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Engineering teams spend about half their time building new things, and the rest maintaining old work. This article shows how to track if R&D money is being spent well using real numbers from companies. Written by Jellyfish's CFO, it gives finance leaders clear ways to measure tech team performance. The most successful companies go beyond just measuring time spent coding - they connect engineering work directly to business results and customer needs.
Companies grow in four main ways: getting new users, keeping current ones, making money, and selling more to existing customers. This article explains how successful companies grow everyone's job, not just one team's work. It outlines five ways to grow, from letting the product sell itself to using sales teams. Rather than picking just one approach, the best companies build all these growth elements into their product from day one.
Focal is an AI video platform for creating movies, TV shows, and YouTube videos. It combines the best video models (Kling, Minimax, and Luma, etc.) and image models (Flux Pro and Recraft, etc.) with a browser-based editor, so you can do all your work in one place. Focal also has a powerful copilot that can generate parts of the video for you.
This tool transforms your customer conversations into actionable tasks.
Google AI Studio is the fastest way to start building with Gemini.
Making quick decisions at work often leads to mistakes. This writer shares how rushing a project estimate led to late nights and stress. By making a rule to never give immediate answers, work quality improved. The writer shows how taking time helps in tough situations like managing teams or handling layoffs. Simple rules like "no answers during meetings" are surprisingly powerful for protecting against pressure and improving choices across all kinds of business decisions.
Companies like Vanguard and Costco succeed by charging less than they could. This article shows how customers stay longer and tell friends more when companies don't maximize prices. Using data from a Stanford-MIT study, it explains why this works especially well for businesses that need lots of happy customers. The data suggests that deliberately leaving money on the table often leads to stronger growth through loyalty and referrals.
MicroStrategy, under Michael Saylor's leadership, has transformed into a "bitcoin treasury company" with aggressive investments in bitcoin, vastly increasing its market cap and stock value. The company's strategy includes issuing debt and equity to continually purchase bitcoin, fueling a feedback loop of rising stock prices. However, critics warn of significant risks if bitcoin's price falls, as MicroStrategy's financial health is heavily dependent on its crypto holdings.
People often stick to old ways of doing things even when better options exist.
Asymmetric Capital Partners predicts strong growth for valuable AI companies while many hyped ventures may falter in 2025.
As AI moves from basic assistant to potential "teammate," companies face a fundamental shift in workplace dynamics.
In 2015, Fin's team tried to build an AI assistant service and found problems that even today's better AI can't fix. While they built good systems for remembering user preferences and checking service quality, they found a basic issue: when you stand between users and real-world services, users blame you for every problem. Even with better AI today, assistant services still face the same basic challenges that made Fin change its business model.
The author shares a poor sales email from Salesforce that shows basic mistakes: it doesn't know they're already customers, uses unprofessional formatting, and offers limited meeting times. This matters because even the biggest software company is sending low-quality sales emails in 2025. The author suggests this happened because Salesforce is using old contact lists, possibly outsourced work, and junior sales staff with little training.
Morris Chang's autobiography details the founding of TSMC, now a leading semiconductor manufacturer. Despite setbacks at Texas Instruments and General Instrument, Chang's vision for a dedicated semiconductor foundry helped create the first major "fabless" company model. Initially dismissed by industry peers, TSMC's success highlights the foresight in Chang's strategies and his pivotal role in shaping the semiconductor landscape.
In 2013, Ankur Nagpal was just another 24-year-old in New York trying to figure out his startup path. A weekend project to help sell online courses turned into Teachable, but growth was painfully slow - after 18 months, it barely made enough to pay one engineer's salary. Then everything changed. Teachable grew 7x in six months by shifting its message from "course software" to "build your dream business" and leveraging successful creators as evangelists. The piece shares specific tactics that worked, from live workshops that converted 30% of attendees to online summits that brought in thousands of new customers at once.
The story starts with MLB trying to stream baseball games for Ichiro Suzuki's fans. This small project grew into BAMTech, which solved basic streaming problems like showing different content in different regions and keeping videos in sync across devices. Disney bought BAMTech for $4B and used it to build Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. While Disney's stock price has dropped 15% since launching streaming in 2019, and Netflix's has grown 277%, BAMTech's technology helps Disney get more value from its $100B worth of movies and TV shows.
