Dylan Field

We had Linear event for founders in SF last night, and as part of that I had a fireside chat with Patrick Collison from Stripe. We covered some topics like the importance of craft, product management, good leaders, etc. Some highlights: The importance of craft: At Linear we see the craft as the requirement for quality. People who care about their craft, almost automatically produce quality. Patrick: "We want to employ really good people. Really good people just don't like working on kind of sloppy things. There's just a deep spiritual aspect to that." Power of small teams: In my experience in companies, some of the best work was always done by a small, focused team, most features at Linear are built by 2-4 team members. Patrick: "The original iPhone software team was 20 people. The kernel, the apps, the browser, the touch interface, like the whole thing. So when people are telling you that they need 40 people for some project, you can explain to them how the iPhone was built with 20 people. So how big would you consider your project in multiples of the iPhone?" How Stripe still builds products in a startup way: Patrick: "There is an internal recipe for this which first guides you to figure out the right user for the product, then the team should go talk to some of those people. Then you should get some of these people into the Slack channel or some other channel where you can get them to try it, get more feedback or try the product. Once you have 5 excited users for something, you can scale it to 100. Then you can start looking at some metrics, but again you look at things like is it actually solving their problems etc."

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Apple to developers: Heads I win, tails you lose (part 4) In pursuing DMA compliance, Apple’s changes to link-out, in aggregate, don’t make its more use feasible: it’s another example of a “Heads I win, Tails you lose” proposition from the company. The new fee structure, to my mind, erodes the commercial benefits of the new, less-restrictive link-out rules. Developers only save 5% relative to App Store payments on transactions for the first year after a user’s installation, and fees apply to transactions that take place on any platform. The user-level attribution burden and reporting requirements alone render the 5% savings unattractive, not to mention the conversion friction inherent with (admittedly, less intimidating) disclosure sheet and off-platform transaction process.

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Some context from the #Founder perspective. As liberal as Seattle is as a city with policy and politics, it's incredibly conservative from an investment standpoint. One of the reasons you may not hear big "home-run" type pitches or pitches with sizzle, is simply because investors in Seattle don't like those types of pitches and Founders have been ingrained to not present in that manner. They may say they do, but ask any Founder and they'll tell you how they have been told to size down their pitch or talk about MVPs, first customer, first revenue, etc. or how what matters more is what you can do first couple years rather than the home run. Those early metrics are important by the way, but different from the big home run. Do you know who is receptive to homerun pitches? Investors in the Bay, NYC, Miami, Hong Kong. Seattle is not great for early-stage Founders with many prioritizing raising outside the city. We will be raising capital in the fall and as of now, have no plans of reaching out to Seattle-based VCs. I should also add that our company has a blockchain component and sadly Seattle VCs have not embraced crypto or blockchain. Welcome to #Seattle, Kyle Lui! Hopefully, you can help change the narrative! GeekWire

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🧑‍🍳 Work with Cathy Guo (and me!) on Iterative We're hiring a Senior Associate to help evaluate the startups that apply to Iterative. We receive 1K+ applications roughly every 3 months and invest in roughly 1.8% of those applications. Maybe somewhat counter-intuitively, we want to increase that % and take more risk. The trick is figuring out what areas (founder, market, country, etc.) that we should be taking more risk in. You'll be an active participant in how we evaluate companies. See the job description for the typical stuff but here's 2 things we DON'T do as part of our investment process. 🤔 Invest Based on Who Else Is Investing We don't care who else is in the round. Most of the time, we make our decision before everyone else does. That means you'll have to do the work of building your own conviction. 🤓 Invest on School, Previous Work Experience, etc. We don't have any filters around what school a founder went to, what company they used to work at, etc. We evaluate all founders based on our interactions with them. Why settle for a proxy of whether someone is good (that's what all of these are) when you can talk to them directly? If you can't tell whether a founder is good by talking to them.. well.. Instead.. you'll have to think for yourself and argue from first principles. Mostly with me :). If that's how you want to invest or want to learn how we do that, you should apply. For more details about the role, look for the 📌 in the comments.

