You say “crushing it.” You mean “my mom liked the logo.” You say “we have PMF.” You mean “three people haven’t churned yet.” Founders don’t lie on purpose, they just talk themselves into believing the softest possible version of the truth, one buzzword at a time. And every time you do it, you buy yourself another week of not fixing the thing that’s actually broken.

The Founderspeak Decoder is your pocket translation guide for seven of the most common lies founders tell themselves: “crushing it,” “PMF,” “users love it,” “we’re building a platform,” “we just need more marketing,” “acceptable churn,” and “great feedback.” For each one, you get the real translation, the damage report on what believing it is costing you, and a concrete fix, diagnostic questions, frameworks, and thresholds you can apply to your own product this week.

This is for you if you catch yourself narrating good news that isn’t backed by a number. If your team nods along in meetings instead of asking the hard question. If you’ve ever said “our churn is acceptable for our stage” without knowing what “acceptable” actually means.

Walk away with seven specific self-checks, a set of diagnostic questions for each phrase, and AJ’s blunt wake-up call for every excuse in the book. No fluff. Just the truth you’ve been talking around.