VCs Inflate Valuations to Secure Next Fund
So at the end of the year I wrote an investment down to $0, my biggest write-off so far. $4m to $0. But my co-investor? He marked up his investment. From about $15m to $30m. How is this possible? Well the start-up was "acquired" for stock. You could I guess argue the combined company could be worth $100B+ some day. But I couldn't argue it. That VC used that mark-up to help raise their next fund. They needed the mark-up. He also voted for the deal, even though it in practice was a zero, to get that paper mark-up. Incentives.
Build Your Audience Before Building the Product
If I were starting a product-company today, I would first start by building an audience that’s relevant to said product before even thinking about the product. Way easier to build and sell if you have close rapport with future potential...
Testing Daily Signals to Boost Operator Decision Speed
For 11 years, I’ve sent a weekly newsletter. Five hundred seventy-two issues built around links people consistently tell me they actually read. That cadence works. I’m keeping it. But frequency isn’t the same thing as usefulness. A lot of operator...
CEOs in Fintech, SaaS Thrive via Thought Leadership
People often think social posting is most beneficial for consumer products, but being a thought leader as the CEO of a fintech, developer, or SaaS company also pays off big time.
Founder Friends Seoul: Eric Bahn & Ethan Cho Live Jan 20
There are 7 days until Founder Friends Seoul. @ericbahn will be chatting with Ethan Cho and you know is gonna be a great chat when two super unhinged, honest, and hilarious humans hang. If you're in Seoul and free Jan 20, save...
Most B2B AI Features Fail; Winners Do Differently
Hot take: 90% of "AI features" shipping in B2B right now are terrible. The companies winning are doing something completely different. Come to SaaStr AI 2026 May 12-14 and learn what actually works from founders with the receipts. https://t.co/Ff7DKVt1H2
YC Partner Pete Koomen Discusses AI Boom with KTH
YC partner Pete Koomen (@koomen) is visiting KTH this month for an off-the-record talk with @HenrikTaro, KTH alum and CEO of Vesence. They’ll talk about startups, Stockholm, and how the AI boom is unfolding in Silicon Valley. Learn more at https://t.co/ymSLsFFmTw https://t.co/XEP0YL8QKO
Six Key Steps to Close an M&A Deal
What are the basic milestones of a process (M&A or capital raise)? 1. Pre-marketing Complete the marketing materials (information packet and buyer list) and get your house in order. 2. Marketing Reach out to buyers, execute NDAs, and share marketing...
Two Must‑Attend Events for Founders and Investors
Two upcoming events worth checking out for anyone building or investing: 🤝🇰🇷 Founder Friends Seoul - January 20, 2026 A space to connect and learn from each other. No pitches, no pressure. ⛺️ Camp Hustle 2026 - May 11-13, 2026 An oasis...
VC Success: Prioritize Founder Agency Over Rigid Rules
Rules are the enemy of great returns -- but this is a very good heuristic for VC 👇 1⃣Founders with high agency 2⃣Encyclopedic about their industry 3⃣Who can materialize labor, capital & customers 4⃣Have "Count of Monte Cristo" motivation. Great pod by my...
Founders’ Retention Payments Can Outshine VC Liquidation Preferences
Yes, VCs often have a “liquidation preference” But there is also a “founder preference”. It’s called retention payments, which can often be eight figures on top of any return from common. And are often structured in a way to...
Untapped Domain Knowledge Fuels Niche Decentralized Entrepreneurship
" Everyone has domain knowledge in their head that is not monetized yet." @amasad of @Replit on the explosion of niche, decentralized entrepreneurs: https://t.co/Fd5FhtZSOG
AI Accelerates Competition: Stay Ahead or Become Irrelevant
Old rules: Around Year 5, the Competition Catches You in Whatever Made You Special Around Year 10, you have an Existential Threat. The tech world has changed so much, what you started with is sort of irrelevant. Today, with AI, often happens...
Juniper's $7B Return Proved TCP/IP's Internet Dominance
Juniper returned $7b+ to Kleiner's ~$500m fund ... I think it was 2500X but often ignored. Only player doing TCP/IP for the public internet in 1996 when every telco customer wanted ATM. If Juniper had not started the internet likely...
Scrappy Young Immigrants Outpaced Funded Giants, Redefined Industry
In retrospect, Sun as the beginning of a different kind of startup, the SCRAPPY but ambitious startup, from 20’s year olds without credibility or big connections. We beat the establishment startups like Apollo that had martini’s for lunch, had raised...
