Know What's Happening in Entrepreneurship
Know What's Happening in Entrepreneurship
PopSockets turned phone backs into a $169 million business
From a garage prototype in 2011, PopSockets built a global brand that generated $169 million in revenue by 2017. The company’s growth stemmed from embedding a simple grip into daily phone use, driving word‑of‑mouth buzz and celebrity endorsements.
Alexander Liteplo launched RentAHuman, an online marketplace where people lease their bodies to autonomous AI agents. The platform claims more than 530,000 human workers and positions AI bots as virtual bosses, even citing Claude as a preferred manager. Early usage revealed many postings were scams promoting other AI startups, prompting the company to introduce a $10‑a‑month verification badge modeled on Elon Musk’s X verification system. Liteplo cites Musk as his entrepreneurial hero for turning verification into a deterrent to fraud.
Jeff Bezos recalled that raising Amazon’s first seed round in 1994 was his toughest challenge. He met roughly 60 angel investors, many of whom needed convincing about the nascent internet. Forty of those angels flat‑out rejected the pitch, forcing Bezos...
He crossed out “elderly” and wrote “Black.” Robert Johnson took a $15,000 loan, pitched John Malone for 30 minutes, and built BET into the first Black-owned company on the NYSE. He sold it for $3B, became the first Black billionaire,...
Greg Isenberg thinks 2026 is about to create 10x the number of entrepreneurs. Massive SaaS layoff wave, everyone starts building. He's probably right, but most of these new founders are going to make the same mistake I made for 4 years... They're...
Firozabad’s glass sector, under the One District One Product (ODOP) scheme, has leveraged recycled cullet to create a niche vintage‑style glass business. Entrepreneur Singraj Yadav transformed waste glass into high‑value collectibles, securing early export contracts and building a library of...
Your problem isn’t lack of ideas. It’s lack of attention. Nobody discovers silent builders. How are you getting users right now?
I started Twitter in 2021 as JavaScript content creator. Grew to 20k followers Launched an MVP SaaS end 2021 hivoe.com $3k MRR in 12 months Launched another SaaS inboxs.io $1k MRR in 8 months Elon changed API pricing to $42k/month - I had to sell...
Uke Enun founded GoNomads to solve African firms' cross‑border trade hurdles after a failed e‑commerce experiment. The B2B consultancy launched in 2021, iterating its MVP and securing a Payoneer partnership that gave clients multi‑currency accounts and a Mastercard. Early revenue...
I spoke with a $50M ARR founder yesterday. He said something I haven’t stopped thinking about: “We have product-market fit right now. But that’s PMF pre-AI.” Let that sink in. Most users aren’t deeply loyal. They’re accepting the friction because...
The article argues that founders who adopt an engineering mindset can cut through startup chaos and scale more efficiently. By applying systems thinking, architects‑first planning, and rapid feedback loops, leaders transform vague problems into discrete, testable components. Constraints are reframed...
Founders often treat data as a byproduct, unintentionally handing over strategic influence to AI systems, competitors, and markets. Small, passive data‑collection choices can shape pricing, product development, and hiring decisions without the founder’s awareness. By viewing data as capital and...
The article argues that startups must pivot based on actual user behavior rather than founders' assumptions. It outlines how to detect market rejection through metrics like churn, CAC, and LTV, and describes turning existing assets into new opportunities. Real‑world examples...
High‑income entrepreneurs, especially Schedule C filers, face sharply higher IRS audit rates in 2024, with audit risk more than double that of previous cycles. The article outlines four primary triggers—aggressive expense deductions, persistent losses, mortgage‑interest miscalculations, and residency errors—that can flag...
Founders often view build‑versus‑buy as a pure engineering choice, but the real driver is control over core infrastructure that underpins customer trust and regulatory compliance. A fintech founder at UNest discovered that outsourcing critical systems introduced hidden fragility, prompting a...
