Founders Plead: Send an Email, Not 30‑minute Invites
Founders in 2025: “I am literally begging you to just send an email instead of a 30 minute calendar invite” https://t.co/3iEEBRXuTv
IPO Valuations Dwarf Typical ARR Multiples
Times are good But Navan IPO’ing at ~$5B at ~$800M ARR run rate And JAMF selling for ~$2B at 3x ARR Well, they do make me wonder about some VC rounds these days
AI Hype May Be a Bubble, yet Results Prove Usefulness
It’s quite possible there is a bubble in AI… But looking at the last week’s results you’d have to be just completely delusional to claim that none of this works, none of it is useful and no-one is using it.
Consumers Redefine Products, Embracing Raw AI Power
The “pure consumer” debate shows how outdated our categories have become in today's market. We’re measuring success by yesterday’s playbook while the future is being built with new rules. ChatGPT reached 100M users faster than any product in history —...
Stability for Early Hires Boosts Retention, Not Motivation
I will respectfully disagree here. This allows for early employees to achieve stability - housing, bills, etc. I don't think it removes motivation. It removes anxiety however and creates longevity for your top talent.
From Amazon Carts to Startup Funds: Impulse Investing
Some people have a problem impulse buying on Amazon. Others impulse invest in startups (now in 15 secs).
Top CEOs and Tech Leaders Headline Cerebral Valley AI Summit
Box & Vanta CEOs Join Cerebral Valley AI Summit Lineup + Kirsten Green, Parag Agrawal & Many More To Lead Discussion Groups https://t.co/87vOV5dqLa
Steady SaaS: $1.9M Revenue, 30% Growth, 1% Churn
This one’s as steady as SaaS gets. Live on @acquiredotcom: Salesforce native SaaS powering human services agencies with automated case tracking and compliance infra. > $1.9M TTM revenue > $467K TTM profit > 30% YoY growth > 1% churn Full listing: https://t.co/qcO6uCJvdC https://t.co/PvFgsCdfGH
Top Angels Fund Before You Perfect Your Deck
The best angel checks get written before the pitch deck is polished.
Fundraising Split: Easy for Some, Tough for Others
Fundraising today is like a Tale of 2 Cities: easy for some and hard for others. Especially at the Pre-A and Series A. More >>
Founders Must Navigate AI IPO, $10B A16z, Series B Risks
We're back!! @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me! 1/ Three seismic shifts hit venture this week that every founder needs to understand: 1⃣OpenAI's $500B restructuring clears path to $2T IPO 2⃣A16z raises $10B (but it's more matchable than you think) 3⃣66% of Series B investments...
AI‑Driven Prosumer Firms Outperform, Command Triple Prices
• Prosumer companies match Consumer Tech performance at IPO • New AI-powered prosumer cos already show 3x higher willingness to pay ($78 vs $25 median price point) • 50%+ of consumers use prosumer tools in their personal lives Our latest research! https://t.co/gc69lrVMC6
VC Backs Breakthrough Computational Chemistry Platform Launch
If this isn’t what venture capital is for, then nothing is. Congrats to @GillVerd and @trevormccrt1 for working on a hard, interesting, and important problem. Computing revolution loading… I thought I had left Gibbs behind in college chemistry. Everything in...
Tech Weekly: Fund Raises, OpenAI Shakeup, VC Insights
The only podcast you have to listen to every week. No politics. Just tech. - a16z Raises $10BN in New Funds - Mercor Raises $350M at $10BN - OpenAI Restructuring: Who Wins & Who Loses - Why IRR is a BS Metric - 3 Ways to...
European Investment Council Ranks #4 in Sifted’s Top 50
In another magnificent piece of work by Sifted 🤣 I would like to congratulate… The European Investment Council On being a top 50 performing investor. They are #4 according to Sifted. You can’t make this s*** up. 🤣 Too good Sifted....
