Wes Madrigal

Community has been a massive influence on my life this past decade. I have travelled around the world with 75 digital nomads w/ Remote Year Seen 30 founders test out their Ideas w/ Founder Institute Engaged with 100s of startups launching w/ Start-Up Chile Created a product company that had a community of 200k at its peak I owe so much of what and who I am to these experiences They have molded me into the person I am today All the things that I've learned have lead me to what I am doing now Its time I started giving back Last year I had to start from nothing Some would find it a dreadful situation to be in It wasn't. It's only when you have nothing, that you're free to do anything. That is a super power So many people are addicted to their salary Their freedom tied to the dreams and benefit of others I could have done the same I didnt I wouldnt Not this time I had spent the last 5 years testing what I was capable of That experience didnt end the way I wanted it to. I was toxically attached to its success I knew that the people I was doing it with were not capable of seeing that end with me It was the right thing to do When I came home I refocused my energy's into this I am obsessed This is something that allows me to spread my chips across the table And to work with amazing people who want to see that same freedom To see something bigger than themselves to an end that only Community can bring. It's starting now. This Monday you can watch this presentation in whole, you can join the event here: https://lnkd.in/esbQY7Vb Don't miss it! If you want to join my free community, please dm me and I will share with you the links If you are a fractional CXO who went from a Chief Officer with everything they could need in their life, to all of a sudden needing to be an Entrepreneur, a Marketer, and Sales Pro. This paid community is for you. https://lnkd.in/eFJZ3y9J This is just a sample! I will be sharing clips every day for the next 10 days also be sure to checkout my podcast that I have launched to highlight and feature the great communities in my life, their leaders, how they were founded, by who, why, and how. This is going to be good. I hope you're a part of it Stay Tuned! 🚀

17

2 Comments

Nothing accelerates a non US startup more than YC. Deadline for fall batch applications is 8/27. Experience tip 1: Do not feel bad if you are not selected the first time, keep applying for the following batches. Experience tip 2. 80% of the rejections are based on lack of traction (or PMF). There are rare exemptions of super unique startups accepted with no user or clients but those are, as mentioned, very few cases. Experience tip 3: Don't like this one, but the reality is that more than 70% of the last batch were IA based companies, if you are in that vertical, you probably have an advantage.

14

"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam" — I shall either find a way or make one. This is one of my favorite historical quotes of all time. It's a good representation of what building a #startup entails. Startups are glamorous and fancy, and you get to call yourselves "founders". But unlike careers in established corporations, the consequence of failing is not a performance improvement plan — it could spell life or death for your company. Founders should either find a way or make one or risk dying out. When Grab first launched, it was rare for drivers to have a smartphone -- they had to come up with ways to penetrate the market. Perhaps this is why their office carries the quote: The only way forward, is through. #startup #business #grab #sea #philippines #dormy #rental #proptech #tech (Image from CNBC International's cover on Grab).

10

Y Combinator literally changed my life! To all the founders, hustlers, and dreamers out there—this is your moment. Go ahead and apply! Trust me, your world will change for the better. Ping me if you need any help with the application.

27

5 Comments

Recently one of our users in finance asked if Arroyo (YC W23) could write to InfluxData. We don't have an InfluxDB sink, but I thought it might be possible to build a good integration using the Influx HTTP API and the Arroyo webhook sink. Turns out... this works great! Amazing to see how a few different features + standard SQL compose so well to power use cases we haven't designed for.

51

3 Comments

Last week, Y Combinator updated the YC Top Companies List for 2024. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 2024 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬: - 16 are publicly traded. - 33 have had an exit. - 50%+ are headquartered in the Bay Area. - $57.2B+ in revenue was generated by these companies in 2023. - $458B+ total value of the top companies. - 80,000+ people are employed by these companies. - 90%+ were founded by 2 or more co-founders. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 2024 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭: - Clipboard Health - Honeylove - Meesho - Odeko - Razorpay - Zepto Cares Read the full story on Founders Launchpad: https://lnkd.in/edBVmF_h #startup #founderstories

