Difficult topic, but found it very valuable: https://peterattiamd.com/bjmiller/

Here is a great twitter thread from Gavin Baker at Atreides Management that may help with how to think about it...but don't expect a straight answer, because there is no straight answer

https://twitter.com/GavinSBaker/status/1255215997730066435

"...the irresistible force of the largest stimulus ever vs. the immovable object of the sharpest economic slowdown in history..."

Thanks for the link, checking it out now :)

Also helps to learn from great investors directly

Howard Marks - https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos

Berkshire Annual Letters (Warren Buffet & Charlie Munger) - https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

That's awesome! Thanks!

Farnam Street - https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Weekly on Sundays

I think it's applicability first, then trust second.

Applicability - The platform has to get me to some goal faster, easier, better than if I got at it alone. The goal can be anything. Ex. If I need to build messaging within my app I'll use Twilio, if I need distribution/users, I'll list on iOS/Android.

Trust - It's all the signal that platform has staying power. Great APIs and docs means they care and are investing in developers, years in existence, community, amount of end users, pass history of doing what they say relative to roadmap, etc. I think it's weighing all these tings before you start to build.

maybe related, I think this is the best article on "platform" , Marc Andreessen 2007 - https://pmarchive.com/three_kinds_of_platforms_you_meet_on_t...

I used to work outside of tech and noticed that people in other areas think about it more. We (tech) default to systems for recurring things like what to wear but I remember more creative fields like agencies and media seemed to think about this a lot. Walk through a creative agency office and you can see that everyone makes an effort each day. Maybe there will be some more feedback from those people. Just a thought.

As for me, system all the way. 6 t-shirts, 3 jeans, jacket when needed.

In general and from my experience, I'd say integrations are more effective at increasing retention than they are at increasing sales.

It's not that integrations aren't valuable to new users, it's just that users will be initially be buying for your core value, as oppose to an integration that is by definition not core.

Yeah, if 2 companies are equal then I suppose the one having Zapier will be better, but that doesn't seem sustainable :)

Once users have spent time in your app, they will start adding integrations that will make your app "stickier" and hopefully increase retention.

Thanks for the feedback. It seems as though Zapier has taken over the startup scene which just makes me wonder its value to us.

The ability to never have to remember or update any password ever again. Kind of like Okta for the consumer I suppose.

I went through something similar. I'm a cofounder at a small startup and had a difficult health scare with myself, my wife and both kids, all around the same time.

Ceritnaly no right answer, and it was hell at the time, but looking back, here's a few things:

My cofounder took care of my many shortcomings during that time, no questions asked. He also has a family (which may help in that mutual understanding) but he'd get tasks with no context and say "don't worry, I'm on it" and it just got done. I hope you can get to this point with your other founders.

Your startup is more resilient than you think. I missed many things during that time, respond badly to emails, missed calls and we came out the other end alive. I realized we weren't as fragile as I thought. Ironically some of those missed calls and poor emails still turned into customers. Your startup will be able to handle you making mistakes and being less involved when needed.

I took me a long time to get back to "normal". It felt like chaos for almost 9 months and at some point, it may feel like the chaos will never end. You need to know that it will get better and you will begin to feel sane, even though it may take a while.

This may controversial, but the family and startup are not mutually exclusive, so I never think of it in terms of balance. The fact that you started a company means you're probably happier there than at a large company, being happier makes you a better husband and father and family unit, and that family unit will be your support through the ups and downs of building a company.

Good luck, you can do it.

+1, would love to know as well what you did to fix your joints