I just used a product that blew me away. The last time I had this feeling, the company hit $1 billion ARR. So of course, I had to place a bet.
The company is called Fastyr. They create AI employees.
I know you’ve heard this before, but these AIs really do feel like human beings.
I interviewed two of them myself, one for sales and one for customer success. It felt like I was talking to not just a human, but a very smart human.
These AI employees are working with customers like mortgage brokers (loan origination), marketing agencies, consultancies and environmental inspection.
No wonder Fastyr is growing like crazy. They recently announced that they went from $1 million to $10 million ARR in just 3 months.
Two things really struck me about founder Damon Guzman: his ambition and his excitement.
Damon makes every decision to maximize upside. And whenever he talks about his work, I can hear the excitement in his voice and see it on his face.
I look for founders doing something they really love. If you’re excited, you work harder, and have better results.
Fastyr has an opportunity to grab a significant portion of white-collar labor spend. That’s the biggest market on Earth.
This will let human beings offload the boring work. It’ll also make it easier to start your own company.
Check out Fastyr and start automating your business!
I look for founders that are building they care about. It’s the only way that they’ll work like crazy for 10 years and get to an exit!
An excellent example of that is my friend Jesse Bray. He grew up with a love of reading, as did I.
Now he’s created a wonderful new app called Inklings to help children learn to read.
I’ll let Jesse tell you the rest…
This week I sent my friend Francis Santora a press release before anyone else on Earth saw it. That’s not a distribution strategy. That’s just where Francis sits in my life.
His reply floored me. He told me he’d had no idea I grew up in a small town in Maine — because when he was little, he lived in Hartland, Maine, and going to the library was really important for him too. “It was a window into the outside world,” he said.
Two kids from Maine. Two small libraries. The same window.
Francis and I met on X, of all places, and became friends. He said yes to my little podcast, Inklings Behind the Scenes, before I had anything to show for it — more than once. But the podcast was only the doorway. What Francis really gave me was straightforward truth when it would have been easier to tell me what I wanted to hear. He taught me to take the feelings out, wave off the fanciful letters of intent, and build on real traction. More than a few bad investors lost their grip on me because Francis was in my corner, sharpening the story.
That’s the only way anything I’ve made since has gotten built: one brick at a time.
Here’s why that’s not just a slogan for me. I grew up homeless, and I’m dyslexic. When I was a kid in Maine, a small library outside Sanford was my sanctuary — the one place where the world got quiet and the words, eventually, started to make sense. Everything I’ve built since is me trying to hold that door open for the next kid standing where I stood. You don’t hold a door like that with one grand gesture. You do it brick by brick, or you don’t do it at all.
So let me show you the wall, top down.
The biggest brick is Inklings Book Club (https://mrbray.com/inklings-book-club) — a reading app I built library-first. One hundred public-domain books, excerpts and quizzes across six reading levels, and kids get in with a library card. No ads. No dark patterns. Free forever for kids and libraries — sponsors fund the build, and a sponsor’s logo never touches a child. Sixteen founding library partners have signed on, from The Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut to one-room libraries in Utah and Oklahoma, and we’re building directory pages for the more than 5,000 libraries that have never had a digital presence at all.
And this week’s brick — the one in the press release I sent Francis first — is a storybook about a stink bug named Poe.
Poe is a curmudgeon. I want to be clear about that up front, because most children’s books aren’t. Poe tries on six hats — a cowboy hat, a builder’s hard hat, a chef’s hat, a top hat, a bowler, a birthday hat — convinced the next one will finally fix him. None of them do. And here’s the part I care about most: Poe does not end the story sweet. He ends it every bit the grumpy gus he started as. What changes is smaller and truer — he gets content being himself, hat or no hat.
Your value doesn’t come from what you wear, but who you are. That’s the whole book.
A Perfect Hat for Poe (https://mrbray.com/a-perfect-hat-for-poe) is free online — an interactive storybook that comes alive page by page, narrated by my friend Bill Dillmeier. It was funded by a Kickstarter campaign, and every single backer is named in the credits, because people who believe early deserve to be remembered in the thing itself.
I didn’t plan the symmetry of this week — that a friendship built on candor would turn out to be rooted in two small Maine libraries. I couldn’t have planned it. But I’ll take it as a sign the wall’s going up in the right place.
