Founder Weekly (Issue 708 November 12 2025)

Welcome to issue 708 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

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General

Founder Ideology

The founder ideology framework categorizes founders into missionaries (driven by a cause), mercenaries (motivated by the journey or opportunity), and minstrels (performative founders). It emphasizes that these ideologies influence founder behavior, evolve over time, and that founders should intentionally choose who they want to be as they build their companies.

Mission, Vision, poTAYto, poTAHto

The article distinguishes "Purpose" as the bigger-world transformation a company strives to contribute to, which is enduring and inclusive, unlike mission or vision statements that are often unclear or inconsistent. Purpose answers "Why are we doing this?" and invites others to join in, focusing on impact beyond the company itself.

Roadmap: Built World AI

The built world drives nearly a quarter of U.S. GDP and yet remains one of the least digitized sectors. Multimodal AI is enabling the next wave of innovation in how we design, build, and operate it.

Marketing, Sales and PR

"Sell the alpha, not the feature": The enterprise sales playbook for $1M to $10M ARR

This video features Jen Abel sharing tactical advice on scaling enterprise sales. Key points include targeting tier-one logos as early adopters, selling vision and opportunity rather than just features or problems, structuring pricing to land high-value deals, and the importance of building strong relationships and design partnerships to grow from $1M to $10M ARR efficiently.

Braindump On Viral Loops

Everything we learned (and forgot) about viral loops from Web 2.0.

The $100B Question: How SaaS Giants Are Rewriting the Rules of Value with AI in 2025

A complete guide to hybrid, usage-based, and outcome-driven models for modern B2B startups.

Money and Finance

The Illusion of Diversification in Early-Stage Portfolios

Diversification looks smart early in a fund. Conviction looks smart at the end.

What makes a round "easy"

Attention spikes vs. Explaining to do.

How To Make Your Investors Fall In Love With You

The article advises founders to make investors "fall in love" by not just presenting data, but by interpreting it. They should explain what the data means, identify the key problem or opportunity, and propose a clear plan of action. This clarity and proactive thinking make investor conversations more productive and enjoyable, building trust and enabling better support and decision-making.

Why most AI-enabled roll-ups will fail (and the 4 rules of those that will win)

The article explains that most AI-enabled roll-ups will fail because they focus narrowly on cost-cutting through AI in labor-intensive sectors without ensuring long-term earnings growth or competitive advantage. Success requires targeting white-collar services with high labor costs, recurring revenue for predictability, leveraging revenue-side synergies beyond cost reduction, and using roll-ups as a strategic wedge into larger market opportunities.