🌟 Welcome to The Founders Corner 🚀

Your weekly BOOST to Raise and Grow Like A Pro. Tips and techniques used by prolific founders.

If you're ready for practical, no-nonsense guidance, The Founders Corner is the newsletter you’ve been waiting for…

In-Depth Insights 🧠

• Growth Marketing Tactics for Startups 🚀
  Discover proven marketing tactics that help startups achieve sustainable growth, from early traction to scaling.

• All Founders Are A**holes 🤔
  A candid take on the tough personality traits often seen in founders and why it’s critical to understand and manage them for startup success.

• Do Startups Have a Chance vs Big Tech in the Age of AI? 🤖
  An insightful look at the historical trends and why startups, though facing big tech dominance, still hold strong opportunities in the AI age.

• The Basics of Raising a Seed Round 🌱
  This guide breaks down the fundamental steps for founders looking to raise a seed round, from building investor relationships to pitching strategies that work.

• Passing the Button Clicker Test: Lessons from Lattice's First Marketing Hire💡
  Key lessons from scaling a startup’s marketing efforts from scratch, shared by Lattice’s first marketing hire.

• Strategy for Startups: A Primer 🧠
  This guide offers a comprehensive overview of foundational strategies that every startup founder should be aware of, from early-stage to scaling.

• 36 User Onboarding Examples 👥
  A curated list of best-in-class user onboarding examples to help startups enhance the early user experience and boost retention.

• Top 5 Marketplace Challenges VCs See and How to Fix Them 🏗️
  Insights from VCs on the biggest hurdles marketplace startups face today, and actionable strategies for overcoming them.

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Trending News ⚡

• How China has ‘throttled’ its private sector 📉
  Venture capital finance has dried up amid political and economic pressures, prompting a dramatic fall in new company formation

  

• Middle Eastern Funds Plowing Billions into the Hottest AI Startups 💸
  Middle Eastern investors are making significant moves in the AI space, driving massive funding into top startups, boosting both innovation and competition globally.

• Adam Neumann’s Startup Flow Opens Co-Living Community in Saudi Arabia 🏠
  Flow, Adam Neumann’s latest venture, has opened its first co-living community in Saudi Arabia, expanding its footprint into the Middle East.

• OpenAI’s Technology Chief Mira Murati is Leaving the Company 🚪
  In a major leadership shakeup, Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, is stepping down. This move could signal strategic changes within one of the top AI companies.

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Social Media Gems 💎

• Testing Business Ideas: The Ultimate Validation Experiments Library 🎯
  Test early and often: Validate assumptions, engage with real users, and iterate based on feedback to avoid wasted resources

  

• The SaaS Era is Over 🛑
  This thought-provoking tweet explores how software is a Business Tool not a Business Mode Tech…

  

• OnlyFans is pulling in $1.3B a year with a team of just 42 people 💸
  This goes to show what’s possible when you run lean and leverage the right tools.

• A caution to SaaS startup founders with $1M ARR 💻
  Having 1M ARR doesn’t mean you’re ready to scale.

  

• Founder Mindset Motivation 🧠
  Jack Ma: Having money can lead to mistakes…

• AI Co-Pilots for Startups 🤖
  A breakdown AI co-pilots that are becoming essential tools for startups and VCs

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New Funds 💰

• Costanoa Ventures launches a partnership-focused fund to invest in startups leveraging ecosystems for growth.

• European Investment Fund and Hungarian National Capital Holding launch a €40M VC fund to back startups in Hungary.

• Sabadell Asabys II closes at €180M to invest in health tech startups.

• Boldstart Ventures raises $250M for its seventh fund to invest in B2B startups.

• ARCH Venture Partners closes over $3B for a biotech-focused fund.

• Headline announces the launch of its growth strategy, targeting investments in fast-scaling startups.

• BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, Microsoft, and MGX collaborate on a new AI-focused fund to drive innovation in infrastructure.

• Atomico closes $1.24B across multiple funds to continue supporting European startups.

• ERA Ventures launches with an initial $88M fund to back early-stage ventures.

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