Nigeria’s 2025 Tax Act replaces the standalone Capital Gains Tax regime with a unified system, raising the corporate CGT rate from a flat 10% to as high as 30% and introducing an economic‑nexus rule that taxes offshore share sales tied...
Adaptive Atelier, founded by Toyosi Badejo-Okusanya in 2023, is building an accessibility infrastructure for Africa’s 35 million disabled citizens. The startup offers two core products: AdaptiveWiz, an API that lets users personalize website experiences in real time, and AdaptiveTest, a diagnostic...
Databricks announced the close of a $5 billion equity round and an additional $2 billion of debt capacity, pushing its valuation to $134 billion and reporting $5.4 billion in annualised revenue, a 65 % YoY increase. The funding round underscores the influence of its Romanian...
Investors often ask for a technical moat, but founders like Curaley demonstrate that early enterprise pilots and trust can provide stronger defensibility. Curaley secured a paid pilot with a global enterprise before building a full product, using that credibility to...
British Cycling went from losing to winning by improving 1% in everything. They cleaned bikes better, fixed sleep habits, tracked hand washing, and small gains stacked up. In business, a 1% lift in price, margin, and cost control can drive a 27%...
Ecoright, founded by IIM Calcutta alumni in 2019, has scaled its affordable eco‑friendly bag line to ₹14.08 cr in FY25, a 60% revenue jump from the previous year. The brand leverages organic cotton, jute and recycled PET to offer 300+ SKUs...
Bacca Bucci, founded in 2015, has positioned itself as a mid‑premium, design‑led footwear brand in India’s fast‑growing market. By adopting an asset‑light, outsourced manufacturing model and a marketplace‑first strategy, it sold nearly 5 million pairs to 4.5 million customers, achieving ₹81.6 Cr revenue...
today i have been writing a piece on how we sourced the 55+ companies we've backed over the last 5 years and pulling the thread has been so beautiful. feeling so much gratitude for this journey that started as me...
If you’re in Vegas next week and want to network with family office investors, DM me.
Something’s Brewing, a Bengaluru‑based e‑retail platform for home coffee enthusiasts, posted ₹12.4 cr revenue in FY25 – a 58% jump from the previous year. The company curates espresso machines, grinders, beans and accessories from India, Germany, Italy and China, and pairs...
A book that sells 100 copies a month may not sound like much, but it could pay your bills for years. Tim Grahl explains why books are unlike any other product. @StoryGrid https://t.co/43XIEr12Dd
I lost $16k testing apparel 'everyone wears.' Zero traction. I tested apparel for a tiny subculture. Scaled to $90k/month with raving fans. The market doesn't care about mass appeal. It cares about solving specific problems for specific people. Test everything.
MoEngage has turned the high cost of user retention—estimated at five to twenty‑five times acquisition expense—into a core SaaS proposition. After raising $280 million in a Series F round, the company reported close to $100 million in ARR and achieved profitability in the...
7 VC guides to teach you the technicals in one weekend👇 ♻️ Repost to help someone VC recruiting right now.
Chinese EV maker BYD is set to begin local vehicle assembly in Pakistan, with a 25,000‑unit annual plant near Karachi slated for operation in the third to fourth quarter of 2026. The $150 million facility will make BYD the first electric‑vehicle...
Creators are moving beyond ad revenue, launching product lines, acquiring startups, and building tangible businesses. MrBeast’s chocolate brand now out‑earns his media arm, and his purchase of fintech startup Step illustrates the shift toward diversified revenue. The TechCrunch Equity podcast...
A new IDB Invest technical note analyzes 21,696 MSMEs across 30 Latin American and Caribbean economies, linking credit access to employment growth. The study finds that an extra US$1 million in financing generates roughly four permanent jobs per year. Effects vary:...
The Canadian Bitcoin Consortium (CBC) has launched Blockchain Insurance Inc., the first association‑based captive insurer dedicated to digital‑asset businesses. Licensed in Alberta in December 2025, the carrier offers member companies up to 25% discounts on premiums, cutting costs that can...
