Hey — It’s Charlie.

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

• Google, Webvan, Tilt: What Their Deaths Teach About Yours

• Why winners win: What makes a breakout company.

• 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

• The perfect Product Pages for SaaS founders. (LINK)

• How to build user-generated distribution loops. (LINK)

• Your next job will require AI skills. (LINK)

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

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

ICYMI

• Nvidia reports record sales as the AI boom continues. (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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Why Some Ideas Were “Too Early” and Others Just Dumb.

Let’s be real—every startup graveyard is packed with lessons most founders skip because failure feels “negative.” But that’s exactly where the unfair advantage hides. When you break down why giants like Webvan or Munchery collapsed, you’re basically downloading a crash course on what not to do. It’s like getting a roadmap of all the potholes before you hit the highway. Way cheaper than learning it the hard way, right?

The real play is turning failure patterns into your startup’s defense system. Pre-mortems, CAC vs. LTV checks, keeping that 18-month runway—these aren’t boring finance drills, they’re survival moves. Founders who get this right buy themselves time to pivot, adapt, and actually stay in the game. At the end of the day, you don’t have to outrun every competitor—you just need to avoid tripping over the same hurdles that killed the last billion-dollar idea. (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.