Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• Get Social or Get Left Behind: Discover why founders need to amp up their social media game to boost visibility and engagement!

• From Zero to $1M: Dive into an inspiring journey of founder-led sales and learn what it takes to make it big.

• SaaS Pricing Secrets: Uncover the essential guide to developing a winning pricing strategy for your SaaS business.

• The Power of Building in Public: Find out why this trend is a game-changer for founders and how to do it effectively.

• Inside a Gen AI Startup: Hear the story behind a $475k/year Gen AI startup from its CEO and what made it a success.

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

Resources

• Reasons why founders need to get more active on social media. (LINK)

• Founder shares their journey from zero to $1M in founder-led sales. (LINK)

• A guide on how to develop a pricing strategy for your SaaS (LINK)

• Why Building in Public is a superpower and how to do it right. (LINK)

• The story of a $475k/year Gen AI startup told by its CEO. (LINK)

ICYMI

• Fun recap of “tech drama” of the week. (LINK)

• Packy McCormick shares why following “playbooks” kills creativity. (LINK)

• The amount of active investors is trending down. (LINK)

• Why Stripe created a book publishing house. (LINK)

• OpenAI asks investors not to invest in AI rivals, including SSI and xAI. (LINK)

Quick Links

• How Slack turned failure into a $26B success in 8 months.

• John Kim of Sendbird shares why startups fail—and how to avoid it.

• Charlie Clark earned $25K/ month by carving a niche in a saturated market.

• Discover over 9,000 startup ideas from r/startups and r/somebodymakethis.

• Discover how Dylan Jacob grew BrüMate into a $20M brand—and learn how you can too.

Build a Sustainable Dropshipping Empire with DropCommerce

Building your startup's eCommerce arm? DropCommerce makes it easy with 0% transaction fees, 400+ reliable suppliers, and 300K+ products. Streamline sourcing, fulfillment, and invoicing with seamless integration for platforms like Shopify. Scale fast, keep more profits!

Why Playing Smart Beats Playing Big in Startups!

Winning in chess or startups often comes down to avoiding blunders rather than making genius moves. Chess Grandmaster Ben Finegold points out that amateur games are typically lost to errors, not strategic brilliance, and the same applies to startups. Success relies on sidestepping classic pitfalls, such as ignoring customer feedback or jumping into an unprepared market. Startups should focus on not just innovating, but also on steering clear of preventable blunders. By listening to your audience and staying adaptable, you'll stay ahead, similar to sports where avoiding mistakes is key to winning.

In the world of startups, avoiding blunders like poor market timing or failing to differentiate can lead to success. It's not just about the big wins but about minimizing risks by being aware of common traps. Listening to customers, refining your strategy, and adapting to changes are essential. Success isn’t just about great ideas; it's about executing smartly and avoiding unnecessary errors. Much like in sports, where the key to winning is minimizing unforced errors, startups thrive by focusing on the basics and not fumbling along the way. (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.