Blog•Oct 19, 2025
20VC Newsletter - 19th October 2025
The 20VC newsletter (Oct. 19, 2025) distills three podcast episodes featuring Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon‑Brookes, investors Rory O’Driscoll, Jason Lemkin and Roger Ehrenberg, and Warp CEO Zach Lloyd, highlighting how AI will expand software development, reshape pricing models, and leave current AI startups with weak moats. Key takeaways include a likely shift from per‑seat pricing toward value‑or‑consumption hybrids, the importance of concentrated conviction investing and pro‑rata follow‑ons, and founder retention as a principal downside risk even at billion‑dollar outcomes. The implications for businesses and investors are clear: incumbents and startups both have paths to win in AI, pricing and go‑to‑market strategies must evolve, and venture returns hinge on founder loyalty and operationalizing firm value.
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 19, 2025
Startups Funding Peers: Warning Sign of a Bubble
Startups investing in other startups... is this peak bubble behavior? https://t.co/1paenKbhQh
By CJ Gustafson
Social•Oct 18, 2025
AI Funding Surge Leaves Traditional SaaS Exits Stalled
🤔 Who Will Buy The SaaS Companies? We’re sitting on a problem many don’t want to talk about: the traditional SaaS exit playbook is breaking down. Even for very good SaaS companies For years, it was predictable. Build to $20M-$50M...
By Jason Lemkin
News•Oct 19, 2025
E635 | EUCVC Summit 2025: Francesco Di Lorenzo, Copenhagen Business School: Nordic CVC Insights
The EUVC podcast recap highlights four recent summit episodes, with the lead focus on Francesco Di Lorenzo’s Nordic CVC insights, while also covering Kristaps Ronis’s take on structured secondaries, Alper Oner’s Turkish gaming success story, and Seb Agertoft’s founder‑coaching perspective. Across the episodes, listeners learn...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Oct 19, 2025
Get Pre‑Screened Dealflow Directly on Our Waistlist
VCs: Want more dealflow? With deals pre-screened, selected, and analyzed for you? Get on our waistlist here -> https://t.co/t0woGMPLz6 https://t.co/LWckPofGUm
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 18, 2025
Solo Founder Sells $144K ARR CAD SaaS for $740K
These are the kinds of businesses you never hear about but they print money. Now live on @acquiredotcom: CAD + calculation SaaS for building engineers. > $144K ARR > $140K profit > Solo founder > Asking: $740K Full listing: https://t.co/WAQyftmp01 https://t.co/h9PkXiqvj7
By Andrew Gazdecki
News•Oct 18, 2025
E634 | EUCVC Summit 2025: Christian Tang (Acme) & Claus Gregersen (Augustinus Fabrikker): Global Ambition in an Age of Sovereignty
The EUVC podcast episode E634 explores how European venture capitalists can maintain global ambitions amid rising sovereign‑first regulations, with insights from Christian Tang of Acme and Claus Gregersen of Augustinus Fabrikker on cross‑border investing, deal structuring, and founder strategies in...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Oct 18, 2025
Startups Use Proxy Metrics to Fake Early Traction
SHOWING TRACTION BEFORE YOU HAVE TRACTION Everybody knows that startups thrive when they have “real” traction — that is revenue, active users, great retention curves, and a fast growth rate. However, startups also find themselves in a catch-22 where they're not...
By Andrew Chen
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Choose the Right Location for Your AI Agents
It’s 9:30 AM. Do you know where your agent is? As we enter the era of agentic AI, this is an increasingly important question. ChatGPT launched the consumer use of AI, compressing all of human knowledge into a single model....
By Tomasz Tunguz
Podcast•Oct 17, 2025•1h 13m
20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why...
In this episode, host Harry Stebbings talks with Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp, about the startup’s rapid growth—adding $1M ARR each week—and its battle against AI coding assistants like OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini. Lloyd explains...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Social•Oct 18, 2025
Treat Founder Attention Like Cash: Say No
Founders: if it’s not a top priority, it’s a "no". If it might be later, it’s still a "no" for now. Protect your attention like cash. That’s how you win.
