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

• From Bold to Safe: The Most Expensive Shift a Startup Makes

• Guide: Crafting Your Brand Voice

• 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!

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Resources

• Your product ideas probably suck (that's ok) (LINK)

• How to price and sell a product when creating a new category (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

• SoftBank just sold its entire stake in Nvidia. (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.

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The Slow Death of Bold Decisions

A lot of startups lose their edge the moment they start “playing not to lose.” As IPOs, boards, and big money enter the picture, decisions shift from bold and instinct-driven to safe and conventional. Culture slowly dilutes, weird but brilliant ideas get sidelined, and “experienced” hires start mattering more than people who actually fit. What once worked gets replaced by what looks right on paper. It feels responsible, but it quietly hands momentum to hungrier competitors.

The real danger isn’t failure, it’s becoming a perfectly fine company that could’ve been exceptional. Big bets turn into committees, product speed turns into process, and proven playbooks replace original insight. Prevent defense creeps in disguised as maturity. The takeaway is simple: keep betting, protect what made you win, and be suspicious when safety starts to feel smarter than ambition. Because most startups don’t lose outright, they just sand themselves down. (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.