Article · 8 min read

The Collison Installation

KP · This is KP Free Intermediate

A short explainer of the Stripe tactic Paul Graham named after the Collison brothers: instead of emailing a signup link, they said give me your laptop and set the product up on the spot. It turns an abstract idea into one concrete move you can copy this week. It also captures what you gain by being in the room, the hesitations and questions that reveal what to fix.

  • Do the setup for your first users in person rather than sending instructions.
  • Watching someone use your product live surfaces problems no funnel reveals.
  • Removing all onboarding friction by hand is a small-company superpower.
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The question it answers

  1. Isn't doing things that don't scale a waste of time, shouldn't I automate from day one?

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