Fix the Math Before Scaling Your Business
Most businesses struggle for one reason: you ignore the math. If you close 80% of sales calls, you are underpriced. If your LTV to CAC is below 3:1 with humans involved, your model breaks at scale. If you wait more than 60 seconds to call a lead, you waste ad spend. Fix the numbers first, then grow.
Stand Out by Thinking Differently, Not Just Being Expert
People don't become known for their expertise They become known for how they *think differently* about their area of expertise Recognition follows a distinct, ownable idea (not volume, not credentials, not even quality of work) If your thinking sounds like everyone else's in...
Automated Outreach Drives Growth without Any Ads
The last 25min on Podscan have been pretty exciting :D I have fully automated my customer discovery and outreach process. It's picking up quite a bit. And that's with 0 ads. I'll open that faucet soon, too. https://t.co/BY5051Wnm8
Value Over Novelty: Prioritize Meaningful Innovation
Not all innovation is good. Just because something is new doesn't mean it's better. Focus on meaningful innovation that truly adds value rather than chasing every new trend.
Spot Red Flags in Discovery Calls, Move On
Founders: Discovery call warning signs: 🚩 Vague answers about current challenges 🚩 'Need to talk to my boss' responses 🚩 No current spend on similar solutions 🚩 'No rush' timeline signals 🚩 Deflects all pricing questions Seeing 2+ flags? Move on to better opportunities.
Optimistic AI Startups Can Disrupt the Doomsday Narrative
So many doomsday predictions from the biggest AI players...who also need to justify massive capex. If you're a startup with a more optimistic and nuanced take on the future of work, this is your opportunity. The dominant narrative is ripe...
AI Hiring You Now: Boardy AI Disrupts Investing
Someday soon AI will hire you. @boardyai is already doing that today. You talk to it on the phone. Helps you build your company. Very disruptive to all sorts of investors.
AI Sales Agent Raises $14M, Beats Human Reps
In this episode of Founder Firesides,@snowmaker talks to the founders of @simpleailab, @catheryn_li & @Zach_Kamran, who just raised a $14M seed. Simple AI gives businesses an AI sales agent that handles inbound calls end-to-end and outperforms their human reps. https://t.co/keftLeBwrc
How Many VCs Should You Pitch for Seed?
Hey founders, when you raised your seed round, how many unique VC firms did you send your pitch?
Modern Treasury: Stripe‑style API for Corporate Cash Flows
This is a big deal. It's like Stripe but for moving money in and out of companies. You just call the API and Modern Treasury does the rest.
Zero to $1M ARR: Hunt Whales, Share Journey,
I’ve bootstrapped $0 to $1M ARR three times. If I had to start over with no money and no personal brand, this is exactly how I’d hit $1M ARR in under 12 months: 1. Hunt whales in their natural habitat. Alina Vandenberghe...
Seeking Weird Consumer Startups—DM Me Your Demo
I'd love to invest in more founders building something weird in consumer. If that's you, shoot me a demo or link to the product. My DMs are open. :)
Prioritize Marketing and Sales Over Endless Feature Tweaking
You will naturally spend more time making features and tweaking design rather than marketing, sales, and facing the difficult truths about why customers are cancelling. That’s why you need special effort on those areas. The full roadmap: https://t.co/slGN2Hmjwb
Brilliant Founders Chase the Next Improvement, Not Accolades
This is what makes Lukas such a brilliant founder. It's not enough for him that an interview with the German Chancellor is using his SaaS. He's looking around for opportunities to make it even better and spots a sticker on...
WFIO Moments Fuel Founder Resilience and Future Wins
Every Founder has their WFIO moment. WFIO = We're F*cked. It's Over. The other day I was looking through old photos on my phone and found a picture of this receipt from ThirstyBear on Howard Street. It was June of 2013. And my...
Early Funding for Diverse Founders Who Dream Big
We founded Harlem Capital because the world is better when everyone is encouraged to dream big. Winners can come from everywhere but need support to reach their full potential. We invest $1.0M to $2.5M in startups before success is obvious. All Winners Welcome....