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 17, 2025
B2B Influencer Fees Need Tiered Pricing, Not Flat Rates
Dear CMO: Thanks again for offering me $800 to write 10 X and LinkedIn posts for you as a “B2B Influencer”! I do think these programs make sense. (If and until algos kill them.) Every B2B marketer seems to think...
By Jason Lemkin
News•Oct 17, 2025
E633 | EUCVC Summit 2025: Anne C. Fleischer (Novo Nordisk) & Henrijette Richter (Sofinnova Partners): Innovation in Health
The post previews the EUCVC Summit 2025 episode featuring Anne C. Fleischer (Novo Nordisk) and Henrijette Richter (Sofinnova Partners) on health‑sector innovation, and then recaps three recent EUVC podcast episodes that dive into structured secondaries in venture, a Turkish gaming...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Oct 19, 2025
Speed Is a Feature of the Best
Just sent a deal to a dear friend and mentor who is one of the greatest of our time. Sent at 8:12AM PST and response provided to me and founder by 8:18AM. Speed is a feature of the best.
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 17, 2025
AI Success Lies in Resegmenting, Not Creating New Categories
Most AI products aren’t creating new categories. They’re resegmenting existing ones. Understanding the difference shapes everything about how you build, market, and scale. Resegmentation means taking a job people already understand and making it faster, clearer, or more accessible. Category creation means...
By Hiten Shah
Podcast•Oct 16, 2025•49 min
Keith Rabois: Israel, OpenAI, Opendoor, and DOGE
Keith Rabois argues that the U.S. is on the cusp of a new AI‑driven economic expansion that could boost GDP growth to around 5%, emphasizing the rise of sovereign AI projects and the nation’s ability to grow out of debt....
By a16z Podcast
Social•Oct 18, 2025
Originality Gives Innovators Edge Over Mere Copycats
It's easier to innovate when you're the original of something. People copying you can only copy a snapshot of your current state. They don't know which aspects of the snapshot are essential and which are random things you'd been about...
By Paul Graham
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Small SaaS Apps Can Yield Real Exits
Tom Ulman (@TomUlman) acquired two small SaaS tools (Text Run and Waitlist Email) that already had users, traffic, and potential. Then he did what great founders do best: executed. > Focused on paying users > Simplified the product > Improved support > Let SEO and...
By Andrew Gazdecki
News•Oct 16, 2025
1929 vs 2025: Andrew Ross Sorkin on Crashes, Bubbles & Lessons Learned
The post highlights a podcast episode where Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses his new book on the 1929 Wall Street crash and draws parallels to the speculative bubble and AI‑driven disruptions of 2025. Key takeaways include the historical setup and players...
By All-In Podcast
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Contrarian Bets Turn Impossible Ideas Into Success
Nine out of ten people might tell you you're crazy. The tenth might see what you see. This week on the Lightcone, @garrytan, @harjtaggar, @snowmaker, and @sdianahu discuss contrarian bets — the ideas that look impossible until they work. From Uber...
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 16, 2025
AI‑native Startup Central Raises $8.6M to Automate Back‑office
Congrats to @CentralHQX on their $8.6M seed! Central is the AI-native platform that eliminates back-office work for startups. While HR/payroll platforms give you software to figure it out, Central actually does all the work using agents and human experts across payroll, benefits,...
By YCombinator
Podcast•Oct 16, 2025•22 min
Brené Brown & Reid Hoffman on the Skills Every Leader Needs Now
In this 23‑minute conversation, Brené Brown and Reid Hoffman explore the essential, often overlooked skills leaders need today, emphasizing courageous vulnerability, active listening, and the power of compassion. Brown argues that true leadership thrives on empathy and psychological safety, while...
By Masters of Scale
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Consumer Software Thrives on Community Co‑Creation and Feedback
Loved hosting this off-the-record talk w/ @southpkcommons founders about what’s next in consumer software. The beauty of consumer is a community that builds w/ you—immediate feedback loops, use case evolutions, evangelism. No better time than this current period of creativity and...
