The hottest Startup Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

A Midas Winning VC Playbook

The Generalist • 1401 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
💼 Business Investing Venture Capital Startup Strategy Operations
  1. Primary Venture Partners focuses on being the best seed fund by sticking to their core ethos of 'Startups are hard, founders deserve better.'
  2. They prioritize selective investing, focusing on high-risk, high-reward opportunities in the early stages of startup funding.
  3. Using a substantial impact team and unique operational approach, Primary Venture Partners aims to differentiate themselves in the competitive venture capital landscape.

Gaining 2,200+ visitors on our first week launching an AI tool

Pen, Paper & Pizza • 59 implied HN points • 17 Apr 24
💼 Business Startup AI Marketing Content Launch
  1. Successful launch focusing on a niche: Centered efforts on AI, digital marketing, and aiding small businesses/startups. Stayed true to their target audience in every decision.
  2. Strategic approach to product development: Coordinated frontend and backend work, utilized various APIs for research, and leveraged Product Hunt for initial exposure.
  3. Engagement and growth tactics: Leveraged existing platforms like Indie Hackers, Reddit, and LinkedIn to connect with the audience. Received 2,200+ visitors, 60+ users, and initiated 26 free trials in the first week.

Cap Table Template

Venture Prose • 159 implied HN points • 07 Apr 24
💼 Business Finance Startup
  1. Be mindful of dilution when piling up post-money SAFE notes as a founder.
  2. Creating a proper cap table can reveal the dilutive impact of different funding rounds and securities.
  3. Use templates to simulate scenarios like adding co-founders, granting stock options, raising multiple rounds, and selling secondaries.

Where Should I Incorporate?

Points And Figures • 532 implied HN points • 12 Feb 24
💼 Business Startup Legislation Location Investment
  1. Institutional investors prefer C-Corps for specific tax benefits and legal protections.
  2. Nevada is emerging as a compelling option for business incorporation due to favorable legal environment and objectivity of judges.
  3. Nevada's business-friendly culture, favorable weather, and infrastructure make it an attractive choice for startups over traditional options like Delaware.
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TabaPay Working On A Deal To Acquire Synapse, Sources Say

Fintech Business Weekly • 59 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
💼 Business Fintech Venture Capital Startup Regulation
  1. TabaPay is in talks to acquire Synapse, a banking-as-a-service platform, to potentially mitigate damage caused by a past financial incident.
  2. Oxygen, a neobank, is pivoting to focus on 'health solutions' temporarily, suspending its banking services.
  3. Trade groups are suing to block a new CFPB rule that limits credit card late fees, arguing it restricts choices and responsible credit card use.

Balancing the Conflicting Pulls on Time in a Startup

Running Lean Mastery • 137 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
💼 Business Productivity Time management Startup
  1. Time in a startup is pulled in different directions - outside and inside the building. Startup founders need to balance both effectively.
  2. Creating a flow state is crucial for productivity. Flow involves being fully immersed in a task, limiting interruptions, and receiving immediate feedback.
  3. To optimize work, establish uninterrupted time blocks for focused tasks, prioritize maker goals early in the day, and schedule manager activities later to maintain flow.

How to find industry problem as young founder

Recontact • 39 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Startup Industry Analysis Problem Solving Market research
  1. Start by finding a common interest field, building hypotheses around it, and validating them. It helps provide direction in problem-solving.
  2. When searching for industry problems, focus on non-core issues that companies face. This approach can lead to valuable insights and potential solutions.
  3. Conduct interviews with a variety of people in the industry, from executives to lower-level employees, to gather a diverse set of perspectives and understand the depth of the problem. It can help in identifying the right problem to tackle.

📰 Techcrunch

First 1000 • 452 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
💼 Business Media Startup Tech industry Acquisition 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.

Alison.AI analyzes your creative to ensure real conversion

Startup Strategies • 42 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
💼 Business AI Startup Advertising Funding Technology
  1. Alison.AI, founded by Asaf Yanai and Koby Berkovich, uses AI to optimize video advertising by analyzing competitors' successful creatives. They offer a suite of tools for enhancing the video creation process from ideation to production.
  2. Alison.AI stands out by focusing on video creative analysis, providing data-driven insights for optimizing video ads and streamlining advertising campaign briefs with the SmartBrief feature.
  3. The startup secured a significant $5.1 million pre-seed funding round, with investors like a16z, and has shown impressive growth by analyzing millions of creatives, identifying key features, and working with major companies in the digital marketing space.

The 5 ingredients of a great fundraising announcement

Flack • 648 implied HN points • 23 Aug 23
💼 Business Communication Public Relations Startup Entrepreneurship Investment
  1. A successful fundraising announcement includes objectives, audience, message, execution, and validation.
  2. Focus your announcement message on accomplishments, plans, and what matters to employees and customers.
  3. When executing a fundraising announcement, share the message authentically, handle leaks intelligently, and seek validation from others.

