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Get Started Free →refoundai/founder-sales
Help users master the transition from product development to active selling by leveraging their unique status as founders to bridge the trust gap and define a scalable sales motion.
Passed 20 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 16 of 23 without it.
and 3 more in the full report
5 fixed15 passed either way2 still failing1 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 5 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
I keep running product demos for our new enterprise software, but whenever the call reaches the end, I struggle to transition from discussing features to asking for a signed contract and financial commitment. Could you draft a conversation framework and pitch strategy that helps me leverage my role as founder to confidently make the commercial ask?
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| Recommends framing the founder's personal authority and vision as the primary driver of trust and product value when closing. | Passed | Passed |
| Includes direct explicit phrasing asking what specific steps or commitments are needed to get started immediately. | Missed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
Master the art of personally selling your product to build trust and find product-market fit.
Help the user with founder-led sales using insights from 6 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.
Jen Abel: "And founder led sales is really, really, really important because in the very, very, very early days, when there is no brand equity, when there is no marketing engine running, when there is limited to no reference ability, the founder is the product, right? Because the product is still, could be abstract, could be an MVP or in it's really early formation. So the founder is the product."
Use your unique subject matter expertise and novel vision as the primary driver for sales because early products cannot yet sell themselves on features alone.
Pete Kazanjy: "The thing that I just like to encourage founders and product managers and what have you is just don't be afraid of sales. There's a lot of people out there who would love to tell you a story that it's magical or like, "Oh, you've got to be a born seller," things like that and it's really not."
View sales as a learnable, operational discipline consisting of measurable behaviors rather than an innate talent or magical gift.
Jason M Lemkin: "Work up your courage, and find how to ask for next steps and money. What would it take, Lenny? How can we get going on Riverside? What would it take?"
Transition from technical problem-solving to a direct request for a financial commitment to validate real intent and move the deal forward.
Raaz Herzberg: "Wiz is a B2B product, the buyer is the CISO, the people, the person that owns basically security for the entire company. So we would have 10 to 15 meetings every day, with potential customers."
Conduct the discovery process yourself at high volume to develop deep customer empathy before attempting to outsource the process to others.
From "How today's fastest-growing B2B startups turned their early users into paying customers": "Frederic (my co-founder) and I personally sold them. Really it was looking then in the eye and getting them to trust us that it would work and be valuable. It was hard. A real grind in the beginning."
In the early days, you are selling yourself and your reliability because customers need a high-trust relationship to adopt an unproven product.
test cases passed, vs 16 / 23 without
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