AI‑First SaaS Lacks Playbook, Creating New Opportunities
No playbook yet for building an AI-first SaaS company — and that’s the opportunity. Episode 232 of The SaaS CFO Podcast with Ben Winter 👇 https://t.co/0CcjGEIVb9 #SaaS #AI https://t.co/62OFBrvp7A
Founders Should Solve Problems They’ve Lived Through
"Build something people want." Focus on solving real problems for your customers. It's best when founders have actually lived the problem.
Warp-Speed Growth Demands Zero Friction to Value and Scale
Going from 0-100M in 5 years used to be called hypergrowth. In the AI era, that’s SLOW. The new standard is going from 0-100M in 12 months or less. I call this WARP speed. Companies that have scaled at WARP...
AI Cuts Months of Design Work to Hours
1.5 years ago, I spent an entire month designing Theanna from idea to... design. (just design) Last night, I used Claude Code to design and implement a front end for a brand new feature, generate Linear tickets, and assigned to a...
Validate Early, Build Moat Before Hype-Driven Launch
From now on, hype-centric splashy launches will likely be strongly uncorrelated with success. If by the time you launch you don’t have escape velocity, you will likely get Sybil attacked¹. Agents will spin up 10 competing products with your same interface. Start...
World‑class Skill Invisible without Buyer‑centric Packaging
You can be world-class and still invisible. Just ask Joshua Bell, one of the world’s top violinists... In 2007, Joshua Bell played his $3.5M Stradivarius violin for 45 minutes in a Washington, D.C. subway station. Only 7 people stopped to listen. The same...
Ecom Founders Stay Quiet, Letting Results Speak
Everyone at dinner: Let me tell you about my business idea. Ecom founders at dinner: Quiet because they're actually building and have nothing to prove. Different mindset. Different life.
Identify Which of Four Innovation Types You're Neglecting
Most founders talk about innovation. Few know there are 4 types: product, process, business model, and organizational. Cook Medical built new devices, GE Aviation improved manufacturing with automation, fintech startups redesigned digital banking, and Purdue accelerators reshaped how startups grow. Then move through...
Start Building AI Now—No $10k Machine Needed
Alex bought a $10,000 Mac to run @openclaw with powerful local models. He isn’t alone. Know a guy with several NVIDIA H200’s in his house. Now that I am building I get it. Having your own local AI changes your whole approach...
Listen to Customers: The only Guide for Next Steps
What is the most important thing to do next? The answers lie with the customers -- what they want, why they will buy, or stay. Not inside Visual Studio, not in ChatGPT, not on social media. The customer, and you facing the truth.
Success Needs Stamina, Courage, Not Just Intelligence
The headline of this piece should be "Is Stanford for Cowards?" https://t.co/IkzzYak0M8 Favorite line: "People misunderstand what built Silicon Valley. It wasn’t just intelligence. It was the stamina to endure embarrassment, the courage to diverge from the 'ideal path,' and...
Pair Big Distribution with Startup Innovation for Win‑Win Deals
Large companies have distribution; startups have innovation, and maybe even a product people love. When each party's weakness maps onto the other's strength, that feels like the kernel of a deal. But typically it isn’t. Here’s how to make it work: https://t.co/tWykmze29I
Sourcing and Securing Cap Tables: Venture’s Toughest Challenges
Sourcing is the single hardest part about venture. Equally followed by actually getting on the cap table of the best companies.
AI Tools Transform Business Acquisition and Franchise Analysis
Building AI tools for business acquisition and franchise analysis. Always down to chat with others innovating in this space. DM me
AI Data Center Funding Proves Massive, Rapid Growth
There are reasons to argue about financial bubbles in the funding of data centers, but it is increasingly clear from the numbers that the frontier AI companies are showing that AI is, indeed, a very massive business with high demand...
Seedance 2.0 Crafts 15‑Second Narrative Arcs
The most interesting thing about Seedance 2.0 is that clips can be just long enough (15 seconds) to have something interesting happen, and the LLM behind it is good enough to actually make a little narrative arc, rather than cut...