The writer shares how he now sees taking quiet time as a luxury, unlike five years ago when he would have seen it as wasting time. He points out that while many celebrate being busy and optimizing every minute, true success often comes from having time to think deeply. He explains how he protects his time: keeping his phone on Do Not Disturb, scheduling thinking time each week, and going to bed early.
Alternative browser built for productivity.
FakeData allows you to generate realistic data for testing, development, and simulations.
ClipZap is an AI-powered video tool for automatic clipping, editing, and translation.
Asimov explained how people come up with new ideas in a 1959 essay. He said that creativity comes from making unexpected connections between things, like Darwin connecting animal species with Malthus's ideas about population. Asimov believed people need to work alone to be creative because sharing early ideas can be embarrassing. He said groups should be small, relaxed, and free from judgment when people do meet to share ideas.
OpenAI has unveiled its o3 model, a significant advancement in reasoning with a notable performance on programming and math benchmarks. This model, which uses enhanced reinforcement learning, set a new bar in various tasks, marking a substantial jump from its predecessor, o1. While promising, the rollout emphasized safety, with OpenAI actively inviting researchers for comprehensive testing, highlighting both breakthroughs and the challenge of managing increased compute costs.
The article looks at what happens when AI becomes better than humans at their jobs. It starts with Lee Sedol, a champion Go player who quit after losing to AI in 2016. The author shares how AI can now write articles in his style in seconds, which makes him question his work. The key point is that everyone who creates things will face this moment, and they need to focus on what makes them unique - their human experiences and judgment - rather than just their technical skills.
When looking for a co-founder, one trait matters more than anything else: being "down."
With many companies facing difficulties in 2025, this piece examines the three main options for struggling businesses: selling (through M&A, acquihire, or IP sale), pivoting to a new direction, or shutting down.
Leading SaaS companies saw downturns end by Q3 2024 and are benefiting from AI offerings boosting budgets.
A comprehensive analysis of 45,000 startups reveals shifting equity dynamics over the past decade. Solo founders now represent 35% of new companies, though they struggle more to raise venture capital. When splitting equity, two-person teams increasingly opt for equal shares (46% in 2024 vs 32% in 2015). The founding team's ownership typically drops most dramatically in early rounds - from 56% post-seed to 36% at Series A and 23% at Series B.
AI is causing unprecedented rapid collapse of established products' market fit. Unlike previous tech shifts that gave companies time to adapt, AI capabilities can spike customer expectations overnight. This piece examines casualties like Chegg (90% value loss in 9 months) and Stack Overflow (significant traffic decline), arguing they aren't isolated cases but a new pattern where even successful products can suddenly lose relevance when AI provides 10x better alternatives.
While go-to-market strategies often involve complex data and segmentation, many companies overlook a simpler path to growth: being crystal clear about their value proposition. 90% of companies haven't done the hard work of truly understanding and articulating what they do, why it matters, and how customers think about them. This lack of clarity creates friction that directly impacts growth - after all, people don't buy what they don't understand.
Clay transformed from a $200/month spreadsheet tool into a billion-dollar company through seven key strategic shifts. Instead of traditional demos, it had customers drive while team members guided, gathering invaluable UX feedback. Rather than chase enterprise deals immediately, it mastered self-serve with usage-based pricing. This piece reveals how Clay hired "GTM engineers" - technical problem-solvers rather than traditional salespeople - and kept its waitlist up for 15 months despite millions in revenue to ensure product-market fit. The unconventional moves paid off: Clay 10x'd revenue in 2022, did it again in 2023, and now serves over 5,000 customers including OpenAI and Canva.
Rather than rushing to problem-solve, successful customer service should follow this three-step framework: mirror emotions, find points of agreement, and commit to a resolution. Mirroring validates customer feelings ("I'd be frustrated too"), agreement builds connection without admitting fault, and clear resolution promises create loyalty. When executed well, this approach can transform angry customers into brand advocates by making them feel genuinely heard and supported.
