A Small Sharp Knife - by Besart Çopa - The Zero State

Every summer afternoon, under the shade of a big orange tree, carefully, meticulously, with a whetstone in his hand, my grandfather, Brahim, would sharpen his small pocket knife. The sole purpose of that small sharp knife was to cut fruit for me and my cousins. And for that extremely focused purpose, my grandfather had the best small sharp knife in the world. The V1 of any product and startup should be similar to that Small Sharp Knife: an extremely focused solution for an extremely focused—and ideally niche— problem, that eventually lets the founder cut into larger markets. Small Sharp Knives are V1s which are easy to explain, easy to understand, and easy to market. Think about the headline on your landing page, the first sentence on your influencer video, and the TLDR of how a friend would describe it. Thanks for reading The Zero State! Subscribe to get more tips on knives and tanks. First-time founders often like to pitch “the tank” version of their product. One of the major conseq

Every summer afternoon, under the shade of a big orange tree, carefully, meticulously, with a whetstone in his hand, my grandfather, Brahim, would sharpen his small pocket knife. The sole purpose of that small sharp knife was to cut fruit for me and my cousins. And for that extremely focused purpose, my grandfather had the best small sharp knife in the world. The V1 of any product and startup should be similar to that Small Sharp Knife: an extremely focused solution for an extremely focused—and ideally niche— problem, that eventually lets the founder cut into larger markets. Small Sharp Knives