Build Workflow Moat, Expand TAM with Viable Vertical AI
My favorite vertical AI startups: • Create a 10x workflow that feeds into a marketplace moat • Increase TAM by making something financially viable for new markets
SaaStr AI VC: Massive Startup Data & VC Connections
SaaStr AI VC. Try it free -> https://t.co/XzJ5d0OqGr 🧮548,709 start-up valuations 🖥️1,657+ VC pitch decks graded 🧖♀️1,200+ active founders now 🫂503 VC connections made It's pretty darn cool https://t.co/nXGlRNz6mC
First‑time Founders Ship the Impossible; Veterans Over‑analyze
First time founders ship the impossible while experienced ones often are still explaining why it won't ever work!
Founders Can Keep Seed Money, Leaving SAFE Investors Empty
So far I've watched 3 VC seed deals this year where the founders just decided to keep the money for themselves and not build the product. All were on SAFEs, and they took the position they owed investors nothing and that...
Hire AI Generalists: Young Talent Beats Experience
" Companies underestimate 23 and 24 year-olds. The new playbook for these AI startups is actually gonna be much more about hire the AI generalist, this 23, 24, 25-year-old who's really native in AI." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do...
Lockheed Invests $50M in SAILDRONE Autonomous Missile Platform
Next-gen autonomous maritime defense leader SAILDRONE accepts $50M investment from legacy prime Lockheed partner for weaponized missile launchers 🤖+⛵️+🚀 = 🇺🇸 https://t.co/E9NrWbePNv
Partnering to Build Globally Competitive LFP Production
Excited to work with @ChEMcShane Evan and the team @ElectroflowTech on building globally competitive LFP production as part of our overall storage gap thesis
Deep Dive Into AI Valuations and Infrastructure Costs
Trying to address all the questions on AI valuations, margins to AI vendors and infrastructure, huge investments in data centers, chips, circular economics, robotics, energy and more with @akshay of @theinformation: https://t.co/0qKruLwEvv
Leverage Competitors' AGMs to Meet LPs Fast
The single best way to meet a lot of high quality LPs fast. Find out when your competitors AGMs are. Reach out to their LPs knowing they will be in town on those dates. They always want to fill their...
Nvidia Hits $5 Trillion, Ushering Airstreet’s New Era
a day to remember: a new @airstreet epoch begins as @nvidia becomes the first 5t company fortuitous timing? i think not!
Buy Anthropic and OpenAI to Enforce AI Governance
Regarding Public Benefit Corporations: shareholders can insist on upholding the public benefit (cf my speech from 12 years ago after it was signed into law in Delaware). So if you care about AI governance and can afford to, you should...
Ship First, Storytelling Improves with Each Iteration
So many on X say founders need to be “great storytellers.” Hogwash. And it leads to founders selling bulls**t. Look, you gotta tell the story. But no matter what, if you are successful, you’ll get good at the story by...
Collectibles‑First Strategy Propelled Whatnot to $11.5B
Congrats to the @Whatnot team on raising at $11.5B A few unknown facts about this amazing cofounder duo @GrantLaFontaine and @loganhead13 1/ They launched in 2020 right before COVID hit. 2/ in the early days, they even funded payroll for some of the...
Margins Reveal Product Depth on Foundation AI Models
" I do think margins matter in a world of AI. They're a directional indicator of how much product you've built on top of the foundation models." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do you think about margin in the...
