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- Founder Weekly (Issue 717 February 4 2026)
Founder Weekly (Issue 717 February 4 2026)
Rahul Chaudhary
February 04, 2026
Welcome to issue 717 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.
The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it. That’s what The Marketing Millennials delivers: real insights, fresh takes, and no fluff. Written by Daniel Murray, a marketer who knows what works, this newsletter cuts through the noise so you can stop guessing and start winning. Subscribe and level up your marketing game.
General
Mike Maples Jr. argues that successful founders must prioritize seeking objective reality over social validation, treating their startup ideas as hypotheses to be tested rather than conclusions to be defended. He warns that cleverness can become a liability when used to explain away failed experiments, whereas accepting "deferred falsification" early prevents catastrophic, unrecoverable failure later.
Gergely Orosz explains how he replaced a $120/year testimonials tool (Shoutout.io) with a custom-built JSON and HTML solution in 20 minutes using LLM-generated code. He argues that many "thin" micro-SaaS businesses are now vulnerable because AI makes it trivial for engineers to build and host specialized, maintenance-free alternatives for themselves.
A detailed look at how one team navigated the hard calls: figuring out where AI actually fits, shipping ahead of customers, and building quality through rigorous evaluation & iteration.
Defense tech has advanced more in the past twenty-four months than in the previous three decades, with startups leading the charge on key pillars of innovation.
Concrete data to visualize an intangible phenomenon.
Marketing, Sales and PR
The top 40 ways GTM teams are seeing big gains from AI.
Ads in AI today, OpenAI's Ads Plans and What "Ads for Agents" Might Mean.
How to Nail Marketing and Brand in the Age of AI.
Money and Finance
The article argues that founders often fall into a "Fundability Trap" by optimizing their startups for the specific metrics and narratives required for the next VC round rather than focusing on building a fundamentally sound, sustainable business. This misalignment creates "zombie" companies that look great on paper for fundraising but lack the product-market fit or unit economics necessary for long-term survival outside the venture subsidy loop.
Founders often stumble in investor demos by diving into features instead of clearly explaining the problem, solution, and traction, which leaves investors confused rather than convinced. The post outlines five common demo mistakes and shows how focusing on outcomes, context, and real signals makes demos far more effective.
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