Even Giants Can Pivot: Nokia’s Tire‑to‑phone Transformation
Nokia was a tire company before it became a phone company. A company is just a group of like-minded people on a mission. Nothing holds you back from becoming anything you want to be. The question is CAN you pivot?
Map Discovery Questions to Product Features to Prove ROI
Founders: Map every discovery question to product capabilities: Pain Discovery: 'What's biggest time suck?' → 'Deprovisioning takes 5-10 min each' Pain Sizing: 'How often?' → '10x daily = 2 hours/day lost' Demo Anchor: Show automation feature that saves exactly those 2 hours. Questions build your demo script.
Founders Share Hard‑Earned Lessons at Give First, Build Right
Excited for tomorrow's Give First, Build Right event with @bfeld This will be a frank conversation about lessons we've learned as founders, investors, and advisors. All startup folks and communities are invited so please share with anyone who might be...
Silicon Valley Thrived by Uniting Dismissed Entrepreneurs
Why did Silicon Valley succeed? Because it united all the entrepreneurs who were told by society they couldn't change the world. https://t.co/6X6WBHo1jI
One Scorecard, 45 Minutes, Multiple Companies
I run multiple companies from a single scorecard… …in under 45 minutes a week. I used to work 100-hour weeks. Always in meetings. Always the bottleneck. Till I learned my businesses run better without me in the weeds. That’s why I created...
A Decade Later: Our Name Finally Graces the Wall
10 years and we finally got our name on the wall. Crazy to see it after starting in WeWork Harlem https://t.co/6qi3FnrFAf
Track Output Solo, Hire High-Leverage Before Scaling Systems
If I had to rebuild a company from scratch tomorrow and scale it to $1M+, here's the exact order I'd build systems in: 1. AT THE SOLO FOUNDER STAGE, TRACK OUTPUT. Solo founders trying to build systems when they're the only ones...
Startup Product Thrills, Company Building Feels Terrifying
Overheard from a founder today: It is the most exciting time to ever build a product as a startup It is the most existentially unnerving time to build a company
Big Loss, Bigger Lessons: What $16M Taught Me
I lost $16M (including $5M of my own) on a business idea that made no money. Here's what I learned from it👇
VC Money Fuels, Doesn’t Validate: Learn From $16M Failure
I lost $16M (including $5M of my own) on a business idea that made no money. Here's what I learned from it👇 Two months after selling iContact for $169M, I started Connect(dot)com. A social app that mapped where your friends...
Playa Society Pioneers Space for Women’s Sports
From pitch to torchbearer: How Playa Society built space for women's sports https://t.co/dExhesfa5E via @usatoday
Serval Launches Accelerated Equity Program for Aspiring Founders
Exclusive: Serval has had a problem: not enough top talent to work on its biggest accounts. So Serval is launching a new-look solution: a dedicated program, Serval Start, that offers accelerated equity vesting and access to its investors to aspiring future...
Deep‑tech Success Demands Market Focus, Not Just Science
@bznotes sees this pattern constantly: Founders who solve the science and assume the business follows. It doesn't. Product → customer → revenue → margin. Most deep tech pitches break somewhere in that chain. The founders who make it are the...
AI‑Native Firms Thrive on Speed, Governance, Human Judgment
The rise of AI Native Companies. @IrenaCronin and I write this newsletter every week. AI native companies are businesses designed around AI from the beginning rather than adding AI to old workflows. They use smaller teams, automated processes, and AI agents to...
Tenstorrent Secures Over $1B to Scale AI Infrastructure
Tenstorrent, started by Jim Keller, has raised more than $1 billion and it has over 1,000 employees to come up with scalable AI infrastructure. https://t.co/XdoiRmKl9Z
Build What People Want: YC’s Core Advice
@50cent at Y Combinator we tell people "Make something people want" and this is exactly what you're saying too
In LLM Era, Risk, Not Just Build, Drives Innovation
The advice for zero to one internet entrepreneurship to "just build something" has lost such an enormous amount of value in a short period of time with the explosion of LLMs, I propose a new idiom: "just risk something" This has...