Harlem Capital: Early Funding for AI-Building Visionaries
In 2015 we started @HarlemCapital to change who gets to win. Not as a slogan, but as a standard. Ten years later, that standard has become a platform for identifying exceptional founders early and helping them build generational companies. We invest $1.0M to...
AI Generates Personalized, On‑Demand UI for Every User
The new type of software is going to be “dynamic”: - A strong foundation of data access layer and integrations - A smart LLM layer to operate on the data - On-demand dynamic UI for the end users, most other interactions become conversational. For...
Seeking AI Wireframe Tool Integrated with GitHub
What AI deign / wireframe tool connects to github? I want to be able to create mockups quickly but using my real product UX
Every Great Tech Team Needs Vision, Design, Execution
Every iconic tech company follows the same pattern. I’ve seen it repeat again and again. → The visionary founder who bends reality → The designer who shapes taste and experience → The quiet engineer who makes it actually work Different names. Same archetypes. Apple had them. Tesla had...
Solopreneurs Quit when No Audience Shows Up
Most solopreneurs don’t quit because it’s hard. They quit because nobody shows up. Shipping without demand feels like shouting into the void. Ever felt that?
Retainers Free You From Weekly Price Negotiations
Hourly pricing makes you negotiate your value every week. Retainers let you deliver and move on.
Ask Yourself Hard Questions, Then Answer Them Confidently
I left those meetings angry at first, but then embarrassed that I didn’t have better answers, and then motivated to get the right answers. So I started writing my own rude Q&A: • Why do I even exist when the market already...
Likability Beats Intelligence for Earning More Money
Hard truth: Being likable will make you make more money than being smart 9/10 times.
Onshore Secures $31M Series B for AI Tax Automation
Congrats to Onshore on their $31M Series B! Onshore is building an AI-native platform that replaces manual CPA workflows with continuous, automated tax intelligence. Instead of relying on spreadsheets and fragmented documentation, Onshore automates data collection and analysis while keeping expert...
30 Under 30 Prestige Masks Governance Failures
"30 Under 30" list used to be a badge of honor. Now, it’s becoming a red flag for governance failure. Kalder’s founder allegedly faked $1.2M in revenue. Perhaps investors trusted the Forbes list prestige over data. False proxies like awards don’t...
Stop Juggling AI Tools—Vora IQ Streamlines Founders
Most first-time founders don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail juggling 6 AI tools and starting from scratch every time. Vora IQ is an AI-powered business OS with specialized agents that hold your full business context. Every answer is grounded...
Anticipate Investor Attacks with a Rude Q&A
When I started WP Engine, I thought I was pretty good at pitching. I had sold millions of dollars of software at Smart Bear, and I’d helped other companies with their pitches and fundraising. But of course it’s different when someone...
Boston Trains AI Founders; SF Steals Them—Others Beware
Boston has the schools. SF has the companies. 21 of the Forbes AI 50 founders went to school in Boston—then left for San Francisco. If SF doesn’t learn from this cautionary tale, Austin and Miami will. https://t.co/pmYxLaYXWy
Bay Relocation Signals Founder Seriousness, Not Random Investor Bias
The hardest core founders have always moved to the Bay -- living in this area is an indication of seriousness. Investors are not drawing from a random sample.
Stop AI Lies: Four Prompt Tricks for Accurate Research
Everyone's using AI to do data analysis. Almost everyone is getting answers full of lies. Made-up quotes. Invented evidence. Completely wrong conclusions—all presented with total confidence. Today post by UXR veteran Caitlin Sullivan shares four prompting techniques that will prevent...
Deep Questionnaires Boost Dates Tenfold over Tinder
Tinder feels broken. A Stanford grad built Date Drop to send one match per week based on deep questionnaires and real date data. 5,000 students joined, and matches turn into dates at 10x the rate of Tinder. He raised millions and now aims...
Own a Compelling Idea, Not Just an Audience
Don't "build an audience" Find an idea you can own that people want to buy into
Retention Beats Acquisition: Tight Onboarding Drives PLG Success
I sat down with Melissa Kwan, founder of eWebinar, and one line stuck with me: “Getting customers to sign up is the first date. Not the last day with you.” Melissa has built eWebinar to just under $2M ARR. No...