One‑Time Billionaire Tax Is Just First Step
My take on California’s “One-Time” Billionaire Tax. It’s much worse than it looks. 📉 Will it pass? Yes, likely. It only needs 50%+1 voter approval. SEIU + CTA have done this before—Prop 55 won 63% in 2016. ⚖️ Will it...
Squarespace Design Plugin Generates $340K Revenue, 39% Growth
Plugins + SaaS print money. Live on @acquiredotcom: All-in-one website design plugin for Squarespace freelancers and agencies. Faster builds, no custom code, sticky subscriptions. > $340K TTM revenue > $223K TTM profit > 39% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/Y8gnOYsd82 https://t.co/kiUkoUUPCu
Incumbents Shift From Open APIs to Closed Walls
Salesforce, Datadog & Epic are building walls. After two decades of flourishing through open APIs & data portability, the software industry's largest incumbents are locking down. https://t.co/7n6Tio3aJK
Build for Forever, Sell Tomorrow: Leverage Through Systems
Build your startup like you’re going to run it forever but prepare it so you could sell it tomorrow. > Organized books > Standardized operations > Product that works without you That’s how you create real leverage with buyers.
Zuckerberg Faces $49B Tax Bill Over Voting Power
Everyone’s focused on Brin and Page fleeing California. But there’s a ticking time bomb buried in the billionaire tax: Mark Zuckerberg may be facing a $49 Billion tax bill he literally cannot pay. 🧵 The California billionaire tax has a provision that...
Startups Only Need a Strategist for Few Hours
The one hire I don't need, and none of my portfolio cos need, is a "Strategist" I know at certain stage in many folks' career, that's what they want to do Advise on strategy more than do work themselves No criticism But most startups...
Bootstrapped SaaS Secures $480K Sale After Advisory Process
65 days ago this founder didn’t know if their SaaS was sellable. > Bootstrapped > 3 serious offers > Structured advisory process Yesterday they closed for $480,000 on @acquiredotcom. https://t.co/IHlzfr48zL
Celebrating 12 Years of A16z Support and $12B Fund
Grateful for a16z’s support which started nearly 12 years ago when they led Product Hunt’s Series A. Congrats on the fresh $12B, team. :)
Clarifies Divestments, Denies Media Claims of Profit Motive
It’s true that we divested both Groq and xAI. I wouldn’t have mentioned this except for the fact that the MSM continually lies about this, claiming I took a government role to make money when in fact the opposite is...
Slow Growth, Faster Spending: Hire Aggressively
I did office hours with a startup yesterday that I ended up advising to (a) decrease their growth rate and (b) spend the money they've raised faster by hiring more people and paying them high salaries. Possibly the first time...
Voting Power Triggers 50% Tax on Alphabet Founders
Larry and Sergey can’t stay in California since the wealth tax as written would confiscate 50% of their Alphabet shares. Each own ~3% of Alphabet's stock, worth about $120 billion each at today's ~$4 trillion market cap. But because their...
A16z's Fundraise Could Hand $1M to Every American
With its latest fundraise, a16z could give $1 million to every American and still have $10 billion left over.
Management Pitches Are Friendly, Not Tense, Focus on Fit
When you're going to sell your business or raise capital, what should you expect from management presentations? Generally, you should expect those meetings to be friendly. Buyers will be asking questions, but they're also trying to sell themselves. The main...
Series B Bar Rises: Vertical SaaS Outlook 2025‑26
Are you a company looking to raise their Series B? I spoke to the king of the category, Jason Kong from Base10 Partners . Every day he wakes up and works with founders in this zone, which straddles traditional venture...
Join Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital – Apply Now
📣 Best opportunity out there to work with my dear friend and the OG Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital . Reach out if you fit the bill to the link below not me.
AI‑Driven GTM Built in 180 Days: Key Wins
1/ Personio's CRO Phil Lecor built an AI-powered GTM in 6 months. From nothing to all-in in 180 days. $8.5B company. 400 salespeople. 15,000 customers. Here's what actually worked (and the mistakes to avoid): 🧵 https://t.co/qhDbuFmAxS
Transformers Hit Ceiling; Hybrid Models Unlock True Multimodal AI
During last month’s NeurIPS 2025 conference, YC’s @agupta sat down with @krandiash, founder and CEO of Cartesia, to explain why today’s AI architectures may be fundamentally limited. They discuss how transformers act more like retrieval systems than learning systems, where new...
