#  @shiftj JC JC posts on X about if you, in the, business, money the most. They currently have [-----] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [---] engagements in the last [--] hours. ### Engagements: [---] [#](/creator/twitter::1949876731957141504/interactions)  - [--] Week [------] -18% - [--] Month [-------] -50% - [--] Months [-------] +31,970% ### Mentions: [--] [#](/creator/twitter::1949876731957141504/posts_active)  - [--] Months [---] +471% ### Followers: [-----] [#](/creator/twitter::1949876731957141504/followers)  - [--] Week [-----] +3.40% - [--] Month [-----] +12% - [--] Months [-----] +1,120% ### CreatorRank: [---------] [#](/creator/twitter::1949876731957141504/influencer_rank)  ### Social Influence **Social category influence** [finance](/list/finance) [technology brands](/list/technology-brands) [stocks](/list/stocks) [social networks](/list/social-networks) [celebrities](/list/celebrities) [vc firms](/list/vc-firms) [countries](/list/countries) [travel destinations](/list/travel-destinations) [fashion brands](/list/fashion-brands) [cryptocurrencies](/list/cryptocurrencies) **Social topic influence** [if you](/topic/if-you), [in the](/topic/in-the), [business](/topic/business), [money](/topic/money), [$1m](/topic/$1m), [acquisition](/topic/acquisition), [company](/topic/company), [ceo](/topic/ceo), [met](/topic/met), [what you](/topic/what-you) **Top assets mentioned** [Alphabet Inc Class A (GOOGL)](/topic/$googl) [Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER)](/topic/$uber) [Cloudflare, Inc. (NET)](/topic/cloudflare) [DoorDash Inc. (DASH)](/topic/doordash) ### Top Social Posts Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours "@jackmmcclelland I've noticed an uptick of previously-successful startups going for acquisition in the last [--] months. So it's not just mature companies struggling. A lot of startups are looking to get out or risk being forced out by new competition" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1950974359843250627) 2025-07-31T17:38Z [--] followers, [--] engagements "@by_jeetdas Youre [--] and already started Thats traction dude. I was probably smoking weed in a park at your age. Practically anything you do starting now will compound to success. Just dont stop moving" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1951652925903892750) 2025-08-02T14:34Z [--] followers, [--] engagements "@asmartbear The best founders can communicate their business to any audience. Theyve got an investor pitch a customer pitch and a pitch their mom can understand" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1951839018825773093) 2025-08-03T02:54Z [--] followers, [--] engagements "@by_jeetdas Optimism realism" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952013319415669185) 2025-08-03T14:26Z [--] followers, [--] engagements "@AlecHndez @agazdecki The founders who are default alive tend to outlast the rest. In this game survival is everything. Those who know this dont bet the bank of the next big raise. It may never come" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952153555084915099) 2025-08-03T23:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@BasemeChristian @shl VCs dont have much power to stifle startups. The worst they can do is a back a competitor. I say bring it on" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952153818445357403) 2025-08-03T23:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@agazdecki Jeff Bezos filled his wedding with complete strangers and celebrities. Careful zoning in for too long. You might end up like Bezos. And thats not necessarily a compliment" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952223293530096071) 2025-08-04T04:21Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@agazdecki Another reason VCs put you off the trail of a great business. No one made a single dollar on Disruption. They just said that to trick VCs" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952352519574938028) 2025-08-04T12:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@sammarelich Someone from AWS Salesforce or Google have no business in startups. They excel with playbooks in hand SDRs feeding opportunities and a sales engineer they can loop in to do the dirty work. Take those away and they flounder" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952771363963576454) 2025-08-05T16:39Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@hthieblot If an investor disrespects your time to this degree dont take their money. Great investors realize the more time you spend with them the less time you have for your business. The worst investors Ive met force you through countless hoops and waste your time" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1952773127706145153) 2025-08-05T16:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Cold. Relying on network is a crutch that hurts you down the line. Its not a bad idea to also have content newsletters and other nurturing to warm the funnel. But its not entirely necessary. The key is: - tight segmentation - tight messaging - tight timing You hit the right person with the right message at the right time and youre golden. You dont get that learning from spray and pray approaches" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952814584215294297) 2025-08-05T19:30Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "People think founder life is glamorous. But what Yotpo is going through is a much clearer lens into the reality of it. Tough calls that you have to own. Its no ones fault but yours. Its the last thing you want to do. You put in blood sweat and tears to avoid it. Yet. it still must be done. I can still FEEL what theyre going through to my bones. Days like that never really leave you" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952815457905590366) 2025-08-05T19:34Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@LegacyBuilder__ I got my first [--] users from slack communities cold email and a local meetup. Id do anything and search anywhere to close those first deals. Rinse and repeat until youve dialed a process. Then hire someone to take over. Clear path to $1m ARR +" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1952876685092897095) 2025-08-05T23:37Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@alexcooldev Everything is boring when its not printing money. Anything is exciting when it is. I really dislike the folks who pitch follow your passion for this reasons. When push comes to shove you can get passionate about anything. What you really need is momentum" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1953638186447728672) 2025-08-08T02:03Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@jasonlk I closed $1m off an investor update email. Definitely wasnt a cold email though. Whoever sent that doesnt quite understand how to signal" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1953652179514102179) 2025-08-08T02:59Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Two-question clarity checklist: [--] Can I visualize the product in my mind [--] Do I know who its for and how they use it If you cant answer yes to both your one-liner isnt ready. If a stranger cant answer yes to both your chances are already tanking" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1954891242606649833) 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Example: Uber for Dog Walking. ✅ I know Uber = mobile app + on-demand ordering. ✅ I know this connects walkers with dog owners. Thats [--] characters that paint a complete mental picture. Clarity like this earns you the right to tell the rest of your story" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1954891243521020005) 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "The magic format: In short timeframe we did big numbers. Short timeframe = speed. Big numbers = proof. That combo is gold" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1954891254103151025) 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Avoid fluff. Show concrete proof. Example: In the last [--] months we: - Launched our v1 - Gained 1000+ waitlist users - $20k MRR closed - $50k in late stage opportunities (companies include Nike Microsoft Google) - 50% of users come back daily - 20% refer to others. We're growing so fast our servers can't take the load" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1954891255445434843) 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Theres a lot of talk about wrappers but wrappers are fundamentally helpful. Consider every FinTech youve come across: - Stripe - Brex - Robinhood - Venmo - Gusto They wrap the same infra use the same banks issue the same credit cards and offer the same services. But theyre not useless far from it I just hate the current AI company playbook: [--]. Lazy build [--]. Go viral Seems to be the current playbook and its producing a wave of shitty products that dont actually work. So all the good wrappers get a bad rep" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1955296870290559338) 2025-08-12T15:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@TheNPCEO Sam Altman called it fast fashion era of saas. True words" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1955308139588489630) 2025-08-12T16:39Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "6 ways to price your product when you have zero customers. Ive used all of these at different stages. Each has pros cons and tells you something about your market. 👇" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1955616005025050952) 2025-08-13T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Some form of marketplace Copying competition or comparables may be the move. Hard to tell without more info" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1955686594767401240) 2025-08-13T17:43Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Hardware is not my specialty wouldnt want to talk out of turn. I do know that hardware has a much higher burden of capital needs has negative sentiment with early investors because of that but high rewards when complete. My hardware network tended to have the same patterns though during their raise: - technical edge - manufacturing experience/capability - tangible LOIs contracts POCs basically building up proof to show you can pull it off" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1956095643614896223) 2025-08-14T20:48Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "The best way to 'convince' an investor is to bring proof. Always back your claims with data: - Revenue growth - Usage and retention stats - Customer testimonials and case studies Every claim you make is weaker without tangible data backing it up" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1958152568028156025) 2025-08-20T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Founders: I hope none of you read this because you're: - Having a beer out with friends - Sitting on your couch unwinding - In your zone on that fun project Spending a Friday night in any other way seems like a huge waste of time to me" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1959073183966912599) 2025-08-23T02:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Your idea won't amaze an investor. But these will - Fast revenue growth - Unusually high usage or retention - Founder with unfair advantages Stop pitching your idea start pitching your company" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1960392306269233233) 2025-08-26T17:22Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@TrentBuilds PMF is a perfect alignment of: [--]. Market Demand [--]. Your Offer (relative to alternatives) Both of which change very quickly. Examples: Kodak Blackberry MySpace They most certainly had PMF. They most certainly lost it too" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963655531434070390) 2025-09-04T17:28Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "4) Find successful competitors - Who tackles this use case - Are they making money - Is there ANYONE out there Lack of competition is a bad thing. It means the use case doesnt matter" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963988963309256867) 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "5) Identify their gaps - Feedback boards - X/Reddit complaints - GPT Deep Research Find what users love and what they hate. Gauge if the bad reviews justify a new product on the market" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963988965700284565) 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "6) Measure active demand - Google Keyword Planner - Reddit Questions (how do I ) - Size up competitors Get a sense of how much active demand exists out there. If theres nothing thats not good" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963988968204108284) 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "8) Build a growth hypothesis - X people search for Y - If we convert at P% - We can capture Z customers Build a high level map of how youll distribute. Often copying competitors is a good start" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963988973677695128) 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "9) Setup a test - Landing page - Reddit post - Paid ads Remember those hypothesis Design a test which validates or invalidates that hypothesis QUICKLY" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1963988976529977363) 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Growth is sexy but retention is where great companies are made. - Fast growing + shit retention will fail - Slow growing + great retention will make you rich - Fast growing + great retention is a $B company" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1965807691626053762) 2025-09-10T16:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Metrics are signals don't abuse them. Just like a pilot needs their instrumentation a business needs their key metrics to see if anything is broken. They will tell you 'what' is broken. They don't tell you 'why' it's broken. They don't tell you what to do about it. That's the pilot's job" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1965809000920056254) 2025-09-10T16:06Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Starting something that's never been done before is way over-hyped. You take on every startup risk imaginable: - Product Risk - Market Risk - Distribution Risk Having competitors is a good thing. They de-risked quite a bit for you" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1966849746682757125) 2025-09-13T13:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@agazdecki Best moments of a founders life: [--]. Your first dollar [--]. The moment you realize this is going to work [--]. The day growth happens without you" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1967633168619712598) 2025-09-15T16:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "The amount of startup advice coming from zero-time founders is alarming" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1967642246720946389) 2025-09-15T17:30Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "The best founders have the highest pain tolerance. .@pmarca's recipe for a great founder: two traits and one choice. The traits: intellect and energy. The choice: courage. Courage is pain tolerance. A huge amount of what people have to do is just get used to getting punched. And the reason people don't understand this is https://t.co/1iDB0Q1Qx1 .@pmarca's recipe for a great founder: two traits and one choice. The traits: intellect and energy. The choice: courage. Courage is pain tolerance. A huge amount of what people have to do is just get used to getting punched. And the reason people don't" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1967951102055457058) 2025-09-16T13:58Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@asmartbear @jasonlk Selling for $50m is typically a far greater outcome for founders. Unless you raised too much too early and liquidation preference gets in the way" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1968390332661538929) 2025-09-17T19:03Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Most of your efforts should go towards customer acquisition. Anything else is probably a waste" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1968740053783396648) 2025-09-18T18:13Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "JIRA may be the best example of distribution being more important than product. It's not the best product but it's the best distributed. It's not the best product but they've dialed their brand. It's not the best product but we all use it. Might be the most hated yet widely used product out there" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1968754799664677300) 2025-09-18T19:11Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@Jayyanginspires It amazes me what I can do when I have the energy for it. And how little I can do if I dont" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1969441085274669232) 2025-09-20T16:38Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "I like to meet local business owners. Its fascinating to see their challenges and how they approach them. Theyre so far removed from the world of tech. Its refreshing to get outside the bubble every once in a while" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1969802302828466416) 2025-09-21T16:34Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Perks of owning a business: Flying to NY for the Ryder cup on a whim" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1972255144361312733) 2025-09-28T11:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "This Ryder cup makes $200 million in one day without AI" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1972315487460573198) 2025-09-28T15:00Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "WAY too much focus on fundraising these days. Base44 is probably the best company to look up to. At the point of acquisition they had every option in the world ahead of them. Fundraise compete with Lovable Operate rake in profits Sell buy your mom a house Most successful companies dont raise as their first step. Theyve got something going for them beforehand" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1973463319370416132) 2025-10-01T19:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Would you rather have a billion dollar company that needs you every waking moment Or make $1-2m a year with a fully delegated business not enough founders ask this question" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1973795733775020500) 2025-10-02T17:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@cloudflare is making huge moves outside of the networking layer. This will be interesting to watch" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1974203091424579757) 2025-10-03T20:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@asmartbear I can safely say that all of my companies that failed were due to my blunders and nothing else. Not the market not the competition not the lack of funding. My blunders" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975537022736740431) 2025-10-07T12:21Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@pmitu Find the smallest thing you can do. Do it in [--] minutes. These small moves often compound in crazy ways" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975908763094962263) 2025-10-08T12:58Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@a_savchenko23 @ChatGPTapp @Spotify @figma @canva @bookingcom @Uber @DoorDash I find it strange how few people are talking about this given how large of a move this really is" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975924054398763086) 2025-10-08T13:59Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@janwilmake @p0 Is this available to the public" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975924966794187058) 2025-10-08T14:03Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@OpenAI released a GPT App Store. Their initial partners @zillow @bookingcom @DoorDash have given away the user experience to live in GPT. There will be more to come. Its positioning GPT to be the everything app. Im surprised how little attention this is getting. Is it time to start building apps" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975928372589945106) 2025-10-08T14:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "I was accepted the second time around. No big tech or Ivy League. I brought revenue. I had a real growing company. The moment I did I was accepted. YC doesnt need a big tech badge to see a faker. Blaming a rejection on lack of pedigree is just a cop out. @rohil_ag nice but 99% of what YC cares about is uni and past big tech companies. they stopped betting on underdogs a while ago. esp when there's a wave of grads rn that isn't getting picked up by big tech. I keep on seeing good ideas rejected and slop accepted @rohil_ag nice but 99% of what YC cares about is uni and past big tech companies." [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1976787119638298809) 2025-10-10T23:09Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@nizzyabi @Cloudflare @Cloudflare is making massive moves lately. They seem to have launched everything from @awscloud to @resend lately. Crazy" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1976787600116761021) 2025-10-10T23:11Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Friend and investor are two very different things. A great friend can be a shitty investor. Not all friends deserve a spot on your cap table. If youre my friend and you raise preseed $ from VCs without giving me a heads up I will be annoyed. Happens so rarely but still Friends let friends invest in their companies If youre my friend and you raise preseed $ from VCs without giving me a heads up I will be annoyed. Happens so rarely but still Friends let friends invest in their companies" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1977518691676979703) 2025-10-12T23:36Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@a16z Momentum is like fuel for a startup. With it you can go anywhere without it you die. Work hard to keep it harder to maintain it and never let it go" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1977906439000850632) 2025-10-14T01:16Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "X doesn't even help much for my startups the benefit to be on here isn't even business it's mostly just fun - levelsio You dont really need followers to create a successful business. There are many many more ways to build a company. Unpopular Opinion: twitter is one of the worst starting points for creating a business. I think it's more about actually liking to post and chat with people on here I've been doing it since [----] even when I had no followers and followers was never the goal I just shared my nomad travel and startup blog posts etc I made lots of friends here I'd say most of my I" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978106343748759732) 2025-10-14T14:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@HarryStebbings @mcannonbrookes Design as in product design I respect the hell out of what atlassian has built but their design is atrocious at best arguably one of the most hated tools developers have to use. Im pumped if this means improvements coming though" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978121674068218222) 2025-10-14T15:32Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@andreylebedev29 Great minds think alike I've been doing the same. considering spinning off 1-2x of my engineers to solely focus on app building. Any insights you've learned so far" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978499257679147069) 2025-10-15T16:32Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Makes complete sense. Feels a bit like we've got to take every app beyond the static pre-determined filters and allow more granular natural language search. Tbh I thought you were going to say something around the new UI capabilities. I feel like that's a huge unlock as well. p.s. My cofounder and I are nerding out about this too DM if you're interested in jamming on the subject" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978506782441144718) 2025-10-15T17:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Unpopular opinion: I dont trust people who make their money purely from content especially those we are supposed to be experts. Not sure when the mantra if you cant do teach went away but its true. If youre an expert teaching someone it should be a side project. Otherwise youre not actually doing the job and thus not really an expert" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978570581109780920) 2025-10-15T21:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@HarryStebbings The third reason is they dont want to and skip the next round entirely" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978595422399877157) 2025-10-15T22:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "The problem with companies like cluely is that product is an after thought. cluely status page lmao https://t.co/DY4q5CxFlA cluely status page lmao https://t.co/DY4q5CxFlA" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978842739954311368) 2025-10-16T15:17Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Constantly chasing viral videos as the determining factor to your companies growth isnt something to be celebrated. inconsistent unpredictable results not an owned channel random spikes that make you think otherwise The graph tells the whole story. 9000+ new users in one day 🥳 it's normally difficult to tell exactly what impact a viral video has on your business but occasionally a video will bang so fucking hard that it's abundantly obvious you have a winner let's fucking goooooo 😇 https://t.co/n0nX4znjak 9000+ new users in one day 🥳 it's normally difficult to tell exactly what impact a" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1978868313242710269) 2025-10-16T16:59Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@asmartbear The best hires I've made have taught me something new within the first [--] minutes of the interview. The worst hires I've made regurgitate everything I already know" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1968745774537216375) 2025-09-18T18:35Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Ive started many companies. Most failed as expected. But the more you build. You start to gain this instinct. One thats impossible to teach. It helps you parse good ideas from bad. You can feel if a floundering idea will grow or a growing idea will flounder. Both are very common. This instinct is a weapon when you learn how to use it" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1975202314437722257) 2025-10-06T14:11Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Raising is not for everyone. Cash does not solve all problems. It simply creates new ones. When you see massive fundraising announcements remember that FanDuel sold for $450M and the founders/employees made $0. How Investors had a liquidation preference that entitled them to the first $559M of proceeds. The more you raise the bigger the preferences. When you see massive fundraising announcements remember that FanDuel sold for $450M and the founders/employees made $0. How Investors had a liquidation preference that entitled them to the first $559M of proceeds. The more you raise the bigger the" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1979555367404306662) 2025-10-18T14:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "This is a half truth presuming that a Series A is whats needed to be successful. The time horizon is a lot longer than this in all actuality or at least you have control over it. The only thing that compresses the window of time is over spending and shortening your runway. In that sense VC back companies have even longer time horizons than their bootstrapped counterparts. You can afford to wait for the market to come to fruition. Especially if its a big bet its worth the wait" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1979559308032663848) 2025-10-18T14:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@TimSuzman Im surprised @OpenAIs new GPT App Store isnt shaking things up tbh. Thought that would be bigger news than it panned out to be" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1979574684015583662) 2025-10-18T15:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@rburton @paulg @garrytan @ycombinator Power law is pretty fun to watch. Especially in YCs case where virtually every startup created applies to YC as their first step into fundraising" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1979660930243002878) 2025-10-18T21:28Z [---] followers, [----] engagements "Ive raised millions and scaled to millions. I started in my early 20s. you have no fear you have high risk tolerance youre naive to whats to come so you dive in you have boundless energy As you age you shift advantages towards experience strategy and network. But in my early 20s i was a force to be reckoned with. Even today i wouldnt want to compete with my past self. Relentless" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980042460115152996) 2025-10-19T22:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "As a CEO I love studying top athletes. The way they approach their craft is unmatched even in professional settings. Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant Tiger Woods. Theres something to learn from each of them. The more you learn the clearer it becomes why theyre the best at what they do. Another one to add to the list" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980091208807625196) 2025-10-20T01:58Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "The reality is long term thinking is a luxury. The ability to think and act in the long term comes from a place of surplus. Both people and companies have short term needs to be met and can only reasonably act in the long term if those needs are met in the short term. Deal with the stress of the moment such that it aligns with long term potential" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980281932702458329) 2025-10-20T14:36Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@marckohlbrugge They were bought by salesforce right" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980283233595167153) 2025-10-20T14:41Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@craigzLiszt A finding a good cofounder is like finding a good wife. Very difficult. Amazing when you find them. Nightmare if you make the wrong choice. Take it from me. Ive had many of them (cofounders not wives)" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1980431130773028998) 2025-10-21T00:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Thats because great companies are waiting in position by the time the market shifts in their favor. Once it shifts youre already too late. Ive been a part of a shifts in my favor shifts against me and shifts that Ive missed. Its not about catching waves as they come up but sitting in the right spot when they do" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980431598274376118) 2025-10-21T00:31Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@antoniogm In order to become a billionaire you often give up the parts of you that are happy on a ranch in Maui. Better put: if youre dreaming of a house in Maui you likely wont be a billionaire. Theres a damn good chance youre happier though" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1980474559049658378) 2025-10-21T03:21Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@toddsaunders Agreed but ignoring CAC LTV and retention sort of ignores the key metrics which distribution relies on though. Its extremely easy to create hyper revenue growth if youre operating at a loss. Trading $2 for $1 is an easy thing to scale" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980643759156260930) 2025-10-21T14:34Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "FWIW: I did not go to stanford mit or ivy league. I was accepted into Y Combinator. They are and will always be willing to take bets on excellent people. The challenge then is. How do you show them you're excellent" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1980666406086803839) 2025-10-21T16:04Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@hnshah The natural path of every founder is to add add add. Then you mature and realize removing is far better. Weirdly the same progression as engineers mature as well" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1981050048269201615) 2025-10-22T17:28Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@benhylak in order to be a founder you have to constantly and fearlessly tell people what you want. Then face rejection 99% of the time. This happens for days months or years. All in an effort to find that 1%" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1981478736274084126) 2025-10-23T21:51Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@hnshah Consensus gives you the average of everyones beliefs. Considering [--] out of [--] startups fail. Average is the last thing you want" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1981502528148951422) 2025-10-23T23:26Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Last week I spent [--] minutes creating an outbound campaign to validate an idea. This week I have meetings with: Product Directors at 2x Fortune [---] companies VP of Engineering at 2x scale ups Potential pilot with 1x big tech company You can change your life in [--] minutes. You don't need a twitter following. You don't need an Ivy league degree. You don't need $2m pre-seed. You just need to get out there. Send that email. Launch that product. Get started" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1981506563794927798) 2025-10-23T23:42Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "As a YC founder i dont expect investors to provide customers thats my job. Indexing on who has the biggest voice is indexing on the wrong factor. Who has your back when things look bad Who helps when you need them quiet when you dont Who has a history of being founder friendly vs self-involved These are all more important than podcast mentions" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1981833247568076872) 2025-10-24T21:20Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@evolvee33 Most entrepreneurs think once I hit PMF everything will be good. Far from it trust me. Its only getting harder faster and more stressful from here. Better to learn to love the process than expect it to be different" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1982132726284111918) 2025-10-25T17:10Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@bscholl These are moonshots. Ideas so obviously good that if you can pull it off it will work. The risk shifts from market risk to execution risk. For a lot of founders this is better or more comfortable" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1982808012063494194) 2025-10-27T13:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Smart people are better off thinking less and acting more. Thinking creates hesitancy. Smart sounding reasons to sit instead of act. The smarter you are the more this applies" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1982826964164764081) 2025-10-27T15:09Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Its the same story for the $2m in [--] days companies. While they arent lying that speed will catch up to them. Real companies dont even show a consistent always up and to the right graph either. Let alone in weeks. The graph is up and down good and bad. This goes on for months or years. Dont believe the hype or youll be demotivated think youre doing something wrong. Its a terrible bar to aim for and an awful expectation to set" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1983178771726319620) 2025-10-28T14:27Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "If you're a strong founder you can sell anything. You can get weak product-market fit out of almost any idea and that's a problem - @immad (founder @mercury) After nearly two decades and three startups serial founder @immad built a $3.5B fintech juggernaut in @mercury. If you ask him why his previous companies never reached similar success hed point to the trap of the bullish founder. If you're a strong founder you can sell https://t.co/GHfZf9Vydf After nearly two decades and three startups serial founder @immad built a $3.5B fintech juggernaut in @mercury. If you ask him why his previous" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1983297484794319144) 2025-10-28T22:19Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Most things in life require above average. Going to a good school excelling in sports getting the high paying job. Hell. finding a good wife requires you to be above average. Everything good in life requires you to step up even if for a moment. This is especially important in startups. the average is not only mediocre theyre dead. Be above average and get everything you want" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1983901010147020880) 2025-10-30T14:17Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "As someone whos done both Ive seen both sides. Neither is easier or harder than the other they are different. It also depends on what you mean by building. Sure building a startup with no money is harder. Building a billion dollar company is infinitely harder than bootstrapping to $1m though. Just depends I guess" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1983939066346250683) 2025-10-30T16:48Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@yongfook Ive been both. I have plenty to talk about with both sides. Ill think youll find more commonalities than you think. Namely the fucking pain we all go through. That said VCs and bootstrapped certainly butt heads. Goals risk tolerance approach etc. those get sticky" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1984121359463756144) 2025-10-31T04:52Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "If youve ever tried to raise outside of the US youd quickly see why. The risk tolerance expectations of control valuations. Everything was a nightmare. Its great for startups innovation and the world if that changes. I hope it does. It would open a ton of doors. Needs to change to compete with the US though. Unfortunately were seeing the opposite trend with accelerators like EF (founded by Matt Clifford) moving to SF. Folks like them were setting the charge in the rest of the word. Unfortunately even they had to move back" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1984703560995745960) 2025-11-01T19:26Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@bscholl @elonmusk @boomaero Everyone benefits when the founder does well. Incentives should reflect that. What most people dont realize is the time sacrifice and risk they took along the way. Compensating that is fair" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1984705239380009285) 2025-11-01T19:32Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@neatprompts As a CEO i have endlesss open loops. Never thought about their relationship to my energy though. Ive always used priority and focus (allowing open loops to not bother me) but perhaps closing them out could work too. Worth a test I guess" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985033722794758599) 2025-11-02T17:18Z [----] followers, 24.1K engagements "@thejustinwelsh I became a founder to achieve this. That and retiring my parents" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1985037128544444865) 2025-11-02T17:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "I can see why. A lot of founders I know are sprinting without having a personal compass. Growth for the sake of growth. Throw a VC in there and forget about it. Practically pushing the company off a cliff in some cases. I think it takes a particularly well grounded person to choose sustainability over scale since theres so much external momentum pushing for the latter" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1985041283501736159) 2025-11-02T17:48Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "I woke up reminiscing about the days I couldnt pay my rent. Most stressful and embarrassing time of my life. My gf had to front the bills thousands in debt and no tangible end in sight. I had a coach at the time and talked about closing shop. I was so stressed I walked in the snow for hours ruminating on the decision. Feel ill I was out there so long. I decided Id go down swinging. One day at a time until I couldnt do it anymore. A few more emails a few more calls a few more demos. Just keep going. We closed our first customer a few days later. Then the next one. Soon enough I had my pitch" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985378073169232290) 2025-11-03T16:06Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@HarryStebbings VCs when you meet a founder you want to invest in dont put them through a process. Good founders have options and want to get back to work. Dont waste their time" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1985423688452485508) 2025-11-03T19:07Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Built a company to $1m all inbound and thought it was the biggest flex. Turns out its not that cool. Dont get me wrong I love inbound. But supplementing with some outbound is massively helpful. Competitors can ramp CAC SEO cant be dialed up at will influencer campaigns are hit or miss etc etc. Meanwhile you ran ramp outbound up efforts and its fully owned and controlled by you. Bit higher CAC though" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1985588161356124648) 2025-11-04T06:01Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@vasuman Meta swe will look you dead in the face and say their job is hard" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985734606738637310) 2025-11-04T15:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I absolutely hate the mind games often involved in a fundraise. Fomo urgency tactically being oversubscribed whos leading yada yada. I wish it was more about the company than the theatrics. If your company is good enough though you can skip a lot of the theatrics entirely. Thats the ultimate goal" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1985742882448548265) 2025-11-04T16:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Lessons from a YC founder. I was going to list the top [--] but theyre all too important. I'm [--] dropped out of Duke joined YC and bet everything on a startup. Here's what actually happens when you go all-in: [--]. Your co-founder relationship matters more than your product: You can pivot products. You can't pivot people. Most startups die from founder breakups not I'm [--] dropped out of Duke joined YC and bet everything on a startup. Here's what actually happens when you go all-in: [--]. Your co-founder relationship matters more than your product: You can pivot products. You can't pivot people. Most" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1986114937488564534) 2025-11-05T16:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "I think a lot of folks bashing the pivot dont really understand the bet thats going on here. Core competency is attention not necessarily product. And theyre damn good at attention. Its like bashing Mr. Beast for selling candy bars because. chocolate is saturated They sold $250m worth of chocolate but if you think its a chocolate company youve missed the point. The point is: how far can an attention-first company go And Im very interested to see what the answer is" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1986140914176409992) 2025-11-05T18:37Z [----] followers, 23.2K engagements "@austinxwalker At the same time you need to be able to zoom out and see the forest from the trees. Even if youre a ferrari its pointless if youre driving in the wrong direction. The trick is being able to switch and do both" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1986459959467585735) 2025-11-06T15:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@MartinGTobias Any advisors in the early stage is a red flag. Practically any effort not focused on user acquisition or product is a bad sign" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1986475917879976245) 2025-11-06T16:49Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@ajhodls My advice would be to not focus so much on a launch video and get back to building real distribution channels. Im fine with a copy - as long as it gets me back to the important stuff. Might be an unpopular opinion in todays landscape not sure" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1986480252974211493) 2025-11-06T17:06Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "The thing to know about successful founders is that their story is always retrofitted. It's a modified history of what actually happened. They always start with an insight a turning point and the moment they knew they were going to be big. But what's missing from nearly every story is the heartache. The moments of self doubt. Staring in the mirror not knowing wtf to do. The countless times they were on the verge of quitting. Hell. even the ones who claim the illustrious 'lightbulb moment' never even had it - it just makes for a better story if they did. There's a thousand incentives to" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1986507311431708741) 2025-11-06T18:53Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@robertfoenix Awesome - win or loss everythings a good lesson and you get better for the next time" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1986950973957546163) 2025-11-08T00:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "No good early stage VC asks for these financials. Projections are not enough Projections at early stages are guesswork at best. Any investor expecting dialed unit economics projects years into the future and comb through bank trials is not an early stage investor. Avoid this investor if youre an early stage company" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1987195680000254369) 2025-11-08T16:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "@toddsaunders @fcollective @parulia @tjmahony I raised $1m off one investor update. Highest ROI email I ever sent" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1987201861955526656) 2025-11-08T16:53Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "As a founder I have to disagree. Investor updates are not for founders they are starkly for investors. Keeping them in the loop and engaged for the next time theyre needed. So its not without value but its wrong to think founders only zoom out when writing investor updates. Its investors first reflection is subtle side effect but good founders are constantly reflecting whether they update investors or not" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1988078607860986264) 2025-11-11T02:57Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1988634799280439599) 2025-11-12T15:47Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Not nearly as glamorous as people think. Not for a long long time" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1988661046832427079) 2025-11-12T17:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "PSA for first time founders: If you focus all your efforts on customer acquisition you'll eventually crack it. If your sole goal in the world was to find and close customers you'll do it. You'll build the right features you'll learn the right skills you'll drop your favorite parts of the product for the ones users actually want. The problem is usually in the form of 1/ Rigid thinking Let's be real. Your idea sucks. So does mine. It always does. There's no getting around that. You can't be too rigid with your idea or your product or you'll miss the gold mine right next to it. You've got to be" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1989351318146957713) 2025-11-14T15:14Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I coach a lot of founders - VC-backed YC founders and indies alike. The problem I see with a lot of indie founders is that they by-default often sell to other indies. Unfortunately I cant think of a worse market to sell into. Theyre small they go under all the time theyre unlikely to scale and produce more revenue over time. The dynamics of your target customer matter A LOT. Massive difference between a company with 90% NDR and 105% NDR. One skyrockets growth and the other withers and dies. My advice for indies is to target a niche but a high paying stable one. Price points and customer" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989352587251093508) 2025-11-14T15:19Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@TheRealBradLea Theres a few of my YC buddies who are absolute energy magnets. By far the best folks to stay close with. Every time you chat you feel like you can take over the world. Hard to be unsuccessful in a circle like that" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989352843338514558) 2025-11-14T15:20Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "I agree. Moved back to San Diego (home town) and felt the same way you do. I do occasionally miss the tech culture but life gets stale when all you talk about is business and everyones obsessed with one upping each other on fundraises. Home town vibes are a much better balance. Not many farms though unfortunately" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989354357910126883) 2025-11-14T15:26Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Whats crazy is not the raise but the revenue. The revenue growth is something weve never really seen before especially in a market where theres multiple of these companies with similar trajectories. Thats why theyre raising so much at such high valuations not because of costs" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989354823544983660) 2025-11-14T15:28Z [---] followers, [----] engagements "@stijnnoorman LinkedIn and email is all you need. The rest are bonus" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989355131729772622) 2025-11-14T15:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "My company is 100% globally remote. I've raised millions built the company to $1m+ and profitable. It can be done. That said you're right. It's bad for making money can negatively impact social and mental health and in-person teams have a stark advantage. I wouldn't go back and change the decision but I'd be lying if I didn't see the implications of it" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989399579180372297) 2025-11-14T18:26Z [---] followers, [----] engagements "@bhalligan @HubSpot @dharmesh I love this episode and think about it more often than Id like to admit when it comes to some of the plans Ive cooked up. Quite funny how helpful that episode has been in my life" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989437533953143281) 2025-11-14T20:57Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "@kwharrison13 VCs are just trying to sound smart while they in fact have no idea what they are doing or how great companies are made. Its like a sports podcaster commenting on Michael Jordans game" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989724271305003213) 2025-11-15T15:56Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "As a YC founder I find a lot of companies enthralled with the idea of no PM businesses. But theres a clear pattern in the companies who can pull it off. Hint: its not every company. Specifically the companies who can operate without PMs are the ones where developers are the customers themselves (I.e Cursor). In scenarios like this there are PMs. Its just the developers. Theyre the customers they can make the right decisions they can dog food and fix their own product. Attempting to apply this structure to any other business which does not have the characteristic of developers building for" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1989738210814300404) 2025-11-15T16:52Z [---] followers, 22.9K engagements "The first step in all my interviews is understanding the perfect role for the candidate. Just as much as were looking for the perfect fit they are too. I like to hire folks where my company is pmf for what theyre looking for. The last step is always working with the candidate on a real project" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1991173040059904285) 2025-11-19T15:53Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Why do people treat failure with such seriousness You realize Michael Jordan lost thousands of games. Zuck failed multiple times before Facebook. As did every other entrepreneur who made it. Treat failure like a sport. Are you going to win every game No. Are you going to win the championship every season No. Then why would you count your failures Why would you over index on any single loss Thats the wrong way to look at it. No single game matters. No single season matters. Our success is over the long haul" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1991174072567550110) 2025-11-19T15:57Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "Top things I look for in an investor (as a YC founder) 1/ Writes checks quickly Ive never met a great investor who did not write checks quickly. The better the VC the faster they work on average. A big reason for this is they respect founders time. They realize that the most sought after founders want to get back to business and want partners who respect that. Ive also found some of the more nightmarish VCs to force long convoluted and drawn out processes. So definitely a pattern and speed is a good first check. I always ask: So if things go well here what happens next can you walk me through" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1991913628199702674) 2025-11-21T16:56Z [---] followers, 77.6K engagements "An investor told me "this isn't sexy enough no one will ever fund this" and "this will never work". A few months later I raised millions got accepted into YC and grew the business to $1m+ arr (profitable). Investors cannot predict the future. If they could they'd build their own unicorn. Half the time they say these things so you come back and prove them wrong. And proving them wrong is a great great feeling" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1991950292250972249) 2025-11-21T19:22Z [---] followers, [---] engagements "I raised $3m in [--] days $1m+ arr (profitable) a few months after. everything I post comes from personal experience. I dont benefit from you believing me and I dont suffer if you dont. [--]. Ive personally received more than $250k after a [--] minute call. $1m from another [--] minute call. Your point is incorrect good investors move fast. Perhaps you havent met them. [--]. Investor value add is not zero but its also not a game changer. The contexts in which they are a game changer are more often than not monetary value. Few exceptions like YC and others but its too rare to optimize especially early" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1992005738382946308) 2025-11-21T23:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "After posting I received DMs from dozens of YC founders sharing VC horror stories. Heres a couple examples: Reneging handshake deals spying for their portcos lawsuit threats over aggressive monitoring/involvement delayed process/decisions rude/unpleasant behavior disastrous terms that would hurt future rounds and more. Heres what I learned: 1/ founders definitely talk Founders share experiences. VCs should be aware of that. If youve been involved in unfriendly behavior it likely impacts your top deals. Specifically the ones who are well positioned to have options. Thats because - like VCs -" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1992988477110227212) 2025-11-24T16:07Z [---] followers, 16.3K engagements "@asmartbear I find that earlier in my career it was more beneficial to work 'harder' than 'smarter'. I didn't really know what I was doing so trying to work 'smarter' was pretty futile anyways. These days working 'smarter' is far more effective" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1993357818792231285) 2025-11-25T16:35Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "A lot of YC founders I know have fallen off the VC track. Meaning their companies are profitable but unlikely to grow to $1B+. They have a few options (none are great): 1/ keep trying Continuing to try means dumping more good money after bad. There comes a point where founder knows their business is not a unicorn. Theyll need to pivot increase burn to influence growth rate raise more funds - each one puts an otherwise strong business at risk. Continuing to try may destroy an otherwise good business. Ive seen this personally. 2/ shut down or exit Shutting down sucks for obvious reasons but an" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1993713809828237610) 2025-11-26T16:09Z [---] followers, 203.4K engagements "As a CEO Ill try to clarify what VCs mean by focus on one thing. An athlete will be running jumping breathing and a thousand other things at the same time. But. their eye is always on one thing the ball. Same with businesses. You do a lot but theres usually one area where you put your active effort. The rest is running breathing and all the other tablestakes" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1994049717022675078) 2025-11-27T14:24Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Founders dont need to avoid VCs they just need to be smart about using them. A few tips on using VCs intelligently: 1/ dont over-raise Its easy to think that big raises are a good thing. Whats less obvious is that the founder has sold their company at its lowest point. The plan is to grow right If thats true then right now is the lowest valuation your startup will ever be. Why sell at your lowest price Thats like trying to dump all your stock when the price dips. 2/ dont bank on the next Raise what you need to either get to profitability or the next raise. Be cautious about that second one." [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1995512096118001894) 2025-12-01T15:15Z [---] followers, 20.1K engagements "VC cash is like candy. Sweet at first but eat too much and youll get a stomach ache. Common founder mistakes when theyve got too much $$$ in the bank: 1/ over-hiring If you cant crack it yourself you cant hire someone to crack it either. Its the founders job to learn the market understand the customer tweak the offering and a thousand other things. Yes even if youre not an expert. Founders who try to hire too early or too much will quickly learn a few things: Lesson 1: hiring only accelerates clear plan. new hires + unclear plan can derail a whole company. Lesson 2: dont hire for a role you" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1996958385850535965) 2025-12-05T15:02Z [---] followers, 37.7K engagements "PSA for first time founders: If you raise money you owe that money back. Its not debt but its also not free. Meaning you dont have monthly payments and - if you fail - they wont come for your house. But you do owe that money back. Why Liquidation Preference Liquidation preference is built into most investment terms in some fashion. It basically says that investors get preference in the case of acquisition or liquidation. Example: Lets say you raised $10m with a 1x liquidation pref. This means the investor gets paid 1x of their investment amount before anyone else gets a dime. (yes including" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1998785921731408164) 2025-12-10T16:04Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "4/ All-In Self explanatory. uprooting their lives to SF struggling to pay rent sleeping in the office. Everything on the line in pursuit of company building. I dont think its healthy. I do think were crazy. But its that kind of unrelenting all-in mentality you see in YC founders that makes us formidable. The kicker is that most of it doesnt feel like sacrifice. It feels fun rewarding and hard to imagine doing anything else. Thats the part that makes them unstoppable" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1999513258131419584) 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "5/ Never blocked no excuses Airbnb founders selling cereal may be my favorite example. $30k in personal debt no users/revenue. Decided to sell cereal at the DNC to make a buck and it worked. While Ive met very few YC founders selling cereal that mentality remains very strong. There are no excuses in YC. There are only challenges and solutions. You wont find successful YC founders unable to build because they dont have investment unable to sell because they dont have experiences or saying things like well you were only successful because you went to Stanford Never blocked no excuses" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1999513260337561622) 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "6/ Fast af Theres less than [--] months from now until youre up on stage at demo day pitching to group of elite investors. Not much time and you need a lot of progress. This engrains a type of speed that would surprise most people. Even weekly planning is far too long. Youve got to make big swings daily. This level of speed is common in YC Startups. Youll find very few of us working at a monthly quarterly or yearly schedule. Most operate on a fast daily and weekly feedback cycle especially at the start. Lack of speed can kill you and its one of the rare things you can control" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1999513262887764007) 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "7/ Fear the right things Lack of users and revenue are the only things worth fearing. Without them you die. Thats something worth fearing. Too many founders focused on conferences awards advisors and other things that dont make a dent. Build something people want. Then get them to pay you. If you can do that the rest doesnt matter. Fear the right things" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1999513264879992935) 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements "Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1999886321075310611) 2025-12-13T16:57Z [----] followers, 52.1K engagements "Being a founder has turned out worse than I imagined. Harder more stressful unrelenting. Pushed to my limits in every way imaginable. But also more rewarding than I ever thought possible. There is no job in the world Id trade it for. Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2000955062190035144) 2025-12-16T15:43Z [----] followers, 19.2K engagements "Of all the problems founders have I find the internal ones to be the toughest. Its not the competition or market shifts. Its not finding investors or PMF. Its those moments where you doubt yourself. should I pivot or keep going am I wasting my time everyones ahead of me Im not sure its going to work out These thoughts are the hardest. They come up more frequently than youd like they come in your darkest moments and no matter what stage youre at they still linger. Its those moments that feel so utterly useless but you have to keep going. Where you feel defeated but have to get up and rally the" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2001694215437521204) 2025-12-18T16:41Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive been a CEO for almost a decade. I realize that effective weeks dont come from productivity hacks or grind culture they come from clarity. The number of hours is almost inconsequential to how effective my week will be. To almost guarantee a good week I do these simple but highly effective things: [--]. Determine high impact areas [--]. Craft a singular goal [--]. Set a deadline for end of week [--]. Review progress plan next week Lack of progress tends to come from poor clarity. Taking on too many things and making too little progress in each one. The best weeks Ive ever had as an individual (and as a" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2002413174075896008) 2025-12-20T16:17Z [----] followers, 20.4K engagements "The most effective weeks start on Sunday. Getting so clear on your goal its all you think about. The weeks which start with a high impact target are the most effective. Because an effective week for me is never the hours worked. Its never the amount of todos completed. Its the clarity of mission. If I dont have a clear mission no amount hours todos or productivity hacks will help me. Getting a clear line of sight to target. Thats how I setup an effective week. How do you Ive been a CEO for almost a decade. I realize that effective weeks dont come from productivity hacks or grind culture they" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2002770005818048794) 2025-12-21T15:55Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@realshcallaway My team has the same issue with all those other tools - way too loud so much noise. What makes yours more actionable/useful (taking notes)" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2002867941264502928) 2025-12-21T22:25Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The truth is: your startup is f*cked without you. Take care of yourself or youre ngmi. Being a founder is a fing hard and long game and keeping your battery charged is part of your job If you can take down time and reset with friends family games (whatever really) just dont play performative productivity games thx (VCs are skiing anyway btw so no audience) Being a founder is a fing hard and long game and keeping your battery charged is part of your job If you can take down time and reset with friends family games (whatever really) just dont play performative productivity games thx (VCs are" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2002873145330647487) 2025-12-21T22:45Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Heres the truth: your startup is f*cked without you. Youre playing a long game. trying to sprint the entire thing is not only dumb its irresponsible. Founder burnout = dead startup. Thats a detriment everyone. the company the team investors and customers. All because a founder tried to play hero. Imagine youre hiking Everest and a member of your group refuses to sleep. Whats your first thought Probably not: wow hes gunna make it Hes so much stronger than us Youd probably think: what an unnecessary flex. hes probably going to die When the founder is not healthy startups die. Dont let hustle" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2002879846112801079) 2025-12-21T23:12Z [----] followers, 27.7K engagements "@gujje_avinash Everything is sales. If you dont know how founder life gets hard" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2003241509706170842) 2025-12-22T23:09Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "I think theres a lot of misunderstanding about how rollups work especially software folks moving into rollups. theres a fantasy that its easy and often dont have a solid foundation of how the model works. Any change introduces risk and any acquisition requires both a leverage opportunity and margin of safety. You cant assume your changes will work have to plan for the worst case scenario. In this particular case Im sure (or at least hope) that this churn was accounted for in their margin of safety. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2003640412594896985" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2003640412594896985) 2025-12-24T01:34Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@aymanalabdul You can brute force practically anything to $1m but its tough to go past that if your acquisition or model is broken. Meanwhile companies with solid acquisition + models scale from $1m - $5m in the blink of an eye. Then at $5m+ you hit new challenges to scale further" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2003642222965850289) 2025-12-24T01:41Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Unpopular opinion: you can brute force practically anything to $1m per year. Beyond that you need something special. The difference between a $1m ARR company vs. a $5m ARR company is rarely the founder the team etc. You can typically trace it back to efficient acquisition and healthy unit economics. Companies that have it go from $1m to $5m in the blink of an eye. Companies that dont get stuck at $1m. Ive seen this more times than I can count. Its rarely the skill of the founder so much as the dynamics of their business. If your company is stuck at $1 million in annual revenue you either have" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2003642995602551160) 2025-12-24T01:44Z [----] followers, 54.4K engagements "@Jayyanginspires Strong disagree. Build a business. If it requires an audience then build one. Otherwise dont. Not every business needs one. Always take a direct path. Dont write a book then build a business. Just build a business" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2003695259675705807) 2025-12-24T05:12Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Watching the CEO of one of the fastest growing startups absolutely flunk on basic customer support proves my point. Sometimes success isnt the founder or execution but the idea itself. The common trope is: ideas are useless execution is everything. But thats not really true. The difference between a going big or crashing out isnt execution its the market. A great founder cant survive in a bad market but a poor one can thrive when a market is hot. me: uses coderabbit doesnt like it coderabbit eng: how can we do better me: list of feedback coderabbit CEO: you have no idea what you're talking" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2004256532943577187) 2025-12-25T18:22Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@thdxr Respectfully disagree. If I caught my support team messaging customers in the same way they wouldnt be on the team anymore. A founder should have a much higher standard" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2004280659821711615) 2025-12-25T19:58Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@samfllakes Appreciate that" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2007673358541058299) 2026-01-04T04:40Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "You have [--] weeks in a year. [--] bets. [--] features. [--] experiments. Dont have goal Aim for the wrong one Took [--] weeks instead of [--] You WASTED limited attempts. For example: lets say you ship once a month while I ship every week. By the end of the year Ill have made [--] big swings vs your [--]. In [--] years Ill have [---] to your [--]. Whos going to win Sh*t compounds. Thats why goals matter. Week 1/52 has already ended. Did you make it count YC taught me to never go a single day without a goal. A bad goal (or no goal) is the easiest way to guarantee failure. Setting a good one is also the easiest way" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2007810088828907913) 2026-01-04T13:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I noticed a lot of confusion. Having a singular goal means having a singular priority. Yes to the detriment of everything else. Having one goal means youre thinking about one thing. Day and night. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. Nothing else matters nothing stands in the way. No distractions. YC taught me to never go a single day without a goal. A bad goal (or no goal) is the easiest way to guarantee failure. Setting a good one is also the easiest way to achieve success. youd be surprised how much you can accomplish with a singular goal. Whats yours YC taught me to" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2008153148553363965) 2026-01-05T12:26Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Most founders who give up simply haven't done enough reps for math to come into play. Most things are a numbers game. Without enough reps you won't see the math come to fruition. For example: Sending [--] cold outbound emails. If you calculate the baseline conversions from outreach - response - conversation - closed deal you'll realize that [--] emails is not enough close to the number you need to see success. It's like closing down a website because [--] of the [--] visitors ended up paying. Gotta give it more reps. Anyways folks tend to give up before getting enough reps to even expect success" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2010414580649136331) 2026-01-11T18:12Z [----] followers, 11.2K engagements "Extremely stupid advice. Like coding sales is an important founder job. It keeps your finger on the pulse of what the market needs and lets you quickly adapt your offering to match it. In the early days founder sales is less about closing deals and more about learning the market. Lets say your sales rep cant close deals. Does the product need tweaking Does the market not exist Is the sales person failing Its very hard to tell the difference. This is extremely common since most sales folks know how to run a playbook but have never created one themselves. Youll need to make changes to the" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2010422013962141932) 2026-01-11T18:42Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Arguably the best YC advice I ever got. They call this default alive. It means youve got enough cash to survive without being dependent on the next raise. This prevents over-spending and driving yourself off a cliff. If you think about it thats the only way to kill your startup. You spend too much and cant survive another day. All other reasons for death can be figured out if youve got enough time (or cash to buy time) Takeaways: 1) To guarantee failure: spend more than you make. 2) To increase odds of success: survive long enough to figure it out. Revenue chart from a recent investor update." [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2010483574802378902) 2026-01-11T22:46Z [----] followers, 141.9K engagements "@sbaexplorer @garrytan When youve got a $B target on your head and virtually unlimited cash available its easy to get swayed into over spending. If you dont understand then youve never been in that position fair enough. This is advice is for those who are" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2010615333938147608) 2026-01-12T07:30Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "To those mocking this advice I get it. But its clear youve never had a big bet in your life. The type that attracts the top investors in the world. The type where the mere mention of the plan can warrant millions of backing. The type where go big or go home is the only thing people care about. Where changing the world is the only measure and the minimum target starts in the billions. Were not talking about making a million a year spinning up some agency or a $10k/mo side project. Were talking big bets. Take down Google. Replace lawyers. Change how businesses operate all together. Big hairy" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2010716020319649900) 2026-01-12T14:10Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "A lot of startups sound dumb at first then grow to unicorns. Airbnb Twitch Slack. Listen to customers not haters" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2011853804854264223) 2026-01-15T17:31Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@HarryStebbings companies these days are scaling at rates we haven't seen before. would love a post/podcast breaking down patterns you see in the high growth companies" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2012204994217251202) 2026-01-16T16:47Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@marcell_mate_ 🎯" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2012232965145739385) 2026-01-16T18:38Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Founder success stories always retrofitted. A romanticized version of what actually happened. They start with an insight a turning point and the moment they knew they were going to be big. But what's missing from nearly every story is the heartache. The moments of self doubt. Staring in the mirror not knowing wtf to do. The countless times they were on the verge of quitting. Hell. even the ones who claim the illustrious 'lightbulb moment' never even had it - it just makes for a better story if they did. There's a thousand incentives to retrofit your story. You go viral impress friends and get" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2012537987230265537) 2026-01-17T14:50Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The best founders i know didnt start with an idea. They started with a feeling. They became founders because: they felt they had no other options they felt like a prisoner in a normal job they felt they were wasting their time This feeling just never went away. So they tried idea after idea. Business after business. Anything they could to get out. Eventually they learned enough to gain some success. So they kept going. But very rarely have I seen a successful founder who started with an idea. An idea so good it made them successful. Ideas do matter but its never the idea itself that drives" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2012936107374305452) 2026-01-18T17:12Z [----] followers, 14K engagements "A big trap for founders is thinking that money solves problems - but it often causes more problems than it solves" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2014014674292129808) 2026-01-21T16:38Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive just reviewed another handful of YC applications heres a few more themes that stood out. 1/ Your traction is your story A lot of traction statements feel like an after thought. List of stale bullet points no story. This is your main story - own it. In the past X time weve done insert list of amazing things. Weve seen customers insert proof it works and even insert amazing customer validation. We got so many users we couldnt invited them fast enough. It should read like a founders who capturing wins left and right. Force a double take. 2/ Traction = Action Too many traction statements are" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1987228352009412940) 2025-11-08T18:38Z [----] followers, 53K engagements "@asmartbear NRR is more important to me than ARR. when i see the $Xm in 12mo companies my first question is always 1) whats churn 2) whats NRR to understand the efficiency of that growth and how longstanding it will be" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/1995184753914659196) 2025-11-30T17:34Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "The #1 YC Application mistake I see is trying to sound impressive in your one-liner. You fill the page with this and that hoping something lands. But at this stage Clarity cleverness. The first thing partners need to know is what youre building. If thats unclear the rest of your application doesnt make much sense. If you cant say what you do in a simple statement its probably too complicated. The fundamentals of a good YC application never change. (deadline in [--] days) Here's a few: 1/ Clarity Accuracy Stop trying to over explain your startup. Try to simplify the hell out of it. Counter" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2019072782995488958) 2026-02-04T15:37Z [----] followers, 17.9K engagements "I caved yesterday. bought a mac studio. a beefy one to run local inference. had to see for myself what all the hype was about. Result: I've never seen the future so clearly before. cancelled my calls didn't sleep automated most of my morning rituals - and then some. daily standup kpi round up for sales customer slack summaries daily ideas for twitter posts weekly tee times to book weekly restaurants to try still hungry for more use cases. u have any https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019180833614229837 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019180833614229837" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2019180833614229837) 2026-02-04T22:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Its a mistake for founders to treat fundraising like milestones. Sprinting towards the next raise has killed more startups than its helped. Heres how it happens: 1/ If you hit xyz metric well invest Founders get excited. They gear the whole company towards that goal thinking its a guaranteed investment. 2/ You hit the metric Thats great but. Insert the next random milestone. The next excuse. The next reason they cant invest now but might later. Meanwhile you cant make payroll. I cant count how many personal friends ran straight into this trap. Its better to aim for profitability than the next" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2019823430795948354) 2026-02-06T17:20Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "As a YC founder I've now watched [--] close friends build multi-billion dollar companies. Here's a few things that surprised me: 1/ it can be anyone There's nothing special about these guys. They're smart committed and work hard. But they're not geniuses. They just figured it out as they went. There's often a perception that unicorn founders are special cases or natural geniuses. In reality they struck on something and held on for dear life as it started to get it's own legs. 2/ growth creates spend not the other way around When you compare a unicorn to a slower growing company you realize" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2011090359179243591) 2026-01-13T14:58Z [----] followers, 114.2K engagements "Speed is the #2 founder skill. The difference between a good and great founder is in their speed. Their ability to build conviction quickly and act immediately after. To take the results and whip it into the next set of actions Some folks toil over decisions while others made them in the blink of an eye. While one waits for the perfect moment the other is already out there getting ahead. In this world the tortoise never win. Commitment is the #1 founder skill. The difference between a hobbyist and a founder is not ideas not a website and not incorporation docs. Its commitment. Its waking up" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2021245149926523238) 2026-02-10T15:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "YC partner once told me: Fear the right things. Dont agonize over advisors investors conferences followers or any of that small stuff - they dont make a noticeable difference in your success. Here are the [--] things you should fear: your product sucking no one wants to use it those who use dont pay those who pay dont stay So if youve got happy users paying you then youve got all the options in the world. If you dont Then rest doesnt matter the companys dead anyways. You don't need to be a YC company to be successful. But acting like one certainly helps. Characteristics of top YC founders: -" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2021955059228324354) 2026-02-12T14:30Z [----] followers, 61K engagements "The most common pattern Ive seen in successful YC founders is speed. Its without a doubt the biggest tell. The craziest part Its only getting faster. The time between insight and action is unusually small borderline irresponsible. It seems chaotic at first until you realize it all compounds. Heres what it looks like: 1/ Turning a learning into a decision in hours not weeks. Hunting for learnings lessons and breadcrumbs of PMF. Aggressively turning those breadcrumbs into concrete decisions. Its not a passive search youre actively looking for things to act on. 2/ Turning a decision into action" [X Link](https://x.com/shiftj/status/2022347519574024480) 2026-02-13T16:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "A bit about me: YC Alum. Eng turned CEO. - I raised $3m in [--] days. - No decks. No board seats. - I built to $1m+ ARR - Turned it profitable - Now spinning off more companies Follow if you want unfiltered founder takes. The kind of stuff founders can't talk about" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1950646487576449518) 2025-07-30T19:55Z [----] followers, 14.8K engagements "Ive just reviewed another handful of YC applications heres a few more themes that stood out. 1/ Your traction is your story A lot of traction statements feel like an after thought. List of stale bullet points no story. This is your main story - own it. In the past X time weve done insert list of amazing things. Weve seen customers insert proof it works and even insert amazing customer validation. We got so many users we couldnt invited them fast enough. It should read like a founders who capturing wins left and right. Force a double take. 2/ Traction = Action Too many traction statements are" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1987228352009412940) 2025-11-08T18:38Z [----] followers, 53K engagements "This past week Ive received dozens of DMs asking for YC application reviews. Theres a clear pattern between great applications and bad ones. 1/ Good applications use simple language. Bad applications use buzzwords. 2/ Good applications are easy to read. Bad applications are very dense. 3/ Good applications have impressive traction. Bad applications have little to none. 4/ Good applications make their product sound simple. Bad applications make their product sound complex" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1986199396414107718) 2025-11-05T22:30Z [----] followers, 80.5K engagements "@hthieblot Acquire customers as fast as humanely possible. Think less act more" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1982140706174210143) 2025-10-25T17:42Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@jaynitx A massive thing I teach founders is the danger of hustle culture. Shutting out friends staying in zoning in too hard. Youll wake up successful lonely and more depressed than you started" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985032498095735293) 2025-11-02T17:13Z [----] followers, 13.4K engagements "@finke These are the worst people to brainstorm with. There are a thousand ways to shoot down an idea. Its not hard. My mom could do that. Figuring out how it could work Thats the hard part. Finding someone to dream with is far more fun. Far more helpful" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1951797205666554036) 2025-08-03T00:08Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@TheSalonDon Most successful founders I know dont play the game for money. They do it for freedom. I quit my job when I needed approval to take vacation. Fuck that" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1951043796927652228) 2025-07-31T22:14Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "You know how people say lock in for [--] months it will change your life I locked in for [--] years. No weekends. No breaks. Just worked. Does that sound impressive to you Because it sounds incredibly stupid to me. It was an immature way of working that was very clearly unsustainable. 1st time founders: Hustle Grind Repeat founders: Rest. Gain clarity. Theres a reason for this. [--]. You burn out [--]. You make terrible decisions [--]. You lose friends family and the good stuff of life. When this happens you suffer. When you suffer your business suffers. Often times it feels more comfortable to put your" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1987201675569078755) 2025-11-08T16:52Z [----] followers, 11.6K engagements "@HarryStebbings Finally a VC speaking some sense. Not sure whats happened recently but the focus on $2m in [--] days has been disappointing to say the least. Bad incentives for founders when you create targets like this" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1982122360418283749) 2025-10-25T16:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@neatprompts As a CEO i have endlesss open loops. Never thought about their relationship to my energy though. Ive always used priority and focus (allowing open loops to not bother me) but perhaps closing them out could work too. Worth a test I guess" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985033722794758599) 2025-11-02T17:18Z [----] followers, 24.1K engagements "@craigzLiszt A VC takes many bets while a founder bets everything" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1984763531116552319) 2025-11-01T23:24Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I think a lot of folks bashing the pivot dont really understand the bet thats going on here. Core competency is attention not necessarily product. And theyre damn good at attention. Its like bashing Mr. Beast for selling candy bars because. chocolate is saturated They sold $250m worth of chocolate but if you think its a chocolate company youve missed the point. The point is: how far can an attention-first company go And Im very interested to see what the answer is" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1986140914176409992) 2025-11-05T18:37Z [----] followers, 23.2K engagements "As a founder I absolutely hate pessimism especially when it comes to new ideas. So many people think theyre smart by finding ways to shoot down an idea. They dont realize thats the easy part. My mom can do that. Finding how it can work is more impressive. That takes true skill. Its also far more pleasurable to work with dreamers than pessimists" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1980476408704143412) 2025-10-21T03:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive coached dozens of YC founders with a 90% acceptance rate. Most applications fail because of two simple questions. Get them wrong and youre out. Get them right and youre in the game. Heres how to answer them (and what theyre really asking) 👇" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1954891235585327590) 2025-08-11T13:02Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@bhalligan [--]. Things dont get more comfortable as time goes on. If they do something is wrong. [--]. Youre responsible for every decision and seldom have enough data to make it" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1984346006755115101) 2025-10-31T19:45Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@agazdecki Every single founder who told me to raise more at higher valuations has gone out of business. Every single one who suggested the opposite is now profitable with infinite runway" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1951803840359174465) 2025-08-03T00:34Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Sitting from the sidelines and judging someone who gave it their all is such a weak move. I took the same path as your friend. I raised millions scaled to millions and now own a profitable business with unlimited runway. The only thing that got in the way were friends like you - introducing doubt and judgement" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1979224291582579058) 2025-10-17T16:33Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@austinxwalker How to pitch your startup: show a large amount of traction in a small amount of time. Pair that with a bottom up calculation of TAM which equates to $5B+" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1982124191353565207) 2025-10-25T16:36Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I love the intent of what youre saying here but $1m business is still in its risky infancy. Unfortunately its difficult to coast a business as well often leading to degradation in company performance. Which leads me back to $1m being in a risky zone since its not much to work with especially if revenue declines. The main reason is in order to work less save a lot invest like hell and retire - youll likely need a team to keep the engine running (depends on the business of course). So with all that $1m doesnt leave you much to work with. TLDR; I love what youre sayin but a few gotchas mixed in" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1985031936709161417) 2025-11-02T17:11Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive always said: hard work is the easy part You think its hard to work [--] hour days No no. Thats the easy part. The hard part is second guessing yourself every hour. The hard part is not knowing if it will pay off. The hard part is knowing its probably a waste. The hard part is constantly failing. The hard part is watching everyone else progress. Theres a thousand harder things than [--] hour days. If thats all it took then every gym rat would be a billionaire" [X Link](https://x.com/anyuser/status/1975169135563719145) 2025-10-06T11:59Z [----] followers, [----] engagements Limited data mode. Full metrics available with subscription: lunarcrush.com/pricing
@shiftj JC
JC posts on X about if you, in the, business, money the most. They currently have [-----] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [---] engagements in the last [--] hours.
Engagements: [---] #
- [--] Week [------] -18%
- [--] Month [-------] -50%
- [--] Months [-------] +31,970%
Mentions: [--] #
- [--] Months [---] +471%
Followers: [-----] #
- [--] Week [-----] +3.40%
- [--] Month [-----] +12%
- [--] Months [-----] +1,120%
CreatorRank: [---------] #
Social Influence
Social category influence finance technology brands stocks social networks celebrities vc firms countries travel destinations fashion brands cryptocurrencies
Social topic influence if you, in the, business, money, $1m, acquisition, company, ceo, met, what you
Top assets mentioned Alphabet Inc Class A (GOOGL) Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) Cloudflare, Inc. (NET) DoorDash Inc. (DASH)
Top Social Posts
Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours
"@jackmmcclelland I've noticed an uptick of previously-successful startups going for acquisition in the last [--] months. So it's not just mature companies struggling. A lot of startups are looking to get out or risk being forced out by new competition"
X Link 2025-07-31T17:38Z [--] followers, [--] engagements
"@by_jeetdas Youre [--] and already started Thats traction dude. I was probably smoking weed in a park at your age. Practically anything you do starting now will compound to success. Just dont stop moving"
X Link 2025-08-02T14:34Z [--] followers, [--] engagements
"@asmartbear The best founders can communicate their business to any audience. Theyve got an investor pitch a customer pitch and a pitch their mom can understand"
X Link 2025-08-03T02:54Z [--] followers, [--] engagements
"@by_jeetdas Optimism realism"
X Link 2025-08-03T14:26Z [--] followers, [--] engagements
"@AlecHndez @agazdecki The founders who are default alive tend to outlast the rest. In this game survival is everything. Those who know this dont bet the bank of the next big raise. It may never come"
X Link 2025-08-03T23:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@BasemeChristian @shl VCs dont have much power to stifle startups. The worst they can do is a back a competitor. I say bring it on"
X Link 2025-08-03T23:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@agazdecki Jeff Bezos filled his wedding with complete strangers and celebrities. Careful zoning in for too long. You might end up like Bezos. And thats not necessarily a compliment"
X Link 2025-08-04T04:21Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@agazdecki Another reason VCs put you off the trail of a great business. No one made a single dollar on Disruption. They just said that to trick VCs"
X Link 2025-08-04T12:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@sammarelich Someone from AWS Salesforce or Google have no business in startups. They excel with playbooks in hand SDRs feeding opportunities and a sales engineer they can loop in to do the dirty work. Take those away and they flounder"
X Link 2025-08-05T16:39Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@hthieblot If an investor disrespects your time to this degree dont take their money. Great investors realize the more time you spend with them the less time you have for your business. The worst investors Ive met force you through countless hoops and waste your time"
X Link 2025-08-05T16:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Cold. Relying on network is a crutch that hurts you down the line. Its not a bad idea to also have content newsletters and other nurturing to warm the funnel. But its not entirely necessary. The key is: - tight segmentation - tight messaging - tight timing You hit the right person with the right message at the right time and youre golden. You dont get that learning from spray and pray approaches"
X Link 2025-08-05T19:30Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"People think founder life is glamorous. But what Yotpo is going through is a much clearer lens into the reality of it. Tough calls that you have to own. Its no ones fault but yours. Its the last thing you want to do. You put in blood sweat and tears to avoid it. Yet. it still must be done. I can still FEEL what theyre going through to my bones. Days like that never really leave you"
X Link 2025-08-05T19:34Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@LegacyBuilder__ I got my first [--] users from slack communities cold email and a local meetup. Id do anything and search anywhere to close those first deals. Rinse and repeat until youve dialed a process. Then hire someone to take over. Clear path to $1m ARR +"
X Link 2025-08-05T23:37Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@alexcooldev Everything is boring when its not printing money. Anything is exciting when it is. I really dislike the folks who pitch follow your passion for this reasons. When push comes to shove you can get passionate about anything. What you really need is momentum"
X Link 2025-08-08T02:03Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@jasonlk I closed $1m off an investor update email. Definitely wasnt a cold email though. Whoever sent that doesnt quite understand how to signal"
X Link 2025-08-08T02:59Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Two-question clarity checklist: [--] Can I visualize the product in my mind [--] Do I know who its for and how they use it If you cant answer yes to both your one-liner isnt ready. If a stranger cant answer yes to both your chances are already tanking"
X Link 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Example: Uber for Dog Walking. ✅ I know Uber = mobile app + on-demand ordering. ✅ I know this connects walkers with dog owners. Thats [--] characters that paint a complete mental picture. Clarity like this earns you the right to tell the rest of your story"
X Link 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"The magic format: In short timeframe we did big numbers. Short timeframe = speed. Big numbers = proof. That combo is gold"
X Link 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Avoid fluff. Show concrete proof. Example: In the last [--] months we: - Launched our v1 - Gained 1000+ waitlist users - $20k MRR closed - $50k in late stage opportunities (companies include Nike Microsoft Google) - 50% of users come back daily - 20% refer to others. We're growing so fast our servers can't take the load"
X Link 2025-08-11T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Theres a lot of talk about wrappers but wrappers are fundamentally helpful. Consider every FinTech youve come across: - Stripe - Brex - Robinhood - Venmo - Gusto They wrap the same infra use the same banks issue the same credit cards and offer the same services. But theyre not useless far from it I just hate the current AI company playbook: [--]. Lazy build [--]. Go viral Seems to be the current playbook and its producing a wave of shitty products that dont actually work. So all the good wrappers get a bad rep"
X Link 2025-08-12T15:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@TheNPCEO Sam Altman called it fast fashion era of saas. True words"
X Link 2025-08-12T16:39Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"6 ways to price your product when you have zero customers. Ive used all of these at different stages. Each has pros cons and tells you something about your market. 👇"
X Link 2025-08-13T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Some form of marketplace Copying competition or comparables may be the move. Hard to tell without more info"
X Link 2025-08-13T17:43Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Hardware is not my specialty wouldnt want to talk out of turn. I do know that hardware has a much higher burden of capital needs has negative sentiment with early investors because of that but high rewards when complete. My hardware network tended to have the same patterns though during their raise: - technical edge - manufacturing experience/capability - tangible LOIs contracts POCs basically building up proof to show you can pull it off"
X Link 2025-08-14T20:48Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"The best way to 'convince' an investor is to bring proof. Always back your claims with data: - Revenue growth - Usage and retention stats - Customer testimonials and case studies Every claim you make is weaker without tangible data backing it up"
X Link 2025-08-20T13:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Founders: I hope none of you read this because you're: - Having a beer out with friends - Sitting on your couch unwinding - In your zone on that fun project Spending a Friday night in any other way seems like a huge waste of time to me"
X Link 2025-08-23T02:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Your idea won't amaze an investor. But these will - Fast revenue growth - Unusually high usage or retention - Founder with unfair advantages Stop pitching your idea start pitching your company"
X Link 2025-08-26T17:22Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@TrentBuilds PMF is a perfect alignment of: [--]. Market Demand [--]. Your Offer (relative to alternatives) Both of which change very quickly. Examples: Kodak Blackberry MySpace They most certainly had PMF. They most certainly lost it too"
X Link 2025-09-04T17:28Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"4) Find successful competitors - Who tackles this use case - Are they making money - Is there ANYONE out there Lack of competition is a bad thing. It means the use case doesnt matter"
X Link 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"5) Identify their gaps - Feedback boards - X/Reddit complaints - GPT Deep Research Find what users love and what they hate. Gauge if the bad reviews justify a new product on the market"
X Link 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"6) Measure active demand - Google Keyword Planner - Reddit Questions (how do I ) - Size up competitors Get a sense of how much active demand exists out there. If theres nothing thats not good"
X Link 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"8) Build a growth hypothesis - X people search for Y - If we convert at P% - We can capture Z customers Build a high level map of how youll distribute. Often copying competitors is a good start"
X Link 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"9) Setup a test - Landing page - Reddit post - Paid ads Remember those hypothesis Design a test which validates or invalidates that hypothesis QUICKLY"
X Link 2025-09-05T15:33Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Growth is sexy but retention is where great companies are made. - Fast growing + shit retention will fail - Slow growing + great retention will make you rich - Fast growing + great retention is a $B company"
X Link 2025-09-10T16:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Metrics are signals don't abuse them. Just like a pilot needs their instrumentation a business needs their key metrics to see if anything is broken. They will tell you 'what' is broken. They don't tell you 'why' it's broken. They don't tell you what to do about it. That's the pilot's job"
X Link 2025-09-10T16:06Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Starting something that's never been done before is way over-hyped. You take on every startup risk imaginable: - Product Risk - Market Risk - Distribution Risk Having competitors is a good thing. They de-risked quite a bit for you"
X Link 2025-09-13T13:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@agazdecki Best moments of a founders life: [--]. Your first dollar [--]. The moment you realize this is going to work [--]. The day growth happens without you"
X Link 2025-09-15T16:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"The amount of startup advice coming from zero-time founders is alarming"
X Link 2025-09-15T17:30Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"The best founders have the highest pain tolerance. .@pmarca's recipe for a great founder: two traits and one choice. The traits: intellect and energy. The choice: courage. Courage is pain tolerance. A huge amount of what people have to do is just get used to getting punched. And the reason people don't understand this is https://t.co/1iDB0Q1Qx1 .@pmarca's recipe for a great founder: two traits and one choice. The traits: intellect and energy. The choice: courage. Courage is pain tolerance. A huge amount of what people have to do is just get used to getting punched. And the reason people don't"
X Link 2025-09-16T13:58Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@asmartbear @jasonlk Selling for $50m is typically a far greater outcome for founders. Unless you raised too much too early and liquidation preference gets in the way"
X Link 2025-09-17T19:03Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Most of your efforts should go towards customer acquisition. Anything else is probably a waste"
X Link 2025-09-18T18:13Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"JIRA may be the best example of distribution being more important than product. It's not the best product but it's the best distributed. It's not the best product but they've dialed their brand. It's not the best product but we all use it. Might be the most hated yet widely used product out there"
X Link 2025-09-18T19:11Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@Jayyanginspires It amazes me what I can do when I have the energy for it. And how little I can do if I dont"
X Link 2025-09-20T16:38Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"I like to meet local business owners. Its fascinating to see their challenges and how they approach them. Theyre so far removed from the world of tech. Its refreshing to get outside the bubble every once in a while"
X Link 2025-09-21T16:34Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Perks of owning a business: Flying to NY for the Ryder cup on a whim"
X Link 2025-09-28T11:00Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"This Ryder cup makes $200 million in one day without AI"
X Link 2025-09-28T15:00Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"WAY too much focus on fundraising these days. Base44 is probably the best company to look up to. At the point of acquisition they had every option in the world ahead of them. Fundraise compete with Lovable Operate rake in profits Sell buy your mom a house Most successful companies dont raise as their first step. Theyve got something going for them beforehand"
X Link 2025-10-01T19:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Would you rather have a billion dollar company that needs you every waking moment Or make $1-2m a year with a fully delegated business not enough founders ask this question"
X Link 2025-10-02T17:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@cloudflare is making huge moves outside of the networking layer. This will be interesting to watch"
X Link 2025-10-03T20:01Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@asmartbear I can safely say that all of my companies that failed were due to my blunders and nothing else. Not the market not the competition not the lack of funding. My blunders"
X Link 2025-10-07T12:21Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@pmitu Find the smallest thing you can do. Do it in [--] minutes. These small moves often compound in crazy ways"
X Link 2025-10-08T12:58Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@a_savchenko23 @ChatGPTapp @Spotify @figma @canva @bookingcom @Uber @DoorDash I find it strange how few people are talking about this given how large of a move this really is"
X Link 2025-10-08T13:59Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@janwilmake @p0 Is this available to the public"
X Link 2025-10-08T14:03Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@OpenAI released a GPT App Store. Their initial partners @zillow @bookingcom @DoorDash have given away the user experience to live in GPT. There will be more to come. Its positioning GPT to be the everything app. Im surprised how little attention this is getting. Is it time to start building apps"
X Link 2025-10-08T14:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"I was accepted the second time around. No big tech or Ivy League. I brought revenue. I had a real growing company. The moment I did I was accepted. YC doesnt need a big tech badge to see a faker. Blaming a rejection on lack of pedigree is just a cop out. @rohil_ag nice but 99% of what YC cares about is uni and past big tech companies. they stopped betting on underdogs a while ago. esp when there's a wave of grads rn that isn't getting picked up by big tech. I keep on seeing good ideas rejected and slop accepted @rohil_ag nice but 99% of what YC cares about is uni and past big tech companies."
X Link 2025-10-10T23:09Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@nizzyabi @Cloudflare @Cloudflare is making massive moves lately. They seem to have launched everything from @awscloud to @resend lately. Crazy"
X Link 2025-10-10T23:11Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Friend and investor are two very different things. A great friend can be a shitty investor. Not all friends deserve a spot on your cap table. If youre my friend and you raise preseed $ from VCs without giving me a heads up I will be annoyed. Happens so rarely but still Friends let friends invest in their companies If youre my friend and you raise preseed $ from VCs without giving me a heads up I will be annoyed. Happens so rarely but still Friends let friends invest in their companies"
X Link 2025-10-12T23:36Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@a16z Momentum is like fuel for a startup. With it you can go anywhere without it you die. Work hard to keep it harder to maintain it and never let it go"
X Link 2025-10-14T01:16Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"X doesn't even help much for my startups the benefit to be on here isn't even business it's mostly just fun - levelsio You dont really need followers to create a successful business. There are many many more ways to build a company. Unpopular Opinion: twitter is one of the worst starting points for creating a business. I think it's more about actually liking to post and chat with people on here I've been doing it since [----] even when I had no followers and followers was never the goal I just shared my nomad travel and startup blog posts etc I made lots of friends here I'd say most of my I"
X Link 2025-10-14T14:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@HarryStebbings @mcannonbrookes Design as in product design I respect the hell out of what atlassian has built but their design is atrocious at best arguably one of the most hated tools developers have to use. Im pumped if this means improvements coming though"
X Link 2025-10-14T15:32Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@andreylebedev29 Great minds think alike I've been doing the same. considering spinning off 1-2x of my engineers to solely focus on app building. Any insights you've learned so far"
X Link 2025-10-15T16:32Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Makes complete sense. Feels a bit like we've got to take every app beyond the static pre-determined filters and allow more granular natural language search. Tbh I thought you were going to say something around the new UI capabilities. I feel like that's a huge unlock as well. p.s. My cofounder and I are nerding out about this too DM if you're interested in jamming on the subject"
X Link 2025-10-15T17:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Unpopular opinion: I dont trust people who make their money purely from content especially those we are supposed to be experts. Not sure when the mantra if you cant do teach went away but its true. If youre an expert teaching someone it should be a side project. Otherwise youre not actually doing the job and thus not really an expert"
X Link 2025-10-15T21:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@HarryStebbings The third reason is they dont want to and skip the next round entirely"
X Link 2025-10-15T22:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"The problem with companies like cluely is that product is an after thought. cluely status page lmao https://t.co/DY4q5CxFlA cluely status page lmao https://t.co/DY4q5CxFlA"
X Link 2025-10-16T15:17Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Constantly chasing viral videos as the determining factor to your companies growth isnt something to be celebrated. inconsistent unpredictable results not an owned channel random spikes that make you think otherwise The graph tells the whole story. 9000+ new users in one day 🥳 it's normally difficult to tell exactly what impact a viral video has on your business but occasionally a video will bang so fucking hard that it's abundantly obvious you have a winner let's fucking goooooo 😇 https://t.co/n0nX4znjak 9000+ new users in one day 🥳 it's normally difficult to tell exactly what impact a"
X Link 2025-10-16T16:59Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@asmartbear The best hires I've made have taught me something new within the first [--] minutes of the interview. The worst hires I've made regurgitate everything I already know"
X Link 2025-09-18T18:35Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Ive started many companies. Most failed as expected. But the more you build. You start to gain this instinct. One thats impossible to teach. It helps you parse good ideas from bad. You can feel if a floundering idea will grow or a growing idea will flounder. Both are very common. This instinct is a weapon when you learn how to use it"
X Link 2025-10-06T14:11Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Raising is not for everyone. Cash does not solve all problems. It simply creates new ones. When you see massive fundraising announcements remember that FanDuel sold for $450M and the founders/employees made $0. How Investors had a liquidation preference that entitled them to the first $559M of proceeds. The more you raise the bigger the preferences. When you see massive fundraising announcements remember that FanDuel sold for $450M and the founders/employees made $0. How Investors had a liquidation preference that entitled them to the first $559M of proceeds. The more you raise the bigger the"
X Link 2025-10-18T14:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"This is a half truth presuming that a Series A is whats needed to be successful. The time horizon is a lot longer than this in all actuality or at least you have control over it. The only thing that compresses the window of time is over spending and shortening your runway. In that sense VC back companies have even longer time horizons than their bootstrapped counterparts. You can afford to wait for the market to come to fruition. Especially if its a big bet its worth the wait"
X Link 2025-10-18T14:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@TimSuzman Im surprised @OpenAIs new GPT App Store isnt shaking things up tbh. Thought that would be bigger news than it panned out to be"
X Link 2025-10-18T15:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@rburton @paulg @garrytan @ycombinator Power law is pretty fun to watch. Especially in YCs case where virtually every startup created applies to YC as their first step into fundraising"
X Link 2025-10-18T21:28Z [---] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive raised millions and scaled to millions. I started in my early 20s. you have no fear you have high risk tolerance youre naive to whats to come so you dive in you have boundless energy As you age you shift advantages towards experience strategy and network. But in my early 20s i was a force to be reckoned with. Even today i wouldnt want to compete with my past self. Relentless"
X Link 2025-10-19T22:44Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"As a CEO I love studying top athletes. The way they approach their craft is unmatched even in professional settings. Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant Tiger Woods. Theres something to learn from each of them. The more you learn the clearer it becomes why theyre the best at what they do. Another one to add to the list"
X Link 2025-10-20T01:58Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"The reality is long term thinking is a luxury. The ability to think and act in the long term comes from a place of surplus. Both people and companies have short term needs to be met and can only reasonably act in the long term if those needs are met in the short term. Deal with the stress of the moment such that it aligns with long term potential"
X Link 2025-10-20T14:36Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@marckohlbrugge They were bought by salesforce right"
X Link 2025-10-20T14:41Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@craigzLiszt A finding a good cofounder is like finding a good wife. Very difficult. Amazing when you find them. Nightmare if you make the wrong choice. Take it from me. Ive had many of them (cofounders not wives)"
X Link 2025-10-21T00:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Thats because great companies are waiting in position by the time the market shifts in their favor. Once it shifts youre already too late. Ive been a part of a shifts in my favor shifts against me and shifts that Ive missed. Its not about catching waves as they come up but sitting in the right spot when they do"
X Link 2025-10-21T00:31Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@antoniogm In order to become a billionaire you often give up the parts of you that are happy on a ranch in Maui. Better put: if youre dreaming of a house in Maui you likely wont be a billionaire. Theres a damn good chance youre happier though"
X Link 2025-10-21T03:21Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@toddsaunders Agreed but ignoring CAC LTV and retention sort of ignores the key metrics which distribution relies on though. Its extremely easy to create hyper revenue growth if youre operating at a loss. Trading $2 for $1 is an easy thing to scale"
X Link 2025-10-21T14:34Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"FWIW: I did not go to stanford mit or ivy league. I was accepted into Y Combinator. They are and will always be willing to take bets on excellent people. The challenge then is. How do you show them you're excellent"
X Link 2025-10-21T16:04Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@hnshah The natural path of every founder is to add add add. Then you mature and realize removing is far better. Weirdly the same progression as engineers mature as well"
X Link 2025-10-22T17:28Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@benhylak in order to be a founder you have to constantly and fearlessly tell people what you want. Then face rejection 99% of the time. This happens for days months or years. All in an effort to find that 1%"
X Link 2025-10-23T21:51Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@hnshah Consensus gives you the average of everyones beliefs. Considering [--] out of [--] startups fail. Average is the last thing you want"
X Link 2025-10-23T23:26Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Last week I spent [--] minutes creating an outbound campaign to validate an idea. This week I have meetings with: Product Directors at 2x Fortune [---] companies VP of Engineering at 2x scale ups Potential pilot with 1x big tech company You can change your life in [--] minutes. You don't need a twitter following. You don't need an Ivy league degree. You don't need $2m pre-seed. You just need to get out there. Send that email. Launch that product. Get started"
X Link 2025-10-23T23:42Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"As a YC founder i dont expect investors to provide customers thats my job. Indexing on who has the biggest voice is indexing on the wrong factor. Who has your back when things look bad Who helps when you need them quiet when you dont Who has a history of being founder friendly vs self-involved These are all more important than podcast mentions"
X Link 2025-10-24T21:20Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@evolvee33 Most entrepreneurs think once I hit PMF everything will be good. Far from it trust me. Its only getting harder faster and more stressful from here. Better to learn to love the process than expect it to be different"
X Link 2025-10-25T17:10Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@bscholl These are moonshots. Ideas so obviously good that if you can pull it off it will work. The risk shifts from market risk to execution risk. For a lot of founders this is better or more comfortable"
X Link 2025-10-27T13:54Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Smart people are better off thinking less and acting more. Thinking creates hesitancy. Smart sounding reasons to sit instead of act. The smarter you are the more this applies"
X Link 2025-10-27T15:09Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Its the same story for the $2m in [--] days companies. While they arent lying that speed will catch up to them. Real companies dont even show a consistent always up and to the right graph either. Let alone in weeks. The graph is up and down good and bad. This goes on for months or years. Dont believe the hype or youll be demotivated think youre doing something wrong. Its a terrible bar to aim for and an awful expectation to set"
X Link 2025-10-28T14:27Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"If you're a strong founder you can sell anything. You can get weak product-market fit out of almost any idea and that's a problem - @immad (founder @mercury) After nearly two decades and three startups serial founder @immad built a $3.5B fintech juggernaut in @mercury. If you ask him why his previous companies never reached similar success hed point to the trap of the bullish founder. If you're a strong founder you can sell https://t.co/GHfZf9Vydf After nearly two decades and three startups serial founder @immad built a $3.5B fintech juggernaut in @mercury. If you ask him why his previous"
X Link 2025-10-28T22:19Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Most things in life require above average. Going to a good school excelling in sports getting the high paying job. Hell. finding a good wife requires you to be above average. Everything good in life requires you to step up even if for a moment. This is especially important in startups. the average is not only mediocre theyre dead. Be above average and get everything you want"
X Link 2025-10-30T14:17Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"As someone whos done both Ive seen both sides. Neither is easier or harder than the other they are different. It also depends on what you mean by building. Sure building a startup with no money is harder. Building a billion dollar company is infinitely harder than bootstrapping to $1m though. Just depends I guess"
X Link 2025-10-30T16:48Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@yongfook Ive been both. I have plenty to talk about with both sides. Ill think youll find more commonalities than you think. Namely the fucking pain we all go through. That said VCs and bootstrapped certainly butt heads. Goals risk tolerance approach etc. those get sticky"
X Link 2025-10-31T04:52Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"If youve ever tried to raise outside of the US youd quickly see why. The risk tolerance expectations of control valuations. Everything was a nightmare. Its great for startups innovation and the world if that changes. I hope it does. It would open a ton of doors. Needs to change to compete with the US though. Unfortunately were seeing the opposite trend with accelerators like EF (founded by Matt Clifford) moving to SF. Folks like them were setting the charge in the rest of the word. Unfortunately even they had to move back"
X Link 2025-11-01T19:26Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@bscholl @elonmusk @boomaero Everyone benefits when the founder does well. Incentives should reflect that. What most people dont realize is the time sacrifice and risk they took along the way. Compensating that is fair"
X Link 2025-11-01T19:32Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@neatprompts As a CEO i have endlesss open loops. Never thought about their relationship to my energy though. Ive always used priority and focus (allowing open loops to not bother me) but perhaps closing them out could work too. Worth a test I guess"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:18Z [----] followers, 24.1K engagements
"@thejustinwelsh I became a founder to achieve this. That and retiring my parents"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"I can see why. A lot of founders I know are sprinting without having a personal compass. Growth for the sake of growth. Throw a VC in there and forget about it. Practically pushing the company off a cliff in some cases. I think it takes a particularly well grounded person to choose sustainability over scale since theres so much external momentum pushing for the latter"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:48Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"I woke up reminiscing about the days I couldnt pay my rent. Most stressful and embarrassing time of my life. My gf had to front the bills thousands in debt and no tangible end in sight. I had a coach at the time and talked about closing shop. I was so stressed I walked in the snow for hours ruminating on the decision. Feel ill I was out there so long. I decided Id go down swinging. One day at a time until I couldnt do it anymore. A few more emails a few more calls a few more demos. Just keep going. We closed our first customer a few days later. Then the next one. Soon enough I had my pitch"
X Link 2025-11-03T16:06Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@HarryStebbings VCs when you meet a founder you want to invest in dont put them through a process. Good founders have options and want to get back to work. Dont waste their time"
X Link 2025-11-03T19:07Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Built a company to $1m all inbound and thought it was the biggest flex. Turns out its not that cool. Dont get me wrong I love inbound. But supplementing with some outbound is massively helpful. Competitors can ramp CAC SEO cant be dialed up at will influencer campaigns are hit or miss etc etc. Meanwhile you ran ramp outbound up efforts and its fully owned and controlled by you. Bit higher CAC though"
X Link 2025-11-04T06:01Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@vasuman Meta swe will look you dead in the face and say their job is hard"
X Link 2025-11-04T15:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I absolutely hate the mind games often involved in a fundraise. Fomo urgency tactically being oversubscribed whos leading yada yada. I wish it was more about the company than the theatrics. If your company is good enough though you can skip a lot of the theatrics entirely. Thats the ultimate goal"
X Link 2025-11-04T16:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Lessons from a YC founder. I was going to list the top [--] but theyre all too important. I'm [--] dropped out of Duke joined YC and bet everything on a startup. Here's what actually happens when you go all-in: [--]. Your co-founder relationship matters more than your product: You can pivot products. You can't pivot people. Most startups die from founder breakups not I'm [--] dropped out of Duke joined YC and bet everything on a startup. Here's what actually happens when you go all-in: [--]. Your co-founder relationship matters more than your product: You can pivot products. You can't pivot people. Most"
X Link 2025-11-05T16:54Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"I think a lot of folks bashing the pivot dont really understand the bet thats going on here. Core competency is attention not necessarily product. And theyre damn good at attention. Its like bashing Mr. Beast for selling candy bars because. chocolate is saturated They sold $250m worth of chocolate but if you think its a chocolate company youve missed the point. The point is: how far can an attention-first company go And Im very interested to see what the answer is"
X Link 2025-11-05T18:37Z [----] followers, 23.2K engagements
"@austinxwalker At the same time you need to be able to zoom out and see the forest from the trees. Even if youre a ferrari its pointless if youre driving in the wrong direction. The trick is being able to switch and do both"
X Link 2025-11-06T15:45Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@MartinGTobias Any advisors in the early stage is a red flag. Practically any effort not focused on user acquisition or product is a bad sign"
X Link 2025-11-06T16:49Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@ajhodls My advice would be to not focus so much on a launch video and get back to building real distribution channels. Im fine with a copy - as long as it gets me back to the important stuff. Might be an unpopular opinion in todays landscape not sure"
X Link 2025-11-06T17:06Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"The thing to know about successful founders is that their story is always retrofitted. It's a modified history of what actually happened. They always start with an insight a turning point and the moment they knew they were going to be big. But what's missing from nearly every story is the heartache. The moments of self doubt. Staring in the mirror not knowing wtf to do. The countless times they were on the verge of quitting. Hell. even the ones who claim the illustrious 'lightbulb moment' never even had it - it just makes for a better story if they did. There's a thousand incentives to"
X Link 2025-11-06T18:53Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@robertfoenix Awesome - win or loss everythings a good lesson and you get better for the next time"
X Link 2025-11-08T00:16Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"No good early stage VC asks for these financials. Projections are not enough Projections at early stages are guesswork at best. Any investor expecting dialed unit economics projects years into the future and comb through bank trials is not an early stage investor. Avoid this investor if youre an early stage company"
X Link 2025-11-08T16:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"@toddsaunders @fcollective @parulia @tjmahony I raised $1m off one investor update. Highest ROI email I ever sent"
X Link 2025-11-08T16:53Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"As a founder I have to disagree. Investor updates are not for founders they are starkly for investors. Keeping them in the loop and engaged for the next time theyre needed. So its not without value but its wrong to think founders only zoom out when writing investor updates. Its investors first reflection is subtle side effect but good founders are constantly reflecting whether they update investors or not"
X Link 2025-11-11T02:57Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss"
X Link 2025-11-12T15:47Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Not nearly as glamorous as people think. Not for a long long time"
