Founder Weekly (Issue 689 June 11 2025)

Welcome to issue 689 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

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General

Windsurf CEO & Co-Founder, Varun Mohan: AI's Biggest Acquisition to Date!

Varun Mohan, co-founder of Windsurf, discusses how successful AI startups must balance relentless optimism with ruthless realism, pivoting quickly when necessary and focusing on doing one thing exceptionally well rather than spreading resources thin. He emphasizes that being first and learning from the market is valuable, but ultimately, startups succeed by adapting and executing better than their competitors.

The Founder's Guide to Vertical AI

Vertical AI startups succeed by deeply integrating AI into industry-specific workflows, overcoming challenges like entrenched systems and data silos to build defensible, high-value products. The guide emphasizes founder-led sales, iterative product-market fit, and leveraging domain expertise to disrupt incumbents and capture new market opportunities.

The Race to Become the System of Action

In vertical SaaS, the next battleground is the system of action—where AI doesn’t just help run the business, it does the work. The winner gets the user, the workflow, and the economics.

A Primer on US Healthcare

The US healthcare system is a $5 trillion, highly complex web of providers, payers, suppliers, and middlemen, with enormous administrative costs and inefficiencies. AI is uniquely positioned to automate much of this administrative burden, offering a rare opportunity for technology to meaningfully improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Marketing, Sales and PR

Pricing Agentic: Economic Models for a New Kind of Demand

Agentic transactions—where AI agents present fully qualified purchase orders—could disrupt retail by eliminating traditional marketing funnels and customer acquisition costs, creating a $4B market opportunity in 18 months. The post argues that the success of agentic commerce will be determined not by technology, but by the economic models and governance structures that incentivize participation, balance value distribution, and establish new standards for brand loyalty and platform power.

The state of B2B monetization in 2025

Introducing new data from 240 software and AI companies.

How Founders Can Land Their First Few Customers by Building a Roster of Advisors

Founders can land their first customers by building a roster of industry advisors—practitioners who provide feedback, shape the product, and often become early users themselves. This approach leverages targeted outreach, genuine relationship-building, and light compensation to validate the product and accelerate initial sales.

Money and Finance

Nail Your Raise: Luring VCs

A masterclass by Vinod Khosla on how to effectively pitch to VCs, covering what investors look for and how to craft a compelling narrative.

Startup Equity 101

Startup equity is a complex but crucial part of compensation, typically granted as stock options or RSUs, whose value depends on factors like vesting, 409A valuations, dilution, and tax treatment. Understanding how equity works—including risks, taxes, and liquidity events—can significantly impact your long-term financial outcomes as a startup employee or founder.