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Founder <> founder convos are the biggest unlock for company building. I spent the last 2+ weeks in SF. Besides meeting with customers, I spent a ton of time with founders / early stage builders that I deeply respect (shoutout to Abhinav Asthana, Christina Cacioppo, Kevin Van Gundy, Akshay Kothari, Yuhki Yamashita, Tara Viswanathan, Celine Halioua, & Michelle Valentine). I’m extremely grateful to have the chance to spend time with these folks. Some reflections from these brilliant people. 1/ People > everything. A company is a collection of people. Company success comes down to hiring the best people. 2/ Startup problems aren’t *that* unique. Startups are HARD and even if you think your challenges are specific to your company, they’re likely not. Someone else has faced the same thing, and you likely don’t need to reinvent the wheel. 3/ Let some fires burn. Focus > trying to do everything. As a startup, you can’t fix everything at once with limited resources (even if you want to). You need to focus on the stuff that will move the needle the most. Pick the top 1 or 2 problems, fix them, then move onto the next. It’s okay if some fires need to burn for a little in the meantime. 4/ Company operating cadences are key. We’re redoing our cadences now, so it was super interesting to learn how others run their board meetings, leadership meetings, all hands, etc. A consistent theme for board & leadership meetings is to have everyone complete a prompt in written doc, share with each other, then use the time to have meatier discussions. 5/ Be competitor aware, customer obsessed. Competitors cause unnecessary noise. Build products and make decisions based on customer / market need and founder intuition, never based on competition. Are these learnings helpful? If so, can share more founder learning posts in the future!

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Two cool things that happened at Early Stage Labs in November: 1. I met a startup attorney in late October. She told me that one of her clients had great traction, was essentially bootstrapped, and thinking about raising a <$5M round. The company is in the veterinary space. She asked if I had a CFO on my team to support. I brought in one of my CFOs who previously founded and ran (and raised ~$50M for) a veterinary company before exiting. He's literally the best person in the world to help this founder raise a seed. We signed that company and we're already off to the races. 2. I brought a fractional CFO into one of my Jemison Alexander portfolio companies for the first time. This is a thesis I've been testing - can we generate alpha with portfolio companies by supporting on strategic finance and helping them nail their numbers. Tbd, but I'm optimistic! It was a great month. If you're a founder thinking about raising a Seed or Series A (or if you just need finance, accounting, or bookkeeping support on the business), we can help. https://lnkd.in/eddDSWCn

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Paul Graham’s article on ‘Founder Mode’ versus ‘Manager Mode’ for managing a company is spot on! It aligns closely with what Peerdom facilitates. "In effect there are two different ways to run a company: founder mode and manager mode. Till now most people even in Silicon Valley have implicitly assumed that scaling a startup meant switching to manager mode. But we can infer the existence of another mode from the dismay of founders who've tried it, and the success of their attempts to escape from it. There are as far as I know no books specifically about founder mode. Business schools don't know it exists. All we have so far are the experiments of individual founders who've been figuring it out for themselves. But now that we know what we're looking for, we can search for it. I hope in a few years founder mode will be as well understood as manager mode. We can already guess at some of the ways it will differ. The way managers are taught to run companies seems to be like modular design in the sense that you treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it's up to them to figure out how. But you don't get involved in the details of what they do. That would be micromanaging them, which is bad." Source: https://lnkd.in/e3dPKa9e

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Quick update on Moxies progress: - ✅ Completed 1st prototype - Waitlist up ↗️ 275% in Q1 - SOLD OUT mother-daughter events - 1/4 way thru database warm up w 75k active email subs 💌 Momentum is growing: parents + girls care about a healthier digital future + want to be part of the solution! In fact in our latest survey: - 90% want to get involved in the building of Moxies in some way - 90% agree or strongly agree that there is a need for the Moxies app When we asked girls what features they wanted the most in a social gaming platform, do you know what the #1 request was? #1 Be part of a healthy digital community that promotes confidence and positivity Moxies is here to build digital literacy and create a healthy relationship with technology. Get on the waitlist to check out our prototype + be part of building with us! ➡️ www.moxiesx.xyz

