The Daily Index — Monday, August 21, 2023 · TLDR Index

HEADLINES & TRENDS

TLDR Founders

TLDR Founders

DECADE

Since 2018, over 250 unicorns have been made each year with the exception of 2021, when this number spiked to 787. 2023 may be the second exception to this average, we only saw 21 unicorns minted in Q1 2023.

dealroom.co · 4 min

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PLG RESOURCES AND INSIGHTS

A variety of resources on product-led growth and pithy insights on the art of scaled acquisition.

kellblog.com · 5 min

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WHAT THE FREEMIUM

Insights and guidance from Elena Verna, former CMO at Miro, on how and when to deploy freemium strategies at your tech company.

elenaverna.substack.com · 9 min

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HOW TO GET YOUR STARTUP'S FIRST 100 USERS

It never hurts to get a refresher course on the latest proven ways to get to those first 100 users of your solution. Manually reaching out (aka the hard way) is what always works best.

entrepreneurshandbook.co · 3 min

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MODERN MEDITATIONS: CLAIRE HUGHES JOHNSON

This interview with Claire Hughes Johnson, the former COO and now advisor of Stripe, unpacks her views on leadership, literature, and future technology.

thegeneralist.substack.com · 17 min

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MOBILE POINT OF SALES SYSTEMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON COMMERCE

Mobile point of sales systems (mPOS) mark a significant turning point in payment processing. Traditional point of sale systems are tethered to a location and oftentimes a little clunky. mPOS is distinctly more convenient, cheaper to set up and operate, and significantly more interoperable with your existing business operating systems. If you use in-person payments for your business, this is worth a read.

techbullion.com · 5 min

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THREE MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE POLITICAL REALM

A deep dive into key marketing lessons presented with specific examples from the political realm. It’s a heavy but solid read.

kellblog.com · 10 min

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INVESTMENT

Turns out FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried had their fingers in more crypto pies. Holders of Bored Apes are looking to sue the creators over their dealings with Sotheby's and FTX.

arstechnica.com · 3 min

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ECONOMY

Startups that effectively managed their costs over the last 18 months and are sitting on a bit of cash are in a great position to acquire other companies who might be struggling or double down on their go-to-market efforts and accelerate out of this slump.

tomtunguz.com · 2 min

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CARTA: THE ACTUAL, REAL DILUTION FROM SERIES A, B, C, AND D ROUNDS

A breakdown of actual dilution numbers based on the latest Carta data. Always good to have these numbers in your back pocket if you’re looking at raising soon.

saastr.com · 3 min