Idea Refinement
addyosmani/agent-skills
Guides a conversation that takes a vague idea through divergent and convergent thinking and ends in a markdown one-pager covering scope and assumptions.
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.
MITAuto-check passed
Install Founder Sales
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .claude/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.
Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .claude/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-salesType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .agents/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .agents/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .cursor/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .cursor/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git --path skills/founder-sales--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .gemini/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .gemini/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-salesInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .github/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .github/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founder-sales --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founder-sales .opencode/skills/founder-sales && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founder-sales" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founder-sales into .opencode/skills/founder-sales/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founder-sales", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
founder-sales- GitHub stars
- 1.4k
- Token cost
- ~1.6k tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 934 words
- Files
- 3 (incl. references)
- Skills in repo
- 76
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
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.
- Works in 4 steps: Assess Readiness - Determine if you have… → Refine the Pitch - Help draft and… → Sales Motion Design - Design a… → …
- SKILL.md covers How to Help, Core Principles, Templates & Frameworks and Questions to Help Users, plus 3 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
What it does
Founder Sales is an agent skill from RefoundAI/lenny-skills. 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.
Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `references/artifacts.md` and `references/guest-insights.md`).
The repository describes itself as: 86 product management skills from Lenny's Podcast for Claude Code and AI agents. Hiring, user research, strategy, shipping, and more. The licence is MIT.
Example prompts
- “/founder-sales”
Workflow steps
4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
- Assess Readiness - Determine if you have enough product validation to start direct selling or if you are hiring a salesperson too early.
- Refine the Pitch - Help draft and iterate on the founder-led narrative and value proposition based on subject matter expertise.
- Sales Motion Design - Design a high-volume discovery and closing process tailored for early-stage feedback loops.
- Overcome Psychological Barriers - Address common hurdles like the fear of asking for money or managing introversion in a sales context.
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 13598cc. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Context cost
Founder Sales loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~7.3k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 49 tokens; SKILL.md has 934 words of instructions outside code blocks.
Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.
Safety
Auto-check passed
The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.
Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
SKILL.md
The full file from RefoundAI/lenny-skills at commit 13598cc, republished under its MIT licence (© RefoundAI). 934 words, ~1,590 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/founder-sales/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.- 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
- Assess Readiness - Determine if you have enough product validation to start direct selling or if you are hiring a salesperson too early.
- Refine the Pitch - Help draft and iterate on the founder-led narrative and value proposition based on subject matter expertise.
- Sales Motion Design - Design a high-volume discovery and closing process tailored for early-stage feedback loops.
- 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?"
Transition from technical problem-solving to a direct request for a financial commitment to validate real intent and move the deal forward.
Lead High-Volume Discovery
Raaz Herzberg: "Wiz is a B2B product, the buyer is the CISO, the people, the person that owns basically security for the entire company. So we would have 10 to 15 meetings every day, with potential customers."
Conduct the discovery process yourself at high volume to develop deep customer empathy before attempting to outsource the process to others.
Build Human Trust
From "How today's fastest-growing B2B startups turned their early users into paying customers": "Frederic (my co-founder) and I personally sold them. Really it was looking then in the eye and getting them to trust us that it would work and be valuable. It was hard. A real grind in the beginning."
In the early days, you are selling yourself and your reliability because customers need a high-trust relationship to adopt an unproven product.
Show full SKILL.md (436 more words)Show less
Templates & Frameworks
- Four Signs It's Time to Hire a Full-Time Salesperson (Hiring your early team) - Qualitative and quantitative signals that indicate a founder should transition from founder-led sales to a dedicated salesperson
- Warm Intro via Text Message Technique (Sahil Mansuri) - A tactical process for getting and converting warm introductions using text messages instead of email to dramatically increase response and meeting rates
- Sales Learning Resource List (SEO keywords, career ladders, backlog tools, copywriting, OnlyFans, AMA with Pete Kazanjy and much more) - Pete Kazanjy's recommended books and communities for learning sales as a founder or non-sales professional.
- Founder-Led Sales Readiness Checklist (Raaz Herzberg) - Principles for when founders should be selling themselves versus hiring salespeople
- The Collison Install (Dalton Caldwell) - A tactic for closing early enterprise sales and ensuring product implementation, pioneered by the founders of Stripe.
