The hottest Entrepreneurship Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

YC Strategy 'Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved' To Raise Funding | Peter Thiel On 'Make A Product A Few Love' | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 439 implied HN points • 15 Nov 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Y Combinator's strategy for raising funding includes focusing on 'Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved' to impress investors.
  2. Peter Thiel emphasizes the importance of making a product that a few people really love, rather than trying to please a large group at the start.
  3. When seeking venture capital funding, it is crucial to have a clear plan for the amount of money you need, the runway required before the next round, and the milestones you aim to achieve.

I've found the last missing piece 🔍

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 13 Aug 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. The founder had productive calls with developers, gaining insights to improve their project after the launch. It's important to listen to experienced people to refine your ideas.
  2. They enhanced their landing page by adding testimonials and changing the pricing strategy, which could help attract more customers. Good copy and clear pricing can make a big difference.
  3. The next steps include generating social proof and setting up a Product Hunt pre-launch page, showing a plan to engage potential users and increase visibility before launch.

Elon Musk

kamilkazani • 471 implied HN points • 30 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Entrepreneurship
  1. Elon Musk's innovation can sometimes be misunderstood as tricksterism due to disruption.
  2. Non-violent businesses like Musk's may face security challenges by outsourcing violence.
  3. Musk's success in creating non-violent enterprises may be due to existing in an environment that favored this approach.

YC

Venture Prose • 519 implied HN points • 21 Aug 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. YC-backed companies' valuations have significantly increased over the past years due to market conditions and increased capital availability.
  2. When investing in startups, it's crucial to have access to top founders, win deals, and diversify your portfolio with at least 20 deals to maximize returns.
  3. High valuations and early-stage startup frenzy can sometimes lead entrepreneurs to lose sight of the core values and essence of their journey.

BTS: Behind the Snax with Ithaca Hummus

Snaxshot • 279 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🍲 Food & Drink Entrepreneurship
  1. The founder of Ithaca Hummus, Chris Kirby, started the company from humble beginnings at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market.
  2. Chris Kirby's inspiration for venturing into hummus came from a desire for healthy, versatile, and flavorful food options that were missing in the market.
  3. Hummus, especially Ithaca Hummus, is praised for its versatility, health benefits, and role in enhancing various dishes, making it a go-to option for a flavorful and healthy addition to meals.
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Preparing to launch 🚀

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 12 Aug 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Testing the payment flow is crucial. It's important to ensure the payment system works correctly before launching, so real-world testing with coupon codes can help ease nerves.
  2. Improving the landing page can make a big difference. Sometimes stepping away helps you see what's unnecessary or unclear, allowing for better, more precise wording.
  3. Planning next steps is essential for a successful launch. Focus on pricing strategy, generating social proof, and preparing for platforms like Product Hunt to boost visibility.

Grand Marnier

Venture Prose • 718 implied HN points • 28 Jan 23
🍲 Food & Drink Entrepreneurship
  1. Success as an entrepreneur requires a solid team, clear priorities, and rapid product development.
  2. Entrepreneurship is filled with challenges and uncertainties, pushing individuals to constantly strive for progress.
  3. Key qualities of successful entrepreneurs include maintaining a positive attitude, surrounding oneself with the right people, and staying realistic and clear-sighted.

A Winning Strategy

Points And Figures • 932 implied HN points • 21 Oct 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Being authentic is key for leaders. When leaders show their true selves, it helps build trust and culture in their organizations.
  2. Not every leader is suited for every situation. Finding the right fit where authenticity shines can lead to greater success.
  3. People today appreciate genuine leadership. With so much fake behavior around, being authentic stands out and resonates with others.

🚀 A Smarter Way to Launch Ebikes

The Micromobility Newsletter • 491 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Prelaunch.com uses a special reservation system for customers interested in products, offering them a deal on launch.
  2. Prelaunch.com helps ebike inventors gather market feedback, optimize product design, and customize marketing strategies.
  3. Success stories like the FUELL Fllow and other electric mobility products have benefitted from Prelaunch.com's validation platform.