By Kirsten Green
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Your Biggest Customer Is Your Biggest Vulnerability
While many think having a "largest customer" is an asset, it's actually a company's biggest weakness. If you can feel a single customer leave, you're in a delicate spot. If you have a customer you can't afford to lose, you're...
By Jason Fried
Podcast•Oct 16, 2025•1h 19m
20VC: $3.5BN - The Price Zuck Paid for Thinking Machines Co-Founder | Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M |...
The episode dissects three headline‑making deals: Goldman Sachs’ $665 million acquisition of Industry Ventures, the former Thinking Machines co‑founder’s $2 billion raise and subsequent move to Meta, and SoftBank’s $5 billion ARM‑backed loan to double‑down on OpenAI. Harry and guests analyze what these...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Kushner Brothers Leverage Billionaire Status for Tech Deals
Must be tough being a Kushner kid @JoshuaKushner - "Just raised $25B and invested in OAI, Stripe, Databricks" @jaredkushner - "Hold my beer, am heading to the Middle East"
By Elad Gil
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Unlock Existing ChatGPT Auth, Not New Sign‑In Layer
Huge if true. Wrote a bunch about the Sign in with ChatGPT opportunity back in April. “Today, there’s no secure way to link a ChatGPT account to another tool. No OAuth. No scoped tokens. No way to persist context responsibly. What’s needed...
By Hiten Shah
News•Oct 16, 2025
E632 | EUCVC Summit 2025: Charlie Hayward, Global Corporate Venturing: The Data Behind the $100B CVC Wave
The EUVC podcast roundup highlights four recent episodes that dissect current trends in European venture capital, from the $100 billion corporate‑venture‑capital surge and data‑driven deal sourcing (Charlie Hayward) to the rise of structured secondaries as a liquidity tool (Kristaps Ronis), the...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Zepto Secures $450M Funding, Hits $7B Valuation
Congrats to @zeptonow on the $450M round at $7B valuation! Zepto is dominating India's quick-commerce market with 1.7M daily orders (up from 500k five quarters ago). They're now operating 1,000+ dark stores across 80+ cities, with 10M+ new monthly users. https://t.co/XI4ZhfiTHd
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Semble AI Cuts Fire‑System Design to Five Minutes
Semble AI automates fire-system design for construction companies. It used to take billions of dollars and thousands of hours of manual drafting, building code lookups, and back-and-forth with permitting authorities. With Semble AI, it takes 5 minutes. https://t.co/fJLjwfMRYN https://t.co/qDiY9vmn4d
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Navigating Friend Investments and Staying Top‑of‑Mind
I've certainly had the experience of opening LinkedIn, TechCrunch, Axios, or Term Sheet, only to read that someone I know well has started a new company or raised a round that I wish I had seen. It never feels great,...
By Charles Hudson
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Bootstrapped Agency Sells for $1.6M, Defying VC Need
Nice way to end the week at @acquiredotcom. We just closed an agency for $1,600,000 cash. Completely bootstrapped. More proof you don't need venture capital to win. https://t.co/RMGykfRnMP
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 16, 2025
AI Support Engineers Boost IT Provider Speed and Margins
Everest (@_everestai) builds AI support engineers for outsourced IT providers, who service IT for 90% of SMBs. Everest helps them resolve tickets faster and increase margins. Congrats on the launch @yolandaaacao and @spenmcke! https://t.co/bnClbudy5Z https://t.co/wtB2VTMMaM
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Top Startups Hoard Cash, Rarely Spend Raised Funds
This is common among the most successful startups. It may seem wasteful, but it's a good idea to have some extra money in the bank as insurance against disasters, and the most successful startups have that luxury.