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Many assumed that the industry would be well on its way to AGI or superintelligence before AI model builders’ efforts to take advantage of scaling laws might hit a wall. Recent headlines are chipping away at that assumption. One question I've been getting in my inbox: is this the era of diminishing returns for AI? We don't think so. Even if an avalanche of new clusters and synthetic data fail to deliver significantly better model performance, there are good reasons to believe that AI is still going to become orders of magnitude more powerful in the coming years — powering a new generation of startups and ultimately productivity growth and positive benefits for mankind. In fact, with agents and reasoning just beginning to scale and thousands of industry-specific models coming online, it's about to get really exciting. Read our latest blog post on the topic: https://lnkd.in/gFhniNX8

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One of the biggest challenges for improving performance on Meta is teams beeing held accountable for daily (and sometimes hourly) results. This isn't enough time to try new strategies or products. So by optimizing towards a daily ROAS goal in the short term, might hurt performance in the long run as you could be missing out on new solutions.

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For early-stage startups, not building in SF is a competitive disadvantage. Roughly a week ago, I hosted a small private dinner with the most exceptional people I know here. It reminded me—again—what makes this little city so special. There's something here you can’t just copy-paste; a density of talent and ambition that pushes everyone around to go further. And I’m grateful to everyone who made that night possible. You’re all truly special. 🫶 But there was one more thing—I realized hours later that there wasn’t a single American in the group. Instead, we were a bunch of foreigners. Mostly Europeans, each one seeing firsthand that building outside the Bay is like tying one hand behind your back. Sure, if we take on our European hat, we have impressive people too, but here in SF you run into them constantly. In Europe, we have to be so much more intentional about curating those circles. Establishing a extremely high standard, where exceptional people flourish. Not falling for quantity optimized, mediocre meet ups or events. But let's not just do the talking. Back in Paris, I’m setting up something similar—another private dinner with the best people I know in the city. If you’re interested in joining, drop me a message or leave a comment. Seats are limited but I will see what I can do. Love, F 🫶

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Hiring is hard enough, but for early-stage startups you have be prepared to pay well and often give up more equity than you want to. Shortchanging strong candidates on money and potential upside isn’t going to get it done. 3 options for early-stage startups to build their technical team: 1) Offer more comp (salary + equity) 2) Hire less experienced but motivated devs 3) Talk with us about how we build nearshore engineering teams for early-stage startups => save on payroll and keep your equity

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An interesting article below, that demonstrates out how San Diego is punching above its weight.  And how Connect's strategy and execution over time, contintues to be central to that success. The article describes the current state of the market in Seattle.  (And i love Seattle.) It's a market that we tend to track with relative to venture fundings.  They used to kick our butts, we outraised them each of the last three years.  This despite the fact they have 3x as many funds there, and 9x the amount of resident capital there. (per pitchbook) Some key takeaways:  * They continue to compare themselves to SIlicon Valley. Instead, we leverage our proximity. *They whine there's not enough local investors (see note above - they have more than us). We bring over 200 VCs to SD annually! * They say founders are not connected with one another. We bring CEOs together regularly, in a variety of ways - private dinners and through our Springboard program. * They say they need to elevate their image on a national & international stage. Why we created and continue to build Five.Ten.Thirty (aka Inno Day).  * And the last paragraph - they need to concentrate on making their region a great place to live. Our mantra: "It's about Better, not Bigger." (See XEO, TL Fund). THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE ON A MISSION TOGETHER!!!  (Comments, whining, suggestions on SD always welcome.) https://lnkd.in/g6Rq_f2Y

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Starting to feel that the Series A/B markets are warming up. Over the past year+, most founders preferred to avoid a distracting and lengthy Series A process in a slow market. Instead, they often raised a quick seed+ round, and focused on building and growing past the usual Series A metrics. Recently, we've seen some startups close quick/oversubscribed Series A/B rounds, and more founders are considering raising now. It's still closer to anecdotal than robust data, but we'd be among the first to notice at Pioneer Fund, with our large portfolio of strong YC startups. I plan to post here again if the trend continues or not.

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I’ve been playing around with YC Founder Matching and it seems like everyone and their mother is interested either in 2-sided marketplaces or B2C businesses, even though they’re ostensibly the least profitable and hardest-to-get-off-the-ground business models there are. Why do people do this? You only have to take a glance at enterprise vs individual pricing to want to switch gears.