BTS: Behind the Snax with Oddball

Snaxshot • 219 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🍲 Food & Drink Entrepreneurship
  1. Sophia Cheng has had a diverse career path, starting from studying journalism to working in finance and consulting before pursuing her plant-based jelly product, Oddball.
  2. The inspiration behind Oddball comes from Sophia's Asian upbringing, highlighting the importance of texture in Asian foods and the balance and moderation in the Asian diet.
  3. The journey of building Oddball has been challenging, especially in terms of fundraising, but Sophia emphasizes the importance of simplicity in product creation and the values of embracing healthier snacking choices.

The emerging startup playbook

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 962 implied HN points • 09 Oct 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Create a minimum remarkable product that really stands out. This means your initial product should be good enough to impress people right away, as getting their trust back later is tough.
  2. Use storytelling to engage your audience. Instead of a big launch event, try to build a community around your product through authentic content and personal stories.
  3. Stay lean by using automation and AI to keep things efficient. It's better to have a small, skilled team that can innovate rather than hiring lots of people to get things done.

Notorious: Common Mistakes Founders Make

Notorious PLG • 235 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Valuable lessons for early-stage founders include focusing on customer needs, finding product-market fit, and maintaining rapid adaptation.
  2. Operating benchmarks for PLG startups include metrics on organic traffic, conversion rates, activation rates, and user retention.
  3. Financial benchmarks from PLG public companies cover EV/NTM revenue multiples, stock gainers, and recent PLG + AI financings.

Exploite tes peurs

Venture Prose • 658 implied HN points • 05 Feb 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Entrepreneurship
  1. Recognize and exploit your fears as a way to drive yourself to do better each day.
  2. Entrepreneurs should not shy away from acknowledging and utilizing their vulnerabilities as a source of motivation and growth.
  3. Seek feedback from others to identify recurring behaviors that may be limiting you, and work towards understanding and overcoming them to reach your full potential.

TBM 316: Ultra Founder Mode

The Beautiful Mess • 925 implied HN points • 17 Oct 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Ultra Founder Mode is all about taking raw honesty and owning up to your weaknesses. It's crucial to be really self-aware and willing to face hard truths about yourself and your work.
  2. In this mindset, you take full responsibility for everything—successes and failures. There’s no blaming others; you say 'I' messed up, and you own that weight fully.
  3. Being a leader means being deeply involved in your team's day-to-day struggles. You need to feel their pressures and grind alongside them, absorbing all the chaos without immediately trying to fix everything.

Long Term

Venture Prose • 479 implied HN points • 04 Jun 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Success often requires effort, dedication, and patience over immediate gratification.
  2. In the world of entrepreneurship and investing, it's important to have a long-term perspective and not get caught up in instant success narratives.
  3. Building meaningful companies requires ethics, rhythm, and alignment, along with cultivating long-term relationships with founders.

What's Better: AI-enabled services or AI-SaaS?

Enterprise AI Trends • 211 implied HN points • 01 Aug 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. AI-enabled services are all around us, with businesses using AI to automate many tasks. Companies should design their operations to fully leverage AI for better efficiency.
  2. OffDeal shows that there can be more profit in AI-enabled services compared to just selling software. They moved away from SaaS to offer full services and have seen great success because of it.
  3. Starting an AI-enabled service requires careful planning and execution. It's important to find ways to automate efficiently, but as AI becomes more common, the advantage may fade.

Michigan Ecosystem Builders List

Midwest Humble • 35 implied HN points • 30 Dec 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Community building is about people and partnerships, not just physical spaces. Events and hubs make that work visible and create momentum.
  2. A wide network of local leaders, meetups, accelerators, and coworking spaces across Michigan are actively supporting founders, creatives, and tech communities. They provide mentoring, programming, and connection points that keep the ecosystem growing.
  3. The region needs a more cohesive strategy to align hundreds of organizations and amplify their work so companies have reasons to scale and stay. Better coordination will help momentum lift the whole ecosystem.