Even though I’m a full-time entrepreneur now, I’m still what I call a 9-5 evangelist. I believe in keeping your 9-5 as long as possible before leaping full-time in your biz, as long as it’s not a detriment to your...
In this episode, Richard Hanbury of Sana Health discusses the company’s recent FDA De Novo clearance for a novel audio‑visual neuromodulation device targeting neuropathic pain, marking the creation of a new therapeutic class. He outlines decades of research that led...
Reframe (@usereframe) automates the hardware supply chain, starting with procurement. Upload your BOM, connect your ERP, and their system will handle sourcing, ordering, vendor coordination, delay resolution, and real-time build plans. Hardware procurement still runs on spreadsheets and emails, until today....
Creator of Claude Code Boris Cherny on where Claude Code is going next: 1. Coming up with product/feature ideas 2. Taking on work adjacent to engineering
In Episode 92 of the Tech M&A Podcast, Robin Fisk, co‑founder and CEO of Donorfy, recounts the decade‑long journey of building a bootstrapped SaaS CRM for nonprofits and its eventual acquisition by The Access Group in November 2024. He explains why they chose to...
4 years stuck at $2.5M ARR. I had no idea if this was my retirement plan or the thing that broke me. Then I built a $7.3M ARR company in 18 months with 3 employees and zero funding. The weapon turned out to...
Started writing: Building Theanna Will be dropping all the details of running a business including NUMBERS. I’m not just telling stories, I’m going to write about tests I’ve run, money spent, money lost, conversion metrics, churn, MRR growth everything. I always wanted...
Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay dominate Canada’s mobile payments, capturing roughly 90% of phone‑based transactions. The Canadian market, valued at about $1.39 billion in 2024, is forecast to surge to $20.48 billion by 2030. Major banks such as RBC, Scotiabank...
Old status symbols: - Senior Engineer title - FAANG on LinkedIn - €100k salary - Corner office New status symbols: - Time freedom - Side income streams - Building what you want - Owning your code Freedom is the ultimate flex.
Head of Claude Code Boris Cherny : "A 100% of my code is written by Claude Code. I have not edited a single line by hand since November. In February last year, when we released it it, was writing maybe...
Stacks AI develops purpose‑built artificial intelligence solutions for enterprise accounting, automating the most manual and error‑prone finance workflows. The platform enables finance teams to close books faster and redirect effort toward strategic initiatives. It is already trusted by public companies...
VCs aren’t the only INVESTORS that can write you a $250K+ check. If you’re EARLY, start targeting these people: - Family offices - Angel investors (owners, doctors, lawyers, etc.) - Corporate balance sheet investors
AI infrastructure startup PortKey announced a $15 million Series A round led by Elevation Capital with participation from Lightspeed. The funding will accelerate its unified control‑plane platform that monitors, governs, and cost‑optimizes enterprise AI model usage. PortKey’s AI gateway centralizes traffic, enforces...
Holy shit... a YC-backed team just compressed 1 week of research into 12 minutes. It's called Spine Swarm, and it runs a team of AI researchers on any question while you watch them work and steer in real time. No black box....
You make software for person P. They have a boss Q. Or better, their C_O. If Q wants your product, P gets to buy it. So, can you make a report or daily/weekly email or etc. that Q wants? Do it during the trial,...
A reason to ship in 1 month instead of 6 is to incorporate feedback. Another is that a 6-month codebase will be a lot hard to to change than a 1-month. You could even still start from scratch. At the beginning, anything...
Hustle culture can lead to burnout and reduced productivity. Working smarter, not harder, and prioritizing mental health and well-being often lead to better results in the long run. 💡
Our physical products are built to build the brand and have new collectors join our world (more than selling stuff to existing collectors) we are very confident this leads all to collect the digital (NFTs) we are getting decent at...
