Edouard Rosenblum

Turns out you can't surf your way into a GTM strategy. But we tried anyway. Location: Portugal Mission: GTM planning Reality check: We can't surf (except Erle) Key metrics: • Pastéis de nata consumed: 47 • Hours in techno work sessions: 5 • Features shipped: 4 • Knowledge base articles shipped: 36 • ICPs mapped: 4 😂 • Number of nosedives: 87 • Local surfers entertained: 100% • Dignity remaining: minimal Unexpected finding: Better GTM ideas flow when you're full of custard tarts and sangria. Status: Still at it. Sand everywhere. Plans solid. Surf skills questionable. Next time: Maybe we stick to MacBooks instead of surfboards. /Vouch team

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New Capitaliply Acquisitions: RecurrinGO! and Split Payment. $1.72M to Buy, $2M to Grow 🥳 Capitaliply - RollUp Fund in Shopify market is making big moves with the acquisition of two powerful Shopify apps, RecurrinGO! and Split Payment, for $1.72M. With an additional $2M planned for future investments, this strategic expansion is set to redefine what's possible in the e-commerce space. Check out the full story on Benzinga, the leading financial platform with over 25 million monthly readers, to see how Capitaliply is gearing up to make a major impact 📈 https://lnkd.in/dyYu7bki #Shopify #ShopifyApps #PrivateEquity #Investments #SaaS #Aquisitions

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Imagine not knowing how to get insurance for your family. That was me 1 year ago. My co-founder Diogo went through the same. Lost in the insurance maze, I wondered why it had to be so hard? I was hoping it would be as easy as buying a product off Amazon. But nothing about it was simple. With no company benefits as a safety net, it felt like we’d hit a wall. Until an INDEPENDENT AGENT stepped in. Sera didn’t just sell us a policy—she guided us and gave us peace of mind. That’s when I realized: The future of insurance isn’t about replacing agents. It’s about empowering them to help people like us. And that’s the future we’re here to build. This even led me to take the agent licensing exam. Stay tuned to learn more. #Insurance #IndependentAgents #Innovation

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Sifted just released their list of the most promising SaaS startups in Europe. https://lnkd.in/erxJRGzi If you are looking to leave your corporate job for a startup but aren’t sure where to get started, do this. 1. Look at sifted lift of promising startups and pick 10 that really interest you. 2. Based on your skill set, use linked look up the lead of the department you think you would be interested in. For example, if you want to get into sales then look up the VP of sales. 3. Send them a DM on why you want to work for the company and what impact you could have in your first 100 days working there. Don’t send your CV until asked for it. 4. Follow up diligently every few days. If after the third try, no one has got back to you, move to the next 10 on the list. It sounds simple, and it is. Recruitment is the hardest thing for growth stage startups, and no one enjoyed paying 25% recruiter fees. Good luck

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New Framedrop.ai blog post straight from the oven by Filipe Pessoa. How you can monetize a podcast in 5 steps: 1. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲: Wait until you have an established audience base.     2. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Understand their interests, pain points, and preferences.     3. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Sponsorship, affiliate marketing, donations, premium content, merchandise, events, memberships, product sales.     4. Click to read the full article 🎣     5. Click again 😅 It includes 10 tried-and-tested ways 🤓

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Would a Nubank copy-paste work in Africa? Probably not (at least right now). "LATAM is similar to the US: credit-cards are understood, widespread. Credit cards as a product are supremely powerful. Users can seamlessly borrow and spend. It’s a gold mine for the issuer, and it’s (in part) what made Nubank so successful. A small survey estimated that 58% of Latin Americans have credit cards. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the figure stands at around 1.6%. Any African neobank play has to start with contextually-relevant products, like someone’s first proper bank account." Read the full Realistic Optimist piece by Hassan Bourgi, co-founder of Djamo here: https://lnkd.in/gSb4TNfB

