TLDR FoundersApril 11, 2025

TLDR FOUNDERS 2025-04-11

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01HEADLINES & TRENDS

INFLATION IS COMING DOWN & FED NEEDS TO ACT

March inflation dropped to 2.4% with core CPI falling below 3% for the first time since 2021, signaling that disinflation is real and accelerating quickly. The current administration is averaging just 1.0% inflation - a welcome shift after five brutal years when necessities like food (27.5%), electricity (34.2%), and auto insurance (53.7%) saw massive price increases. The Fed should cut rates soon to prevent an economic slowdown.

pomp.substack.com3 min read

HOW I SPENT 17,784 HOURS IN 5 YEARS AS A STARTUP FOUNDER

Sam Corcos, founder of Levels, offers insights into time management and company evolution, challenging assumptions about burnout and team management. Over five years, his tracking reveals surprises, such as the consistent time spent on management despite scaling and the rejuvenation of engineering by eliminating excess management layers. Corcos emphasizes strategic thinking through quarterly "Think Weeks" and ongoing investor relations, adapting to personal life changes without sacrificing productivity.

review.firstround.com21 min read

HOW MONTE CARLO REINVENTED THEIR BUSINESS WITH DAILY REVENUE

Barr Moses, CEO of Monte Carlo, discusses transitioning from ARR to daily revenue as a core metric. The session covers Monte Carlo's pricing model evolution, organizational alignment, and lessons learned. It aims to guide founders on building scalable, value-aligned pricing systems.

tomtunguz.com2 min read

02STRATEGIES & TACTICS

HOW TO BUILD A SCALED EXPERIMENTATION ENGINE

Companies like OpenAI and Notion test almost everything they ship, moving beyond basic A/B testing to full experimentation engines. This approach rests on three pillars: trustworthy experiments that handle outliers and account for initial excitement around new features, strong institutional memory so teams don't repeat tests others have already done, and a data culture where everyone uses the same metrics and values truth over looking good. To build this in your company, avoid common mistakes like checking results too early or ignoring negative impacts on important customer segments, and focus on making it easy for teams to document and share what they learn across the organization.

news.aakashg.com6 min read

FROM ZERO TO HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS: LESSONS IN COURAGEOUS MARKETING

In his new book "Courageous Marketing," former Gong CMO Udi Ledergor reveals how taking calculated risks helped transform a 12-customer startup into a billion-dollar company. His counterintuitive thesis: the safest strategy is often the riskiest because blending in means death in crowded markets. Gong's success came from tactical genius - like buying 15-second regional Super Bowl ads instead of $5M national spots, purchasing small West Coast newspaper ads and amplifying them on social media, and creating a memorable visual identity with bright colors and a bulldog mascot.

carilu.com4 min read

THE OVERFUNDING TRAP: WHY RAISING MORE THAN YOU NEED CAN HARM YOUR STARTUP

Overvaluations remain an issue in venture capital, particularly impacting startups during downturns, as seen with AI startups now echoing 2021's patterns. Inflated valuations lead to challenges like increased dilution and difficulties in securing follow-on funding. Founders are advised to raise only necessary funds, prioritize capital efficiency, and be open to valuation resets to ensure sustainable growth.

news.crunchbase.com4 min read

03TOOLS & RESOURCES

SCALOOM (PRODUCT)

Scaloom is an AI tool that generates personalized cold emails based on website analysis to improve outreach conversion.

scaloom.com

THEYSAID 2.0 (PRODUCT)

TheySaid 2.0 turns surveys, interviews, and polls into AI-driven conversations, capturing richer insights than traditional forms.

theysaid.io

BANNSAI (PRODUCT)

BannsAI is a tool that generates custom, copyright-free banners from a logo and brief.

banns.ai

04MISCELLANEOUS

EVERY MARKETING CHANNEL SUCKS RIGHT NOW

All major marketing channels have become expensive, slow, or ineffective - SEO takes too long, influencer marketing doesn't convert, ads get more expensive daily, and viral loops require an already-great product. This is the inevitable outcome of the "Law of Shitty Clickthroughs" where channels decay as competition increases and consumer engagement drops. The solution isn't chasing these "Big Channels" but focusing on "Little Channels" that don't scale: organizing mini-events, targeting specific communities, or leveraging personal networks.

andrewchen.substack.com4 min read

ISN'T EVERY INVESTOR DATA-DRIVEN?

Most VCs think they're data-driven, but they see only the deals that come to them (mostly founders reaching out), have time to collect just a handful of data points per company, and then make gut calls based on whatever similar companies they've personally seen before. True data-driven investors use technology to dramatically expand their view - they scrape the entire web to find every possible deal, gather mountains of data on each company automatically, and analyze it all with consistent algorithms instead of morning-coffee intuition.

newsletter.datadrivenvc.io4 min read

MERCURY'S SERIES C

Mercury has announced a $300 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital that values the company at $3.5 billion. It reported ten consecutive profitable quarters, $500 million in annual revenue for 2024, and 40% customer growth. The funding will support product innovation, acquisitions, and talent acquisition, further cementing its position in reimagining banking for tech startups and other industries.

mercury.com5 min read