Student-Built Livestorm Scales to $20M ARR
Gilles Bertaux built Livestorm for a university final exam in 2016. Nearly $20M ARR. 3,500 customers. $35M raised. Last round was 2020. https://t.co/DXieBIwtcs
Free Reforge AI Courses: Prototyping & Evaluation Mastery
Announcing two new Reforge courses: AI Prototyping w/ Ravi Mehta and AI Evals w/ Justin Bauer and Sandhya Hegde 🙌 AI Prototyping Ravi is a former product leader from Tinder, Meta, and Tripadvisor. He has been deep in the weeds,...
Set Limits: Schedule Health, Family Before Work
Running a business never ends. I learned to shut it down with 7 rules: brain dump each night, auto-reply after hours, block time for bills, set reply rules, schedule fun, rank tasks by day week quarter, guard sleep food and workouts. Your...
Testing Beats Courses: $40k in 90 Days
I spent $30k on a course teaching 'proven systems.' Applied everything. Made $0. I spent $500 testing products with no system. Made $40k in 90 days. Education doesn't matter. Execution does. Test everything.
AI Doctor in Pocket Offers 24/7 Monitoring
.@tryprana is an AI primary doctor in your pocket that monitors you 24/7. Connect your wearables to your medical records to monitor for clinical drift. At any moment, you can instantly bring a Board-Certified MD into the chat to review your...
Prep Claude Once, Let It Code All Day
Hi, so Claude code is crazy. I’m on calls all day so I prepped Claude with all the things I need it to do. It’s literally building for me while I do CEO work. The prep time took about an...
Free 7‑Hour Dropshipping Masterclass Drops This Sunday
This Sunday I’m dropping my 2026 FREE Dropshipping Course on YouTube. 7 hours. Step-by-step. Beginner to advanced. This is the biggest video I release every year. Most people pay $1,000+ for this information in paid courses… I give it away for free. If you’re serious about starting...
Founder Friends & Rivian Host LA Networking Night Feb 26
Founder Friends is coming to LA on Feb 26! Join us and @Rivian for an evening of networking, learning, and connection with fellow founders and investors. More >> https://t.co/1bltGWHwcQ
Choose AI for Purposeful Creation, Not Just Task Automation
Reading this essay made me ask myself a question: am I using this to „do the thing“ or just to „do a thing?“ Interesting nuance here. I personally use AI very much as a deliberate tool, both in building & running a...
Founders &
I was at a founders + CTOs event for 10-500 person startups. Founders and CTOs at these companies burn some of the most tokens and increasingly ship a bunch of code to production (when they did ~zero 6 months ago)
Own Your Brand, Work It, Grow Exponentially
Kevin Hart built a tequila brand in a declining market and grew it 85% in one year. Gran Coramino sold 300,000 cases, passed $200M in retail sales, and became a top 25 tequila worldwide. He joins weekly sales calls, meets distributors, and...
Exclusive Investor Mixer at Vegas Hangar, Feb 26
I’m hosting an exclusive investor mixer at this private hangar in Vegas on Thurs 2/26 👀 DM if interested. https://t.co/65LxbH2BJO
Adopt Only Tools That Boost Output 30%+
Every week a new AI tool goes viral. Every month half of them die. Stop falling for it. Before adopting anything, ask one question: "Does this give me 30% more output, savings, or speed?" No → move on. Yes → go all in. I've watched founders waste...
YC Still Accepts Late Applications After Deadline
Stumbled across this snap from 2014 in my camera roll. Founders, YC’s deadline just passed but they accept late applications. https://t.co/wp6gokGBi5
45 New Billion‑Dollar Tech Exits Signal Accelerating Pace
since @behind_genius's last study of the 100 most recent billion-dollar-plus tech exits study in April 2025, there have been 45 new exits added...things are heating up! https://t.co/W4I8gsyiDu
Engineers: Build Real-World Companies Now with 5050
Enough AI slop. Enough gambling apps. There’s never been a better time for engineers to build companies that reshape the physical world. Start one with 5050. Apply now. Early bird deadline Feb 15. https://t.co/giXwZLE8uX
Feature Upgrades Cut User Complaints by 78%
Here's a fun example of building features that have a direct customer impact and then measuring the results. We were getting more complaints of people losing their work in @kit when they used multiple computers, lost internet, or their browser had...
