AI Empowers CEOs to Code, Not Just Oversee
I came back to code because AI made it possible for me to build at a level I couldn't before. I'm not coding despite being CEO of YC. I'm coding because this is the most important technological shift since the internet and I'd be an idiot to experience it from the bleachers. I'm 45, running the most important startup institution in the world, and I can ship production software at 2am. That's not a distraction from the job. That is the job understood correctly.
Claiming No Competition Signals Incompetence or Deception
Saying "we don't have competition" is a massive Red Flag. Either you don't realize you have any (incompetence) or you're pretending you don't (dishonest).
Crypto VC Slowdown Reflects Limited Founder and Idea Pool
controversial take: crypto VC take on fewer funds deploying is downstream of there being ENOUGH good founders and ideas to back. the quality of early stage founders and ideas in crypto, taken in aggregate, is simply not as large of...
Entrepreneurship: From Overwhelming to Simple Through Perspective
The entrepreneurial journey in 3 steps: 1: This is harder than I thought 2: This is WAY harder than I thought 3: It's actually simple. I was doing it wrong (Over and over with each new level you achieve)
From Post‑War Rubble to Global Tech Giant
Inside a ruined Tokyo after World War Two, two engineers tried to build a company everyone thought was impossible. Sony began as a tiny repair shop surrounded by rubble and hunger. Yet the world’s greatest electronics, music, movies, and games...
ElevenLabs Poised to Hit $600M ARR Next Quarter
ElevenLabs is now nearing $450 million in ARR after a stellar quarter. With this growth rate, it can likely go past $600 million in ARR by the next quarter. https://t.co/pgZSN9Snsp
Success Comes From Asking Better Questions, Not Just Ideas
The founders who succeeded didn't have better ideas. They had better questions. Not "how do I build this?" — but "should I build this?" Not "how do I get customers?" — but "why would anyone choose me?" Not "how do I scale?" — but...
TAM Masks Profit Reality, Offers No Financial Insight
Pulak Prasad on TAM: It makes astrology-based forecasts look respectable. TAM is pointless because it does not tell us whether any profits will be made, and even if a business can be profitable, TAM is silent on who will make that...
Founder Manual: India's War Map, Not Silicon Valley Playbook
Forget the generic Silicon Valley playbooks. The Founder Manual by @somani_utsav is officially out, and it’s less of a textbook and more of a "war map" for the Indian ecosystem. @offline_members https://t.co/OxCOlfQKJU
Fix Foundations Before Scaling; Growth Exposes Weaknesses
Growth is not a strategy. Growth amplifies everything — including your problems. If your unit economics are broken, growth breaks them faster. If your team is misaligned, growth makes it catastrophic. Fix the foundation first. Then grow. Scaling a broken business gets you to...
Daily Habits Separate Thriving SMEs From Struggling Ones
What separates thriving SMEs from those that struggle? It's not luck—it's a commitment to these daily habits of the smartest business minds. Are you in an SME? You can do them too.
Factor Replacement Costs Before Claiming Profit
Before you report your “profit” for your build-in-public report, ask: > What would be the cost of hiring people to replace everything I do? Deduct that from “profit,” since the business requires that to operate. It’s just paying 𝘺𝘰𝘶 for that currently.
First‑Gen Black Restaurateurs Face Disproportionate Criticism
Why do Black-Owned Restaurants get such high criticism? Many business owners are first-generation, meaning they are learning operations, finance, marketing, HR, legal - without seeing how it was run first.
100 Early Access Spots Fill in an Hour
We just opened up 100 early access spots to @stanleyforx. 10x live walkthrough calls with 10 attendees on each. Almost all spots filled up within an hour lol. https://t.co/PlqlutmuqE
Spot Real Growth vs Hidden Distractions in Business
#TimTalk - How can a founder distinguish between a “growth opportunity” and a “distraction in disguise”? with Jad Atwe https://t.co/qbSSvZj1IH via @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesLeader #Leadership #Culture #Marketing #Success #Mindset #Entrepreneur #Management
AI‑Driven Trend Analytics Enable Fully Autonomous E‑Commerce
I think one of the next trends in e-commerce will be to use trend analytics and take that information and generate 3D products with AI. then you can mark those products through influencers and ads and ship them out. This...
