Andrew Wilkinson

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Make it easy for sellers

  Negotiation

  A buyer can often pay a lower price if they offer a fast, painless, and certain closing process compared to traditional buyers.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Berkshire Hathaway Of The Internet, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

• Trust is a shortcut

  Capital allocation

  Acquiring businesses from people with sterling reputations and mutual connections reduces the need for complex legal and financial vetting.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Berkshire Hathaway Of The Internet, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

• Founder-friendly acquisition

  Brand

  Position the buying process as a way to protect the staff and the long-term health of the business rather than a 'pump and dump' scheme.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Berkshire Hathaway Of The Internet, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

• Look for the bias toward action

  Hiring

  Identify potential partners or hires by how quickly they move from brainstorming to sending concrete proposals and ideas.

  Supporting quotes

  • “There was, I told them, a big opportunity for someone to build an agency that could build legions of fans around local businesses by telling their stories.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Humanize the business through stories

  Marketing

  Build a loyal customer base by showcasing the history, operations, and the specific effort that goes into products.

  Supporting quotes

  • “There was, I told them, a big opportunity for someone to build an agency that could build legions of fans around local businesses by telling their stories.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Solve personal friction with automation

  Productivity

  Identify small, repetitive tasks that cause personal annoyance and use AI agents to handle them to save time and mental energy.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Never call a restaurant again, 2025  (opens in a new tab)

• Aggressive Inbox Filtering

  Focus

  Protect your attention by ensuring only essential communications reach your primary inbox, automatically archiving the majority of low-value noise.

  Supporting quotes

  • “And no matter how many admin people we hire, the same thing always seems to happen. Parkinson's Law kicks in: "Work expands so as to fill the resources available for its completion."”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Specialize to attract premium clients

  Focus

  Avoid being a generalist who offers every service; focus on one specific niche to be perceived as an expert who can command higher rates.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Fallacy Of Hoop Jumping, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

• Learn the Language of Money

  Learning

  Mastering accounting is essential for any founder because it exposes the inner workings of business and opens doors to investing.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Fire In A Crowded Forest, 2018  (opens in a new tab)

• Enforce a Cooling Period

  Productivity

  Take a break of at least 20 minutes when a conflict becomes too heated to allow stress hormones to clear from the system.

  Supporting quotes

  • “When we're doing fight recovery, we now both don these little finger-worn sensors and set an alarm so they beep if either of our heart rates go over 100 bpm”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Stop performing for others

  Mindset

  Using social skills to mask internal misery is a draining business skill that leads to burnout and inauthenticity.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source I Hired A Shrink To 360 Review My Life, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Rewire fear through exposure

  Mindset

  One can update the brain's fear response by experiencing a feared situation while maintaining a calm physical state.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Rewriting Fear, 2026  (opens in a new tab)

• Maintain a Maker's Outlet

  Productivity

  Founders should maintain individual creative projects to avoid burnout and reconnect with the joy of building things directly.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Miss Kicking The Ball, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Separate Growth from Personal Pain

  Management

  Scaling a business only causes pain if the founder insists on doing everything themselves; systems and delegation remove the friction.

  Supporting quotes

  • “I associated more people with more pain. More management headaches. More accounting. More office space. I didn't want the all the stress.”

    “I've built systems and hired great people and focused on avoiding things I don't like , which has allowed me completely separate growth and pain.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Acknowledge professional proxies

  Management

  Understand that a team and assistants can mask personal disorganization, which may lead to a collapse in personal life where those supports don't exist.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source I Spent 25 Years Treating The Wrong Thing, 2026  (opens in a new tab)

• Scratch your own itch

  Finding ideas

  Build products that solve your own problems to ensure a deep understanding of the market and user needs without needing to pivot.

  Supporting quotes

  • “We kept our team down to three until right before launch so we could make quick decisions and keep communication straightforward.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Contrast with the industry standard

  Marketing

  To stand out in a crowded market, intentionally choose aesthetics and tones that are the opposite of the boring industry norms.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Slacks 2 8 Billion Dollar Secret Sauce, 2019  (opens in a new tab)

• Humanize the utility

  Brand

  Transform a functional tool into a personality that users can care about through playful copy and delightful interactions.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Slacks 2 8 Billion Dollar Secret Sauce, 2019  (opens in a new tab)

• Solve Real Friction for Friends

  Finding ideas

  Building tools to fix messy, manual processes for existing successful businesses often leads to viable new product ideas.

  Supporting quotes

  • “They had set up their membership systems strewn together using a ramshackle bunch of software. WordPress hacked together with plug-ins funneling into a PayPal account, with some MailChimp sprinkled in for good measure.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Build Non-Negotiable Social Rituals

  Life

  Combat isolation by creating structured, recurring habits like sports groups or lunch clubs where status and bragging are explicitly banned.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Are you guys hanging out without me?, 2026  (opens in a new tab)