I Thought My Experience Was a Liability.

I Was Dead Wrong.

August 27, 2025

In partnership with

Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

  • Scar Tissue > IQ: The Startup Formula Nobody Talks About

  • The Efficiency Paradox: Why Over-Optimizing Could Kill Your Startup

  • Low Prices = Low Confidence: Stop Underselling Your Startup

  • 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

  • Why over-optimizing could kill your startup (LINK)

  • You're doing quarterly planning wrong. (LINK)

  • The art of cold-emailing a billionaire. (LINK)

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

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

ICYMI

  • YouTube plans crackdown on repetitive, AI-generated videos. (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)

  • 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!

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Why 45-Year-Olds Are Outsmarting 25-Year-Old Founders

Everyone loves the myth of the hoodie-wearing, dorm-room founder, but the numbers tell a different story—the average successful founder is 45. Youth brings firepower (risk-taking, long hours, ignoring “rules”), but experience brings pattern recognition. The “professional scars” from past jobs aren’t baggage, they’re cheat codes. Just ask Luis von Ahn (Duolingo) or Eric Yuan (Zoom)—both built billion-dollar companies not by chasing shiny ideas but by fixing problems they’d already seen break things a dozen times before.

That’s the real advantage of time in the game: you’ve logged failures, spotted repeat problems, and built gut instincts younger founders don’t yet have. Experience sharpens emotional regulation, helps you filter noise, and shows you where the treasure is buried. The trick isn’t youth or experience—it’s pairing speed with navigation. Whether you’re 25 or 45, your past crises and workarounds are hidden blueprints for future products. The question isn’t how old you are, it’s whether you’re paying attention. (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.