Master Simplicity: Build the Best Minimal Product
A very underrated business decision is to build the simplest product you possibly can better than anyone else.
Startup Founders Saw Fundraising Costs as Unavoidable Norm
I knew more than a few startup founders who did this along the routes of Palo Alto VCs circa 2006-2010 (and considered it a cost of raising money)
Cold Email Mastery Leads to $25M Venture
You can improve your life so much by mastering how to write an excellent cold email... That's exactly how Simon met his co-founder. He spent half a day writing it and had his wife proofread it. They then became business partners and bought...
SaaS Success: Happy Customers and Positive Cash Flow
I've started 3 successful SaaS companies. I have learned the game comes down to 2 things: 1/ make your customers happy 2/ make more money than you spend The rest is just details.
Skip the Pep Talk: 5 Steps to Launch a Business
If you cornered me at a dinner party and asked how to start a business, I wouldn't give you a pep talk. I'd walk you through these 5 steps.
VC Pursuit: 1% Glory vs 99% Stable Life
Choosing VC over bootstrapping is choosing the 1% chance of glory over the 99% chance of just building a good life.
Find Gold in Forgotten Markets with Unspoken Frustrations
Everyone is chasing the next big thing. That's exactly why it's so hard to find. The best opportunities are in old markets with new frustrations. Industries no one has bothered to fix. Problems people stopped complaining about because they gave up expecting...
Hardship and Fear Forge Entrepreneurial Resilience and Clarity
When I met Charlie Munger in Omaha, Lehman Brothers had just gone bust and I had lost nearly everything. I’ll never forget what he said to me: “Larry, hardship is good for you. Fear is your best friend right now—use...
Self‑Made Millionaires Fail Three Times Before Success
The average self-made millionaire failed at least 3 businesses before they built the one that worked. Failure isn’t the end of the story. It’s chapter 2.
Speak the CEO’s Language to Secure Data Funding
Cheat code for getting a data project funded: Open your CEO's annual report. Steal their exact phrases. Build your pitch in their own words. "Very rarely anybody's going to argue with you." Scott Taylor. https://t.co/9JsUcemtlD
Diverse Teams Outperform Solo Founders; Build the Right Room
The lone genius founder is a myth. Diverse founding teams consistently outperform solo founders on survival, growth, fundraising, and adaptability. Find people who are excellent where you are weak. The genius isn't in doing it alone. It's in building the right room.
Recursive Superintelligence Secures $500M, $4B Valuation
Months-old start-up Recursive Superintelligence raises $500mn for self-teaching AI Group founded by former engineers at DeepMind and OpenAI secures $4bn valuation in deal with Google’s venture arm and Nvidia https://t.co/mvU224DyQj via @ft
Scale Demands Automation, but Human Review Remains Essential
When you're at a scale where you need an automated system to flag deviants, fraudsters, and other nefarious kinds of users, laws of scale dictate that your automation tooling will produce a significant number of very dangerous false positives. NEVER seen...
Business: The Real‑World Game That Beats Video Gaming
In my teens and 20's I would spend way too much time playing Starcraft and Civilization. Harvesting resources, building things, and expanding was super addictive to my brain - to an almost unhealthy degree. Later I realized that entrepreneurship and business...
GroupthinkAI Goes Headless, Private, User‑Provided LLM Keys
taking @groupthinkAI fully headless and private this weekend, removing all cost structure and letting users provide their own LLM API keys and storage
Entrepreneurship Feels Like a Falling Platform Game
In podcasts interviews I regularly compare entrepreneurship to a video game. It can feel like the track is constantly falling away beneath you but the only thing to do is lock in and keep going.
YC Set to Win AI Boom by Scaling Founders
1/ In the AI/robotics revolution, the biggest winner is actually going to be @ycombinator—because the world is about to need 100x more founders. And YC creates great founders at scale. Sounds weird but hear me out for a hot second 🧵👇
VC Funding Offers No Advantage, Only Debt and Fatigue
Taking VC is statistically indistinguishable from not starting a company, except you'll be poorer and more exhausted.
