Noud van Alem

Linear became a profitable $1.25B company with <80 people by bucking the “growth at all costs” mindset. CEO and co-founder Karri Saarinen focuses on craft, not metrics. On The Review, he details the company’s slow and deliberate path to product-market fit. He shares how he’s operationalized quality at every step, like: -Validating the idea with coworkers before quitting to work on the company full-time -Building a highly opinionated prototype that met the co-founders’ high standards -Launching in private beta and handpicking early users to join -Staying focused on the day-one ICP of IC product builders even with subsequent product launches -Designing enterprise sales as an extension of the product Read the full story below.

524

20 commenti

🚀 Meet the First AI Platform for Incubators & Accelerators Most incubators still rely on forms and Excel sheets to review thousands of applications manually - wasting weeks and missing top startups in the noise. That changes today. ⚡ DeepFlows is the first AI-native platform built to automate: 🌐 Startup SOURCING (optional, from our global founder network) 🧠 AI-powered SELECTION (YC / a16z-style criteria) 📄 Auto-generated 1-pager teaser for every startup 🧩 Investor matching w/ 45k professionals to SUPPORT selected startups 🔄 Collaboration between teams (incubators, startups, investors) 💰 Revenue-sharing from non-selected startups In short → less admin, better selection, new revenue streams. We’re already live with programs in the U.S. and UAE - and expanding fast. 💡 If you run or work with an incubator or accelerator, we'd love to hear from you! #AI for #Incubators #Accelerators #VCStudios

67

6 commenti

Base44 sold to Wix for $80 million in cash  six months from idea to exit  no VC  just clarity and execution Why this matters for Italy? The Base44 exit happened in Israel - one of the most developed startup ecosystems in the world. But for the first time, this story is also a positive signal for Italy, showing that such outcomes are no longer out of reach. Crucially, success of this kind is no longer bound by the years of digital and technological gap that once separated Europe from Silicon Valley and Israel. AI has erased much of that distance, making these achievements attainable here too. Italy’s AI market grew 58% in 2024, reaching €1.2 billion, and with lots of funds ready to be deployed on the topic. AI has leveled the tech playing field  building tools is easier than ever  the real gap now is go-to-market and moat creation Italy has the ambition and the infrastructure  the next Base44 could be built there

98

14 commenti

Big day for us at Yotpo Today we’re launching Yotpo Unlocked, the first wave of innovation in our all-in focus on Reviews and Loyalty, built with an AI-first mindset. We’ve always believed that retention is the foundation of great brands. Now we’re doubling down. Smarter ways to build trust. Deeper loyalty. More growth. Here are just a few updates we’re excited to share today: 🏆 Loyalty Tiers that automate high-impact journeys using Shopify tags and more 📈Reviews Atlas insights of your review quality, authenticity, and recency 🌎 Localized Reviews with AI-generated translations, summaries, and filters 📲 A new mobile-first loyalty experience in partnership with Novel We’re building fast and raising the bar. Better experiences for shoppers. More value for brands. This is just the beginning. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eaMKXYRp

147

8 commenti

We’re excited to publish the first open draft specification for AI agent-to-agent communication in programmatic advertising. "Agent-to-Agent communication is a a breakthrough enabler, instead of waiting on humans to connect the dots, agents can query, respond, and act instantly. Unlike rigid, rule-based systems that can only automate what they’ve been explicitly programmed to do, AI agents can learn, adapt and evolve based on real-world data. They explore different strategies, measure outcomes, and refine their approach iteratively, becoming smarter and more efficient with every interaction. At scale, these agents can run thousands of decisions simultaneously, optimizing across deals, campaigns or partners in ways no human team or static integration layer could ever match." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dwJitVD8

