Essential Founder Insights with Andrew Hoag

Founder Journey Overview

Andrew Hoag, co-founder and CEO of Workstation joined Christian Marquez, CEO and founder of Finstrat Management on an episode of The Innovators and Investors podcast

Andrew is on his third entrepreneurial journey, after two prior exits, and spoke about many topics including his founders journey, key lessons and advice for others.

Core Philosophy: Bias for Action

The most critical lesson Andrew emphasizes is maintaining a bias for action and avoiding analysis paralysis. Following Steve Blank's principle that "all the information is outside the building," founders must constantly get market feedback.

Nothing is real until you receive validation from actual customers. Founders naturally gravitate toward product development because it's comfortable, but success requires the discipline to balance product work with go-to-market activities and step outside your comfort zone daily.

Getting Real Customer Feedback

The real signal comes from usage, not statements of interest. Andrew learned this at Teampay when they launched to a waitlist of peers and saw zero engagement after four months. The breakthrough came when they found a customer who gave real feedback and, critically, paid for the product. Skin in the game matters tremendously. The key principle is to find customers willing to pay and run experiments to discover where your product truly fits.

Go-to-Market as Experimentation

Treat go-to-market as a series of structured experiments. Maintain a spreadsheet where each row represents one experiment combining target customers, problems, and product features. Run several experiments in parallel, observe where the market responds, then double down on what works.

Decision-Making Framework

Understanding which decisions are one-way versus two-way doors is essential. One-way doors such as taking an investor onto your board, require you to slow down and seek advice. Two-way doors, like launching products, can be rolled back, so move fast and iterate.

Being a founder involves tens of thousands of small decisions that compound over time. Give yourself permission to make mistakes because you often learn the most from them.

Working with Investors

Running a disciplined fundraising process with clear narrative is essential; process and narrative give founders far more control than they expect. Investors who have been founders or operators themselves bring empathy and real experience.

Watch the Full Episode Here: