Happy Hour in SF 🌉 + Texts with Founders hits 10 posts 💬
Hey all, new essay coming soon but wanted to make sure you got an invite to the happy hour I’m hosting this week!
Happy Hour for Explorers 8/30
I’m hosting a happy hour for people exploring starting companies this Wenesday (8/30) in SF. Great guest list so far—engineering leaders from unicorns, sharp data and ML folks, and others with serious operations chops. Hope to see you there!
Founder Updates
Congratulations to Adeel at MagicSchool (tools to fight teacher burnout) on surpassing 100k users and raising a $2.4M seed from some of the best edtech investors in the world—all within 3 months of launch.
Congrats to Nathan at Lex (the best word processor) for successfully spinning out the company from Every and raising $2.75M from True Ventures. I previously wrote about Lex in Startups make the future less scary.
Texts with Founders hits 10 posts
I launched Texts with Founders to give a behind-the-scenes look at tested tactics I share with other founders. This is the sort of information that is not typically shared publicly — I think it’s important that it is accessible to founders regardless of where they live or who they know.
Here are all of the posts so far:
Fundraising (Before and During)
MFNs - Lousy deal or free money?
Weekly Investor Updates - Keep investors close and yourself on track
Check Size Doesn’t Matter - Forget minimum amounts and optimize for quality people
Raise the round behind you - Avoid a drawn-out process and optimize for the best investors.
Conditional Commitments - Why they aren't commitments and what to do about them.
Handling Inbound From Investors - Avoid distractions and keep potential investors warm.
Miscellaneous
Avoid Hiring Too Early - Navigate external pressure focused on vanity metrics
Customers understand before investors do - And some investors will never understand
The Benefits and Downsides of Responsiveness - Where it can help and where it can backfire.
Avoiding Gossip - Nimbly navigate an awkward scenario.