By Paul Graham
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Tech Deals Surge: Meta, Goldman, SoftBank Drive 2025 Venture Landscape
The only podcast you have to listen to every week. No politics. Just tech. - Thinking Machines Co-Founder Joins Meta for $3.5BN - Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M - Softbank Borrows $5BN Against ARM Holding to Invest More Into OpenAI. Spotify 👉 https://t.co/FMWC2UfrVG Youtube...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 16, 2025
AI Automation Startup Achieves 326% YoY Growth
Solid AI automation startup listed on @acquiredotcom. Mind blowing 326% YoY growth! 🤯 > $2.9M TTM revenue > $961K TTM profit > 5000+ customers > Inc. 5000 ranked > $10M prior valuation Check it out here: https://t.co/YNOfwS36HJ https://t.co/6mEIjy6Wf5
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Outrageous Optimism Is Essential for Founders' Success
Huge honor being featured by @bigthink this week. We talked about why “outrageous optimism” is a required skillset for founders. Startups are built by people who believe just enough to keep going when everything says stop. When the odds are 1000...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Veteran VC Roger Ehrenberg Warns on Market Missteps
We’re back with another deep dive into the shifting landscape of venture capital, and this week we’re joined by a legend who’s seen it all—Roger Ehrenberg. Roger founded IA Ventures in 2008, building one of the most respected early-stage portfolios...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Automation Cuts Millions of Hours From Insurance Tasks
Healthcare staff spend millions of hours each year calling insurance companies and navigating portals. @SplendorHealth automates insurance workflows (benefits verification, prior auth monitoring, credentialing) for healthcare companies, eliminating the headaches of portal access, EDI, and AI phone calls. https://t.co/YsY0INT8ZT Congrats on the launch,...
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Y Combinator and A16z Dominate VC Under Stellar Leadership
Two brands in VC that are crushing right now more than any other: 1. @ycombinator: Under @garrytan leadership. Another level achieved. 👏 @t_blom is one of the greatest early stage investors right now. 2. @a16z: @martin_casado is a true OG....
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 17, 2025
Let Curiosity Lead You to Meaningful Work
“Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what’s worth paying attention to.” Paul Graham on How to Do Great Work: https://t.co/Tv7W8Lqx0v
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 16, 2025
AI-Powered SaaStr Instantly Confirms Fund Fit
With the next version of SaaStr AI VC, you won't wonder if you are a fit for any given fund anymore We'll just tell you. Right there, right now. https://t.co/ONomUsL4kw
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Deel Secures $300M Funding, Valued Over $17B
Today @Bouazizalex announced that @deel have raised $300M at a $17BN+ valuation. He only did one podcast to announce the round and discuss the last 12 months. 20VC… coming on Monday 👇 https://t.co/n4ezdUmA5A
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Funding General Intuition to Advance AI Spatial-Temporal Reasoning
Super excited about funding @PimDeWitte on this exciting journey towards AI understanding the physical world !
By Vinod Khosla
Social•Oct 15, 2025
Acquired.com Launches New Seller Insights and Analytics
New seller insights and analytics coming soon to @acquiredotcom! https://t.co/V2mQKaoOFj
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Good Cofounder Beats Solo, Bad Cofounder Hurts
Good cofounder > no cofounder > bad cofounder. This may seem obvious but a lot of people don't seem to grasp it.
By Paul Graham
Social•Oct 15, 2025
Trust Intuition, Even when It Defies Explanation
This part in this piece on @JoshuaKushner really rings true to me. I'm a gut-driven, intuition-first person, so I know exactly what he's saying here: --- “My deepest insecurity is that I have these intuitions about things that I cannot explain to...
By Jason Fried
Social•Oct 16, 2025
Early Product Versions Mislead; Deel’s Massive Evolution Proves It
Deel added $300M in funding at a $17.3B valuation. When investing in early stage, it's a trap to judge v1 of a product. The co has evolved a ton since we invested. Here's @Bouazizalex's intro to Deel on Product Hunt, six years...
By Ryan Hoover
Social•Oct 15, 2025
Product Fit and Partnership: Keys to Seed Success
Two reasons why 99% of seed stage companies don’t make it to Series A: 1. They don’t build something people want. 2. Co-Founder breakup. Avoid these two and you are the 1%.
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 15, 2025
Boss Talk Returns, New Episodes Now Live
Boss talk is back: https://t.co/RJR1ph1oAS
By Ben Horowitz