14

1 Comment

Been watching Slidebean videos for years now. Last week, Caya (Jose Cayasso) did a video on why startups shouldn't outsource their MVPs. As a founder building with an in-house tech team, I agree with his perspectives 100%. Caya's arguments: 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝟭 - 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 $𝟭𝟬𝟬𝗞 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽: You should be pulling your first $100K revenue with just your start-up crew. That's how you prove you're ready for the big leagues. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹: Outsourcing your core development? That's a missing piece right in your foundational team. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗴: Can't get an engineer on board? It either means your pitch is weak or your network doesn't cut it. 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝟮 - 𝗗𝗲𝘃 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗶𝘁: 𝗗𝗲𝘃 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Dev shops aim to max out profits, often at the cost of your product's needs. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: They rush jobs to boost turnover. Your product's fine-tuning takes a back seat. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: You're one of many clients; they're not going to put your needs first. 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝟯 - 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸: The hidden costs of outsourcing—like tweaks and delays—add up fast, blowing your budget. 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀: Giving equity to a dev shop doesn’t align their goals with yours. They’re not as invested as a true partner. 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝟰 - 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵: 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘃 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽: Need to tweak your MVP post-launch? With a dev shop, each change costs you time and money. 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲: Stuck with a dev shop means every post-launch tweak becomes a negotiation and an extra cost. There are instances where partnering with a dev shop makes sense—if you have a solid in-house team but need to quickly ramp up a specific project component. As long as the core competencies reside within your team and the project is closely managed by someone internally capable of making significant adjustments, this approach can work without diluting your startup’s integrity. If only there were a solution that would address these arguments. 🤔 Read the comments to find out.

26

4 Comments

Moving away from paying a flat fee annually is the future. Demand-based & consumption-based pricing is where the market is moving. In the long run, this is better for data vendors as they potentially make more money, but also they deliver a product clients want, when they want. Who is selling data in a consumption-based pricing format? What data marketplaces have consumption-based pricing as an option for end buyers?

13

6 Comments

Four years ago today, Cubbo launched in Bogotá, Colombia—as a self-storage company. We ran a Facebook ad, got a few paying customers that same day, and by the next day, we were picking up couches and refrigerators to store. Using this early traction, we raised money from angel investors in Colombia with this pitch deck attached. But by April 2021, we threw out that idea. We pivoted Cubbo to eCommerce fulfillment, relaunching in Mexico to focus on the same service we do today. Here’s the truth: I thought I loved the self-storage market. I had spent 10+ years studying it in the U.S. and believed it was ripe for disruption in Latin America. But once I launched the business, I realized—I hated it. I didn’t enjoy the work. I felt awkward pitching the dream to investors. Worst of all, actually doing the service didn’t strengthen my conviction in the opportunity. Most businesses end up looking very different from the original idea. Ideas by themselves are worthless. This is one reason why it's important to launch quickly instead of hiding in stealth mode or keeping your top-secret idea to yourself. It’s only when you take your idea to market and try to execute it that you discover its true potential—and the direction you actually need to go.

151

8 Comments

Hi there, Can't wait to dive into the latest tech trends at #TechCrunchDisrupt2024! Who else will be there? Let's meet and discuss the future: https://lnkd.in/ez9cSQxK #TechCrunchDisrupt #Innovation #FutureOfTech

18

YC is running its first fall batch. Comment below if you're thinking of applying, and we can try and connect you with a YC alum to review your application.

28

17 Comments

🔥 2-Min Survey: Help Fix the Insights Pipeline, Boost Your Next Review At Ara Platforms we're *obsessed* with the data -> insight -> action pipeline and removing roadblocks. On the data (insight producer) side, we want to make it easier to generate and publish useful insights. On the stakeholder (insight consumer) side, we want to make it easier to ask questions and get useful answers quickly. The process feels like a broken market—data people produce insights that don't get used while stakeholders don't can't get insights to important questions in a timely manner. If you're on either side of this equation I'd love to chat—please reach out via DM! If you can't it would mean a ton if you could fill out one of these quick Google forms. The end goal is to improve everyone's performance reviews Insight producers (data scientist, analysts, researchers): https://lnkd.in/emtMV6um Insight consumers (product managers, leadership, anyone who uses data to make decisions): https://lnkd.in/eEJ3Wse7

4

1 Comment

Our Y Combinator batch became the only one in history to have their Demo Day canceled mid-program. We were 2 months into the YC's Winter 2020 batch, experiencing the legendary in-person YC experience - mentor sessions, founder dinners, pitch practice - everything we'd dreamed of. Then COVID hit. Companies before us had massive in-person Demo Days with 100s of investors. Companies after us had well-organized virtual programs. But we were caught in the absolute worst transition - right in the middle of our batch. We had no demo day. Instead, we uploaded a video pitch to potential investors during peak market uncertainty. What followed was a brutal fundraising environment: • Low evaluation • 4 months to close during complete market uncertainty And on top of that, we weren't able to enjoy the full YC experience. As a founder, you have to be ready for any situation. Also, getting into YC does help a lot but it's only the beginning, you never know what's coming for you. If you liked this post, repost and share it with a rejected founder from YC. It's not the end of the world!