The Cooperatist Manifesto that inspired Mondragon

The Novelleist • 879 implied HN points • 14 Oct 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. José María Arizmendiarrieta believed workers should own their companies, promoting equality and fairness in the workplace. He thought that if workers shared in profits, it would create a better community for everyone.
  2. He emphasized the importance of education, encouraging workers to become skilled and capable of managing their own businesses. This led to the creation of cooperatives where everyone could participate and benefit.
  3. Arizmendiarrieta's model showed that creating jobs and opportunities for workers was essential for a prosperous society. He taught that by working together and sharing resources, communities could thrive without relying solely on government intervention.

📰 Techcrunch

First 1000 • 452 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. TechCrunch's journey started with a personal blog and grew into a media giant through credibility and breaking big tech news stories.
  2. TechCrunch rode the wave of the Web 2.0 era, evolving from a research tool into a significant news outlet.
  3. The pivotal moment for TechCrunch was breaking the accurate story of Google acquiring YouTube, leading to a surge in subscribers and solidifying its position in the tech media industry.

52 Tiny Venture Lessons

The Generalist • 860 implied HN points • 31 Oct 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Look for unique people when investing. Different or strange backgrounds often lead to surprising success, so don’t just focus on traditional markers like good grades.
  2. Create your own investing strategy. Trying to copy what others do won't work for you, so find a method that fits your own strengths and experiences.
  3. Help without overstepping. It’s important to support startups when they ask, but don't check in too often or interfere unnecessarily.

Spotlight: Alexandra Vidyuk - Founder @ Space Ambition & Venture Partner @ Aloniq

Space Ambition • 179 implied HN points • 08 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Entrepreneurship
  1. Alexandra Vidyuk switched from banking to spacetech because she wanted to follow her childhood dream of exploring space. She believes the space industry can help solve big problems like climate change.
  2. The space industry needs more people from different backgrounds to help it grow. It's not just about rockets; many skills can be applied in this field, making it accessible to more people.
  3. If someone wants to move into spacetech, they should start learning about it through books and courses. Connecting with industry professionals and thinking about how their existing skills can fit into this field is also important.

The Post Money SAFE Horror Story

Venture Prose • 359 implied HN points • 26 Nov 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. SAFE agreements help define investor equity ownership in startups
  2. Transition from Pre-Money to Post-Money SAFE can impact founder equity significantly
  3. Consecutive Post-Money SAFE agreements can have a larger dilution effect on founder ownership compared to Pre-Money SAFE agreements

The Decentralised Workforce

Workforce Futurist by Andy Spence • 586 implied HN points • 29 Jan 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Many people are choosing gig work instead of traditional jobs for more freedom and better moral alignment with their work. This shift is especially notable among younger workers who value flexibility.
  2. The gig economy is growing rapidly, with more specialized platforms allowing skilled workers to connect with clients and earn substantial incomes. It's not just about food delivery anymore; many people are making good money in diverse fields.
  3. Despite the opportunities, there are challenges, such as platform fees and lack of benefits for workers. There's a need for policies that support gig workers to ensure they have fair earnings and access to health insurance.

D̶o̶n̶'t̶ Do It Fedon!

The Greek Analyst • 259 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Entrepreneurship
  1. The meme 'Don't Do It, Fedon!' symbolizes the need for Greece to move past old crises and strive for better things by embracing the F.E.T.A. framework: Failure, Effort, Toughing it Out, and Action.
  2. Greece needs to change its attitude towards failure, embrace meaningful effort, tough out challenges, and take proactive action to achieve success.
  3. Investments are booming in various sectors in Greece, with startups flourishing, tech companies expanding, and public and private investments contributing to economic growth.

🚪 How we built a social listening tool to scratch our own itch

No-Code Exits • 255 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Entrepreneurship
  1. The founders turned an irritating manual process into a successful business by building an automated social listening tool.
  2. The initial version of the product was developed in just two weeks using a combination of no-code tools.
  3. User acquisition strategies included leveraging social media marketing, networking in marketing communities, and cold-outreach using their own product.