So here’s my ask, and it’s a small one: go read Poe. It’s free, it takes a few minutes, and there’s a grumpy stink bug in it who might be the most honest character I’ve ever made. Then, if you’ve got one, take a kid to a library this week. Get them a card. Hold the door the way somebody once held it for Francis and for me.
I’ve done over 1000 founder meetings. I use 4 techniques in every call. Try them in your own meetings, and watch your results improve…
1. Be well prepared. “So, remind me how we got connected?” Whenever someone starts a meeting this way, all the energy goes out of the conversation.
You can’t have a great call if you don’t know who you’re talking to.
I have an agent that does my prep for me. It goes through my inbox and searches the internet for information about the person. Then it collates all of this into a summary.
I have pasted the skill.md file into this blog post. Feel free to steal it!
2. Don’t talk too much. If you’re doing all the talking and you think the meeting’s going well, I guarantee you’re wrong.
The other person is sitting there, smiling politely, wondering when this ear beating will end.
I use Fathom to track how much I talk. Periodically during the meeting, it pops up a little window that says 10%, 40%, etc.
My best meetings happen when I talk at most 40% of the time. When I see that creeping up toward 50% and beyond, I know to shut up.
“Show up and throw up” is the worst sales technique there is. Every meeting should be a conversation.
3. Let the silence do the work. When I ask a question, sometimes a founder doesn’t respond right away. I never jump in and try to answer it.
Instead, I let the silence do the work.
Give them time to think. Show them you really want to hear their answer.
Yesterday, I met with an outstanding founder who has a stutter. Being quiet while he forms sentences was especially important.
4. Repeat key points in your own words. “I’m going to put the vision for ABC Corp. into one sentence in my own words. Tell me where I’m wrong, and we’ll see if I understand.”
If you’ve ever met with me, you know that’s one of the first things I say.
Just because you think you understand doesn’t mean you do.
Rephrase key points in your own words. Ask them to confirm.
You’re making sure you fully understand. You’re also showing you really care about what they’re saying.
That goes a long way to building a relationship!
Wrap-Up
Whether you’re an investor meeting founders, a founder pitching VCs, or anybody selling anything, you can use these 4 techniques.
If you do them consistently, you will make more sales.
Rookies “show up and throw up.” Veterans have a real conversation.
Try using my 4 techniques in your next meeting. Then leave a comment and let me know how it went!
Ridiculous growth. 3x ARR. I keep seeing this combo in today’s market. Here’s why…
Why High Growth Companies Can Be Dirt Cheap
It comes down to AI driving incredible growth.
A hot startup goes out to raise. They sign a term sheet at 10-20x ARR.
But funding rounds take months to close. In the meantime, the company grows like crazy.
What was a deal at 10-20x becomes 3-4x ARR.
Founders: Stick to the Deal
If you’re a founder, here’s how to play this: just close the deal.
Yes, it’s a bonanza for investors.
But a deal is a deal. Honor your agreement.
If you try to re-trade, you could lose the deal entirely.
Worse yet, this will affect your reputation in the industry. Startupland is a small world.
By the same token, if growth slows down after issuing a term sheet, investors should never retrade the terms.
An Incredible Time to Be Investing
For investors, this means the deals we’re doing today will be historic.
No one has ever seen growth like this. And the multiples look like something out of the dotcom crash.
It also means that if a company is growing really fast, we can afford to pay a higher multiple. That multiple is likely to compress significantly by the time we wire.
Wrap-Up
Investing today is so much better than when I started in 2021.
Tourist VCs were doing deals in $10 million ARR startups at 100x revenues. Those companies were growing 3x year over year at best.
Today, we do deals at a fraction of that multiple. These startups are growing like nothing in the history of business.
I’m loading up on as many of these companies as I can. Good deals don’t last.
Diesel is over $6 a gallon. Coffee is through the roof. AI slop emails chase me in my dreams. Each of these problems is an opportunity for a startup.
Here are 3 types of startups I’m looking for now…
Synthetic Diesel
Diesel is $6.29 a gallon at the gas station near my house. That’s up a good $2 since the war with Iran began.
I live in an urban area, so I don’t need a car. But since everything we buy arrives in a diesel truck, the price of diesel affects us all.
What if we could create synthetic diesel in unlimited quantities? We could use crops like corn. Or maybe the synthetic diesel would come entirely from other chemicals.
