Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• 1M Users Guide: A roadmap for consumer apps to hit the magic million.

• Boom vs. Gloom: Startups thriving in good times versus bad—what's the secret?

• OpenPhone's First 1,000: How they did it and what you can learn.

• Finance Checklist: The ultimate guide to keeping your startup's books in check.

• Unicorn Crashes: The truth about chasing sky-high valuations.

Get ready to dive into these power-packed insights for founders and growth enthusiasts!

Resources

• A guide to getting 1M users for consumer apps. (LINK)

• Boom time startups vs Gloom time startups (LINK)

• OpenPhone founder shares how they got their first 1,000 customers. (LINK)

• The Startup Finance Checklist (LINK)

• he roadmap to Product/Market Fit (LINK)

ICYMI

• Inflection AI acquires BoostKPI and Jelled.ai (LINK)

• E-commerce tech startup acquired by Loop (LINK)

• Salesforce Paid $344 Million in Zoomin Startup Acquisition (LINK)

• Data shows YC often funds startups that replicate others in its portfolio. (LINK)

• TuSimple’s co-founder demands for immediate liquidation. (LINK)

Quick Links

• Brett Malinowski reveals 5 micro SaaS making $100K/month and shares the genius strategy behind their success.

• This guy solved a simple problem, shared how he finds profitable micro SaaS ideas, and offers lessons you can apply in 2025.

• 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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Unicorns Don’t Always Win

Running out of money is what takes companies down, and the root cause often lies in losing or never finding product-market fit (PMF). Sure, managing expenses and execution matter, but weak PMF is a dealbreaker. PMF is when your product genuinely clicks with your target audience, turning customers into raving fans. But here’s the kicker—PMF isn’t a one-and-done thing. Markets shift, competition creeps in, and if you’re not constantly tweaking to maintain PMF, it can spiral out of control fast.

Financial red flags like high churn, slowing revenue growth, and heavy discounting are often PMF issues in disguise. A big trap? Mistaking massive fundraising for validation. Many startups, especially in AI, think they’ve nailed PMF just because they’ve raised stacks of cash—but money without traction breeds unrealistic expectations and blinds you to what your customers really need. The bottom line? PMF is a daily fight, and losing sight of it could cost you everything. (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.