The Daily Index — Wednesday, September 13, 2023

HEADLINES & TRENDS

TLDR Founders

SQUARE’S OUTAGE

Payments company Square had an outage on Thursday last week. This happens of course, but the impact on businesses that use Square to take payments can be huge. The event added fuel to the ongoing culture war around migrating to a cashless society.

edition.cnn.com · 1 min

TLDR Founders

CONFIDENCE VS ARROGANCE

As a founder, you have to be confident in what you’re doing. That’s how you sell people on the vision to invest in you, work with you, buy from you. However, you need to understand the boundary between confidence and arrogance.

breakingpoint.tech · 4 min

TLDR Founders

REGULATING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Slowing the pace of innovation allows competitor countries to catch up. Letting innovation run unfettered can unlock a Pandora's Box of problems. This article spins an interesting story that showcases why regulating artificial intelligence is so difficult.

generalist.com · 17 min

TLDR Founders

INTEGRATION STRATEGY

As you scale, the number of integrations you have with providers is going to increase. Your CRM, Finance stack, ERP, and collaboration tools all need to talk to each other. Interoperability between applications is a continuous strategic decision for founders. You need to have an owner of this strategy in your startup.

akashbajwa.substack.com · 7 min

TLDR Founders

WHEN TO BORROW DEBT

Selling equity in your startup is the most expensive form of financing. Debt is cheaper, but only accessible under certain circumstances, like when you know your unit economics, have product market fit, and have proven repeatable channels to find customers.

markmacleod.me · 2 min

TLDR Founders

THE TOP 10 MISTAKES FOUNDERS MAKE AFTER $10M ARR

From stepping away from founder-led sales completely to hiring mistakes. Here’s a list of some things you can be mindful of as a founder of a scaling startup that’s in the growth phase.

saastr.com · 9 min

TLDR Founders

IF YOU WANT TO TRICK INVESTORS, TELL THEM YOUR CAAR

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is a staple metric of investor expectations. Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue (CAAR) is being used more by founders to show unrealized revenue from committed contracts. It bumps the numbers, but it might leave you in hot water further down the line.

mostlymetrics.com · 5 min

TLDR Founders

HOW AI CAN SPARK BOTH TECHNOLOGICAL AND BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

Truly great innovation comes in pairs. Technology innovation and business model innovation. They work together and deliver outlier results. AI is the next technology innovation, but have we found its counterpart on the business model side yet?

versionone.vc · 2 min

TLDR Founders

SECURING AI IS THE NEXT BIG PLATFORM OPPORTUNITY

When it comes to AI and security, there is a significant amount of work and effort required. This article breaks down the risks and challenges and looks at the opportunities for companies in this new world order.

lsvp.com · 4 min

TLDR Founders

WORKING REMOTELY DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN FROM HOME

Remote can be anywhere that inspires you to work at your best.

critter.blog · 1 min

TLDR Founders

SAY/DO RATIOS

“Under-promise and over-deliver” - how many times have we heard that? The mantra is focused on ensuring you only take on enough work that you can really do justice. But are you in danger of being seen as a slacker? There’s a balance somewhere.

breakingpoint.tech · 2 min

TLDR Founders

COMPANY CULTURE IS THE LAST 50 DAYS

The incorrigible Jason Fried of 37 Signals gives his take on culture and how to view it around the things that have happened around a 50-day rolling window. Best quote: “Culture is the nonfiction story of an organization. It writes itself.”

world.hey.com · 2 min