What's up, it's Zayd.

After two appointment-setting agencies, one successful pivot, and now scaling Valley, I've collected some lessons that have completely transformed how I build companies. Not because I'm particularly wise—mostly because I've made enough mistakes to fill a "What Not To Do" manual. So, today I’m being brave and sharing 8 lessons that those (sometimes painful) experiences taught me.

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Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week.

• 25 Early-stage sales learnings - Jen Abel (link)

• Founders: Don’t give discounts (link)

• 5 important learnings from the founder of Default (link)

• The winning proof-point formula (link)

• How to generate demand on autopilot (link)

• Market segmentation insights for b2b startups (link)

The Hard-Won Lessons That Changed Everything

The Question Obsession

Here's something that took me embarrassingly long to learn: if you know the right question to ask, finding the answer is easy. I spend 90% of my time here now.

When we were building Valley's AI engine, my first instinct was to jump straight to "how do we automate outbound?"

Classic founder move, right?

Wrong question entirely.

Instead, we asked "what would the world's best SDR do if they had unlimited time?" Turns out, that question unlocked everything.

They'd research deeply, personalize perfectly, and time their outreach impeccably. So that's what we built Valley to do.

The Inversion Superpower

Everyone asks "how can we succeed?" That's like asking "what should I eat?"—too many possible answers to be useful.

Try asking "what will guarantee we don't succeed?" Much shorter list. Much clearer answers.

It's like having a cheat code for decision-making. When we were debating features for V3, we didn't ask "what should we build?" We asked "what would make this release absolutely useless to our customers?"

Saved us months of building the wrong things.

The Hill Strategy

Before having any emotional response to a challenge (and there are many when building a company), I ask myself "is this a small, medium, or big hill for me?"

If it's small or medium, move on. Save your energy. If it's a big hill... then it's time to channel your inner Rocky Balboa.

This has saved me countless hours of energy that would've been wasted on things that ultimately didn't matter. Though I'll admit, sometimes deciding which hills are big takes some practice.

And therapy.

Probably mostly therapy.

The Four Non-Negotiables

Want to know the fastest way to waste two years of your life? Build something without:

• A clear "why now"

• 10x better product

• Hair-on-fire problem

• Large market

You might still raise money—investors are surprisingly good at being convinced by passionate founders (guilty as charged). But without these four things, you're just taking the scenic route to a pivot.

We learned this one the hard way with Fish. Great idea, great team, missing several of these critical pieces. Valley checked all four boxes, and the difference has been night and day.

The People Factor

Here's a fun one: give time to people with skill gaps, not behavior gaps. Someone can learn new skills—changing behaviors is like trying to teach a cat to fetch. Possible? Maybe. Worth the effort? Rarely.

There's never a good time to replace someone—it will always slow down a project or delay a launch. Your intuition will say "they're good enough and we need the extra hands." Trust me, start recruiting anyway. I've never once regretted moving too quickly on this front.

The Seasonal Truth

Organizations are built in good times. Teams are built in bad times. I wrote a whole letter on this.

Organizations are a science—a structured machine that executes with magical focus and speed.

Teams are an art—an expression of empathy, emotion, relationships, and leadership.

It's like the difference between building a house (organizations) and creating a home (teams). One needs perfect measurements and processes. The other needs heart and soul.

The Creator Paradox

Here's something that keeps me up at night: 99 out of 100 people are executors—not creators. Nothing wrong with that, but in early-stage companies, you need creators first.

Find creators for early stage, then let them hire executors. We've built Valley's team this way, and while it makes recruiting harder, it makes building easier.

The Less is More Manifesto

Do as many things as possible, one at a time. Most problems are solved by subtraction, not addition. It's counterintuitive, but the best solutions often involve removing things rather than adding them.

Our product roadmap focuses on just three things:

• Customer feedback (what they're actually asking for)

• Thesis on the market (where things are heading)

• Competition (table stakes features we can't ignore)

Everything else is noise until these are handled.

The funny thing about these lessons? None of them came from books or mentors (though I've read and listened to plenty). They came from real experiences, failures, and occasionally stumbling into success while building Valley. They guide every decision we make now, from product development to team building.

Disclaimer: I'm still learning new ones every day. Most of them still…the hard way. Ask me again in a year, and I'll probably have an entirely different list. That's the fun part about this whole building-a-company thing—you never really stop learning.

How I Can Help?

Let me book sales calls for you while you contemplate which hills are worth dying on. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.