Founder Weekly (Issue 701 September 24 2025)

Welcome to issue 701 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

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General

Cybersecurity’s Future Belongs to Startups

The future of cybersecurity is shifting from traditional operating system defenses to the application layer, creating new attack surfaces that legacy security tools fail to fully address. Startups are best positioned to lead in this evolving landscape by innovating solutions focused on application-layer security, as incumbents struggle to adapt.

It’s Time For A B2C Comeback In the Age of AI. But it won’t be easy

The rise of AI presents a prime opportunity for a B2C comeback, with the potential for AI-native consumer companies to innovate personalized self-improvement, AI-powered communication, and reimagined productivity tools. However, building sustainable B2C ventures requires overcoming high expectations for scale, capital efficiency, customer acquisition costs, and competing against free or heavily funded AI frontier labs.

Building My First AI Product: 6 Lessons from My 90-Day Deep Dive

The author shares six key lessons from building an AI-powered Interview Coach in 90 days, revealing the importance of matching AI solutions to real user needs, prototyping and testing with real data, and moving beyond chatbots to thoughtfully-designed workflows and integrations. Consistent, high-quality AI requires iterative experiments, comprehensive evaluations (evals), strong domain expertise, and clear ethical practices around data privacy and user consent.

Marketing, Sales and PR

The Gen AI PLG Renaissance

Gen AI winners are landing with PLG, then compounding with enduring moats.

The End of Digital Analytics

Digital analytics, once seen as the foundation for data-driven decision making, is collapsing due to the decline of marketing attribution and the confusing rollout of Google Analytics 4. The future is splitting into two paths: operational customer experience optimization for fast actionable insights, and strategic revenue intelligence that connects user behavior directly to business outcomes—moving far beyond old dashboards and event tracking.

Money and Finance

Conviction Capitalists

The article discusses the distinction between conviction-driven and scale-driven venture capital firms, emphasizing that true conviction involves deep belief, expertise, and substantial, focused investments in fewer companies. It argues that conviction is rare but essential for building enduring, high-impact businesses, contrasting it with the prevailing consensus-driven, short-term capital deployment prevalent in much of today’s venture market.

What Is Going On In Venture 2025?

The venture capital market in 2025 is characterized by a liquidity crunch, with rising total investment amounts but declining deal counts and longer fundraising periods. IPOs and M&A activity are rebounding but remain below peak levels, while valuations are rising primarily for top-performing AI-related startups, creating a K-shaped economy in venture funding.