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You worked hard to build your business from the ground up, and to secure the capital that allows it to flourish. So why do most banks chip away at it with fees, minimums, and delays? Founders deserve better.
_*Brex is a financial technology company, not a bank._
Despite the Fed's rate cuts since September 2024, the 10-year Treasury yield has climbed to 4.7%. This seemingly paradoxical rise stems from three key factors: persistent inflation expectations driven by wage growth and oil prices, surprisingly robust economic growth with 3.2% GDP expansion, and renewed inflationary pressures from Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports. The combination suggests markets are pricing in longer-term inflation risks despite the Fed's accommodative stance.
Recent shifts in AI pricing models show a move away from traditional seat-based subscriptions toward more varied approaches. Companies like OpenAI and Sierra are exploring higher-priced tiers ($200-500/month), outcome-based pricing, and "AI FTE" models that position AI agents as cheaper alternatives to human employees. The trend suggests companies are still experimenting to find sustainable monetization strategies that align with both value delivery and cost structures.
Nuclear startup Oklo, backed by Sam Altman, has signed a non-binding deal with Switch to supply 12 gigawatts of electricity from small modular reactors by 2044. Oklo's challenge remains in obtaining NRC approval after a prior denial, with plans to resubmit in 2025. Competition from nuclear startups and cheaper renewable energy sources poses additional hurdles.
The piece advocates for extreme specificity in business positioning, using real examples to show how broad, generic statements like "I help leaders learn to lead" fail to resonate with potential clients. Through personal experience, the author demonstrates how refining his pitch from "I help SaaS companies grow revenue" to targeting specific company stages, industries, and revenue ranges dramatically improved client acquisition.
Mastering "high-low" work - balancing strategic, long-term initiatives with immediate, tactical tasks - is key to reaching executive levels and job security. Effective leaders excel at setting future-oriented strategies while managing current metrics and projects. Developing this skill involves intentional practice and can distinguish indispensable executives from those who are expendable.
A transparent look at how one founder managed his post-acquisition windfall in 2020, comparing his DIY investing approach against Goldman Sachs' wealth management. Despite Goldman's 0.73% annual fees and "vanilla" portfolio strategy split between fixed income and equities, its conservative 10% IRR matched the author's more aggressive 14% IRR on his personal portfolio of venture funds, crypto, real estate, and individual stocks. Even sophisticated founders can underperform simple index investing in their quest for alpha during one of the market's strongest bull runs.
The all-in-one UX research platform built for the enterprise.
Rivet offers a platform for running and scaling real-time applications with built-in RPC, state management, and event handling through automatic scaling and edge networking. It supports data localization, is powered by V8 isolates and Deno runtime, and is built with trusted technologies like Rust and FoundationDB. Rivet Cloud provides deployment without infrastructure maintenance, and it integrates with Docker for local development.
Build RAG applications on your user data.
Despite Perplexity's initial anti-advertising stance, its move to introduce ads was predictable given business fundamentals. While the company is attempting to maintain "clean" advertising by limiting customization and data sharing, it faces significant challenges: a smaller user base compared to Google, a specific demographic skew, and potential difficulties in scaling audience reach before competitors catch up. Businesses shouldn't be ashamed of sustainable revenue models, but should be transparent about their evolution.
Many startups today outsource specific marketing projects, particularly paid marketing campaigns, to digital marketing agencies. However, the quality of service can vary significantly between agencies. As a result, some startups experience underwhelming performance, while others thrive and consistently generate revenue.
John Ousterhout's book, "A Philosophy of Software Design," emphasizes zero-tolerance towards complexity, arguing it accumulates from small decisions. Smaller components aren't necessarily better for modularity and can introduce unnecessary complexity. Exception handling is a major source of complexity - simplifying it through aggregation and masking can significantly reduce system complexity.
Sequoia Capital's Matt Miller is leaving to start a Europe-focused venture fund.
Jason Lemkin advises a $35M ARR bootstrapped company to explore private equity instead of VC due to slower growth.
Ben Rometsch bootstrapped Flagsmith, a SaaS centered around feature flags, into a successful business without VC funding.