Lawyers Want Product, VCs Want Pivot—Different Priorities
Me as Lawyer & LegalTech Founder talking to.. VCs: “Yeah, okay, but I don’t understand your wedge, you should do X differnt, but have you thought about Y?” Other Attorneys: *cuts me off* ..”yep, I get it. How do I sign...
Become a Wavemaker, Not Just a Wave Rider
Most founders know how to swim to where the wave is. But have you ever considered being the wavemaker?
Investors Now Demand Proven Distribution Over Funding
The landscape for early-stage investing has fundamentally shifted in recent months, and the change centers on one critical factor: distribution. As software becomes increasingly commoditized, investors are laser-focused on how startups plan to acquire and retain customers. Unfortunately, early-stage companies...
Even Failed YC Founders Felt Special—So Do You
Every one of the 3,950 failed YC founders thought they were special. So do you.
Profit Gives Permission to Keep Building What You Love
Profit is just permission to do it again tomorrow. The more you love what you're building, the more important it is to make money from it. Search "Nathan Barry Show" to watch the full episode. https://t.co/DiVZbd8eub
CreaoAI's Self‑Built Product Signals Strong Conviction
$30M raised quickly is one thing But @CreaoAI rebuilding and running on their own product is what makes this interesting That’s a strong signal of conviction
Solve the Right Problem, Not Just Execute Well
The most expensive mistake in business isn't a bad hire or a failed launch. It's solving the wrong problem really well. Execution without diagnosis is just expensive activity. Make sure the problem is real. Make sure it hurts enough. Make sure people will...
Solo Entrepreneurs Need Backup Plans Beyond AI Reliance
One of the challenges for solo and OPC (one person company) if reliance too much on AI and Claude. What’s the alternative & backup plan?
From Failed Startups to $3 Billion Success
This is the greatest comeback story in history: After his father's murder... This kid moved to America & lost his life savings on 3 failed startups. With nothing left, he had ONE final idea that turned into $3 BILLION. Here are his 3...
Space‑based Datacenters Will Dwarf Earth GPUs, Boost Security
Tonight I hung out with an entrepreneur who is building https://t.co/1tXBvxF3GP Datacenters in Space. He is putting 42,000 up over next few years. All put in space by @SpaceX And all packets will go through @Starlink. GPU inside made by @nvidia. He said the Vera...
Must‑watch TED Talk: Building OpenClaw in 18 Minutes
Cancel your plans RIGHT NOW. A new TED talk just dropped: @steipete walks through how he built @OpenClaw 👀 best 18 minutes you'll spend this weekend https://t.co/ZcGHKulJXr
Ron Conway’s Relentless Founder Support Sets the Standard
No better display of who @RonConway is than this: "While I will be stepping back from some of my usual activities, I will continue to support SV Angel founders, who I love with a passion." Even during his own struggles, he still...
Dropping Out: Bold Self‑Bet Fuels Extraordinary Success
Dropping out of school is an act of EXCEPTIONAL COURAGE. In a way its betting on yourself over the educational system. Its burning the boats with no turning back. I just realized that one of the CTOs we backed was a drop...
TAO Empowers Builders with Self‑Recruiting, Low‑Cost Compute
“TAO changed my life as a builder.” Seby, the founder of Resi Labs, on why BitTensor is gives builders an unfair advantage. Instead of begging for hiring, compute, and distribution, you plug into a network where incentives recruit the people,...
AI Business OS Must Deliver Real Results in 48 Hours
The way I think about an “AI business OS” for solo founders: Day 1 has to ship a real result. My current Vora IQ activation target: • Ask 5 sharp questions • Build a focused roadmap around 1 offer • Auto-generate a week of content...
Know When You’re Building to Learn Vs. Earn
"We are building in both discovery and delivery, it’s just that we’re building with a very different purpose (to learn vs to earn), and normally using different tools and different techniques." https://t.co/uEGNWaF6Jv < make sure you know when you're building...