I feel like we're about to be in a space where many larger companies are just going to be blown away by small teams. Size has always worked against incumbents, but AI amplifies the inefficiencies.
Notes on Startups
196 notes
Oct 2026
Enormous opportunity vertical SaaS. There's a lot of horrible, painful software in boring industries ready to be disrupted.
GeniusThinking@GeniusGTX
Asked what he would build if he started over, Patrick Collison did not name an AI lab.He said he'd go for "the janky 1990s software" running whole industries nobody in the Valley will touch.3 examples of this:1) Vertical SaaS
Sep 2026
Onward compute.
Patrick Collison@patrickc
Some data we recently assembled on entrepreneurship/compute in Europe: eudata.vercel.app.We hope that one of the useful roles that Stripe can play is in collecting and publishing empirical data pertaining to entrepreneurship and industry in Europe. There's growing appetite to get Europe on a better footing, and cross-sectional comparisons can often shine light on where opportunities lie. If you're interested in this kind of thing, we publish more at stripeeconomics.substack.com.
Jul 2026
Congrats @JerLevine ! Seems like a solid exit.
Dustin Gouker@DustinGouker
News: Underdog sells to IG Group for up to $1.3 billion with "up to $850 million for eligible Underdog employees."That's a lot of money
@signulll And if you're building a marketplace, you'll likely have to build for both.
Jun 2026
Software businesses used to naturally move horizontally across a given function because software was hard and expensive. So you built one tool like a CRM and sold it to everyone.Agents change the entire dynamics. Software is cheap. This means you can build a great business for a narrow market. Industry expertise is the wedge.
Feb 2020
Feb 2019
Really amazing thread about things @AustenAllred has learned starting @LambdaSchool. Absolutely worth a read for anyone interested in education.
Sep 2018
Some interesting thoughts from @mijustin on the Bootstrapper's paradox.
Aug 2018
I love this list of questions @patrickc has put together. For example, why are there so many successful startups in Stockholm?
Jun 2018
There's cool stuff happening here. All my non-Atlanta tech peeps, you're missing out. Story by @LukesBeard buff.ly
May 2018
For Direct to Consumer businesses to work the product has to be exceptional—so exceptional that people will seek it out as opposed to just ordering an equivalent from Amazon or Walmart. buff.ly
Sep 2017
Why Does Sweden Have So Many Start-Ups? Mostly, because it is easier to take risks. buff.ly
It would be interesting to see revenue tiers for Patreon. Only one or two donors? You only pay processing fees. Have 10k? Pay 10%.
Aug 2017
Love this!
Michael Tavani@tavani
going through old stuff. an early @switchyards sketch from spring 2014.
Jul 2017
Oh man, this is an incredible idea. I remember spending a ton of time on TacOps clan forums back in the day.
Jun 2017
Growth is getting hard from intensive competition, consolidation, and saturation
Jan 2017
Interesting thoughts on company structure. Though I am not sure about separating customer and product. feld.com
A lot of great lessons from @JasonShen and Ridejoy.
Congratulations @mikaelcho! You continue to be a great inspiration. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Mikael Cho@mikaelcho
A big announcement today. "Hello, Unsplash, Inc." medium.com
Dec 2016
Sad day. I was hoping this was going to be a consumer hit for Atlanta—Yik Yak lays off 60 percent of employees
Nov 2016
Key to a successful startup—communicate with customers. hackernoon.com
One of my favorite interviews—I talk with @InVisionApp CEO @ClarkValberg on the company's past, present and future. buff.ly
Ha, this DO NOT read list for founders, is better than the DO read list. Delivering Happiness was pretty weak. buff.ly
7 Lessons I Learned When Salesforce Bought My Company buff.ly
Tailor Brands raises $4M to have robots design logos for you
Solid @hypepotamus interview with @trustfuel's new CEO, Nick Romano.
Want More Startups? Build a Better Safety Net bloomberg.com
Not crazy about some of these products, but the idea is solid—Launching a company to transform boring offices
Oct 2016
How Do You Paint 10,000 Paintings a Month?
This is worrisome. Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy— Sputtering Startups Weigh on Economic Growth buff.ly
Fascinating post about influencer marketing and subscription perfume—How we got from $0 to $75k MRR with zero budget buff.ly
The outrage at YC for not breaking off ties to Peter Thiel seem pretty overblown to me. I thought @sama's response was reasonable.
