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Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• The Founder’s Curse: Competence That Cripples

• Cold Emailing: The art of cold-emailing a billionaire.

• Low Prices = Low Confidence: Stop Underselling Your Startup

• The $500 Hack: Your Startup Doesn’t Need a Fancy Name—Just a Working Credit Card Limit

• 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

• How to rank content that ranks with LLMs. (LINK)

• You're doing quarterly planning wrong. (LINK)

• The art of cold-emailing a billionaire. (LINK)

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

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

ICYMI

• YouTube plans crackdown on repetitive, AI-generated videos. (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!

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• $15,000 referral bonus if you refer a founding engineer we hire

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• A custom Delve doormat for anyone who reposts + comments on our LinkedIn post (while supplies last!)

Thank you for your support—this is just the beginning.

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The Dark Side of Knowing Exactly What to Do

Founders often discover that their greatest strength—being insanely competent—eventually becomes the biggest roadblock to growth. In the early “Worker Bee” days, doing everything yourself builds mastery and momentum, but once your calendar is jammed, decisions pile up, and the team stalls waiting for you, it’s time to evolve. That means moving into “Orchestrator” mode—delegating tasks using clear rules (like the 30% Rule) so you’re not stuck in the weeds. Think ant colony: the queen’s not micromanaging who carries crumbs; the system just works.

But delegation alone won’t cut it. The next jump is becoming a “Network Node” where you give away not just tasks but actual decision rights, creating autonomous teams that don’t funnel everything back to you. Eventually, the real magic is “Queen Bee” mode—developing leaders who can develop other leaders. It’s less about making the best calls yourself and more about building a hive that thrives without you at the center. The hardest part? Letting go of old identities at every stage. The best founders aren’t just operators—they’re shape-shifters who keep evolving before their company outgrows them. (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.