Mercury Redefines Startup Banking with Direct Bank Partnerships
New Fintech Blueprint podcast episode with Immad Akhund (@immad), founder and CEO of @mercury , and you'll definitely want to take some notes. Mercury grew up through the period when the Banking-as-a-Service middleware layer was falling apart. Synapse, Unit, and...
Owning Your Warehouse Cuts Growth by 90%
Can owning your warehouse slow growth 90%?! Shockingly, yes. Here's the details + 2 more crazy findings from my deep dive on 300 stores. Starting with the warehouse one because it floored me. If you owned your warehouse, your avg rev growth...
From Iranian Refugee to Wall Street’s Top Commodities Trader
This Tiger Cub hedge fund founder's family fled Iran to become one of Wall Street's most feared commodities traders.
Loving Personalized Reflections From SF Shared with Builders
i loooooooove getting messages like this todays email included my reflections from sf for the builders: https://t.co/GqgDLIGybU https://t.co/XfB6RM6kqZ
Per‑Booking Pivot Saved Zocdoc’s Healthcare Apprenticeship Model
New Lifers episode with @oliver_kharraz, CEO of @Zocdoc, on why healthcare is a "lifelong apprenticeship" and how they survived a near-death business model pivot. We discuss: * Why early digital schedules failed because office managers were still blocking time with physical...
Former Bucks President Feigin Joins Michael Redd’s Mobile App Venture
Former @Bucks President Peter Feigin joins the ownership group of the Michael Redd-founded We Build Mobile Apps, parent of https://t.co/kQpg7eYgbD
Rapid Testing Stops Founders From Loving Imagined Ideas
Founder: “One guy I know is just throwing slop out there and waiting to see what gets a response. I don’t do that.” The main reason I love fast experimentation isn’t efficiency. It’s that there’s less time to fall in love with...
SpaceX’s $60B Bid Crushes $2B Funding Round
Cursor was four days from closing $2 billion. Andreessen Horowitz was leading. Nvidia and Thrive were in. Then SpaceX showed up with an offer to buy the whole company for $60 billion. The round was dead by the end of...
From Garage VR to $2B Exit, Staying Humble
Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for over $2B. We had him on MFM awhile back. His story: - At 14, scrubbed boats at a boat yard for minimum wage. On the side, bought broken iPhones on eBay, fixed them, and resold...
Ownable Ideas Come From Answering Five Strategic Questions
“How do I find my ownable idea?” The question I’ve been asked 146 times Here’s the answer: The top paid experts don’t just share ideas—they own one. An ownable idea is the strategic territory you claim and become known for. To find yours, answer...
Scale by Simplifying, Not Complicating, to Hit $2B
Most companies can reach $500M through hustle and heroics. Getting to $2B is different. After meeting with leaders from the U.S., Europe, and Japan at a global consumer company, one lesson stood out: scale only works when doing more becomes...
Target a Painful Audience, Not a Single Product
Everyone is obsessed with finding a 'winning product'. Wrong focus. Find a winning *audience*. An audience with a painful problem. Then you can sell them 10 different products over a decade.
Unexpected Detours Often Become Your Greatest Successes
At 25 I had a plan. Senior dev by 30. Staff engineer by 35. Maybe a startup by 40. Here's what actually happened: Got fired at 37. Built 8 products. 7 flopped. Never made it to FAANG. Started snowboarding for the first time at 40. Cofounded...
Six Months to $10k MRR: Hard but Life‑Changing
Getting to $10k MRR in 6 months is hard but doable. Worth it though. Those 12 months will be the highest value 2 years of your life.
Startup Revenue Metrics Are Ambiguous; Trust Them Less
I find myself trusting founder revenue metrics less than at any point since I started investing. That includes 2021, which should tell you something. Only 1% to 2% of startups ever reach $100M in revenue. The headlines make it feel like...
Young Founders: Reading Extensively Fuels Success
Haha, uh, I guess one thing I would recommend to young founders is read a lot Like, read *A LOT* just learn about the world. If you like to read it's not a waste of time. It might be the best...
Skipping College? You Must Self‑Educate, Startups Won’t
If you skip some or all of college to start a startup, it's on you to develop your mind the way college would have. And that's not something that happens by default in most startups.
