# founder-sales

A skill that walks a founder through selling the product themselves: readiness check, pitch work, discovery calls and asking for money.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 2700 installs · ★ 1434
- Author: RefoundAI
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/founder-sales

## What it does

The skill covers founder-led sales step by step. It assesses whether you have enough product validation to sell directly or are hiring a salesperson too early, helps draft and iterate the founder narrative and value proposition, and designs a high-volume discovery and closing process tuned for early feedback loops. A separate section handles the psychological side: fear of asking for money, introversion in a sales conversation.

Underneath sit principles drawn from Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter: founder status as the main driver when there is no brand equity yet, sales as a learnable discipline rather than a born talent, the direct financial ask, running discovery yourself at volume, and trust built face to face. Frameworks include four signs it is time to hire a full-time salesperson, warm intros over text, a founder-led sales readiness checklist, the $1 invoice test, and B2B startup maturity stages. The full artifact list lives in `references/artifacts.md`, guest breakdowns in `references/guest-insights.md`.

You also get self-check questions and a list of common mistakes: hiring sales too early, playing the feature game, staying in discovery mode without ever asking for a signature, relying only on friendly intros. If you have not closed a deal yourself yet, expect the skill to push you back to discovery before any contract talk.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/founder-sales/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills --path skills/founder-sales
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- decide whether to hire a salesperson or keep selling yourself
- draft and sharpen the founder pitch and value proposition
- design a discovery and closing process for early-stage deals
- get past the fear of quoting a price and asking for money
- test whether the pitch holds up with cold prospects, not just warm intros

## Example prompts
- Help me figure out if I should sell myself or hire a salesperson
- Review my founder pitch and tell me what to rewrite
- Build a plan and question list for this week's discovery calls

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 17094a4fd2294b55.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 17094a4fd2294b55
```text
---
name: founder-sales
description: 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.
---

# Founder-Led Sales

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.

## How to Help

1. **Assess Readiness** - Determine if you have enough product validation to start direct selling or if you are hiring a salesperson too early.
2. **Refine the Pitch** - Help draft and iterate on the founder-led narrative and value proposition based on subject matter expertise.
3. **Sales Motion Design** - Design a high-volume discovery and closing process tailored for early-stage feedback loops.
4. **Overcome Psychological Barriers** - Address common hurdles like the fear of asking for money or managing introversion in a sales context.

## Core Principles

### Leverage Founder Status
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.

### Treat Sales as a Discipline
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.

### Make the Direct Financial Ask
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?"
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 17094a4fd2294b55

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First 2303 of 6361 bytes. © RefoundAI · MIT · https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md

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