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- Founder Weekly (Issue 657 October 9 2024)
Founder Weekly (Issue 657 October 9 2024)
Founder Weekly - Issue 657
Founder Weekly
Welcome to issue 657 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.
General
Sometimes the signals of product-market fit are so strong, they can no longer be ignored. In the latest installment of our Paths to Product-Market Fit series, Amjad Masad takes us on Replit's unconventional journey from college side project to billion-dollar AI startup.
As LLM’s become exponentially better it is clear that vertical AI agents are key to the next generation of billion dollar SaaS companies. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts sit down with YC alum Jake Heller, the co-founder and CEO of Casetext (which sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in cash in 2023) to discuss what it takes to build a successful vertical AI company and overcome resistance from industry veterans and skeptics.
Steve Blank (of Lean Startup and Four Steps to the Epiphany fame) unpacks why innovators and founders should expect fierce battles from incumbents on the path to disruption.
Any why you shouldn't optimize for efficiency in every single thing you do.
Marketing, Sales and PR
This article details lemlist's journey from a $1,000 investment to $28M ARR, highlighting their bootstrapped growth strategies and the implementation of a reverse trial model. It covers their evolution from community-driven growth to product innovation and discusses the challenges and benefits of switching to a reverse trial to improve conversion rates and expand market presence.
Tracy Young, CEO of TigerEye and former CEO of PlanGrid, shares key sales strategies from her journey growing PlanGrid to $100M in ARR. She emphasizes the importance of founder-led sales, deeply understanding customers, and leveraging creative marketing for high ROI, offering valuable insights for early-stage founders navigating their go-to-market strategies.
Money and Finance
A go-go decade morphs with opportunity and danger...
And its implications for Vertical Software founders and investors.
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