X Link 2025-11-12T17:31Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"PSA for first time founders: If you focus all your efforts on customer acquisition you'll eventually crack it. If your sole goal in the world was to find and close customers you'll do it. You'll build the right features you'll learn the right skills you'll drop your favorite parts of the product for the ones users actually want. The problem is usually in the form of 1/ Rigid thinking Let's be real. Your idea sucks. So does mine. It always does. There's no getting around that. You can't be too rigid with your idea or your product or you'll miss the gold mine right next to it. You've got to be"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:14Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I coach a lot of founders - VC-backed YC founders and indies alike. The problem I see with a lot of indie founders is that they by-default often sell to other indies. Unfortunately I cant think of a worse market to sell into. Theyre small they go under all the time theyre unlikely to scale and produce more revenue over time. The dynamics of your target customer matter A LOT. Massive difference between a company with 90% NDR and 105% NDR. One skyrockets growth and the other withers and dies. My advice for indies is to target a niche but a high paying stable one. Price points and customer"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:19Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@TheRealBradLea Theres a few of my YC buddies who are absolute energy magnets. By far the best folks to stay close with. Every time you chat you feel like you can take over the world. Hard to be unsuccessful in a circle like that"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:20Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"I agree. Moved back to San Diego (home town) and felt the same way you do. I do occasionally miss the tech culture but life gets stale when all you talk about is business and everyones obsessed with one upping each other on fundraises. Home town vibes are a much better balance. Not many farms though unfortunately"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:26Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Whats crazy is not the raise but the revenue. The revenue growth is something weve never really seen before especially in a market where theres multiple of these companies with similar trajectories. Thats why theyre raising so much at such high valuations not because of costs"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:28Z [---] followers, [----] engagements
"@stijnnoorman LinkedIn and email is all you need. The rest are bonus"
X Link 2025-11-14T15:29Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"My company is 100% globally remote. I've raised millions built the company to $1m+ and profitable. It can be done. That said you're right. It's bad for making money can negatively impact social and mental health and in-person teams have a stark advantage. I wouldn't go back and change the decision but I'd be lying if I didn't see the implications of it"
X Link 2025-11-14T18:26Z [---] followers, [----] engagements
"@bhalligan @HubSpot @dharmesh I love this episode and think about it more often than Id like to admit when it comes to some of the plans Ive cooked up. Quite funny how helpful that episode has been in my life"
X Link 2025-11-14T20:57Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"@kwharrison13 VCs are just trying to sound smart while they in fact have no idea what they are doing or how great companies are made. Its like a sports podcaster commenting on Michael Jordans game"
X Link 2025-11-15T15:56Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"As a YC founder I find a lot of companies enthralled with the idea of no PM businesses. But theres a clear pattern in the companies who can pull it off. Hint: its not every company. Specifically the companies who can operate without PMs are the ones where developers are the customers themselves (I.e Cursor). In scenarios like this there are PMs. Its just the developers. Theyre the customers they can make the right decisions they can dog food and fix their own product. Attempting to apply this structure to any other business which does not have the characteristic of developers building for"
X Link 2025-11-15T16:52Z [---] followers, 22.9K engagements
"The first step in all my interviews is understanding the perfect role for the candidate. Just as much as were looking for the perfect fit they are too. I like to hire folks where my company is pmf for what theyre looking for. The last step is always working with the candidate on a real project"
X Link 2025-11-19T15:53Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Why do people treat failure with such seriousness You realize Michael Jordan lost thousands of games. Zuck failed multiple times before Facebook. As did every other entrepreneur who made it. Treat failure like a sport. Are you going to win every game No. Are you going to win the championship every season No. Then why would you count your failures Why would you over index on any single loss Thats the wrong way to look at it. No single game matters. No single season matters. Our success is over the long haul"
X Link 2025-11-19T15:57Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"Top things I look for in an investor (as a YC founder) 1/ Writes checks quickly Ive never met a great investor who did not write checks quickly. The better the VC the faster they work on average. A big reason for this is they respect founders time. They realize that the most sought after founders want to get back to business and want partners who respect that. Ive also found some of the more nightmarish VCs to force long convoluted and drawn out processes. So definitely a pattern and speed is a good first check. I always ask: So if things go well here what happens next can you walk me through"
X Link 2025-11-21T16:56Z [---] followers, 77.6K engagements
"An investor told me "this isn't sexy enough no one will ever fund this" and "this will never work". A few months later I raised millions got accepted into YC and grew the business to $1m+ arr (profitable). Investors cannot predict the future. If they could they'd build their own unicorn. Half the time they say these things so you come back and prove them wrong. And proving them wrong is a great great feeling"
X Link 2025-11-21T19:22Z [---] followers, [---] engagements
"I raised $3m in [--] days $1m+ arr (profitable) a few months after. everything I post comes from personal experience. I dont benefit from you believing me and I dont suffer if you dont. [--]. Ive personally received more than $250k after a [--] minute call. $1m from another [--] minute call. Your point is incorrect good investors move fast. Perhaps you havent met them. [--]. Investor value add is not zero but its also not a game changer. The contexts in which they are a game changer are more often than not monetary value. Few exceptions like YC and others but its too rare to optimize especially early"
X Link 2025-11-21T23:02Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"After posting I received DMs from dozens of YC founders sharing VC horror stories. Heres a couple examples: Reneging handshake deals spying for their portcos lawsuit threats over aggressive monitoring/involvement delayed process/decisions rude/unpleasant behavior disastrous terms that would hurt future rounds and more. Heres what I learned: 1/ founders definitely talk Founders share experiences. VCs should be aware of that. If youve been involved in unfriendly behavior it likely impacts your top deals. Specifically the ones who are well positioned to have options. Thats because - like VCs -"
X Link 2025-11-24T16:07Z [---] followers, 16.3K engagements
"@asmartbear I find that earlier in my career it was more beneficial to work 'harder' than 'smarter'. I didn't really know what I was doing so trying to work 'smarter' was pretty futile anyways. These days working 'smarter' is far more effective"
X Link 2025-11-25T16:35Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"A lot of YC founders I know have fallen off the VC track. Meaning their companies are profitable but unlikely to grow to $1B+. They have a few options (none are great): 1/ keep trying Continuing to try means dumping more good money after bad. There comes a point where founder knows their business is not a unicorn. Theyll need to pivot increase burn to influence growth rate raise more funds - each one puts an otherwise strong business at risk. Continuing to try may destroy an otherwise good business. Ive seen this personally. 2/ shut down or exit Shutting down sucks for obvious reasons but an"
X Link 2025-11-26T16:09Z [---] followers, 203.4K engagements
"As a CEO Ill try to clarify what VCs mean by focus on one thing. An athlete will be running jumping breathing and a thousand other things at the same time. But. their eye is always on one thing the ball. Same with businesses. You do a lot but theres usually one area where you put your active effort. The rest is running breathing and all the other tablestakes"
X Link 2025-11-27T14:24Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Founders dont need to avoid VCs they just need to be smart about using them. A few tips on using VCs intelligently: 1/ dont over-raise Its easy to think that big raises are a good thing. Whats less obvious is that the founder has sold their company at its lowest point. The plan is to grow right If thats true then right now is the lowest valuation your startup will ever be. Why sell at your lowest price Thats like trying to dump all your stock when the price dips. 2/ dont bank on the next Raise what you need to either get to profitability or the next raise. Be cautious about that second one."
X Link 2025-12-01T15:15Z [---] followers, 20.1K engagements
"VC cash is like candy. Sweet at first but eat too much and youll get a stomach ache. Common founder mistakes when theyve got too much $$$ in the bank: 1/ over-hiring If you cant crack it yourself you cant hire someone to crack it either. Its the founders job to learn the market understand the customer tweak the offering and a thousand other things. Yes even if youre not an expert. Founders who try to hire too early or too much will quickly learn a few things: Lesson 1: hiring only accelerates clear plan. new hires + unclear plan can derail a whole company. Lesson 2: dont hire for a role you"
X Link 2025-12-05T15:02Z [---] followers, 37.7K engagements
"PSA for first time founders: If you raise money you owe that money back. Its not debt but its also not free. Meaning you dont have monthly payments and - if you fail - they wont come for your house. But you do owe that money back. Why Liquidation Preference Liquidation preference is built into most investment terms in some fashion. It basically says that investors get preference in the case of acquisition or liquidation. Example: Lets say you raised $10m with a 1x liquidation pref. This means the investor gets paid 1x of their investment amount before anyone else gets a dime. (yes including"
X Link 2025-12-10T16:04Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"4/ All-In Self explanatory. uprooting their lives to SF struggling to pay rent sleeping in the office. Everything on the line in pursuit of company building. I dont think its healthy. I do think were crazy. But its that kind of unrelenting all-in mentality you see in YC founders that makes us formidable. The kicker is that most of it doesnt feel like sacrifice. It feels fun rewarding and hard to imagine doing anything else. Thats the part that makes them unstoppable"
X Link 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"5/ Never blocked no excuses Airbnb founders selling cereal may be my favorite example. $30k in personal debt no users/revenue. Decided to sell cereal at the DNC to make a buck and it worked. While Ive met very few YC founders selling cereal that mentality remains very strong. There are no excuses in YC. There are only challenges and solutions. You wont find successful YC founders unable to build because they dont have investment unable to sell because they dont have experiences or saying things like well you were only successful because you went to Stanford Never blocked no excuses"
X Link 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"6/ Fast af Theres less than [--] months from now until youre up on stage at demo day pitching to group of elite investors. Not much time and you need a lot of progress. This engrains a type of speed that would surprise most people. Even weekly planning is far too long. Youve got to make big swings daily. This level of speed is common in YC Startups. Youll find very few of us working at a monthly quarterly or yearly schedule. Most operate on a fast daily and weekly feedback cycle especially at the start. Lack of speed can kill you and its one of the rare things you can control"
X Link 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"7/ Fear the right things Lack of users and revenue are the only things worth fearing. Without them you die. Thats something worth fearing. Too many founders focused on conferences awards advisors and other things that dont make a dent. Build something people want. Then get them to pay you. If you can do that the rest doesnt matter. Fear the right things"
X Link 2025-12-12T16:14Z [---] followers, [--] engagements
"Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss"
X Link 2025-12-13T16:57Z [----] followers, 52.1K engagements
"Being a founder has turned out worse than I imagined. Harder more stressful unrelenting. Pushed to my limits in every way imaginable. But also more rewarding than I ever thought possible. There is no job in the world Id trade it for. Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent is due but youve got no money Your only user says not worth paying for You spent [--] year and got nowhere What did I miss Everyone loves the idea of being a founder until. Youre on your 149th rejection. Friends calls it your little project Rent"
X Link 2025-12-16T15:43Z [----] followers, 19.2K engagements
"Of all the problems founders have I find the internal ones to be the toughest. Its not the competition or market shifts. Its not finding investors or PMF. Its those moments where you doubt yourself. should I pivot or keep going am I wasting my time everyones ahead of me Im not sure its going to work out These thoughts are the hardest. They come up more frequently than youd like they come in your darkest moments and no matter what stage youre at they still linger. Its those moments that feel so utterly useless but you have to keep going. Where you feel defeated but have to get up and rally the"
X Link 2025-12-18T16:41Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive been a CEO for almost a decade. I realize that effective weeks dont come from productivity hacks or grind culture they come from clarity. The number of hours is almost inconsequential to how effective my week will be. To almost guarantee a good week I do these simple but highly effective things: [--]. Determine high impact areas [--]. Craft a singular goal [--]. Set a deadline for end of week [--]. Review progress plan next week Lack of progress tends to come from poor clarity. Taking on too many things and making too little progress in each one. The best weeks Ive ever had as an individual (and as a"
X Link 2025-12-20T16:17Z [----] followers, 20.4K engagements
"The most effective weeks start on Sunday. Getting so clear on your goal its all you think about. The weeks which start with a high impact target are the most effective. Because an effective week for me is never the hours worked. Its never the amount of todos completed. Its the clarity of mission. If I dont have a clear mission no amount hours todos or productivity hacks will help me. Getting a clear line of sight to target. Thats how I setup an effective week. How do you Ive been a CEO for almost a decade. I realize that effective weeks dont come from productivity hacks or grind culture they"
X Link 2025-12-21T15:55Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@realshcallaway My team has the same issue with all those other tools - way too loud so much noise. What makes yours more actionable/useful (taking notes)"
X Link 2025-12-21T22:25Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The truth is: your startup is f*cked without you. Take care of yourself or youre ngmi. Being a founder is a fing hard and long game and keeping your battery charged is part of your job If you can take down time and reset with friends family games (whatever really) just dont play performative productivity games thx (VCs are skiing anyway btw so no audience) Being a founder is a fing hard and long game and keeping your battery charged is part of your job If you can take down time and reset with friends family games (whatever really) just dont play performative productivity games thx (VCs are"
X Link 2025-12-21T22:45Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Heres the truth: your startup is f*cked without you. Youre playing a long game. trying to sprint the entire thing is not only dumb its irresponsible. Founder burnout = dead startup. Thats a detriment everyone. the company the team investors and customers. All because a founder tried to play hero. Imagine youre hiking Everest and a member of your group refuses to sleep. Whats your first thought Probably not: wow hes gunna make it Hes so much stronger than us Youd probably think: what an unnecessary flex. hes probably going to die When the founder is not healthy startups die. Dont let hustle"
X Link 2025-12-21T23:12Z [----] followers, 27.7K engagements
"@gujje_avinash Everything is sales. If you dont know how founder life gets hard"
X Link 2025-12-22T23:09Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"I think theres a lot of misunderstanding about how rollups work especially software folks moving into rollups. theres a fantasy that its easy and often dont have a solid foundation of how the model works. Any change introduces risk and any acquisition requires both a leverage opportunity and margin of safety. You cant assume your changes will work have to plan for the worst case scenario. In this particular case Im sure (or at least hope) that this churn was accounted for in their margin of safety. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2003640412594896985"
X Link 2025-12-24T01:34Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@aymanalabdul You can brute force practically anything to $1m but its tough to go past that if your acquisition or model is broken. Meanwhile companies with solid acquisition + models scale from $1m - $5m in the blink of an eye. Then at $5m+ you hit new challenges to scale further"
X Link 2025-12-24T01:41Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Unpopular opinion: you can brute force practically anything to $1m per year. Beyond that you need something special. The difference between a $1m ARR company vs. a $5m ARR company is rarely the founder the team etc. You can typically trace it back to efficient acquisition and healthy unit economics. Companies that have it go from $1m to $5m in the blink of an eye. Companies that dont get stuck at $1m. Ive seen this more times than I can count. Its rarely the skill of the founder so much as the dynamics of their business. If your company is stuck at $1 million in annual revenue you either have"
X Link 2025-12-24T01:44Z [----] followers, 54.4K engagements
"@Jayyanginspires Strong disagree. Build a business. If it requires an audience then build one. Otherwise dont. Not every business needs one. Always take a direct path. Dont write a book then build a business. Just build a business"
X Link 2025-12-24T05:12Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Watching the CEO of one of the fastest growing startups absolutely flunk on basic customer support proves my point. Sometimes success isnt the founder or execution but the idea itself. The common trope is: ideas are useless execution is everything. But thats not really true. The difference between a going big or crashing out isnt execution its the market. A great founder cant survive in a bad market but a poor one can thrive when a market is hot. me: uses coderabbit doesnt like it coderabbit eng: how can we do better me: list of feedback coderabbit CEO: you have no idea what you're talking"
X Link 2025-12-25T18:22Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@thdxr Respectfully disagree. If I caught my support team messaging customers in the same way they wouldnt be on the team anymore. A founder should have a much higher standard"
X Link 2025-12-25T19:58Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@samfllakes Appreciate that"
X Link 2026-01-04T04:40Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"You have [--] weeks in a year. [--] bets. [--] features. [--] experiments. Dont have goal Aim for the wrong one Took [--] weeks instead of [--] You WASTED limited attempts. For example: lets say you ship once a month while I ship every week. By the end of the year Ill have made [--] big swings vs your [--]. In [--] years Ill have [---] to your [--]. Whos going to win Sh*t compounds. Thats why goals matter. Week 1/52 has already ended. Did you make it count YC taught me to never go a single day without a goal. A bad goal (or no goal) is the easiest way to guarantee failure. Setting a good one is also the easiest way"
X Link 2026-01-04T13:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I noticed a lot of confusion. Having a singular goal means having a singular priority. Yes to the detriment of everything else. Having one goal means youre thinking about one thing. Day and night. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. Nothing else matters nothing stands in the way. No distractions. YC taught me to never go a single day without a goal. A bad goal (or no goal) is the easiest way to guarantee failure. Setting a good one is also the easiest way to achieve success. youd be surprised how much you can accomplish with a singular goal. Whats yours YC taught me to"
X Link 2026-01-05T12:26Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Most founders who give up simply haven't done enough reps for math to come into play. Most things are a numbers game. Without enough reps you won't see the math come to fruition. For example: Sending [--] cold outbound emails. If you calculate the baseline conversions from outreach - response - conversation - closed deal you'll realize that [--] emails is not enough close to the number you need to see success. It's like closing down a website because [--] of the [--] visitors ended up paying. Gotta give it more reps. Anyways folks tend to give up before getting enough reps to even expect success"
X Link 2026-01-11T18:12Z [----] followers, 11.2K engagements
"Extremely stupid advice. Like coding sales is an important founder job. It keeps your finger on the pulse of what the market needs and lets you quickly adapt your offering to match it. In the early days founder sales is less about closing deals and more about learning the market. Lets say your sales rep cant close deals. Does the product need tweaking Does the market not exist Is the sales person failing Its very hard to tell the difference. This is extremely common since most sales folks know how to run a playbook but have never created one themselves. Youll need to make changes to the"
X Link 2026-01-11T18:42Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Arguably the best YC advice I ever got. They call this default alive. It means youve got enough cash to survive without being dependent on the next raise. This prevents over-spending and driving yourself off a cliff. If you think about it thats the only way to kill your startup. You spend too much and cant survive another day. All other reasons for death can be figured out if youve got enough time (or cash to buy time) Takeaways: 1) To guarantee failure: spend more than you make. 2) To increase odds of success: survive long enough to figure it out. Revenue chart from a recent investor update."