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The newest issue of The Pragmatic Engineer found a surprise uptick in eng hiring in the typically slow summer season - I'm curious to see how the macro environment impacts this uptick as we head into the fall, but I remain hopeful. I asked Gemini to give me the tldr of the article to share with my team (sorry, Gergely Orosz) and found it missed one of the most interesting pieces of the article. Gemini's highlights - Unexpected surge: Tech recruitment has seen an unusual spike in June and July, contrary to typical trends. Increased demand: Startups, especially AI-focused ones, are driving the hiring uptick. Global phenomenon: This trend isn't just limited to the US; Europe is also experiencing increased recruitment activity. Reasons for hiring: Companies are backfilling positions, investing in growth due to improved financials, and responding to increased VC funding. Challenges remain: While the job market is improving, finding qualified candidates and offering competitive compensation remains difficult for many companies. What I found most interesting - The nature of the backfills: the article finds that a lot of new headcount are actually backfills of folks that were "over-slashed" during rounds of layoffs. Not entirely surprising with the "trim the fat" and "rebuild lean" mentality, but interesting nonetheless. Either way, the uptick is encouraging (and don't always rely on Gemini's tldrs). #hiring #startups #VCbacked #softwareengineering

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I've had quite a few people ask me recently why Honest Greens has its own product and engineering team, and why we're investing in building our own tech stack (HonestOS). Here are a few reasons why: 1. Extreme customization - It's true that there are plenty of suitable third-party software solutions within the hospitality space that serve the masses. That said, we're trying to create something that's never been done before, combining a fast-casual experience with techniques found in Michelin-star restaurants. We've had to completely rewire the kitchen workflow, and the software we tried didn't cut the mustard. We needed a level of customization not feasible (and understandably so) for a mass-market solution. By building in-house, we serve our food with even better quality, consistency, and efficiency. 2. Flexibility & speed - We want to build and architect a system that allows us to move at the speed of culture. As our customers and business evolve, we're able to continuously stay ahead of those changes. The pace of our progress lies with us - we don't have to depend on anyone else. We can build what we need, when we need it. We build fast and deploy weekly. 3. Data - There's a lot happening in our kitchens, and having the power to monitor every aspect helps us create better and more personalised experiences for both our team and consumers. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, nor can we take it all on - there are various off-the-shelf solutions we still use. However, to achieve our ambitious goals of redefining fast-casual dining, our own tech is a key differentiator.

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Today I discussed with a friend and fellow founder about some of the value that we got from taking Boostly (YC S22) through Y Combinator. Here are a couple highlights: 1. Confidence - it’s incredibly difficult to become a YC founder, and you are in a group of some of the smartest and most ambitious people in the world. 2. Recognition - Having the YC brand attached to our company signals to investors and other outsiders that we are the real deal and worth betting on. Valuations immediately get a lift. 3. Intense Operating Cadence - You are pushed to set your sights on really ambitious targets and ruthlessly attack growth and the solving of issues. This is coupled with high levels of accountability (both 1:1 with your group partners and to your entire section where you must account on your results every 2 weeks and why you didn’t do better). 4. Network - It’s a killer combination of mentors, alumni, potential partners/acquirers, and investors. We continue to have access to our amazing group partners who help to support us and pressure test us post-YC. 5. Funding - Not only does YC invest $500k, but demo day provides the opportunity for a seed round purely off of inbound traffic. We applied 3x with 2 different company ideas, and are grateful for the belief in us that Brad Flora & Tom Blomfield demonstrated by investing in us.

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🚀 Join the Rebellion – Support Omniverse City! 🌍 While other UGC platforms profit from their users and provide limited scalability, we’re building a platform for the users, by the users. At Omniverse City, we’re not backed by venture capitalists or driven by investors—we’re a community-led, self-funded platform where creators come first. By signing up for a Residential License or Commercial License, you’re supporting: A platform built by its community, not investors. Policies that benefit you, the user, because we’re users too. A revolution in virtual worlds that puts creators in control. Omniverse City isn’t just another platform—it’s a rebellion against the corporate-driven models that dominate the industry. Join us today and help build a world where the builders comes first. 💪 Visit us at https://theomniverse.city and join the revolution. #OmniverseCity #Metaverse #UGC #CommunityDriven #VirtualWorlds #Innovation #VCFree

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