Several companies are working on synthetic diesel. The big hurdle is making synthetic for less than real diesel.
If a startup can pull this off, it will be one of the world’s largest companies.
Coffee for All Climates
One of my favorite things in life is my morning coffee. When I take my first sip, all is right with the world.
But have you noticed how expensive coffee is getting?
A lot of it is because of heat and drought in Latin America. Coffee plants like moderate temperatures and substantial rain.
But what if we could breed coffee plants that would grow in any climate? Genetic engineering techniques like CRISPR could help make plants resistant to drought and heat.
Nestle is working on this, among other companies. But nothing is widely available yet.
With the right type of plant, we could grow coffee right here in America. Your morning cup would cost a fraction of what it does today.
An Email Drafting Tool That Actually Works
When I’m drinking that morning coffee, I’m usually going through my email. Lately, AI has made that a lot easier.
I used Grok to build a bot that drafts emails for me. I can use about half the drafts it generates, which saves me a ton of time.
There many tools that claim to draft emails. But none of them worked for me. The responses didn’t make sense in context and didn’t sound like me.
So instead, I built my own bot. I gave it examples of different categories of emails I receive and example responses.
Most people don’t have the patience or skills to build their own email bot. We need a bot that will go through your inbox, categorize the different message type, and draft replies.
A good email bot could go massively viral.
Wrap-Up
When I’m trying to dream up promising startups, I look at the problems I see every day. If we can fix them, someone will pay us!
Diesel is at record highs. Coffee is right behind it. And AI means we’re getting more emails than ever.
Solve these everyday problems, and you have a fantastic business.
So if you’re building in one of these three areas, shoot me a message! My DMs are always open.
“Our team of 12 just reached $10K ARR.” This is a huge red flag. Here’s why…
Before you hit product-market fit, your company should be just the founders. That’s typically 2 to 4 people, all of whom own at least 10% of the company.
You want this team to be at least half technical — ideally 100% technical.
Why Are Companies Overstaffed?
Startups often overstaff because the founders don’t have the necessary skills.
They don’t know how to build product. They’re not comfortable doing sales.
So they hire out for these jobs.
This is the wrong way to build a company. You need a founding team with all the necessary skills to reach product-market fit.
If your team doesn’t have those skills, you need to develop them, Or, you need to change who’s on the team.
Too Many Mouths to Feed
Say you have 12 employees. If you pay them $10,000 a month in total compensation, you’re looking at a wage bill of over $1.4 million a year.
This is a ton of money for an early stage startup.
Even if you hire in the developing world, you’re probably still paying a minimum of $3,000 a month. That’s an annual wage bill of over $400,000.
Don’t take on liabilities like that unless you have to. The higher your burn, the more likely your company goes bust.
Paying People to Scroll TikTok
In an early-stage startup, there just isn’t enough work for a big group.
When you only have a couple users, what will half a dozen engineers do? Why would you need a customer success department when you barely have any customers?
You will be paying people to scroll TikTok.
Don’t Build a Bureaucracy
Big groups of people don’t just cost you money. They cost you time.
It’s harder to coordinate 12 employees than 4 founders.
Every decision will take more discussion. This is time you don’t have.
The only way a tiny company like yours beats the big guys is by moving faster. The more people you have, the slower you move.
A Tale of Two Startups: Chubbycorp and Leancorp
Let’s compare two fictional startups: Chubbycorp and Leancorp.
Chubbycorp has 3 founders, but they’re all “idea guys.”
They don’t know how to build product. They don’t like doing sales.
So they hire 6 engineers and 6 sales guys. Now they have a seven-figure annual wage bill.
Meetings multiply. The company moves more and more slowly.
And they keep losing sales to this annoying startup: Leancorp.
Leancorp has just 4 people, all founders. They’re all deeply technical.
Content with their equity, they’re taking minimal salaries. The company’s burn is close to zero.
Leancorp has almost no meetings. They just ship product and sign customers.
Who do you think is going to win?
Wrap-Up
Be Leancorp.
Build a team of strong technical founders. Move fast. Avoid hiring until product-market fit.
You’ll leave Chubbycorp in the dust. They’ll be running out of money, wondering what happened.
And with any luck, you’ll be sending a big distribution to your first investor, Francis. 😉
