Founder Weekly (Issue 676 March 12 2025)

Welcome to issue 676 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

Take From the Rich, Give to the People, Big Data’s Robinhood

Big tech uses our data to pad their pockets. Facebook alone makes $42B a year. But modern-day Robinhood, $MODE, allows everyone to share in the profits. 45M+ users and $60M+ in revenue later, Mode prepares for an IPO.

Invest at just $0.26/share.

General

Revisiting Competitive Moats

This article revisits the concept of competitive moats, arguing that defensibility alone isn't enough in today's rapidly evolving business landscape, especially with the rise of AI. Instead, the author emphasizes the importance of customer acquisition, product velocity, and building a valuable "kingdom" worth defending.

Lessons in Product Scaling and Storytelling from Figma’s CPO

Figma CPO Yuhki Yamashita offers up his playbook for the gnarly phase of product building that arrives after a startup clinches product-market fit — and sets its sights on the next phase of growth.

Brain-Computer Interfaces: Exploring the Last Frontier

BCIs are redefining how we interface with technology and the world around us—enabling everything from controlling devices to restoring lost functions—but broad adoption remains limited as the most interesting applications rely on invasive devices due to slow progress in non-invasive modalities

Seed-Strapping

The New Playbook for Building Profitable AI Companies in 2024.

Consumer AI's tipping point

Trends, opportunities, and predictions for "Consumer Earthquakes" in the AI era.

Marketing, Sales and PR

Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people

Anton Osika's Lovable is a rapidly growing AI tool that creates functional products from descriptions, achieving $10 million ARR in two months with a small team. The interview explores AI's impact on product development, including using AI effectively, AI-powered creation demos, unconventional hiring, and AI's problem-solving capabilities.

How Codeium Built A Billion-Dollar AI Company and a Winning Sales Machine

This episode of CRO Confidential features Graham Moreno, VP of Worldwide Sales at Codium, discussing Codium's explosive growth from a 30-employee startup to a unicorn in one year. Moreno shares strategies for scaling a go-to-market team, the importance of founder-led sales, and the unconventional hiring approaches that contributed to Codium's success.

There is no transition "out of sales" as a founder

A 6-step framework to grow sales as a founder.

Examples of proven sales plays to create a sales pipeline on top of self-serve usage

This post covers real-life sales playbooks from Miro, Unity, and Clay, the data you’ll need, benchmarks, and personalization examples. Test these ASAP!

Money and Finance

The 7 Deadly Sins of Venture Capital

Mapping The Systemic Flaws in the Venture Ecosystem.

Early-Stage VC in the Age of Vertical AI

This article argues that early-stage VC needs to adapt to the rise of Vertical AI, as these companies have different capital needs and growth patterns than traditional SaaS businesses. It suggests VCs should focus on founder-market fit, product-led growth, and smaller initial investments with potential for a "J-Curve" of capital consumption.

Why VCs ghost founders, or reject deals and never speak to the founder again

VCs often ghost founders due to time constraints and an increased volume of pitches, making thoughtful rejections a lower priority. Red flags like AI-generated outreach, lack of self-awareness, dishonesty, and disrespectful behavior also lead to rejection and potential blacklisting.

Global Private Market Fundraising Report

Private market fundraising saw a slight decline in 2024, but analysts predict 2025 could be a turnaround year. While megafunds dominated private equity fundraising, mid-sized and smaller funds faced challenges, and private debt returns outpaced other private market assets