Founder Weekly (Issue 447 - August 12 2020)

Founder Weekly - Issue 447

August 12, 2020

Founder Weekly

Welcome to issue 447 of Founder Weekly. Last week, Hurricane Isaias knocked out our power, internet and cell service. I was completely disconnected from the rest of the world for 4 days. So I couldn't send the newsletter out. We have a pretty packed issue this week. Enjoy it!

 

General

How the son of factory workers grew Pinduoduo from Zero to $100 billion in five years.

A story of how a couple of failed SaaS ideas and a bunch of ugly Less stylesheets turned into life's work.

A great story of how Geekbot, a bootstrapped company, went from 0 to $1m ARR and few lessons learned along the way.

Unbundlings always represent a multitude of business opportunities. This post lists several examples of unbundlings that have happened in the past, some that are happening right now, and a few speculations on what might be unbundled next.

12 months ago VEED turned on our paywall and made their first ever SaaS $1. Exactly 12 months after this first payment, they have managed to cross the seemingly impossible task of hitting $83,333 MRR / $1M ARR. This post shares relevant financial data that might give other founders insights into how to build their own bootstrapped SaaS to $1M ARR.

Understanding the importance of inflection points in technology, startups, and investing. Inflection points matter because they create shifts that cascade down for multiple decades.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve created many videos, podcasts and essays as resources for startup founders. We’ve now consolidated them here in the YC Startup Library.

Understanding the Founder-Type Matrix.

The new media economy will be built on a foundation that structures on the very things that drive its value: the creator and the creator's product

Marketing, Sales and PR

This article breaks down what MRR growth is, how to calculate it and how to improve it without only relying on new customers.

In this live chat case study, learn the tactics that Phil Bagdasarian has been using to grow sales to the point where 30% of Packwire’s revenue comes from live chat.

Done right, thought leadership content is the single most brand-differentiating content marketing asset a company can produce. But it takes more than just having an opinion.

When someone searches your brand, what keywords do they use? Go Google your brand name. See any issues? Here are 13 ways to optimize for the “branded keywords.

6 Leading DevOps Founders Describe Their First Enterprise Win.

Discover the actionable tips you need to implement a comprehensive B2B LinkedIn Lead Generation strategy for your business today.

Money and Finance

This post sheds some light on how to approach the Series B so that you can raise a successful first growth round.

A venture fund model built with Causal.

Find, Decide, Win, Help, Exit: the mantra I think about daily.

5 Fairytale VC Tactics As Taught By Toddlers.

This report presents the findings after surveying over 1,000 institutional and corporate venture capitalists (VCs) at more than 900 different firms to learn how their decisions and investments have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Selecting a co-founder is the single most dilutive decision that a founding CEO can make, and can send signals about a founder’s priorities, judgement and personality.

How a homegrown VC redefined early-stage startup financing in India.

The one senior leader most startups wait too long to hire is a VP of Finance.

Startups of the Week

Opening up the worlds access to power by using tele-energy technology to enable long-range wireless energy transmission that is safe, reliable and cost-effective.

Build and run apps in the cloud, automate tasks, create internal tools and seamlessly integrate with your favorite database and APIs using your favorite programming language.

AI-assisted sewer condition assessment with AutoCode - Deep Learning AI for defect detection in CCTV inspection data.

Tips, Tools and Services

If you're wondering, "How can I improve my personal development?" these practical self-improvement tips can help.

In this talk, Michael Dearing provides an overview of models to help your team write, think and problem-solve, including the Minto Pyramid Principle.

1-Pagers, strategy, GTM and more.

Open calendars are toxic.

Decisions in life come down to trade-offs. And it just so happens we're really bad at evaluating trade-offs.

When you want to achieve something, focus on what you have and what you target. Everything else is noise.

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