Founder Weekly (Issue 599 - August 16 2023)

Founder Weekly - Issue 599

August 16, 2023

Founder Weekly

Welcome to issue 599 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

General

Wade discusses why Zapier only raised around $1M and unpacks Zapier’s strategies for growing profitably. Wade shares lessons from building one of the first remote-only companies in tech, including key tips for hiring, onboarding, building a great management team, and much more. 

Part one of a seven-part series on kickstarting and scaling a B2B business.

Former Google and Stripe executive Claire Hughes Johnson tells the inside story of how those two companies went from promising tech start-ups to big businesses, and how it was often chaos behind-the-scenes.

Most so-called “strategies” are vague, wishful thinking, written once and never seen again. Don’t do that. These are the characteristics of great strategy. 

When a platform shift reshapes the technology landscape, who wins? We unpack the market dynamics between startups and incumbents from the SaaS and cloud era that are likely to play out in the AI era.

The blog post discusses the convergence of challenges leading to a surge in startup closures, including market saturation, funding shifts, and increased competition, prompting a need for adaptability and resilience in the startup ecosystem.

Marketing, Sales and PR

VP of Marketing Greg Kogan on early go-to-market strategy and PLG.

Discussing the dumb thing CNET did in an effort to please the Google Gods: Don’t cull old news content to improve your SEO ranking. That’s your history! 

Money and Finance

The absence of liquidity is a major issue for startup shareholders. Yet, for the private companies that have reached scale, this problem should not persist. Startups should consider an annual liquidity program and improve the industry.

Or Why Hopin Is Everything Wrong With Venture Capital.

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