Aug 2016
Incase you missed it—My conversation with Behance founder Scott Belsky on the implications of the interface layer. buff.ly
Jul 2016
Dollar Shave Club Just sold for the same price as Instagram—pretty amazing.
"In the future we will all be homeless." dezeen.com
“...why are so many people devoting so much energy to solving problems that don’t really exist?” buff.ly
Jun 2016
“1. Make something people want.”
May 2016
It's too bad that thedrop.club is dead. Building communities is incredibly difficult.
It's interesting that apps have passed websites. Maybe that signals more consumer companies?
Apr 2016
If a university wanted to help students with startups evidence shows the best thing they can do is literally nothing
Jan 2016
Moving from the niche to the masses
When to join a startup
Dec 2015
Startup advice from Ben Horowitz is, as expected, spectacular. buff.ly
Nov 2015
Here's a rough clip of @thewordpainter's @SidePrize pitch at @DodgersAccel Demo Day last week. youtube.com
.@thewordpainter pitching @SidePrize from home plate. #DodgersDemoDay
Facinating thoughts from @paulg on the first Y-Combinator batch
If you haven't read @sama's Startup Playbook, it's absolutely worth your time.
Oct 2015
Think DHH is right here. The app stores are mainly distribution channels for platform applications.
Sep 2015
Some real gem's in this post—Ben Horowitz’s Best Startup Advice buff.ly
“User acquisition doesn't really make sense unless you already have healthy retention.”
Great to see our friends at @PlayDraft in Forbes—Fantasy Sports Draft App Primed To Overtake DraftKings And FanDuel buff.ly
Aug 2015
Inc says @SidePrize is one of 3 startups to look out for from this year's accelerators. buff.ly
I'm convinced the next major break in healthcare is 5 years away, and will not come from institutions, but from fitness apps.
If I was going on a tech/startup radio show, what things would you want me to talk about?
Ugh, trying to slug through this MBA book and not a damn thing is applicable to high-growth tech companies.
Atlanta will produce more consumer tech like @YikYakApp and @Scoutmob. @switchyards is going to play a big part.
Jul 2015
Zero to One is an exceptional book. I'm kind of bummed that I'm done with it.
A bad plan is better than no plan—Notes for Peter Thiel's class.
Congrats to @mikaelcho and the @crewlabs team—Crew raises $8.5 million to make life easier for design freelancers
Software startup friends, how do you handle dev shops that won't stop contacting you about open product and engineering positions?
I wish them the best, but have my doubts—Meet Nava, A Startup That Wants To Fix The Government's Crappy Design buff.ly
Jun 2015
Monday morning standup with the @SidePrize team.
May 2015
Why investors don't fund dating websites
So mint.com had a Pokemon in their pitch deck?
Apr 2015
What did Billion Dollar Companies Look Like at the Series A?buff.ly
Mar 2015
Remember the time a 14-year-old invested in that startup?
Great article on survivorship bias by @SachaGreif. Give it a read. buff.ly
Feb 2015
Good thoughts here—How to Start a Startup: Getting Press the Right Way buff.ly
How to pick startup ideas
Required reading for all entrepreneurs—How side projects saved our startup. blog.pickcrew.com
Free idea—an app that blocks incoming calls. When the number of blocks reaches a threshold it is blocked for all of the app's users.
Will startups be more accepting? We'll see—M.B.A. Programs Start to Follow Silicon Valley Into the Data Age buff.ly
Jan 2015
Here's the Advice I Give All of Our First Time Founders
Hey, @endtwist this is awesome! Semantic Analysis Of Startup L. Jackson Points To Dustin Curtis
Dec 2014
How side projects saved our startup—great thoughts by @mikaelcho blog.pickcrew.com
People have a finite amount of attention. It's smarter to build tools that save time whether than content that takes it.
Cool product a friend of mine has been working on the last few years—Nugget: The Easiest Couch Ever buff.ly
Nov 2014
Oct 2014
A $500 mil series B? Magic Leap must either be the next Apple or the next Segway.
Wow, this is a must read post from @mikaelcho—How side projects saved our startup. blog.pickcrew.com
Sep 2014
There are some fascinating answers from Peter Thiel in his reddit AMA reddit.com
I just dug up the Mountain Metrics pitch deck from the @starterleague Winter 2012 Demo Day.
Attention makers: If you read one thing today, let it be @levelsio's guide on building products.
My interview with London designer and Marvel Co-Founder @mutlu82
Checkout my most recent interview with @mutlu82 and learn how he turned his side project, @marvelapp, into a business
Aug 2014
Dad, where do startups come from?