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Learn from OpenAI’s playbook: Prioritizing key projects and empowering a mission-oriented team are essential for startups aiming to make a significant impact 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI and Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Harry Stebbings, Founder at 20VC ✏ “20VC: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap on The Future of Foundation Models” ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲: "There are two strategies to build on AI right now: [...] (1) to assume the model is not going to get better and then you kind of build all these little things on top of it; [...] (2) to build assuming that OpenAI is going to stay on the same rate of trajectory and the models are going to keep getting better at the same pace." ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: "At any given point in a company's life, there's only one to three things that really matter. And that spills over into how we run the team because [...] if we can align on what those things are, [...] then it helps me to translate down to the teams that I'm building." ⭐ 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: "I think people criminally underrate how important it is and how much return you really get on just giving people access to the technology. [...] Someone who used to spend two days doing something now spends two minutes doing it and is freed up to do 85 other things in their daily life." ⭐ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆'𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: "I watched what has happened to other tech companies when they just become the place you want to work because it's a good resume item. [...] I think companies that lose their mission orientation and get taken over by mercenaries usually come to regret that." ⭐ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀: "Find a way to make sure that there's this very flat and even playing field when it comes to how you look to the team for perspective, decision-making, judgment, and creativity." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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You should definitely not miss this one - some of the 3 best founders I know: - Marty Kausas, founder Pylon - Micael Oliveira, founder of Amplemarket - Simo Lemhandez, founder of folk - and yours truly, founder of Attention We'll be talking about the future of go-to-market with AI. Details below: - Wednesday, November 6th - 9AM PT // 12pm ET // 6PM CEST - Register here: https://lnkd.in/eDgmjakU Topics we'll be covering in the webinar: - Where should you introduce AI into your sales workflow? And what are the key benefits? - How can you measure AI’s impact on your sales efforts? - What are common challenges for a sales team getting started with AI? - What key benefits have other founders seen since implementing sales AI? And much more! Feel free to tag your friends who need to see this, and see you then!

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Brex is one of my favorite fintechs. Ever wonder what their journey from $0 to over $300M in revenue within 7 years looked like? 2017-2018: The Birth of Brex • Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, both 22-year-old Stanford dropouts, decided to flip the fintech world on its head by launching Brex, a corporate credit card tailored for startups. • With their co-CEO model (which has become popular), they doubled their management bandwidth. Internal & external duties? No problem when you have twice the number of CEOs to lead folks 2019-2020: Rapid growth • Brex quickly partnered with big names like DoorDash, Flexport, and Roblox. • In 2019, they secured $300 million in funding, catapulting their valuation to $2.6 billion. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you’re swimming in a pool of investor cash. 2021-2022: Diversification and challenges • Brex expanded its product suite to include expense management, bill pay, & travel booking services. If you’re going to burn through cash, you might as well make it convenient. • Despite their success, they faced some “minor” hiccups. Layoffs in 2022 were a delightful reminder that even fintech unicorns aren’t immune to cutting costs by cutting people. 2023: Strategic shifts • Transitioning to a single CEO model, Pedro took the helm while Henrique became chairman. Having two brains was slowing things down? • They continued to innovate, integrating AI into their platform. By the end of 2023, Brex hit over $300 million in revenue, proving that even with all the chaos, they were still making bank​. 2024: Path to profitability • With a goal of being cash-flow positive by 2025, Brex halved its cash burn by chopping 20% of its staff and focused on sustainable growth. Making money instead of burning it is always a sound strategy. • Serving 30K+ customers globally, Brex’s commitment to transparency & customer-centric solutions has kept them in the game. They’re not just participating – they’re rewriting the rules. Want to copy their homework? 1. Identify a significant pain point in an industry and create a solution that addresses it. Please don't start a business without doing this. 2. Utilize a strong co-founder dynamic to maximize efficiency & divide responsibilities effectively. Two heads are better than one, until they aren’t. 3. Secure early partnerships with influential companies to build credibility and a customer base. It’s always about who you know. 4. Listen to your customers. & Expand your product offerings to meet their evolving needs. 5. Maintain a strong focus on transparency & trust to build a loyal customer base. People surprisingly prefer not being lied to. 6. Strategically manage growth, and make tough decisions like layoffs when necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. 7. If you want to go public, be profitable. Did I miss anything?

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65% of our new ARR last month came inbound. Our secret? We do one thing every early-stage startup should (but lots don't): Consistently publish social content. In March, we decided that we were going to go all-in on posting on LinkedIn + Twitter daily. A lot of Founders neglect it because they feel they don't have the time, or because they can't tie it to revenue effectively enough. We're 3 months in and it's clear that it is the easiest way to punch above your weight (especially in a competitive market like ours). Not to mention, it's been a huge money-maker for us. We're driving both top-of-funnel awareness and bottom-of-funnel conversions. When I was at the PLGTM conference earlier this year, I had multiple people come up to me and mention that they'd heard about me from my LinkedIn or Twitter posts. Opening a conversation with some familiarity to myself and Unify is insanely powerful. TLDR: Make social a core part of your GTM motion. Done right, you'll drive both top-of-funnel awareness and bottom-of-funnel conversions. ...unless you're in the outbound/GTM space. In that case, social is a complete waste of time and doesn't drive any results 😀 Check out Unify here: https://lnkd.in/gn_--FeC PS - as Reed called out in this tweet, a warning that you will 100% get roasted by your friends for being cringe 😁

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The most important fundraising KPI: 1st pitch → 2nd meeting conversion rate Is yours low? (< 30-50%) Something is wrong. Here's how to diagnose your issue and fix it: There are two types of potential problems... 1️⃣ Investor targeting 2️⃣ Pitching 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is targeting the wrong investors. Usually you're reaching out to investors that focus on a different stage or industry. Do some research on the investors that didn't convert to a second meeting. The most important resource: their portfolio page. Ignore the "about" section, or their blog. That's mostly about marketing to potential investors in their fund. Instead, look at what they've actually invested in and the stage at which they invested (Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, etc.) Remember: trust the portfolio, not the thesis. __ The other main issue is unclear outbound messaging. Investors think you do one thing (industry, business model, tech, etc.) but you actually do something else. I recommend sending your outbound email template to 5+ friends that don't know anything about your startup. Ask them: • What kinds of customers do you think we serve? • What benefits do you think we provide for them? • What product features do you think we have? • What technologies do you think we use? If more 20% of your friends answer these questions incorrectly, you need to write new outreach emails. 𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is just that your pitch is weak. Usually because you aren't telling a story. You're just sharing disconnected data. The best pitches are stories that foreshadow the only possible outcome: your startup's tremendous success. It feels inevitable. The easiest test to figure out if you're telling a story: try connecting the main idea of each of your slides with "but," "so" or one of their synonyms. If the natural link between slides is "and" or if you can move the order around, you don't have a story. Chronology matters in storytelling. Go back to the drawing board and try to write your inevitable success story. __ Maybe your overall pitch isn't weak. But VCs may still be spotting a red flag when you pitch. It turns them off right away. If you think this might be your issue, it's important to start asking questions. Most pitches have time for you to ask questions at the end. Here's my go-to to diagnose this issue: "What would you need to see in order to get excited about investing in <<STARTUP>>?" If they tell you a primary KPI that you need to improve, then you've probably identified the issue. The other possibility: They try to avoid giving you a specific answer. If they're evading your question, you NEED to dig in to get to the bottom of it. Your fundraising success may depend on it. —— Was this helpful? 👍 like and ♻️ repost it to help other founders!

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From $5M to $20M ARR: 3 key CEO role shifts. 1. Hands-On Leadership: At $5M, you're in the trenches, building your leadership team. By $20M, you must rely on this team, focusing on strategy & vision rather than daily operations. 2. Customer Scale: Transition from numerous small contracts to fewer, larger ones. Making this shift demands improved products & expanded support teams. 3. Data-Driven Decisions: At $5M, basic reporting suffices. By $20M, extensive data & reporting systems are crucial. These systems help identify what's working & what's not, ensuring informed decisions. Scaling from $5M to $20M ARR requires evolving your role as CEO. Embrace these shifts to drive growth and success. What other shifts have you noticed in scaling a business? #Leadership #Growth #SaaS

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Stripe advertises a 𝟮.𝟵% 𝗳𝗲𝗲 (+30c) - yeah, but AIPRM 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝟱.𝟴% What's up with that? That 5.8% is the average on all sales processed, across all transactions globally. Yes, international, yes currency conversion fees... But it doesn't look like we get the benefit of (much cheaper) US transactions with an 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟱.𝟴% 𝗬𝗲𝘀, 𝟱.𝟴% 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗔𝗜𝗣𝗥𝗠 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗲. And that needs to improve.

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one of the weirdest learnings I think a lot of first-time founders go through: startups are usually more about avoiding innovation than innovating when i first started a company, there were soooo many decisions to make and each one felt like an opportunity to do things better/different/our way/galaxy brain: - every product feature (obviously) - what software to buy - comp philosophy - how we run meetings - how we make decisions but treating every decision as an opportunity to be different is (a) exhausting and (b) introduces so much unnecessary risk. startups are already risk, why introduce more risk unless you're super confident? rule i try to use: innovate AS LITTLE as possible. conserve innovation. only innovate when it aligns with the fundamental bets of your company.