Keeping the Newsletter Free, Funded by Sponsorships
I’ve had a few people tell me this week I need to make my newsletter paid because I’m giving too much away for free… but I feel like I would rather keep it open and share the information and just...
Built 1,000 Users and $4K MRR in Six Days
Crossed 1,000 users & $4,000 MRR on @stanleyforx. (we launched less than 6 days ago) Dropping a full case study on how we did it soon. Like this post if you want to read it. https://t.co/f9ETd8dbzz
Progress Demands Discomfort: Keep Moving Forward
Most people want the outcome. Very few accept the position it requires. There is no comfort built into growth. You either move or you stall. Every step up forces a decision. You shift your weight before you feel ready. You...
Cut Bad-Fit Customers Early to Scale to 10k
When you have 20 customers, it’s 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 hard to realize that 2 need to leave because they’re a bad fit. Imagine you had 10,000. Then it would be obvious. Act like that, otherwise you won’t have the time and energy to get...
Seeking MBA Talent for Real‑Estate Tech Startup
Know any smart MBAs that are looking to build companies at the intersection of real estate and tech? Jobs@fifthwall.com https://t.co/fqLyHxc96w
YC Startup List Idea Turned Family Into Millionaires
Mom how did we get so rich? Back in 2026, your dad read the YC Request for Startups and just built one of the ideas on the list. https://t.co/RKVqG1b7NB
Founders: Do It Yourself, Talk to Customers First
The best advice I could give any early-stage founder right now: Stop hiring and focus on talking to customers. The simple playbook: > Do everything yourself until it physically breaks > Figure out who your best customers actually are > Only sell to them -...
Customers Acting Like Owners Signal True Product Success
when I see an email one of my portfolio startups gets from a customer - full of detailed feedback, ideas...and so much energy for their product, i'm reminded: when your customers start acting like owners, you know you’re onto something.
Founders Excel as War‑Time CEOs Over Rented Leaders
Do founders realDo founders really make better "war time CEOs" vs rented ones? Michael Nathanson of @MoffettNathanso joined Dan on the latest RiskReversal pod 🎙️ https://t.co/JY0pW3EfTN
AI Speeds Coding, but PMF Remains Elusive
While AI agents make building software much faster (esp for experienced devs) - they seem to not make it any easier for early-stage startups to find PMF. Talked with 2x “AI-pilled” founders who are v productive devs, are building their startups....
Ten Quality Affiliates Outperform Thousands of Ads
You don’t need 1,000 affiliates. You need 10 good ones. Focus on: → people already ranking on Google → creators in your niche → founders with audience One good affiliate can outperform your entire ad spend.
Kashable Secures $60M Series C to Boost Responsible Credit
@getkashable, a fintech that provides access to “socially responsible” credit and financial wellness programs for employees as a voluntary benefit, has secured $60M in a Series C funding round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ Sustainable Investing. To date, the company has...
Vinted's Series E Sparked Europe‑wide Marketplace Expansion
1/ When @LightspeedVP led @Vinted's Series E in 2019, the company was a fast-growing C2C marketplace concentrated in a handful of European markets. Six years later, the vision has taken shape across Europe. https://t.co/xMzAYhneP4
Adapt Cash Burn Quickly, Like F1 Braking Late
Every startup should run cash like a Formula One car. Full speed on the straight. Brake as late and hard as possible into the curve. The danger does not come from a high burn rate - but from not being able...
AI‑Powered Team Boosts Every Sales Opportunity
.@Salesgraph gives every rep a team of marketers, analysts, & strategists working 24/7 behind every opportunity. Automate context gathering, collateral, and strategy for sales teams. Every qualified opportunity becomes a high-touch strategic deal. Congrats on the launch, @ruhanponnada & @ricardonunez_io! https://t.co/WEFbuisjbZ
Time‑value of Money Outweighs ARR Loss From Annual Billing
Yes annual billing means less ARR. So the Q is: Is the time-value of money a larger effect than the loss in revenue? I don't mean the financial rate, but "what could we spend this on" for the company in question, which...