Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• Marketing is dead: (and What You Should Do About It)

• Unstoppable Companies: How engineering for survival creates unstoppable companies.

• Grow as a Founder: A 6-step framework to grow sales as a founders

• 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 most common mistakes with Pricing Pages. (LINK)

• A guide to disrupting incumbents. (LINK)

• State of Fintech in 2025. (LINK)

• Brand As An Enduring Moat. (LINK)

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

ICYMI

• Empower Local acquires SponsorBooker in a strategic acquisition (LINK)

• OpenAI is reportedly in talks to buy Windsurf for $3B. (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!

Why Most AI Startups Will Die in the Growth Maze

Andrew Chen breaks down why AI startups are shifting from the Idea Maze (figuring out what to build) to the Growth Maze (figuring out how to scale). Right now, AI is flooded with copycats, so just having a "good idea" isn’t enough—you need killer distribution. The Idea Maze is about avoiding dead ends (like past failures in your space), while the Growth Maze is about nailing launch strategy, audience targeting, and scaling hacks. And guess what? AI’s gonna rewrite the rules of growth, with AI-powered marketing, sales bots, and wild new ad channels we haven’t even seen yet.

So which maze matters more? Early in a tech wave (like AI right now), the Idea Maze dominates—building something magical is the key. But as the space matures, Growth Maze skills win. Think: Instagram wasn’t the first photo app, but it nailed distribution. For AI founders, the playbook is clear—master both mazes, because soon, even the best AI product won’t go viral without a growth game plan. And yeah, your future CMO might just be an AI agent. Wild times ahead. (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.