Software engineer and investor. I write about markets and businesses.

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Posts about business.

Posts about building businesses: products, marketing, sales and what my own projects taught me.

140 posts

💰 Building an investment tool from scratch

Day 2 of developing Tracking Alpha

First things first: knowing which merger arbitrage deals are live in the US at any given time.

Finding them is easy. They all go through the SEC and get published on EDGAR.

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My new project 👇

I’ve wanted to build a tool for investors for a while, but I didn’t want to make the usual thing.

I didn’t want to build another portfolio management tool or another TIKR redesign.

I wanted to make something a bit more original 👀

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🧵 [Mega-thread] Everything I know about business:

Lessons and mental models for building businesses and companies.

Mainly a summary of Alex Hormozi's strategy. A repeatable system anyone can use to scale their business.

Warning: it's very long.

If you want the text ready to copy into your AI agent, leave me a comment 💬

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    The whole system can be summed up like this:

    1️⃣ Choose a goal 2️⃣ Map the business 3️⃣ Find the constraint 4️⃣ Fix the constraint 5️⃣ Scale what works 6️⃣ Standardize it 7️⃣ Delegate it 8️⃣ Find the next constraint 9️⃣ …and start again

    The hard part isn't learning another tactic. It's correctly identifying what matters now and ignoring everything else.

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    Part 1: PREPARATION ✅

    1. What scaling really means

    Scaling doesn't simply mean increasing revenue.

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    2. Apply the framework to one project at a time

    Every business has a constraint.

    A portfolio of businesses also has a constraint, which will usually be one of these:

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    Part 2: IDENTIFY THE STAGE OF THE BUSINESS ✅

    The right constraint depends on the stage the business is at.

    There are 10 stages: Discover, Monetize, Acquire, Stabilize, Focus, Productize, Optimize, Organize, Specialize, and Capitalize.

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    Part III: DEFINE THE OUTCOME ✅

    Choose one business goal for the next 90 days

    A constraint only exists in relation to a goal.

    Bad goals: ❌ Improve marketing ❌ Improve the product ❌ Grow on social media ❌ Add AI

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    Part IV: MAP THE BUSINESS ✅

    Write out the complete system from left to right

    Almost any business can be represented like this:

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    Part V: FIND THE CONSTRAINT ✅

    Start with this test:

    "If we doubled our advertising, outreach, content, or other demand-generating activity tomorrow, could we properly serve the additional customers?"

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    Now go through the full diagnostic tree:

    Question 1: Is there a proven market?

    → Does a specific group experience this problem repeatedly? → Is it painful enough that they're already spending money or time trying to solve it? → Can the buyer afford a solution? → Can you…

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    Confirm that it's actually the constraint

    A bad metric isn't necessarily a constraint.

    Use four tests:

    1️⃣ Counterfactual test

    "If this metric improved by 50% tomorrow and everything else stayed the same, how much would the business's final outcome improve?"

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    Part VI: PLAYBOOKS FOR EACH CONSTRAINT ✅

    ❌ Market constraint

    Symptoms → People like the idea but don't pay. → Sales require very long explanations. → Prospects don't feel any urgency. → Almost every conversation ends with a price objection. → Retention is poor because the…

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    ❌ Offer constraint

    The offer isn't just the product.

    It includes: → Customer → Promised outcome → Mechanism → Deliverables → Price → Payment structure → Proof → Risk reversal → Timing → Support → Bonuses → Positioning → Scarcity or urgency

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    ❌ Acquisition constraint

    Hormozi's Core Four divide lead generation based on: 1️⃣ Whether the communication is one-to-one or one-to-many. 2️⃣ Whether the audience knows you or not.

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    ❌ Sales constraint

    Map the entire sales process

    Lead received → First response → Qualification → Appointment → Show-up → Discovery → Offer presentation → Objection handling → Decision → Payment collection → Post-sale reinforcement

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    ❌ Delivery and capacity constraint

    Map delivery as a production line

    Payment → Onboarding → Setup → Core delivery → Quality control → Customer support → Completion → Renewal

    For each stage, record:

    📦 Current throughput Question: How many units per period?

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    ❌ Retention constraint

    A company can look like it's limited by acquisition when the real problem is that customers disappear too quickly.

    Map the retention system Purchase → Onboarding → Activation → First value → Habit or repeat usage → Outcome → Renewal → Expansion

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    ❌ Economics and cash constraint

    Growth is dangerous when the company doesn't understand its economics.

    Main formulas:

    👤 Customer Acquisition Cost CAC = Total acquisition and sales cost ÷ New paying customers

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    ❌ Operations, people, and founder constraint

    Founder bottleneck test

    The founder is probably the constraint when: → Every important decision requires their approval. → Employees wait instead of acting. → Only the founder can close important deals. → Customer exceptions always…

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    ❌ Focus and risk constraint

    Once the main engine works, reduce the risks that could stop it.

    Audit: → Founder or key-person dependency → Customer concentration → Acquisition channel concentration → Supplier concentration → Platform dependency → Regulatory dependency →…

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    Part VII: CHOOSE THE INTERVENTION ✅

    Separate the constraint from the proposed solution

    Example: "Onboarding capacity is limited to 100 customers per month."

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    Part VIII: RUN THE EXPERIMENT ✅

    Experiment rules → Change one important variable at a time. → Use enough volume to distinguish signal from noise. → Run the test for at least one full business cycle. → Define success before seeing the results. → Measure both local and final…

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    🔎 Interpret the result correctly

    1️⃣ The local metric improves and final output improves

    The constraint diagnosis was probably right.

    Scale the intervention.

    2️⃣ The local metric improves but final output doesn't

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    Part IX: SCALE WHAT WORKS ✅

    More, Better, New

    A good practical starting point is: 70% → More 20% → Better 10% → New

    7️⃣0️⃣ %: More Do more of what already works.

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    Part X: STANDARDIZE AND DELEGATE ✅

    Turn the result into an operating asset.

    When an experiment works repeatedly: → Document the exact inputs. → Document the required behaviors. → Define the expected output. → Define quality standards. → Define common exceptions. → Assign an…

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    Part XI: OPERATING CADENCE ✅

    1️⃣ Daily cadence

    Focus on the main actions related to the current constraint.

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    Part XII: USE THE SYSTEM ACROSS MULTIPLE PROJECTS ✅

    Classify each project

    🗺️ Explore There's a plausible market, but no significant evidence of payment.

    Goal: Find out whether the problem and customer are real.

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    Portfolio allocation

    A reasonable adaptation of More, Better, New would be:

    70%: Proven projects and proven growth engines

    20%: Adjacent improvements and promising projects with evidence

    10%: Completely new experiments

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    Part XIII: UNIVERSAL DECISION RULES ✅

    Use these rules when you don't know what to do next.

    No clear painful problem? → Research problems and solve them manually.

    People show interest but don't pay? → Fix the market, outcome, offer, proof, or price.

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    Part XIV: COMMON MISTAKES ✅

    ❌ Optimizing something that isn't the constraint Improving an unconstrained stage rarely changes final output.

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    The complete operating cycle:

    1️⃣ Choose a project.

    2️⃣ Identify its current stage.

    3️⃣ Define one economic goal for the next 90 days.

    4️⃣ Map the entire customer and delivery system.

    5️⃣ Measure volume, conversion, capacity, quality, and economics.

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