An entrepreneur transitioned to a corporate role for financial stability and to learn from larger organizations. This shift highlighted differences in autonomy and impact, with corporate roles offering less direct influence but valuable insights into scalability. The transition remains a work in progress, emphasizing adaptability and learning.
Heyboss is an AI engineer that helps non-coders build websites, apps, and games.
Create, ship, and monetize AI Agents.
Stay in focus by blocking distracting apps and websites.
Ray2 is a large-scale video generative model that's setting a new standard in realistic visuals with natural, coherent motion and logical event sequences. It was trained on Luma's new multi-modal architecture, scaled to 10x compute of Ray1.
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup backed by hedge fund High-Flyer, has developed a new R1 model that outperforms OpenAI's O1 on multiple reasoning benchmarks, sparking price wars in China's AI market with its affordable API rates. Focused on building foundational AI technology without commercializing, DeepSeek remains profitable due to architectural innovations like multi-head latent attention and sparse mixture-of-experts, while committing to open-source contributions. CEO Liang Wenfeng emphasizes original innovation, utilizing local talent, and believes in scaling AGI development rather than merely imitating existing models.
Varrock's VC fund emphasizes the importance of concentration and ownership in investments to drive returns, given the power law nature of the VC industry. The current fundraising environment is challenging, with many LPs lacking dry powder despite higher crypto prices. Generalist funds are favored over specialist ones to mitigate macro risks and capitalize on emerging trends.
Box's CEO sees AI agent interaction becoming a key software paradigm.
During Facebook's early days, Chamath banned discussions of virality to force the team to focus on three fundamental challenges: getting users in the door, driving "aha moments" quickly, and delivering core value frequently.
Gong's 2025 State of Revenue report shows strong SaaS growth, with $100K deals closing in about 70 days and a 25% win rate for enterprise clients.
Trump's first-day executive orders - attempting to end birthright citizenship despite constitutional protections, reviving Schedule F to enable civil service dismissals, pardoning January 6 rioters, and launching investigations into the Biden administration - signal major policy shifts. While some orders face clear legal hurdles, others, like Schedule F, create tools whose impact depends on implementation. This piece examines how each order tests different aspects of democratic institutions.
DeepSeek's new open-weights R1 model, trained on a modest budget, points to an emerging split in AI development: high-speed models for immediate tasks versus research models for complex reasoning. Download data shows strong market interest in both approaches. AI is bifurcating between quick, lightweight models and more deliberate thinking engines, with each serving distinct use cases.
In 1958, Hunter S. Thompson wrote a profound response to a friend seeking life advice. Rather than pursuing fixed goals that shift as we grow, he argues we should strive to be ourselves by choosing paths that maximize our abilities and desires. The letter emphasizes that the journey matters more than the destination - "look for a way of life" instead of specific goals. When standard options feel limiting, Thompson urges, "you must find a ninth path."
RemoteOK has turned job postings into a money machine through smart upsells. Companies willingly pay $500 for custom colors and highlighted listings to stand out in a crowded market. The strategy works by preselecting premium options and using loss aversion - unselecting features triggers warnings about missed opportunities. Average revenue per job post "skyrocketed" after RemoteOK implemented these psychology-driven pricing tactics.
AI companies saw a significant funding increase totaling $99.6 billion in 2024. With a focus on both foundation models and applied AI sectors, investors are increasingly interested in AI applications with impactful sector-specific benefits, moving beyond mere infrastructure investments. While AI funding is up, experts anticipate a decade-long maturation period for AI's full potential in transforming software development and business processes.
David Senra from Founders Podcast shares key insights from studying prominent founders. Key maxims include focusing on service, exploiting earned secrets, and leveraging information. Successful founders emphasize intense focus, problem-solving, and harnessing the power of relationships and simplicity.
Fellowship for founders in -1 to 0: pre-revenue, pre-product, or even pre-idea.
A free, intensive 4-day experience for B2B founders early in building epic companies by First Round.
Build, test, and deploy pricing models with AI.