VC: "I Don't Care About Your LTV/CAC Ratio!" Why? | VC Remote Jobs

Venture Curator • 179 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Investors value the velocity of return on customer acquisition cost (CACD) more than the LTV/CAC ratio. They want to know how quickly their investment in acquiring customers is returned as customer lifetime value.
  2. Customer cohorts are crucial: Not all customers have the same value. By tracking the LTV/CAC ratio by customer cohort, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts and focus on acquiring high-LTV customers.
  3. Startup success is tied to the correlation between customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LTV). A high LTV/CAC ratio indicates a successful business model, while a low ratio can lead to financial challenges and potential startup failure.

Business Relationships

In My Tribe • 607 implied HN points • 05 Jan 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Your job should be seen like a relationship that you can move on from, not as a marriage. It’s okay to leave a job when you’ve learned what you can and want to grow elsewhere.
  2. Selling a business can feel like watching your child grow up and become independent. You may feel lost afterward, but it’s a chance to explore new passions.
  3. Consider what you enjoy outside of work. If your job isn’t your true passion, find ways to express those interests in your free time instead.

The 10 biggest mistakes I made bootstrapping to $1M ARR

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 788 implied HN points • 13 Nov 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Launching on Product Hunt was a big effort, but it didn't really help with getting customers. It was a good learning experience, though, and helped shape our messaging.
  2. Hiring digital marketing agencies didn't work out well because we didn't understand marketing ourselves. We realized we needed to learn the basics to direct our strategy effectively.
  3. Spending a lot on affiliate marketing and event sponsorships didn't pay off. Having a great product isn't enough; you need a solid plan to get others to promote it effectively.

25 Things I've Learned In 25

Spilled Coffee • 44 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Prioritize time and relationships over possessions. Spend money to buy time, create experiences, and celebrate loved ones while you still can.
  2. Invest with discipline and block the noise: have a watchlist, cut losses quickly, let winners run, and favor low-cost indexing if you can’t consistently outperform. Avoid loud social media opinions and fear-driven decisions.
  3. Act now and enjoy life instead of waiting for perfect timing: call people, ask questions, help others, and build small surprises and rituals that create lasting joy.

Creating a Laboratory for Work 🧪

Game of One • 216 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Reframe work as a series of experiments rather than a predetermined job trajectory
  2. There are three common narratives of success: early commitment, late bloomer, and mastery through uncertainty and career changes
  3. Experimentation with work is crucial, but modern work structures often make it difficult to explore new opportunities

Why build when you could buy?

Kenny’s Sub • 159 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. Buying a business takes time and patience. It's important to understand that finding the right one isn't quick and you might go through many options before finding the right fit.
  2. Having clear criteria for what you're looking to buy is crucial. It's better to focus on specific areas that interest you rather than being too broad in your search.
  3. Expect to sift through a lot of possibilities. The process can be frustrating, but staying logical and not letting emotions lead your decisions will help you find the right business.

The age of the sovereign creator

Substack • 1289 implied HN points • 23 May 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship
  1. The rise of independent creators is changing how we think about online content. Unlike before, creators can now build direct relationships with their audiences and earn money without relying on advertising.
  2. Aggregation theory explains how big platforms control the flow of information and can limit creators. However, new models like Substack empower creators by giving them ownership of their content and audience.
  3. The future will likely see more creators moving away from traditional platforms. They'll use these big platforms for exposure while focusing on their own channels, where they can maintain control and earn more.

I'm launching the Solo Founders Podcast tomorrow

Texts with Founders • 2 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🎙 Podcasts Entrepreneurship
  1. A Solo Founders Podcast launches tomorrow and will feature founders who share concrete, battle-tested lessons. The first episode spotlights a solo founder who scaled from $100K to $1.25M ARR in two weeks by using AI for the majority of the business.
  2. Subscribing before launch helps the podcast rank better, so early subscribers make a real difference. Trailers are available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts if you want a quick preview.
  3. Anyone who subscribes before the launch is invited to a private Zoom AMA about building solo. Subscribe, reply "DONE", and you'll receive the calendar invite.