metrics every founder should track What a repeatable case study actually looks like How many customer conversations you should be having each week Why PULL is a better metric than interest or enthusiasm The close rates and sales cycles high-performing startups achieve How to identify your leading indicator of customer retention Why most founders focus on the wrong bottleneck A simple weekly process for confronting reality and making progress Links Get The Power of PULL: Amazon: https://amzn.to/48KC1yv Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv Rob's PULL course: https://robsnyder.org/course Work with Rob: https://www.robsnyder.org Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/ Follow Rob's Substack: https://thephysicsofstartups.substack.com/ Chapters 00:00 The Power of PULL is published 02:16 Why founders need standards 08:22 The case study factory 13:21 Metric #1: The repeatable case study 19:28 Metric #2: Pipeline 23:38 Metric #3: PULL 27:17 Metric #4: Close rate 31:21 Metric #5: Cycle time 35:07 Metric #6: Success rate 39:01 A weekly startup reality check 40:30 Why these standards matter 42:37 Final thoughts