A16z Deploys $15B to Fuel Global Innovation
The gap between what’s possible—and what’s actually built—has never been bigger. Excited to back entrepreneurs around the world building the future with >$15B in new funds - Apps, Infrastructure, Bio + Health, American Dynamism & Growth🚀 @a16z
Boost Growth by Optimizing Customers, Churn, and Sales Focus
Best things to do when .. you don't know what to do: 1/ More time w/existing customers. Meet 5/mo IRL. 5/week on Zoom. 2/ Hire 1 great VP 3/ Drive down churn. You grow faster even w/o more leads 4/ Join more sales calls....
Backing a Founder-Led Fund: LP Invitation Inside
Just committed to back a fund led by a founder I admire. If you’re an LP and curious to follow along. 👇🏼 Will share next week.
Business Success Comes From Common Sense, Not Complexity
IF all "board meetings" were re-named "common sense meetings" they would be a lot more useful and I would enjoy attending them The way great investing is about avoiding the traps of fear/greed (not advanced strategies) Business wins come from common sense,...
Only Heed Advice that Could Later Haunt You
In the process of giving advice to a startup whose domain I know very little about, I came up with a useful form of qualification: only listen to this advice if you can imagine scenarios where this email comes back...
Practical AI Tactics for Scaling Revenue and Reducing Churn
No fluff. No panels about "the future of AI." At SaaStr AI Annual 2026 (May 12-14) you'll learn: 💲How to price AI features 🤖How to reduce churn with AI agents 💰How to build AI GTM agents that work 🧖♀️How to hire (or not...
AI-Driven Automation Redefines How Startups Become Enterprises
So excited to share the @kindredventures seed investment into @TheCorgiCompany. AI has enabled complex services to be automated at a level never before seen. This changes the model of what kind of company can be built. As @nico_laqua says, "While...
Revenue Intelligence Powered by Real Sales Conversations
Ergo (@joinergo) is the next generation of revenue intelligence. Most sales reporting relies on CRM fields and manual updates, which means leaders end up making decisions without real evidence. Ergo instead pulls data directly from sales conversations—calls, emails, and meetings—to show trends...
Leverage Existing $100M ARR to Build AI In‑House
Ok so on LinkedIn this week I saw another founder I know at $100m+ ARR where growth has slowed … just leave the keys on the table. Quit. This founder said he was excited to explore what AI could do...
High‑Pay Gap Year Programs Place Students in Startup Roles
Common Gap from Deep24 (@effortcompany24) is a single app for college and graduating high school students to apply to take a gap year at fast-growing startups. Participating companies include Corgi Insurance, Zingage and Superbuilders. This is a bet on giving young...
AI Firms Dominate Q4 Secondary Market; SpaceX Returns to Top
The 30 most in-demand startup secondary shares in Q4 '25 (per Setter Capital) Big takeaways: - SpaceX is back at #1. It spent 2.5 years on top before Anthropic briefly surpassed it in Q3. - Little change at very top of the list...
Founder‑Led SaaS Thrives Amid Market Headwinds, 2025 Success
Thank you to all of the founders, partners, and colleagues we worked with in 2025. Despite headwinds in the broader market, founder-led SaaS companies continued to outperform, drawing meaningful buyer interest and achieving strong valuations. Last year, Vista Point Advisors...
Companies Either Create What They Love or Exploit Customers
The most important division between companies is between those who make things they themselves admire, and those who regard their customers as fools, and cynically give them what they want. Companies sometimes shift from the former to the latter, but...
Beware Buyer Tactics—Lean on Your Banker
What are some ways buyers try to get an unfair advantage in a process? 1. Create artificial deadlines for the founder to give them exclusivity. 2. Encourage founders to sign an LOI early, without providing much detail on what the...
Kevin Hartz: Backing Teens, AI Bubble, PayPal Wisdom
New pod with @kevinhartz - why he backs so many teen founders - lessons from the PayPal Mafia - AI is the mother of all bubbles yet still underhyped - how Palantir, Xoom, and Eventbrite evolved from PayPal - sizing a hidden TAM - having kids...
Start VC Young, Enjoy Returns Decades Later
Ideally, you'd start in venture around 13-14 years old That way, in 20 years, when the carry checks finally get material, you still have time to spend it
Stoke Space Targets Near‑Instant Rocket Reusability
Stoke Space is racing to build the world's first fully reusable rockets that can launch, survive reentry, and fly again almost right away. In this episode of Hard Tech, @aaron_epstein sits down with @stoke_space co-founders @AndyLapsa and @Rkt_Da to find out...
Speed Wins: Upstarts Respond, Incumbents Stall
I often cold outbound mega CEOs to come on 20VC: The upstarts who are crushing, taking incumbent share and moving fast; respond and take it themselves. The incumbents; forward it to comms, who send me BS emails a week later...