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a16z has put together this list of 50 startups tackling some of America’s most pressing problems around defense, energy, transportation, and manufacturing. All of them are using AI in some form to accelerate their efforts. If you’re curious about real-world applications of AI, this contains great insights.
Many startups are crippling their growth efforts by overlapping some basic realities. True growth is not a hack and it can’t be achieved unless you’ve figured out PMF for your core business line. Here’s a list of things to be conscious of if you’re a founder with a growth team or in the market looking for that ideal hire.
Onboarding a new hire isn’t just about setting them up with their laptop and getting them access to Slack, it’s a key business process that many overlook. This article breaks down all the signals that suggest you’ve hit a bottleneck in your onboarding process as a scaling startup and explains how to overcome them.
In this post, the Head of Partnerships at Pigment discusses the importance of becoming partner-first, addressing digital transformation mandates, and helping your partners get promoted as a strategy for success.
Love or loathe it, investors want to know your ARR. Here’s a breakdown of how larger tech companies like DataDog, Dropbox, and UI Path calculate this metric.
Somewhat 101, but if you’re new to the topic, this is a decent read. This article breaks down the basics of debt and equity funding, pros and cons, and when you should consider these options at your startup.
Sponsored
DNS is an often-overlooked aspect of network security, despite being the 1st step of almost every malicious attack. Control D [14] makes DNS an easy problem to solve. Block malicious domains, unwanted content and browse faster on all devices. The best part? It’s so easy your grandma can (probably) use it [14]. Available for personal use and teams of all sizes.
Bring your website to life with interactive shoppable videos.
Automated time tracking for software teams.
Create personalized AI workflows without needing to know how to code.
There’s been a lot of layoff headlines so far in 2023. Brex was the most recent, laying off 20% of its staff. This article argues the layoffs are the result of two converging trends – a drop in venture funding, particularly in fintech, and a rising cultural force at play that’s inspiring companies to run lean and use layoffs as a way to pivot away from projects or reshape the company.
Microsoft's layoffs last year signaled a potential industry-wide growth slowdown. Microsoft is a mature company with pretty solid predictive capabilities around its revenue forecasts. If Microsoft is worried about the macro, should the rest of us?
NRR is a new term defined as a startup that boomed in 2021 and then kinda fell out of PMF but won enough users in that period and has high enough customer retention to stay alive. They’re not really growing, but they’re also not really failing. Pulling out of this slump is hard - this article touches on how to do it.
Conventional wisdom says you should hire smart people and leave them to it. Fine if you’re a well-funded startup that can afford super smart people, but what if you hire someone who has a little less experience? This article suggests early micromanagement AKA guidance is the way and it provides a light framework for you to use.
We sometimes confuse product managers for project managers, but their job isn’t to manage product deadlines. The highest value thing they can do is to continually align business objectives with user needs, using technology as the glue.
In the early days of developing an idea, it’s critical that you challenge every assumption behind that idea. You need to build a decision-making framework and the capability to disagree and commit. Without it, you’re just arguing in circles. Awareness of whether you’re arguing or debating is key to getting things done when the people involved might disagree.