Founder X
Put 20 founder perspectives to work on your next business decision.
Founder X applies documented thinking from 20 founders to your business decisions. It asks questions, selects relevant perspectives and gives a reasoned verdict with next steps. Download the free skill below and start with one decision. Recommendations are AI-generated applications of the source material.
Give your decision a tougher review
Should you raise money, cut features, hire or slow down? Advice changes with your market, stage, cash and goals.
Founder X brings different founder perspectives into that discussion. It draws on a library of 20 profiles, then selects the three to five most relevant to your situation. You get the reasoning behind each view, the disagreement and a recommendation tied to your facts.
The principles inside Founder X
These are selected lenses from the included profiles. Each profile also contains frameworks, source references, context and blind spots.
| Founder | Principle to put to work |
|---|---|
| Paul Graham | Build something people want; earn early users through hands-on work. |
| Sam Altman | Make a small group love the product before pushing growth. |
| Peter Thiel | Find a meaningful difference and a small market you can own. |
| Jeff Bezos | Work backward from customers; distinguish reversible and irreversible decisions. |
| Elon Musk | Question assumptions; reason from fundamental constraints and actual costs. |
| Steve Jobs | Focus the product and protect the quality of the customer experience. |
| Bill Gates | Understand the platform and prepare for major technology shifts. |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Learn through experiments while keeping long-term product bets in view. |
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| Founder | Principle to put to work |
|---|---|
| Reid Hoffman | Prioritise scaling speed when market conditions make speed a lasting advantage. |
| Ben Horowitz | Face difficult decisions; make culture visible through everyday actions. |
| Marc Andreessen | Establish product-market fit before accelerating growth. |
| Brian Chesky | Design an excellent experience and stay close to core product details. |
| Patrick Collison | Move quickly while maintaining craft and reliability. |
| Jensen Huang | Explore markets your technology could create; examine underlying assumptions. |
| Reed Hastings | Give capable people enough context to make decisions. |
| Phil Knight | Build belief in the brand while managing growth's cash pressures. |
| Ray Dalio | Seek disagreement, examine mistakes and turn lessons into explicit principles. |
| Naval Ravikant | Combine specific knowledge, ownership and leverage to multiply your effort. |
| Jason Fried | Keep scope and headcount deliberate; protect profit and independence. |
| Sara Blakely | Start with a real frustration, sell directly and test ideas resourcefully. |
The useful part is the Disagreement
Hoffman and Fried illustrate it. Hoffman prioritises speed when reaching scale creates a durable advantage. Fried prioritises a manageable, profitable business with independence.
Founder X asks which conditions apply: could a competitor capture most of the market, do customers already want the product, and what kind of company do you want to run? It then explains which approach fits. When the evidence supports agreement, it should say so.
Download it and bring one decision
Download Founder X: the original skill package is attached below.
- In Claude, open Customize, then Skills. Upload the package and enable Founder X. If your organisation restricts custom skills, ask its administrator.
- Start a chat with the prompt below. Share only information you are comfortable giving your AI provider.
- Answer the follow-up questions. Look for relevant founder perspectives, sources, a deciding factor and concrete next actions.
The skill is free. Your assistant's own usage limits still apply.
Use Founder X to review this decision.
Business: [what I sell]
Customer: [who buys it]
Stage and evidence: [sales, usage or customer feedback]
Decision: [the choice I face]
Constraints and goals: [time, budget, team and desired outcome]
Ask the questions that would change your advice. Choose the relevant founder perspectives, explain where they agree or disagree, cite the source frameworks and recommend next steps. Separate documented principles from your interpretation.What this changes
You leave with competing explanations, the fact that decides between them and a next action to test. Check that action against real customer evidence and your business constraints before committing.
Sources and setup: The attached package contains the founder references, question bank and disagreement guide. For Claude's current upload instructions, see Use skills in Claude.