Built Rails Infrastructure for Per‑Customer SQLite, Even When Plans Shifted
The original plan for Fizzy was to ship the SaaS version with one sqlite database per customer. That didn't end up happening, but we built all the Rails infrastructure needed to make it possible. Mike goes through it all here:...
Prioritize Bold, Visible Marketing Levers Over Subtle Nudges
Instead of chasing subtle subliminal effects that get wiped away by ambient noise, we should focus on big, non-subliminal impacts in marketing. Like the home page, pricing, positioning, promises, competitive dynamics, and customer segmentation. https://t.co/KUXMFIswTZ
Top Accounts to Follow for Business Growth
Accounts you should to follow to help grow your business: Retention Expert: @EricRausch Retention Strategy: @Ferastotle Growth Strategy: @KFragoulias $500M Founder: @YDaftary CRO Systems: @brianschmitt_
Turn Envy Into Curiosity: Study Success, Not Resentment
The older I get, the more I realize envy is just misdirected admiration. Instead of resenting what someone else built, default to curiosity. Study it. Ask what it required. Ask what sacrifices they made. Ask what it cost. If you’re...
MrBeast Acquires Teen Bank to Teach Gen Z Finance
MrBeast bought a teen banking app with 7M users. His goal: teach Gen Z how to build credit, save, and invest. He says nobody taught him money skills—so he's building the tools he never had. This isn't about YouTube views. It's about owning...
Build What People Want, Not What You Hope They Want
Are you building something people want… or something you hope they’ll want? Big difference. Which one are you doing right now?
Monthly Subscriptions Beat One‑time Sales for Lasting Growth
I'm much more bullish on the indiehacker doing $2k MRR on $50 / mo subs, than I am on someone who did $10,000 sales of lifetime deals. Getting people to buy something on a "one time" basis has gotten easier, in...
Selling Software to 40‑50‑year‑olds Isn’t Always Appealing
It’s easier, yes, but not everyone wants to sell software into their 40s and 50s.
Software's Toughest Challenge: Standardizing Messy Business, Not Coding
Yes, it's true: the hardest part of software was never the technical aspect. What software does it is it takes the messy reality of business and turns it into a series of standardized flows and processes. That's the hard...
Founders Obsess Over OpenClaw: Why It Matters
Why are founders SO OBSESSED with OpenClaw? The creator of the AI assistant, Peter Steinberger has moved over to OpenAI, sending waves of panic and trepidation across the developer community. We’ve talked for weeks about the advantages of the OpenClaw...
Low Builder Turnout Threatens Startup Weekend Women Event
I’m sad - I’ve been working so hard on startup weekend women here in columbus Ohio and because we have such a low amount of builders we might have to reschedule or cancel. I’ve never experienced this with an event...
Human Value Shifts to Distribution as AI Dominates Creation
As AI eats more of product building (autocompleting code -> writing 100% of code -> reviewing its own code -> deciding what to build in the first place -> judgement to know what is great), where will human brains be...
When CEOs Outshine Teams, Hiring Is Failing
Early on, the CEO is “the best person at the company” at some things. Often sales (passion + knowledge) or product vision. But by 100 people, if the CEO is “better than everyone” at 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, the CEO has hired poorly, and...
Ship a Rough Prototype Today, Not Perfect Plans Tomorrow
Most builders spend 6 months perfecting their plan. Then ship nothing. A rough prototype shipped today beats a perfect product shipped never. Execution is the only strategy that compounds.
In AI Era, VC Success Hinges on Taste
This. In a world in which AI can generate infinite everything — images, content, you name it — the key differentiator becomes curation, which requires taste to be done well. VC is the ultimate test of taste. I don’t think...
Choose the Letter: Prioritize Product Over Business Wrapper
Are you an envelope entrepreneur or a letter entrepreneur? Someone who's about the container, the business on the outside, or someone who's more focused on the letter, the product inside? You can be both, but I think most are definitely one or...