Tag: Founders
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Rippling has accused Deel of putting a spy inside their business. With moles infiltrating companies, should startups be worried? The truth is, if you have an early stage startup, it’s almost impossible to get anyone to care about it. Spies? You should be so lucky! At least that would mean…
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+ Business, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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It’s been a quiet 2025 for me investment-wise. But every once in a while, you see something truly exceptional. Sent.dm is exactly that. Sent is an API to send messages to whatever platform your customers prefer – iMessage, WhatsApp, RCS, SMS and more. Sent can save you 80-90% on your…
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“For two decades, no Secretary of Defense even bothered to set foot in Silicon Valley…” In 2015, Ash Carter finally changed that. This was the beginning of a wave that launched a thousand defense startups. In 2016, Raj Shah and Christopher Kirchoff took control of Defense Innovation Unit X (DIUx).…
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+ AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Defense, Department of Defense, DoD, Founders, Military, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Technology, VC, Venture Capital, War+
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Paul Graham says your curiosity is the best way to tell what’s worth paying attention to. So when I scrolled through the YC directory this morning, I let curiosity lead me to the coolest startups. Since we dug into the W25 cohort two weeks ago, many more startups have launched…
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+ AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Entrepreneur, Finance, Founders, Investing, OpenAI, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Technology, Venture Capital, YC+
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I once met a startup that was $700,000 in debt. Never do this. Angels and VC’s invest money to buy shares in a company. If the company runs out of cash, you don’t have to pay us back. But there is another source of funding for startups: debt. First off,…
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+ Business Loans, Credit, Debt, Entrepreneur, Finance, Founders, Investing, Money, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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This weekend, I was chatting with a friend who’s a psychiatrist. She often deals with patients in crisis. I sometimes deal with founders in crisis. So I got to thinking… How can I apply what psychiatrists do to my work investing in startups? Some founders I meet with are in…
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+ Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Medicine, Money, Psychology, Startup, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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If you send me your company, what should you expect from me? Here’s how my investment process works… Qualification I focus on meeting companies with these characteristics: Software business Couple of paying customers Team of multiple builder founders Proper incorporation. (A Delaware C Corp is the right move — more…
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+ Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Silicon Valley, Startup, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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In my best meetings with founders, we have a back-and-forth discussion. In the worst, only the founder talks. Here’s how to avoid those bad meetings… Take a Breath! Some founders talk very fast and never pause. Instead, pause after an important point. Let it sink in, and leave a space…
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+ Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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You’re about to get on a Zoom with an investor. On this call, there’s one thing you must not do: just show up and talk. Many founders “show up and throw up.” They come onto the call and give a long, unfocused monologue. They quickly lose their audience. And they…
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+ Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startup, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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“I want to support the founder.” Whenever I hear myself say that, I throw my checkbook in the river. Follow-on investments can massively increase your returns. But done wrong, they can sink you. When Pro Rata Works Let’s back up and explain what I mean by follow-on and pro rata.…
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+ Business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Founders, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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