- The $1 Invoice Test (Jeff Weinstein) - A tactic to help founders cross the psychological barrier of charging customers.
- B2B Startup Maturity Stages / Founder-led Selling Stages (Pete Kazanjy) - A sequential progression model for B2B startups: (1) Validate the problem, (2) Build MVP, (3) Founder sells to 20-30 customers, (4) Hire 2 pioneer sellers and g
- Internal Pessimism / External Optimism (Sahil Mansuri) - Great salespeople (and CEOs) balance internal pessimism—constantly looking for disqualifying signals—with external optimism to avoid wasting time on deals that
See references/artifacts.md for the full list with details.
Questions to Help Users
- "Have you personally closed at least 5 to 10 customers without the help of a dedicated salesperson?"
- "What is the biggest objection you hear when you tell prospects the price of your product?"
- "How many discovery calls are you currently conducting per week?"
- "Are you comfortable asking for a specific financial commitment at the end of a demo?"
- "What specific insights have you gained from sales calls that were not apparent during initial user research?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Hiring sales too early - Delegating sales before you have a repeatable playbook often leads to a failure to understand why customers actually buy or why they churn.
- Playing the feature game - Focusing on a list of product features instead of the founder vision and the prospect high-level business pain results in lower conversion.
- Avoiding the commercial ask - Spending too much time in discovery mode without ever asking for a signed contract prevents you from seeing if anyone will actually pay for the solution.
- Relying only on friendly intros - Failing to test the pitch on cold parties means you are not getting honest feedback on whether the value proposition stands on its own.
Deep Dive
For all 5 sourced insights from 6 guests, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- Evaluating Startup Ideas
- Fundraising
© RefoundAI, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file
Files
SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/founder-sales of RefoundAI/lenny-skills.
- SKILL.md
- references/artifacts.md
- references/guest-insights.md
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 13598cc
Compare with similar skills
Founder Sales next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founder Sales this skillRefoundAI/lenny-skills | 1.4k | — | ~1.6k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Idea Refinementaddyosmani/agent-skills | 104k | 6 repos | ~2k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| HTML PPT Studiolewislulu/html-ppt-skill | 8.6k | 4 repos | ~4.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Agent Browserquran/quran.com-frontend-next | 1.9k | 40 repos | ~3.3k | Automated safety check: Pass | None | |
| Dependency Watchtelegramdesktop/tdesktop | 33k | 1 repos | ~2.2k | Automated safety check: Pass | GPL-3.0 | |
| Perform Tasktelegramdesktop/tdesktop | 33k | 2 repos | ~3k | Automated safety check: Pass | GPL-3.0 |
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Questions about Founder Sales
What does Founder Sales do?
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 Sales is an agent skill from RefoundAI/lenny-skills. 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.
How do I install Founder Sales in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/founder-sales in RefoundAI/lenny-skills) into .claude/skills/founder-sales in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Founder Sales in Codex?
Run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/founder-sales in RefoundAI/lenny-skills) into .agents/skills/founder-sales in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Founder Sales in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founder-sales -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/founder-sales, .gemini/skills/founder-sales, .github/skills/founder-sales and .opencode/skills/founder-sales in your project.
What does Founder Sales need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Founder Sales is instructions for the agent only.
Does Founder Sales access the network?
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is Founder Sales safe to install?
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
What licence does Founder Sales use?
Founder Sales is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
How many tokens does Founder Sales use?
About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 5.7k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.
What are the alternatives to Founder Sales?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Founder Sales: Idea Refinement (addyosmani/agent-skills, 104k stars), HTML PPT Studio (lewislulu/html-ppt-skill, 8.6k stars), Agent Browser (quran/quran.com-frontend-next, 1.9k stars) and Dependency Watch (telegramdesktop/tdesktop, 33k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Founder Sales?
RefoundAI (a GitHub organization) maintains it in RefoundAI/lenny-skills, which has 1,382 GitHub stars. The repository holds 76 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 16, 2026.
Source: RefoundAI/lenny-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.