218

Let’s talk about customer revenue concentration at B2B startups and scaleups. When we first started Factored our biggest customer represented over 70% of our revenue for the first 6-8 months or so. This is not that rare as early stage startups seek to prove their value prop with early adopters, but it is scary AF for founders and employees. A year later, our biggest customer was about 33% of our revenue. Even as recently as 2 years ago, our largest account represented about 25% of our revenue. Today, we don’t have a single customer that represents more than 7-8% of our revenue, despite us growing our existing accounts very nicely. This has more to do with also signing and growing new accounts. For a business, reducing revenue concentration has great advantages: 1. Reduces your risk exposure to any one account or their own business risks or industry troubles. 2. Increases valuation multiples as your revenue becomes more predictable and signals stability. Acquirers and investors often discount companies with too high a concentration. 3. Improves your negotiating position. Both parties now have options. 4. Demonstrates scalability and market fit as more customers and more segments desire your services. 5. Improves banking and financing options (banks also discount revenue that is highly concentrated because of perceived default risk). 6. Increases upsell and cross-sell opportunities as you develop new product or service offerings that you can offer to a broader base of customers. 7. Increases your company’s resilience to specific company risks or industry cycles, and gives you and your team much more peace of mind should something go wrong with a specific account or their sector. 8. You and your team sleep better because of all of the above, and if it happens, the rare crisis becomes less scary. So as you empower your best account managers to grow your most promising existing accounts, also consider the importance of closing and growing new accounts as well. Not all dollars are worth the same my friends. Highly concentrated dollars are often heavily discounted. Shoot for less than 10% from your top account.

52

3 commenti

Random Sunday Thoughts #181: 1. . As we negotiate and strategically discuss domains with brands, companies, founders, and investors, I realize more and more the clear distinction between exact match product and brand domains and category defining domain name assets. In some powerful use cases, the two combine to create a category dominating business such as Booking*com, Cars*com, Salesforce*com, and Hotels*com. For the companies that pull that off, the category killer domain is unparalleled in its value. However, there are many examples of leading brands that acquire a category defining domain and leverage it without making it the consumer facing brand. There is no better examples than Amazon (Streaming*com directs to Prime Video, Podcast*com to Audible), OpenAi (in a deal I oversaw where Chat*com points to ChatGPT), and Bank of America (Loans*com). By owning these invaluable assets, the companies lock up the industry for a future potential standalone strategy, are protected defensively, convey category leadership , and are ensured security of brand and email. 2. For exact match domains, not securing your brand’s .com can have devastating long term impacts. The smartest founders and CE0’s realize and prioritize doing so. Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, once wrote in his essay Change Your Name: “If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have X*com, you should probably change your name. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness… a marginal domain suggests you’re a marginal company.” His words ring true time and time again. On the flip side, we have examples of companies that had to fight their way back to the .com. Tesla spent millions to acquire Tesla*com after years on TeslaMotors*com, Dropbox migrated from GetDropbox.com, and Facebook, fortuitously securing Facebook*com. Each of these cases reinforces the same truth: the .com is the crown jewel of digital identity. Owning it early is cheaper, safer, and strategically smarter than waiting and realizing too late that it is a massive strategic misstep. In my career, I’ve been fortunate to help close transactions on hundreds of exact match and category defining domains; Rocket*com, Gold*com, Universal*com, Home*com, Tiger*com, Fans*com to name a few. Each deal had its own unique timeline, negotiation, and “marination” process, but the constant is this: the best companies understand that their brand’s ultimate home is on the exact match .com. 3. I am now into the start of my 3rd year as an empty nester. As parents who did everything with our kids, all in, all the way through, I have really enjoyed this phase too. However, this weekend has been special as I golfed with my son and his friends and today, head to the Patriots game, for the first time since 2023, after going to every single home game for many years. The best! I am missing my daughter a ton, but she is thriving studying abroad this semester. Until next Week #domainnames

39

7 commenti

The era of MVPs is over. Welcome to the new era of MVBs: Most Valuable Brands. (Marketers, you gonna love this) Thanks to Lovable, product development takes hours now. A feature update? Minutes, if not seconds. So what becomes your edge in a world where everyone can build anything? Being THE brand. Remarkable Unforgettable Lovable (pun 100% intended) And it starts with the core marketing disciplines: Deeply understand your ICP. Speak the language your audience understand. Connect on the emotional level. Show up at the right time. The product success has been dependent on marketing for many years. Now, with technical advancement available to everyone, marketing will be important more than ever. So stop burying marketers under AI doomsday horror stories. This isn’t the end of marketing. This is the renaissance of marketing.

38

16 commenti