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As a VC I get 100+ cold messages a day through email, LinkedIn, other social media and messengers. Most of them are ChatGPT generated starting with "I hope this message finds you well", they are too long, not very personalized, and most of the time people are bombarding with no specific target. This morning I got this original message : "SOO this is crazy... I told my co-founder PauI was trying to get in touch with you last week. Turns out he went ahead and got a billboard with your name on it! I didn't believe it either!! I literally did a double take when he told me LOL. Now, you're probably wondering why this random company, XXXXXXXX , got a billboard with my name on it. The reason is quite simple: XXXXXXXXXX delivers the most comprehensive fund insights to help Vibranium Venture Capital gain an edge. With features like automated SEC and news alerts, historical performance data, and GP/LP relationship mapping, our platform is designed to save you time and improve decision-making. So, can I send you more info or more photos of your billboard?" Guess what, I did open it, did read it and actually replied, because I liked the originality and bold move. So be original in your cold outreach, but don't overdo it 🙂 Subscribe to ‘Siliconnector’ Telegram channel for insights and news from Silicon Valley and the Tech world: https://t.me/siliconnector

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Sam Altman was the President of YC. Startup advice given at YC: - Launch right away - Launch 1st version you’re embarrassed about - Raise very little capital up front - Don’t take big R&D risk - Find PMF quickly, with ‘something’ Versus how he launched OpenAI: - Raised 1B dollars of capital before any PMF - Took 4 to 5 years after launch to release - Didn’t talk to users upon release Moral of the story? Be careful of textbook advice, no matter who it came from. Prioritise finding smart people with solid analytical skills, instead. Then, make educated bets together.

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Growing in the US is a dream for a lot of startups! Cake is doing it and we are keen to continue to learn, share our learnings with other founders and help out where we can. Thanks for a great US GTM panel with SVB, Deel., Andreessen Horowitz Awesome learnings about bringing your startup to the US: - get your legals in place - a lot of compliance requirements in SF - be careful with costs - SF is super expensive, go around if you can - set up a c-corp from start - set up for the long term - health insurance will be your second highest cost, next to salary and is necessary to attract top talent - look 12-18 months ahead to be ready to scale up your startup Great chats with Sunil Joshi, Sara Rona, Daniel Nickel, Jordynn Johnson-Knoops, Kenan Kitchen, Andy Tsao, Dawn Nott, ★Phillip Alvarado★, Nuné Zadoyan, MBA, Shun Katayose, Ryu Ishihara, Martin Walian

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This is insane! Brazil's FinTech giant Nubank just posted another massive quarter. The growth & numbers NU is showing are out of this world and make it one of the best-run tech companies in the world 😳 Key facts and figures from Nubank's 1Q 2024 earnings: 👥 100 million customers globally (+26% Year-over-Year) 🌍 It's now the largest digital banking platform outside of Asia 🇧🇷 54% of the adult population of Brazil now uses Nubank 🇧🇷 It's now the 4th largest financial institution in Latin America 💰 $24.3 billion worth of deposits (+53% YoY) 💸 $2.7 billion in revenues (+64% YoY) 🤑 $378 million in profit (+160% YoY) What's also wild is that their average customer is now using more than 4 products 😳 But here comes the crazy part. NU's customer acquisition costs is something we have not seen before. Due to customer-friendly, low-cost products, #Nubank has a high NPS of around 90. Even a popular brand like Apple only has an NPS of 72, and banks are often in negative territory. That's why Nubank, to date, still acquires ~80% of its new customers cost-effectively through recommendations and word-of-mouth 😮‍💨 On top of that, despite serving more than 100 million customers, its monthly average cost per active customer remains below $1 🤯 This coupled with a stunning efficiency ratio of ~32% makes Nubank not only one of the best digital banks globally. It's probably the best-run tech company on the planet right now. Remarkable.

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Square, Mercado Libre, Rappi, Zillow, and Stripe alumni have founded 1,511 startups over the last decade. That's a lot! And about 12% of these founders are building a fintech company. What is it about the DNA of these firms that they attract a lot of would-be founders? Some of the great fintech companies founded by ex-employees of this group include Pomelo, Ontop, Persona, Mundi, AgentSync, Divvy Homes, and Pacaso Square - 355 total startups, 32 in fintech Mercado Libre - 282 total startups, 37 in fintech Zillow - 294 total startups, 22 in fintech Rappi - 290 total startups, 28 in fintech Stripe - 290 total startups, 25 in fintech Read our full report ➡ https://bit.ly/GGMVFF Andrew Endicott Paula You David Erickson Kirstie Irmana Kristofer Jenk Josh Jagota Gilgamesh Ventures The Wharton School

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