38

2 Comments

He sold his company for 165M€ ... and now wants to create a legendary VC This week's episode of the Nova podcast features one of the most intelligent people I have met: Ander Michelena, partner at Acurio Ventures (recently rebranded from the old "All Iron Ventures"). Ander has checked most of the boxes you can think of: ✅ Studied business at ICADE with great success ✅ Made it to the most "demanded" IB team in Morgan Stanley (FIG M&A) ✅ Launched his startup before the age of 30 ✅ Sold it 7 years after for +160M€ (raising just 10M€) ✅ Created his own VC (now on the third fund with +150M€) ✅ Has been involved in many other projects (2 startups, a SOCIMI, etc.) ✅ Has been married for +15 years and has 4 kids 🤯 Acurio has also a very unique positioning in the market which is helping them grow super fast: - They do not lead rounds, but rather follow - They put smaller checks and can invest in more companies per fund - By having a smaller share, they have more freedom to sell, follow-on, etc. - With all this, they improve the risk/return binomial. - They can be "friends" with most funds in Europe, who share deals with them when need someone to complete the round - They have a +92% founder NPS 🤯 One of the most impressive stories we have ever told. 👉🏼 Listen to the full episode in the first comment

74

2 Comments

TensorFuse (YC W24) is now one of the most popular deals for running serverless GPUs on YC! We're the trusted infra partner for many fast growing YC companies. Here’s what we do for our early users: 1) A private Slack channel for any MLOps related support. 2) Help with tasks ranging from downloading models from Huggingface or open-source repo, to writing inference code and deploying it on autoscaling infra. 3) Help with containerising your models (if you haven’t done it already) 4) Expedited approval of GPU quota limits (we have a dedicated support channel with cloud providers) If you want to deploy custom ML models on auto-scaling infra and don’t want the hassle to manage it, get started with our docs: https://lnkd.in/gS7KAMHN

75

I had a wonderful time speaking at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal this past week! Web Summit is even bigger than when I last spoke there and it is truly impressive =) Here are a few great things to read/watch this week: 💰12 Silicon Valley Startups Raised $508.8 Million Last week 💰 It’s ‘Liquidity, Stupid’ by Edith Yeung at Web Summit 📺 US, China's AI Codependency by Alfred Chuang 🎤 Voice AI isn’t just an upgrade to software’s UI Bessemer Venture Partners 💰 Why Economists Hate Trump's Tariff Plan by The Wall Street Journal ⚔️ Elon is the defacto Vice President of the United States by Bloomberg News Read more on my newsletter 👉 https://lnkd.in/gBy6q4fN #M&A #IPO #Funding #VC #VentureFunding #VentureCapital #VCs #Fundraising #ElonMusk #VP #Economists #Trump #VoiceAI #China #AI #WSJ #Liquidity #WebSummit

179

8 Comments

If you're wondering how AI will be monetized, and how we'll come to pay for it, this article by Abde Tambawala and https://lnkd.in/gYJxgPSS is worth a read. If you're building an AI-driven product and are thinking about how you'll price and package it, this is a must read.

7

1 Comment

Fleeting thought time. Since a lot of people like to post about Conway's Law and the Inverse Conway Maneuver (links below), I'd like to share some thoughts on the matter. While I'm sure many have had success with the latter, I think it could be dangerous through the lens of Systems Thinking... That is, if you're ignoring it (the system) as so many ignore the aforementioned law. If we attempt this maneuver without keeping the organizational system in mind, we risk optimizing parts and suboptimizing the whole (to paraphrase Ackoff). There are more risks, but that's just the first that comes to mind. The only way to truly combat - err, put more correctly - work with Conway's Law, is to adapt the organizational system. Then you may adapt elsewhere, be it in the software or not. I have watched many teams and organizations struggle with this. They are fighting the system, and they're going to keep losing, no matter how many maneuvers they try. Adapt the system first. Shit, understand the system first in most cases. Also, this might be why many product (especially technical) companies see success without so much struggle. Because they have strong systems in place from the beginning that dovetail with their products and their value streams. Perhaps this could be called "good mirroring". #systemsthinking #conwayslaw #management https://lnkd.in/ef3_B3Yr https://lnkd.in/et3TQQRs

5

Getting into YC changed our company's trajectory I wrote a blog post a few months ago about how YC transformed our trajectory (link: https://lnkd.in/gNuSkYPN) It can't be overstated enough. If you're a pre-product-market-fit company, just filling out the application is a worth its weight in gold If you get an interview.. you get a taste for what each office hours in YC is like And if you get in.. There are 3 surprising benefits to YC: 1. YC helps you create a peer-group of founders in the same position as you, which can be an incredibly motivating force 2. Bookface, YC’s internal social forum, is a trove of high quality discourse, and acts as an implicit source of warm intros to other YC founders 3. YC’s Launch pad is great for getting your product in front of lots of startup-minded people And there are 2 things that ended up mattering a little bit less than I thought: 1. Fundraising — it turns out that building a great product and generating revenue far outweigh YC’s brand when raising money 2. YC’s Brand — while useful as social proof, it doesn’t replace the need to have a great product / solve a real problem

10

1 Comment