OpenAI Targets $1 Trillion Annual Compute Spend
OpenAI clarifies it has about 30GW of infra committed now. And aspires to a run-rate of one new GW/week at $20bn/GW, meaning (say) $1tr/year
Unsexy Contractor SaaS Generates $26K Profit, 84% Margins
SaaS + large unsexy market = gold Live on @acquiredotcom: Referral SaaS helping contractors (plumbing, HVAC, roofing etc) share & track jobs. > $32K TTM revenue > $26K TTM profit > 84% margins Turning WOM into recurring income. Full listing: https://t.co/NqMh8TRUsA https://t.co/hiQW7jDrXJ
Support Young Founders: Stay the Course When Wrong
Often it turns out that when backing very young founders it isn't as much about being right early, it's more about staying in the room when you're wrong…
PARIMA Becomes First European Approved Cultivated Meat Brand
today, @airstreet portfolio co PARIMA (fka Gourmey) has become the first european company to be granted regulatory approval to market a cultivated meat product! the first approval within PARIMA’s global regulatory pipeline was granted in singapore for its cultivated chicken. https://t.co/yCJcg3rH9d
Rebooting US Semiconductor Supply Chains for National Resilience
Rebooting semiconductor supply chains is a moonshot silicon valley needed to take on for US resilience. GC backed Substrate 3+ years ago. Stoked to see this unveiled today. America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
Celebrating Chris Ovitz: The Unsung Second Believer
We don't praise angels enough. I'd like to take a moment to really shine a light on @ChrisOvitz. He was the true second believer in @substrate. He had so much conviction in them and @jamesproud. He deserves every minute today...
Celebrating Our Fund-Defining Milestone and Future Freedom
Today is the day. https://t.co/pemXFmUb3A May our flag and our freedom forever wave. Thank you @jamesproud, the whole team @substrate, @ChrisOvitz and the whole team at @LongJourneyVC! Another fund defining moment for us. https://t.co/ND8TXNRbL2
First‑Principles Investing: Sarah Tavel’s Blueprint for GPs
From 1st female GP at @Benchmark to now fully devoting herself to AI, @SarahTavel’s career has been defined by deep intellectual rigor and first-principles thinking. In this minisode, @nchirls & I reflect on how Sarah’s approach offers something every GP &...
Founders Drive Success; VCs Can only Assist
"The lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make companies succeed as a venture capitalist. The company succeeds because of the founder and maybe you helped a little bit." Love to hear your thoughts on this...
Seeking SF Early-Stage Investors to Beta Test Platform
I'm building a Product Hunt for investors. Looking for a few SF-based, early-stage investors to beta test. DM me if interested. :) (will delete this tweet shortly)
Start at $1M ARR, Let Customers Map Growth
If you aren’t sure how to get to $100m ARR, just get to $1m ARR Then just ask your customers They will basically tell you
Power Law Still Dominates Across All Domains
The Power Law remains undefeated https://t.co/9EEvSYDfxl
OpenAI Shifts to Public Benefit Corporation Status
OpenAI conversion to PBC https://t.co/3tdPRWR4DU
Founders Build Alone, Ignoring Doubt and Exhaustion
Founders don’t wait for perfect days. They work tired. They work late. They work when everyone doubts them. No one’s coming to save you. It’s on you to build it.
Series B Deals Rarely Deliver 10x Returns—Pick Wisely
The latest data from @cartainc is brutal. Of 547 Series B deals in 2018: - Figma did 100x ... but - 39% are worth 1x or less - Only 34% are worth 2x or more after 7 years But - 11.7% do achieve...
Best Deals Often Come From Solo Term Sheets
"Most of the great investments I have made I was the only term sheet. This idea that the best companies are always super hot rounds is wrong." @DavidCahn6 Have your best investments always been competitive @chadbyers @infoarbitrage @honam @Alfred_Lin? https://t.co/MWp77TBZzR
Sequoia Backs AI-Driven Founders to Reshape Industries
Today, we're launching @Sequoia's latest seed and venture funds to partner with outlier founders at the start of their journey. There's never been a more exciting time to be a founder. Nearly every industry will be disrupted by AI. So far, the...
Investors Chase Companies Hitting $0‑$100M Fast
"The best companies are going from $0-$100M in revenue very very quickly. As an investor, you have to believe that this company is going to be in the $0-$100M club". @DavidCahn6 Love to hear your thoughts on the required growth...
Great Product Doesn’t Guarantee Business
The biggest myth in tech is that great product automatically builds a great business.
Poolside's 2GW AI Factory Redefines Vertical Integration
some thoughts on @poolsideai's project horizon announcement last week: building a 2gw ai factory "This level of vertical integration - from model and agent development through to power generation and deployment - gives poolside a durable advantage as AI systems become...