Founder Weekly (Issue 709 November 19 2025)

Welcome to issue 709 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

But what can you actually DO about the proclaimed ‘AI bubble’? Billionaires know an alternative…

Sure, if you held your stocks since the dotcom bubble, you would’ve been up—eventually. But three years after the dot-com bust the S&P 500 was still far down from its peak. So, how else can you invest when almost every market is tied to stocks?

Lo and behold, billionaires have an alternative way to diversify: allocate to a physical asset class that outpaced the S&P by 15% from 1995 to 2025, with almost no correlation to equities. It’s part of a massive global market, long leveraged by the ultra-wealthy (Bezos, Gates, Rockefellers etc).

Contemporary and post-war art.

Masterworks lets you invest in multimillion-dollar artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso—without needing millions. Over 70,000 members have together invested more than $1.2 billion across over 500 artworks. So far, 23 sales have delivered net annualized returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5%.*

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_{Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd}

General

The Playbook on Buying and Running Companies Forever

The video features Luca Ferrari, co-founder of Bending Spoons, discussing their unique company model that blends private equity and tech operations by acquiring and deeply transforming digital businesses. He shares the journey of growing Bending Spoons from near bankruptcy to a multi-billion euro valuation, emphasizing their focus on talent density, permanent ownership of acquisitions, disciplined M&A strategy, and the transformative impact of AI on their operations.

The Complete Guide to AI Prototyping Tools

Why AI prototyping represents a revolutionary shift in product building, detailed breakdowns of 14 new tools and how to choose the right one for you and your organization.

The Other PMF: Wes Kao’s Framework for Founders Who Want to Communicate — and Lead — Better

Tactical advice for founders on mastering “personality-message fit": leaning into your natural communication style.

Accel 2025 Globalscape: Race for compute

AI’s surge has continued without slowing, with markets hitting new highs, Nvidia crossing five trillion, and global venture funding jumping 84 percent to an expected 184 billion. The playing field is widening at the application layer as Europe and Israel’s talent rises, and a new race for compute and infrastructure is now powering the next phase of the AI industrial era.

Marketing, Sales and PR

“Dumbest idea I’ve heard” to $100M ARR: Inside the rise of Gamma

Grant Lee, co-founder of Gamma shares how they built a profitable AI-powered presentation startup valued at over $2 billion. The discussion covers their journey to product-market fit, influencer marketing strategy, unique onboarding experience, pricing, and founder-led growth tactics that helped them reach $100 million ARR in just over two years.

How to use AI agents for marketing

Inside advanced AI workflows that actually work.

Money and Finance

Real Risk in Early-Stage Funds Is Not Failure, It Is Missing the Outlier

Most funds are not undone by their failures. They are undone by the one investment they never made.

How to actually raise your round

The article shares the fundraising journey of Fabien Koutchekian and his company Genomines, highlighting the grueling 14-month process with 100 rejections before securing $45 million from 12 investors. It emphasizes the psychological resilience needed, the importance of refining the narrative focus, building deep relationships rather than cold outreach, and maintaining conviction and execution throughout the unpredictable and nonlinear fundraising process.