X Link 2026-01-11T22:46Z [----] followers, 141.9K engagements
"@sbaexplorer @garrytan When youve got a $B target on your head and virtually unlimited cash available its easy to get swayed into over spending. If you dont understand then youve never been in that position fair enough. This is advice is for those who are"
X Link 2026-01-12T07:30Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"To those mocking this advice I get it. But its clear youve never had a big bet in your life. The type that attracts the top investors in the world. The type where the mere mention of the plan can warrant millions of backing. The type where go big or go home is the only thing people care about. Where changing the world is the only measure and the minimum target starts in the billions. Were not talking about making a million a year spinning up some agency or a $10k/mo side project. Were talking big bets. Take down Google. Replace lawyers. Change how businesses operate all together. Big hairy"
X Link 2026-01-12T14:10Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"A lot of startups sound dumb at first then grow to unicorns. Airbnb Twitch Slack. Listen to customers not haters"
X Link 2026-01-15T17:31Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@HarryStebbings companies these days are scaling at rates we haven't seen before. would love a post/podcast breaking down patterns you see in the high growth companies"
X Link 2026-01-16T16:47Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@marcell_mate_ 🎯"
X Link 2026-01-16T18:38Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Founder success stories always retrofitted. A romanticized version of what actually happened. They start with an insight a turning point and the moment they knew they were going to be big. But what's missing from nearly every story is the heartache. The moments of self doubt. Staring in the mirror not knowing wtf to do. The countless times they were on the verge of quitting. Hell. even the ones who claim the illustrious 'lightbulb moment' never even had it - it just makes for a better story if they did. There's a thousand incentives to retrofit your story. You go viral impress friends and get"
X Link 2026-01-17T14:50Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The best founders i know didnt start with an idea. They started with a feeling. They became founders because: they felt they had no other options they felt like a prisoner in a normal job they felt they were wasting their time This feeling just never went away. So they tried idea after idea. Business after business. Anything they could to get out. Eventually they learned enough to gain some success. So they kept going. But very rarely have I seen a successful founder who started with an idea. An idea so good it made them successful. Ideas do matter but its never the idea itself that drives"
X Link 2026-01-18T17:12Z [----] followers, 14K engagements
"A big trap for founders is thinking that money solves problems - but it often causes more problems than it solves"
X Link 2026-01-21T16:38Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive just reviewed another handful of YC applications heres a few more themes that stood out. 1/ Your traction is your story A lot of traction statements feel like an after thought. List of stale bullet points no story. This is your main story - own it. In the past X time weve done insert list of amazing things. Weve seen customers insert proof it works and even insert amazing customer validation. We got so many users we couldnt invited them fast enough. It should read like a founders who capturing wins left and right. Force a double take. 2/ Traction = Action Too many traction statements are"
X Link 2025-11-08T18:38Z [----] followers, 53K engagements
"@asmartbear NRR is more important to me than ARR. when i see the $Xm in 12mo companies my first question is always 1) whats churn 2) whats NRR to understand the efficiency of that growth and how longstanding it will be"
X Link 2025-11-30T17:34Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"The #1 YC Application mistake I see is trying to sound impressive in your one-liner. You fill the page with this and that hoping something lands. But at this stage Clarity cleverness. The first thing partners need to know is what youre building. If thats unclear the rest of your application doesnt make much sense. If you cant say what you do in a simple statement its probably too complicated. The fundamentals of a good YC application never change. (deadline in [--] days) Here's a few: 1/ Clarity Accuracy Stop trying to over explain your startup. Try to simplify the hell out of it. Counter"
X Link 2026-02-04T15:37Z [----] followers, 17.9K engagements
"I caved yesterday. bought a mac studio. a beefy one to run local inference. had to see for myself what all the hype was about. Result: I've never seen the future so clearly before. cancelled my calls didn't sleep automated most of my morning rituals - and then some. daily standup kpi round up for sales customer slack summaries daily ideas for twitter posts weekly tee times to book weekly restaurants to try still hungry for more use cases. u have any https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019180833614229837 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019180833614229837"
X Link 2026-02-04T22:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Its a mistake for founders to treat fundraising like milestones. Sprinting towards the next raise has killed more startups than its helped. Heres how it happens: 1/ If you hit xyz metric well invest Founders get excited. They gear the whole company towards that goal thinking its a guaranteed investment. 2/ You hit the metric Thats great but. Insert the next random milestone. The next excuse. The next reason they cant invest now but might later. Meanwhile you cant make payroll. I cant count how many personal friends ran straight into this trap. Its better to aim for profitability than the next"
X Link 2026-02-06T17:20Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"As a YC founder I've now watched [--] close friends build multi-billion dollar companies. Here's a few things that surprised me: 1/ it can be anyone There's nothing special about these guys. They're smart committed and work hard. But they're not geniuses. They just figured it out as they went. There's often a perception that unicorn founders are special cases or natural geniuses. In reality they struck on something and held on for dear life as it started to get it's own legs. 2/ growth creates spend not the other way around When you compare a unicorn to a slower growing company you realize"
X Link 2026-01-13T14:58Z [----] followers, 114.2K engagements
"Speed is the #2 founder skill. The difference between a good and great founder is in their speed. Their ability to build conviction quickly and act immediately after. To take the results and whip it into the next set of actions Some folks toil over decisions while others made them in the blink of an eye. While one waits for the perfect moment the other is already out there getting ahead. In this world the tortoise never win. Commitment is the #1 founder skill. The difference between a hobbyist and a founder is not ideas not a website and not incorporation docs. Its commitment. Its waking up"
X Link 2026-02-10T15:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"YC partner once told me: Fear the right things. Dont agonize over advisors investors conferences followers or any of that small stuff - they dont make a noticeable difference in your success. Here are the [--] things you should fear: your product sucking no one wants to use it those who use dont pay those who pay dont stay So if youve got happy users paying you then youve got all the options in the world. If you dont Then rest doesnt matter the companys dead anyways. You don't need to be a YC company to be successful. But acting like one certainly helps. Characteristics of top YC founders: -"
X Link 2026-02-12T14:30Z [----] followers, 61K engagements
"The most common pattern Ive seen in successful YC founders is speed. Its without a doubt the biggest tell. The craziest part Its only getting faster. The time between insight and action is unusually small borderline irresponsible. It seems chaotic at first until you realize it all compounds. Heres what it looks like: 1/ Turning a learning into a decision in hours not weeks. Hunting for learnings lessons and breadcrumbs of PMF. Aggressively turning those breadcrumbs into concrete decisions. Its not a passive search youre actively looking for things to act on. 2/ Turning a decision into action"
X Link 2026-02-13T16:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"A bit about me: YC Alum. Eng turned CEO. - I raised $3m in [--] days. - No decks. No board seats. - I built to $1m+ ARR - Turned it profitable - Now spinning off more companies Follow if you want unfiltered founder takes. The kind of stuff founders can't talk about"
X Link 2025-07-30T19:55Z [----] followers, 14.8K engagements
"Ive just reviewed another handful of YC applications heres a few more themes that stood out. 1/ Your traction is your story A lot of traction statements feel like an after thought. List of stale bullet points no story. This is your main story - own it. In the past X time weve done insert list of amazing things. Weve seen customers insert proof it works and even insert amazing customer validation. We got so many users we couldnt invited them fast enough. It should read like a founders who capturing wins left and right. Force a double take. 2/ Traction = Action Too many traction statements are"
X Link 2025-11-08T18:38Z [----] followers, 53K engagements
"This past week Ive received dozens of DMs asking for YC application reviews. Theres a clear pattern between great applications and bad ones. 1/ Good applications use simple language. Bad applications use buzzwords. 2/ Good applications are easy to read. Bad applications are very dense. 3/ Good applications have impressive traction. Bad applications have little to none. 4/ Good applications make their product sound simple. Bad applications make their product sound complex"
X Link 2025-11-05T22:30Z [----] followers, 80.5K engagements
"@hthieblot Acquire customers as fast as humanely possible. Think less act more"
X Link 2025-10-25T17:42Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@jaynitx A massive thing I teach founders is the danger of hustle culture. Shutting out friends staying in zoning in too hard. Youll wake up successful lonely and more depressed than you started"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:13Z [----] followers, 13.4K engagements
"@finke These are the worst people to brainstorm with. There are a thousand ways to shoot down an idea. Its not hard. My mom could do that. Figuring out how it could work Thats the hard part. Finding someone to dream with is far more fun. Far more helpful"
X Link 2025-08-03T00:08Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@TheSalonDon Most successful founders I know dont play the game for money. They do it for freedom. I quit my job when I needed approval to take vacation. Fuck that"
X Link 2025-07-31T22:14Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"You know how people say lock in for [--] months it will change your life I locked in for [--] years. No weekends. No breaks. Just worked. Does that sound impressive to you Because it sounds incredibly stupid to me. It was an immature way of working that was very clearly unsustainable. 1st time founders: Hustle Grind Repeat founders: Rest. Gain clarity. Theres a reason for this. [--]. You burn out [--]. You make terrible decisions [--]. You lose friends family and the good stuff of life. When this happens you suffer. When you suffer your business suffers. Often times it feels more comfortable to put your"
X Link 2025-11-08T16:52Z [----] followers, 11.6K engagements
"@HarryStebbings Finally a VC speaking some sense. Not sure whats happened recently but the focus on $2m in [--] days has been disappointing to say the least. Bad incentives for founders when you create targets like this"
X Link 2025-10-25T16:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@neatprompts As a CEO i have endlesss open loops. Never thought about their relationship to my energy though. Ive always used priority and focus (allowing open loops to not bother me) but perhaps closing them out could work too. Worth a test I guess"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:18Z [----] followers, 24.1K engagements
"@craigzLiszt A VC takes many bets while a founder bets everything"
X Link 2025-11-01T23:24Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I think a lot of folks bashing the pivot dont really understand the bet thats going on here. Core competency is attention not necessarily product. And theyre damn good at attention. Its like bashing Mr. Beast for selling candy bars because. chocolate is saturated They sold $250m worth of chocolate but if you think its a chocolate company youve missed the point. The point is: how far can an attention-first company go And Im very interested to see what the answer is"
X Link 2025-11-05T18:37Z [----] followers, 23.2K engagements
"As a founder I absolutely hate pessimism especially when it comes to new ideas. So many people think theyre smart by finding ways to shoot down an idea. They dont realize thats the easy part. My mom can do that. Finding how it can work is more impressive. That takes true skill. Its also far more pleasurable to work with dreamers than pessimists"
X Link 2025-10-21T03:29Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive coached dozens of YC founders with a 90% acceptance rate. Most applications fail because of two simple questions. Get them wrong and youre out. Get them right and youre in the game. Heres how to answer them (and what theyre really asking) 👇"
X Link 2025-08-11T13:02Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@bhalligan [--]. Things dont get more comfortable as time goes on. If they do something is wrong. [--]. Youre responsible for every decision and seldom have enough data to make it"
X Link 2025-10-31T19:45Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@agazdecki Every single founder who told me to raise more at higher valuations has gone out of business. Every single one who suggested the opposite is now profitable with infinite runway"
X Link 2025-08-03T00:34Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Sitting from the sidelines and judging someone who gave it their all is such a weak move. I took the same path as your friend. I raised millions scaled to millions and now own a profitable business with unlimited runway. The only thing that got in the way were friends like you - introducing doubt and judgement"
X Link 2025-10-17T16:33Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@austinxwalker How to pitch your startup: show a large amount of traction in a small amount of time. Pair that with a bottom up calculation of TAM which equates to $5B+"
X Link 2025-10-25T16:36Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I love the intent of what youre saying here but $1m business is still in its risky infancy. Unfortunately its difficult to coast a business as well often leading to degradation in company performance. Which leads me back to $1m being in a risky zone since its not much to work with especially if revenue declines. The main reason is in order to work less save a lot invest like hell and retire - youll likely need a team to keep the engine running (depends on the business of course). So with all that $1m doesnt leave you much to work with. TLDR; I love what youre sayin but a few gotchas mixed in"
X Link 2025-11-02T17:11Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive always said: hard work is the easy part You think its hard to work [--] hour days No no. Thats the easy part. The hard part is second guessing yourself every hour. The hard part is not knowing if it will pay off. The hard part is knowing its probably a waste. The hard part is constantly failing. The hard part is watching everyone else progress. Theres a thousand harder things than [--] hour days. If thats all it took then every gym rat would be a billionaire"
X Link 2025-10-06T11:59Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
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