Spot Tiny Trends Early for Explosive Startup Returns
I like to think of startup investing like surfing 🏄♀️ You don't want to paddle out too early (market doesn't exist yet). You don't want to be too late (already crowded with competitors). And sometimes the wave you're betting on...
Founders Should Prioritize Real Risks Over Competition
Why I avoid competitive markets (usually) We see 1,000+ pitches/month at @HustleFundVC. Many founders obsess over competition for the wrong reasons. Here's what they should actually worry about: 👇 https://t.co/b0BOgdWtRe
Valuation Blends SaaS Metrics with Deal Structuring
Valuation is understandably one of the most top-of-mind topics founders want to cover in our conversations. Something we often emphasize is that there are two sides of valuation: the objective side based on core SaaS metrics, and the subjective side...
Monaco Launches AI-Powered Startup Sales Automation
We're launching Monaco today. Monaco automates customer acquisition and revenue growth for startups. The platform disrupting sales with AI has finally arrived. https://t.co/mH03HIOdx8
UncorkCap Secures Investment Led by Inertia’s Jeffiel
We at @uncorkcap couldn't be more excited to share this news about a recent investment of ours: Inertia led by my old friend @jeffiel. https://t.co/DgUzgdgvhM
Navigating the Gray Zone: Pivot, Growth, AI Adaptation
In this episode of Design Review, @aaron_epstein sits down with @jornvandijk, the CEO and Co-founder of @framer. Together they unpack the brutal “gray zone” between early revenue and real product-market fit, the pivot that reignited their growth, and how to adapt...
Start with Familiar Use Case, Not Lofty Vision
Most founders position their products around their ultimate vision rather than what users can immediately understand. This is why so many brilliant products struggle to gain traction early on. Flo Crivello from Lindy shared a perfect case study with me:...
AI‑Native Mindset: Redefine Teams, Growth, and Assumptions
The Mental Shift Required In An AI-Native World In my second piece in Forbes, I explore how founders should rethink what it would mean to start their companies from scratch in an AI-native world. AI isn’t just a product or tooling shift,...
Fix Activation, Not Features, to End Plateaus
A plateau is not a failure. It means people are paying. Every month. They find enough value to stay. The problem isn't your product. It's your funnel. We found that only 25% of signups ever made their first post. That was the whole leak. Not...
Amazon Launches AI Content Marketplace, Shifting Arms Race to Licensing
Amazon wants to build an AI content marketplace. Publishers would upload their articles. AI companies would pay to train on them. This means less copyright risk, more profit sharing, and fewer lawsuits. The AI arms race is turning into a licensing war.
Prioritize Simplicity, Shipping, Consistency, and Feedback for Success
Simple > Complex Shipped > Perfect Consistent > Viral User feedback > Your assumptions These 4 principles built every successful product I've made.
More Projects, Same Few Great Products: Building Is Hard
It seems like the number of things people claim they are building is up but the number of great products is roughly the same. I find this particularly interesting about what it means is actually hard.
Ship Only What Users Actually Need, Backed by Data
The best teams ship what they can prove users need. User research turns opinions into evidence and protects you from confident guesses. Get the receipts on your users with Seena Labs — seenalabs.io
Building a Trusted Audience Is Ultimate Leverage
Is there a higher leverage activity than building an audience of people who know and trust you? I can't think of one.
Impact Beats Tools: Solve a Problem Today
The tools don't matter. The framework doesn't matter. The stack doesn't matter. What matters: Did you solve someone's problem today? That's the only metric that counts.
AI Dominates Startups, yet “Why Now?” Still Matters
Thanks for resurfacing this, Dimitry Gershenson 🙏 ❤️ So much has changed since we put this together in 2023 (i.e. AI dominating the startup ecosystem) but also, not much has changed (i.e. the importance of asking "why now?").