Ti Amo

Venture Prose • 259 implied HN points • 19 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Social media Startup Product Development Innovation
  1. Launch fast and don't be afraid to release early in the world of social consumer apps
  2. Successful founders in social consumer apps focus on building products intentionally with a deep understanding of user behavior
  3. Social consumer applications revolve around status, communication, and entertainment, where people post, communicate, and get entertained

Lean SRE

Certo Modo • 19 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
🕹 Technology SRE DevOps Webinar Startup Automation
  1. Smaller organizations and startups can benefit from implementing Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, leading to reduced operational costs and time savings.
  2. Implementing SRE practices in smaller companies may differ in approach from larger organizations, but can still yield significant benefits.
  3. Starting an SRE program at a larger company can be achieved by beginning with just one software engineering team.

Too Good to Be True?: Why B2B's Should Offer a Startup Discount Program

Elena's Growth Scoop • 471 implied HN points • 29 Aug 23
💼 Business B2B Startup Growth Strategy
  1. Offering a startup discount program can convert customers to paid plans, land enterprise contracts, and build your brand.
  2. A startup discount program provides an opportunity for companies to offer their product at a reduced cost to new startups.
  3. The program acts like a reverse trial, allowing young companies to experience a product's benefits before transitioning to regular pricing.

The 10 most common GTM myths about early-stage SaaS

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 43 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
💼 Business Startup Marketing Sales Podcasts Growth
  1. Having a great product is not enough, you need effective marketing and sales to succeed.
  2. Adding a free plan may not always solve the problem of acquiring paying clients, and freemium may not be suitable for all businesses.
  3. Tracking lost reasons properly, understanding the value you offer, and analyzing churn are crucial aspects that impact the success of a SaaS business.

Re-Introduction

Interconnected • 384 implied HN points • 07 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Politics Cloud Startup Global
  1. The author provides a re-introduction of their background in three phases: US Politics, Foreign Policy, Washington DC; Cloud Infrastructure, Open Source, Startup Operator; Global Lens, GitHub, Investing and Writing.
  2. Their experience ranges from working in the Obama administration, studying law and computer science, to engaging in early stage investing and working at GitHub.
  3. They emphasize the importance of achieving bilingual information symmetry between English and Chinese through their writing.

Startup stock options: Liquidity options

Brick by Brick • 18 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
💰 Finance Startup Investment Stocks
  1. Common shares vs Preferred shares: Know the differences. Common shareholders may face challenges like Right of First Refusal (ROFR) when transacting with their shares.
  2. Liquidity avenues for startup common shares include IPOs (least likely), M&A, tender offers, private share sales, and equity financing. Each option comes with its own set of complexities and approvals.
  3. Preferred shareholder rights like Liquidation Preference and Participation Right can significantly impact common shareholders during exits, potentially wiping out their earnings completely. Understanding these rights is crucial in startup shareholder dynamics.

The Ultimate Framework to build your Ideal Customer Profile for SaaS startups.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 108 implied HN points • 21 Oct 23
💼 Business Startup SaaS Marketing
  1. The Ultimate Framework for building an Ideal Customer Profile includes defining the ideal company and personas in detail.
  2. To build your ICP, analyze CRM data, product analytics, create a Dream 100 list, do market testing, research communities, and get qualitative feedback from sales calls.
  3. Creating an Anti Ideal Customer Profile can help in identifying personas and companies that do not align with your business due to various reasons.

1/9/2024: InVision is Shutting Down

depression2022 • 39 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
💼 Business Startup Investing Tech industry
  1. InVision, a popular design collaboration app, is shutting down after facing stiff competition from Figma.
  2. The closure of InVision highlights the risks of startup investing and the challenges of managing investments without acquisitions or IPOs.
  3. 2024 may see more unicorn failures than successful IPOs, with many overfunded startups expected to fail.

021. [Founder Psychology Lesson] How to evolve from cowboy to leader

Safe For Work (SFW) • 15 implied HN points • 21 Feb 24
💼 Business Startup Leadership Team Management
  1. Startup founders need to transition from being independent doers to effective organizational leaders as the company grows.
  2. Founder's rapid learning pace in early stages can hinder team building if they don't shift to leading and collaborating with their team.
  3. Leaders should practice empathy, effective communication, and self-awareness to navigate the challenges of moving from individual contributor to managerial role.

The Lifecycle of an Edtech Company - Part 1

system bashing • 176 implied HN points • 20 Jul 23
💼 Business EdTech Startup Finance
  1. Starting small and doing what you love can lead to building a strong community and following.
  2. As a business grows, the transition from a passionate creator to a structured company can bring challenges in managing relationships and revenue.
  3. Scaling a startup involves evolving into a company with defined roles, managing financial aspects, and adapting to market demands.

🚪From idea to 5-figure exit in 4 months

No-Code Exits • 157 implied HN points • 27 Jul 23
💼 Business Startup Entrepreneurship Acquisition No-Code Tools Revenue growth
  1. Paul Metcalfe successfully sold his product, Lettergrowth, in just 4 months after building it with no-code tools.
  2. He used a landing page, DMs, and a community to find users, and relied on sponsorships for revenue.
  3. The acquisition happened quickly via Telegram Chat, with the buyer seeing potential in the product for their own business.