Brilliant! Law students get real-world experience, startups get free legal defense, and patent trolls get nothing. buff.ly
Stratechery is spot on—Build a business, not an app.
Jul 2014
Great information about launching and app in here—if you have or work at a startup, do yourself a favor and read this buff.ly
Be careful when naming your company. Sociali.st and PayWithIsis are the Experts Exchange of today.
🔗
Are you a startup in the South? Take note of my most recent interview with @AmbitionSales founder Travis Truett.
Jun 2014
This is a great HN thread—My Startup is Making Money and I don't Know What to do.
May 2014
Apr 2014
The American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are. Your service hurts our ability to serve them. buff.ly
Nobody loves their wireless carrier. They love their iPhone—The flawed logic behind the failure of Better Place buff.ly?
Congrats to my friends @drchrono—drchrono raises $2.69M to bring private practice doctors into the digital age.
Mar 2014
Buffer dishing out valuable lessons in the SaaS business—The quiet pivot
New Grads: Midstage Startups Are Your Best First Job in Tech—Plus, you'll learn more at a startup.
How to validate a product by building something that people can't use.
A startup culture renaissance in Atlanta is birthing several tech hubs.
A monumental milestone. Kickstarter reaches one billion dollars in pledges. buff.ly
Feb 2014
Tinder for recruiting is an interesting idea. blonk.co
I have never seen a startup regret being generous with equity for their early employees.
Love reading startup retrospectives like this—My Startup, A Retrospective
Of all the journalism (or content) startups out there, Pando is by far the most interesting.
B2B businesses help people save time, B2C businesses help people waste time. Considering there is a finite amount of time, B2B is appealing.
The kind of transparency @buffer operates with is both inspiring and useful for entrepreneurs.
Jan 2014
An in-depth growth case study—How Huckberry is transforming the future of e-commerce. buff.ly
One of the most interesting articles on Jason Calacanis I've seen.
Technology and wealth inequality—@sama has been on fire with his latest posts.
Great job launching YumHacker @JenniferDewalt !
Every founder should take a look at these—51 Startup Failure Post-Mortems
Startup tells you when companies try your competitors' software--Anybody have more details on how this works? venturebeat.com
Value is created by doing
6 Predictions for Atlanta’s Technology Community in 2014 by @JonnyBird
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
All I see here is that two thirds of billion dollar startups didnt have one MBA on their team. buff.ly
There is a startup idea here. Filters for PR spam emails—Swatting at a Swarm of Public Relations Spam buff.ly
If this is true, it is a pretty poor move. Acquisition is SnapChat's only way out—Facebook offered Snapchat 3 billion
Glad to see @WashioApp and @PrimWash trying to start an Uber for Laundry. Great concept, but pricing and logistics are the hurdles.
Also see this—Out of the picture: why the world's best photo startup is going out of business
I always finish a book before moving on-Going to make an exception & start Execute by @drewwilson & @joshlong tonight
Oct 2013
Ooomf Founder Mikael Cho talks with me about why founders need to care about the problem their company is solving. signaltower.co
.@MikaelCho talks with me about @Ooomf 's successful side projects and the lessons they learned. signaltower.co
Free startup idea—someone build an SaaS to compete with Advantage (Agency Software).
Just had an insightful conversation with @ooomf founder @mikaelcho. It appears I'm not as rusty as I thought.
Pretty cool—someone from the Tumblr enineering team signed up to try out mountainmetrics.com
Sep 2013
I talk with @hull founder
@rdardour about the weaknesses and advantages of product vs service.
People need to take growth hacking notes from the guys at @ooomf . First unsplash.com, now howmuchtomakeanapp.com.
Aug 2013
Insightful talk about startups with Noah Kagan and Tim Ferris
A brilliant story - Hex, Lies and Startups
The number one reason software startups fail is because they build products that their customers don't want.
Jul 2013
Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson)
Jun 2013
Brutal, honest and insightful — My Startup has 30 Days to Live
Who is going to be the @PandoDaily of the South? Thanks for the shout out @JonnyBird !
@heyaswin Would you be interested in talking about Startup Exchange and TechStars? @JonnyBird said you would be a good guy to talk with.
My interview with @Rivalry founder @JonnyBird about building Atlanta's Startup Community. signaltower.co
Incubators are not competing with venture capitalists, they are competing with traditional business schools.
May 2013
My interview with @myHappyHealth Founder @rabdulsal on challenges for healthcare startups.
