TLDR FOUNDERS 2026-01-09

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WHAT'S WORKING NOW IN GTM AI: HOW RALLY REIMAGINED WIN ANALYSIS WITH AI

Win-loss analysis is high leverage but notoriously hard to do well. Buyers don't tell you the full truth, sellers have blind spots, and scheduling interviews takes forever. AI can reconstruct win-loss insights from sales call recordings alone. Feed your Gong transcripts into a custom GPT, and it will surface patterns across dozens of deals faster than any manual process.

WHAT'S WORKING IN SAAS PRICING RIGHT NOW

Credit-based pricing exploded 126% in 2025 because it splits the difference between predictable licenses and pure usage. Customers can budget, while vendors protect margins on volatile AI costs. Meanwhile, per-seat pricing isn't dying like everyone predicted. It's evolving. OpenAI and Figma now tie seats to capability tiers and product access. Salesforce lets customers swap unused licenses for AI credits. Nobody knows what AI is actually worth yet, so the winners are offering multiple ways to pay.

STOP HIRING FOR EXPERTISE: HOW TO RECRUIT A-PLAYERS

A polished resume from Google often can't ship anything at your startup. That's because you hired an expert, not a builder. The hiring framework that actually works: evaluate drive first, then potential, then expertise. Drive is the internal engine you can't coach or install. Potential is how fast someone climbs. Expertise only matters after the first two spike. To test for drive, don't even look at the résumé before the interview: ask what they've obsessed over, when the hardest they've ever worked was, and why. If someone has never been deeply consumed by anything, they won't suddenly become consumed by your company.

LOCAL ≠ SMALL BRAND IMPACT

Founders never ask how to build a local press strategy, and that's a mistake. If you're trying to reach small business owners, educators, or non-technical professionals, the Boston Globe might outperform TechCrunch. Local publications punch above their weight on Facebook, where community stories spread fast through geographic networks. The playbook is simple. Find customers in target cities, hear their stories, then pitch their story to local reporters. You get awareness, they get visibility. Local journalists don't need proof that your company matters to the world. They need proof it matters to their city.

CHARTDB V2

ChartDB is an open-source tool that generates editable ER diagrams from database schemas.

VISLA

Visla is an AI-powered platform for creating, editing, and sharing videos quickly at scale.

RUBE

Rube is a universal MCP that lets AI agents take actions across 600+ applications directly from chat.

25 THINGS I BELIEVE IN TO BUILD GREAT PRODUCTS

Speed is the only moat, and focus is a superpower. Build fast feedback loops, and say no 10 times more than you say yes. The product is more important than the process, so build minimum viable plans, practice prototype-first development, obsess about the details, and simplify product reviews. Seek the truth and be willing to be wrong. Hire builders, not bureaucrats aiming to climb the career ladder.

THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS

The skill that will remain relevant for decades is agency: the ability to act, iterate, and adapt without permission. High-agency individuals treat life as an experiment, use AI and tools as amplifiers rather than crutches, and build generalist capabilities to thrive across changing industries. Developing agency requires setting goals, experimenting, analyzing results, and creating your own processes, enabling long-term adaptability, skill acquisition, and control over your future.

WHY AI STARTUPS MUST RELEARN GROWTH EVERY QUARTER

Product-market fit resets every three months at Lovable because AI capabilities and user expectations shift too fast to rely on long-term scaling, even past $200M ARR. Roughly 95% of growth comes from shipping new features, while funnel optimization contributes only about 5%, forcing teams to prioritize velocity over polish. Influencer-driven demos, free credits, and large communities now outperform paid ads, making word of mouth the primary growth engine.

SOMETIMES, YOU SHOULD TALK TO FEWER CUSTOMERS

Corporate best practices exist to raise the floor, not the ceiling.

WHY GRINDING WITH BRUTE FORCE CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS FOR A STARTUP

Taking 8-10 calls a day feels productive until you realize you're optimizing for movement instead of direction.

UNDERSTANDING DON NORMAN'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERACTION

Don Norman's interaction design principles focus on making products intuitive and easy to use without manuals.

INDEX VENTURES, SILICON VALLEY'S QUIET KINGMAKER, LOOKS AHEAD TO SUCCESSION

Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures, says he has no intention to retire, but the decision will be up to the partnership as a whole.