Planning Is for Amateurs

Forget the 5-Year Plan, Build for the Next 5 Days

October 08, 2025

Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

  • The $0 Strategy: How to Build a Startup That Survives When Plans Fail

  • Why winners win: The $75 Billion Selective Listening Strategy

  • The Physics of Sales: 11 Ways You’re Breaking the Laws

  • No AI, No Job: The Future Is Already Here

  • 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

  • Building pipeline: pre-PMF and post-PMF (LINK)

  • The $75 Billion Selective Listening Strategy. (LINK)

  • Six lessons after one year of Agentic AI. (LINK)

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

  • 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

  • Lumen Energy raised $17.57M (Venture) to help building owners cut costs with clean energy solutions.

  • Verdico AI raised $7.3M (Seed) to simplify contract management using AI-powered automation.

  • Neurvona raised $600K (Pre-Seed) to build AI-driven digital twin personas.

  • Al Tadamun Microfinance Foundation raised $11.3M (Debt) to fund women micro-entrepreneurs in Egypt.

  • Vital Block Security raised $445K (Seed) to audit and secure smart contracts for Web3 projects.

  • GeroCare raised $534K (Grant) to offer home-based doctor visits for elderly parents in Africa.

  • CISOGenie raised $210K (Seed) to streamline cybersecurity compliance for CISOs and security teams.

  • Unilabs Finance raised $19.15M (ICO) to launch an AI-managed DeFi fund with daily yield rewards.

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/

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

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The Startup Superpower You Won’t Learn from YC

Most founders spend months perfecting their business plans, only to realize they’re outdated by the time they’re done. The real skill that separates great founders is effectual thinking — using what you already have, adapting fast, and turning uncertainty into your edge. It’s how people like Shiv Rao from Abridge and Dylan Field from Figma turned early chaos into billion-dollar success stories.

Instead of chasing long-term projections, effectual thinkers focus on small wins, real validation, and making the most of what’s around them — skills, people, and even limitations. It’s less about having a perfect plan and more about staying flexible enough to spot and grab the next big opportunity when it appears. (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.