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Hey — It’s Charlie.

Welcome to the latest edition of Great Startups! Here’s what’s in store:

• The Startup Flywheel: The Quiet Growth Hack Everyone’s Ignoring

• Guide: What’s working in GTM right now

• Solution: Do you have a demand problem?

• Question: Why pitches fail (and a template that will fix yours).

• Targeting Made Simple: A step-by-step guide to finding your perfect customer.

• Hidden Startup Debt: The silent killer that’s slowing growth.

Get ready to dive into these power-packed insights for founders and growth enthusiasts!

Resources

• What’s working in GTM right now. (LINK)

• Non-obvious pricing advice for startups. (LINK)

• Do you have a demand problem? (LINK)

• Why pitches fail (and a template that will fix yours). (LINK)

• Sam Blond on how to generate more demand. (LINK)

ICYMI

• Atlassian acquires DX, a developer productivity platform, for $1B. (LINK)

• Netflix is getting into short videos with a new vertical feed for mobile. (LINK)

• Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping. (LINK)

• The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained. (LINK)

• 1X will test humanoid robots in ‘a few hundred’ homes in 2025. (LINK)

Quick Links

• Ray Dalio built a $14B empire by following core success principles that took him from humble beginnings to founding the world’s largest hedge fund.

• Iman Gadzhi and Pierre de Preux launched a SaaS and hit 7-figure ARR in 9 months by moving fast, using Iman’s audience, and solving a real problem.

• Lenny Rachitsky and Jen Abel on how to approach founder-led sales.

• Carta shares 50 slides packed with insights for founders from 45,000 startups.

• How One AI App Founder Makes $20K+ Monthly—and How You Can Too!

Recently Funded / Raised

• Moniepoint raised $323M to expand its business banking, credit, and payments platform for enterprises across Africa and beyond.

• Knownwell raised $50.6M to enhance its AI-powered commercial intelligence platform that helps businesses identify risks and growth opportunities.

• Alto Neuroscience raised $301M to develop AI-driven precision medicines targeting mental health conditions.

• CoMind raised $87M to advance noninvasive neural interfaces that connect the human brain with artificial intelligence.

• Anrok raised $109.3M to streamline sales tax compliance for SaaS businesses through automation.

• Findem raised $88.3M to grow its AI-powered Talent Data Cloud that automates and unifies enterprise hiring workflows.

• Finster AI raised $16.8M to build an AI-driven research platform for asset managers and investment banks.

• Africa Finance Corporation secured $6.78B in debt financing to fund large-scale infrastructure and industrial investments across Africa.

• Niron Magnetics received a $171.6M grant to develop high-performance, rare-earth-free permanent magnets using Iron Nitride technology.

• Cala Health raised $248.3M to advance its wearable bioelectronic therapies for neurological and chronic diseases.

Like these? Imagine getting an xls of 1000 - 2000 recently funded startups every month - with emails - for only $99/mo → https://leadbites.com/funded-startups-list/

Find your customers on Roku this Black Friday

As with any digital ad campaign, the important thing is to reach streaming audiences who will convert. To that end, Roku’s self-service Ads Manager stands ready with powerful segmentation and targeting options. After all, you know your customers, and we know our streaming audience.

Worried it’s too late to spin up new Black Friday creative? With Roku Ads Manager, you can easily import and augment existing creative assets from your social channels. We also have AI-assisted upscaling, so every ad is primed for CTV.

Once you’ve done this, then you can easily set up A/B tests to flight different creative variants and Black Friday offers. If you’re a Shopify brand, you can even run shoppable ads directly on-screen so viewers can purchase with just a click of their Roku remote.

Bonus: we’re gifting you $5K in ad credits when you spend your first $5K on Roku Ads Manager. Just sign up and use code GET5K. Terms apply.

Use code GET5K now

How Sending Flowers Beat Every Growth Hack Ever Invented

Chewy’s story shows that the real growth cheat code isn’t aggressive marketing—it’s building a customer experience that quietly powers itself. When a customer called to return dog food after her pet passed, Chewy refunded her, told her to donate the food, and later sent flowers. That tiny, emotional gesture went viral, bringing in more customers… who then shared their own stories. This is the flywheel: great experiences → loyalty + word-of-mouth → lower CAC → better margins → more investment back into CX.

With CAC rising, trust dropping, and referrals becoming the #1 growth channel, brands that obsess over customer love are winning. Flywheels aren’t built by magic—they’re designed by improving key “moments of truth,” removing friction, and turning happy customers into your marketing engine. Start with one unforgettable moment, measure momentum early (like referrals or retention), and keep reinvesting. It’s slow…but the compounding advantage becomes nearly impossible for competitors to copy. (LINK)

Ok that’s it for this week, We keep refining our newsletter content, just hit reply to let us know what you think about this issue.