Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• Data from 240 software and AI companies: The state of B2B monetization in 2025.

• Survey: How Tech workers really feel about work right now.

• Vibe Coding: How to get most of it.

• The $500 Hack: Your Startup Doesn’t Need a Fancy Name—Just a Working Credit Card Limit

• 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

• The state of B2B monetization in 2025. (LINK)

• More or Less: The three pricing strategies. (LINK)

• David Park on how to get your first customer (and millions more). (LINK)

• David Politis on doing whatever it takes to stay in the game (LINK)

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

ICYMI

• The Browser Company launches its AI-first browser, Dia. (LINK)

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

• Anthropic’s Claude can now read your Gmail. (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!

The Startup Growth Lie No One Wants to Admit

Most founders get hyped about fast growth — waitlists, big raises, massive user spikes. But Superhuman did the opposite. With 275k people ready to pay, they still onboarded just 100 users a week and insisted on a 30-min call with each one. Sounds crazy, right? But they weren’t selling just an email app — they were building an experience. By growing slow and staying in control, they hit $100M+ ARR with the best SaaS retention around. Meanwhile, startups that scaled too fast (think WeWork, Hopin, Casper) blew up because speed magnified all their broken systems.

That’s where the Minimum Viable Growth (MVG) Framework comes in. It’s about syncing your growth rate with your actual ability to support it — product, team, revenue quality, and capital efficiency. If even one of those lags behind, everything crashes. Notion nailed this by capping growth and focusing on quality, hitting $800M ARR while staying profitable. On the flip side, Zilingo looked like a rocket ship but collapsed under the weight of misalignment. The takeaway? It’s not about growing slow — it’s about growing smart, and making sure you’re not building something that’ll fall apart as soon as it gets big.  (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.