Thinking about building creating an education company? Take a look at this deck by @aronsolomon slideshare.net
What startup entrepreneurs can learn from writer's workshops.
I spend a lot of time just watching videos on YouTube of CEOs. It's nerdy and probably creepy — Glad It's not just me
Finished a great group of interviews. The hurdles of healthcare startups, path to becoming a designer, and more this week on @SignalTower
It is even more unfortunate for the entrepreneurs who raised capital for their #CrowdFunding startups based on that deadline.
It is unfortunate to see the SEC dragging its feet on #CrowdFunding . The JOBS Act passed well over a year ago.
Apr 2013
I'd love to see highschool students joining the Atlanta Startup Community. How do we make that happen @JonnyBird wp.me via
Mar 2013
The minimum viable workspace makes another appearance. @money_mikec @JoeVillanueva22
Great post - 7 Mistakes I Made in My Startup.
I'll be at the @hypepotamus Atlanta Hoops Hackathon next weekend!
“It’s just a fucking badass event tool — the most powerful shit ever created for event planners, ever.”
What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years.
Feb 2013
This is brilliant -- Treat snail mail like email.
When startups grow up and the elves leave Middle Earth on.wsj.com via @WSJ
Jan 2013
My interview with @Taggito founder @VaibPuri signaltower.co
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Great presentation by Smart Village and @Bernard_Chan99 #swchi
Wow, beautiful product, and a convincing pitch by @whydeliver . Uber for courier services. #swchi
Oct 2012
Aug 2012
The Art of Funding a Startup with Paul Graham is free on Amazon. Might be worth a look.
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
Everyone in your startup is a marketer. leostartsup.com
May 2012
Last Year I Graduated and Launched a Startup by @jasonyogeshshah
Join @crowdfunder and discover 100's of #startups. Join the small business finance revolution: crowdfunder.com
Nine must-read articles for anybody thinking about starting a business.
The road for innovation does not go through committee. wp.me via @sgblank
Apr 2012
Soundboy: Towards a unified theory of starting up - soundboy:
@KyleDeTullio Where was that article you sent me about using Twitter to validate startups? Im doing a post and want to give credit.
@Resultly I am writing a post on using Twitter as a startup validation tool. Would you be interested?
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
I signed the @CrowdFunder Petition. Allow U.S. startups to offer equity via crowdfunding. Support U.S. startups here: bit.ly
Jan 2012
You are absolutely right. // RT @DonCrow: This model is what #Auburn and #EastAlabama needs
The closing of Blackbox: Lessons Learned From A 2011 Entrepreneurial Journey maxmarmer.com via @maxmarmer
Awesome RT@clarkaldrich Lorem Ipsum this buddy! I love using this dummy text, peppered with Business 2.0 start-up terms startupipsum.co
Dec 2011
Thanks for the follow @founderfuel By any chance you or any of your startups looking for a digital marketer?
Nov 2011
I am supposed to be doing school work, but I can't stop thinking about awesome ways to put @launchrock to use.
@steveblank 's thoughts on why venture capitalists’s should become startup CEO’s.
Oct 2011
@KauffmanFDN There is a lot of "Magic Sauce" in @sgblank s 4 Steps to the Epiphany shar.es Love the @KauffmanFDN Sketchbook btw
Sep 2011
@DaleJStephens If business is better learned from those who have started businesses could the future of a business education be incubators?
An interesting look at The Simple Shapes of Startups ashmaurya.com via @ashmaurya
#Trello #Farmigo seem like great ventures, but @bitcasa seems like a clear winner. ( #tcdisrupt live at ustre.am)
Impressed, Farmigo uses crowd sourcing to help sell organic food at supermarket prices. ( #tcdisrupt live at ustre.am)
I just checked into TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011 on Ustream. Come watch and chat with me here ustre.am
I am thoroughly impressed with @bitcasa An Ingenious way to have infinite storage. #TCdisrupt
Our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations.
Aug 2011
Like anything else, we need to practice startups joel.is via @joelgascoigne
"The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s..." tumblr.com
Jun 2011
Looking for a detailed Web #Startup #FinanceModel ? check out this answer @Quora b.qr.ae
Who makes the best investor introductions? Not #Communists. From #PitchingHacks by @venturehacks bit.ly
Mar 2011
@IncMagazine Are there any insurance companies that do not profit from basic healthcare? If not what do you think of that as a startup?
Let startup companies snag US #DOE patent rights for $1000 as opposed to $50,000. Brilliant move. tinyurl.com