George Fahmy
Self-taught, freelancing, GUC
Liquidity Network, Thndr
Levelset
Stakpak
Vercel
Managed Kubernetes, any cloud or on-prem
PaaS builder
Open-source config generator (CUE)
AI DevOps IDE for visual infrastructure building
Open-source agent that runs production
“Build it and they’ll come.”
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Product–market fit
Distribution
01 & 02
Who is it for? What pain does it solve?
B2B services
2 years, to bootstrap and do customer discovery
| Product | What it was | Why we pivoted |
|---|---|---|
| guku.io · 2021 | Managed Kubernetes, any cloud or on-prem | EKS Anywhere and Google Anthos entered the MENA region |
| guku.io · 2022 | PaaS builder | Required root access to the customer’s cloud account |
| DevX · 2022 | Configs from app abstractions (CUE) | Teams didn’t customize their platforms; they needed us to build them |
| histudio.ai · 2023 | AI DevOps IDE, visual infrastructure building | Visual building was slow; the terminal is a more natural interface for infra tasks |
| Stakpak agent · 2024 | Open-source agent that runs production | Acquired by Vercel |
| Site | Headline |
|---|---|
| guku.io · 2021–2022 | Increase Developer Productivity, Build Internal Developer Platform Quickly |
| devx.stakpak.dev · 2022 | Generating, validating & sharing all your configurations, powered by CUE |
| histudio.ai · 2023 | AI DevOps IDE |
| stakpak.dev (agent) · 2024 | Ship your code, on autopilot |
Marginal value
Small budgets, hard to show ROI
Per seat
e.g. [$__ / dev / month]
Bigger budgets
Efficiency or security (security is hard to sell)
Per usage
e.g. [$__ / cluster / month]
End value
Questionable unit economics
Per outcome
Per token
e.g. [$__ / 1M tokens]
For [who] who [painful problem], [product] is a [category] that [key value]. Unlike [alternative], we [differentiator].
Then fill the YC application: ycombinator.com/apply
03
How will they buy, and how much will they pay?
$100 / yr
1,000,000 customers
$1K / yr
100,000
$10K / yr
10,000
$100K / yr
1,000
$1M / yr
100
Self-serve · PLG
Sales-led · SLG
04
How will you find customers?
One piece, many channels
+
The founder reaches out
One piece of content, distributed on many channels
The founder reaches out
Content makes outreach easier
Search
Content
Signal
Conversation
“DevOps for AI”
Kept seeing our content
Sustained usage, multiple people
We reach out
“DevOps for AI”
Kept seeing our content
Sustained usage, multiple people
We reach out
Content
YouTubeLinkedInGoogle blog postsReddit posts6+ months
| ICP | Where they are |
|---|---|
| Developers | GitHub, Reddit, Hacker News, docs, talks |
| DevOps teams | Conferences, communities, open source |
| CEOs | LinkedIn, referrals, warm intros |
| Enterprises | Partners, PE / VC portfolios, referrals |
Launch.
Again and again.
Build for the world.
Be Careful Who You Listen To
Have they built a company, or worked in an early-stage startup?
01 Building a product is easy. GTM is harder.
02 Services can fund discovery, but they aren’t a startup.
03 Your category caps your price.
04 Deal size decides the motion.
05 Find where your ICP is. Test cheaply, then focus.
06 Let usage tell you who to call.
07 Launch again and again.
| Customers | The Mom Test (Rob Fitzpatrick) |
| Markets | Crossing the Chasm (Geoffrey Moore) · Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne) · Zero to One (Peter Thiel) |
| Product | The Lean Startup (Eric Ries) · Escaping the Build Trap (Melissa Perri) |
| Sales | Never Split the Difference (Chris Voss) |
| Founders | Founders at Work (Jessica Livingston) |
Short, usable the next day
For [who] who [painful problem], [product] is a [category] that [key value]. Unlike [alternative], we [differentiator].
Terms we used
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| GTM | Go-to-market: how a product reaches paying customers |
| Market | The people or companies who have the problem and could pay to solve it |
| Distribution | How the product reaches customers: how they buy (motion) and where you find them (channels) |
| PMF | Product–market fit: a specific group keeps using it, paying for it and telling others |
| ICP | Ideal customer profile: the customer who gets the most value and is easiest to win |
| B2B / B2C | Selling to businesses vs. selling to consumers |
| Customer discovery | Talking to potential customers to learn their problems, before and while building |
| Pivot | Changing what you build or who it’s for, keeping the team and what you learned |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ARR | Annual recurring revenue: what subscriptions bring in per year |
| ACV | Annual contract value: what one customer pays per year |
| LTV | Lifetime value: total revenue (or gross profit) from one customer over the whole relationship |
| CAC | Customer acquisition cost: sales and marketing spend to win one customer |
| TAM | Total addressable market: yearly revenue if every possible customer bought |
| Unit economics | Revenue vs. cost for one unit (a customer, a seat, a token) |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Motion | How customers discover, try and buy your product |
| PLG | Product-led growth: users sign up and pay on their own; the product sells itself |
| SLG | Sales-led growth: a sales team finds, demos and closes each deal |
| PLS | Product-led sales: users adopt first, then sales reaches out to the companies using it |
| Founder-led sales | The founder sells directly, before there is a sales team |
| Pricing model | How you charge: per seat, per usage, per token, or per outcome |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Channel | A route to reach customers: content, ads, outbound, events, partners |
| Positioning | What you are, who it’s for, and why it beats the alternatives |
| Category | The bucket buyers put you in; it sets your alternatives and price anchor |
| Inbound / outbound | Customers come to you (content, search) vs. you reach out (cold email, LinkedIn) |
| Warm intro | An introduction from someone the buyer already trusts |
| Growth loop | A cycle where each turn brings in the next; funnels end, loops compound |
| Sales list | Target companies and contacts that match your ICP, used for outbound |
| Usage signal | Product usage that suggests a company is ready to talk, e.g. several people using it for weeks |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bootstrapping | Funding the company from revenue instead of investors |
| VC | Venture capital: investors who fund startups for equity, expecting a few huge outcomes |
| Venture scale vs lifestyle | A very large outcome with outside capital vs. a profitable business you own and run |
| Design partner | An early customer who uses the product and shapes it, often for early access or a discount |
| Accelerator | A program offering small funding, mentoring and a network for equity (e.g. YC) |