Enrike NUR

The early days of Zoko (YC W21) were more chaotic than 99% of startups. Here's why: • We had no billing system until $600K ARR • I was manually sending "fake" WhatsApp notifications to get paid • Our "product demo" was a KeyNote animation with zero code behind it We were literally broke multiple times. 2018 → Burned through $40K of my personal savings 2020 → About to go broke in 30 days 2021 → Technically broke when YC accepted us Stop trying to look like you have your sh*t together. Every founder is: - Making it up as they go - One customer away from disaster - Putting out fires left, right, and center If you're a founder feeling like everything's falling apart — congratulations. You're doing it right. The ones who look like they have it all figured out are either lying or about to fail. Keep building.

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Unlock the blueprint for startup success with insights from Udemy’s Founder, Eren Bali. Your entrepreneurial journey starts here! Udemy’s Founder Eren Bali shares valuable insights on how to start a successful business from scratch. Eren covers: 1. The way to start a company. 2. Choosing the right market. 3. The importance of education. 4. Building the product. 5. Finding the right team. 6. Getting funding. 7. Scaling the business. Don't miss out on this quick yet powerful session #startastartup #howtostartastartup #erenbali #udemy #startup #entrepreneurship

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10 years later, these learnings from Michael Siebel of Y Combinator, speaking at Startup Istanbul, are still super relevant for founders today! 📌 If you can, focus on solving daily/weekly problems vs monthly problems. It’s a lot “easier” to build an Uber vs a car sales platform 📌 Aim to build an MVP within two months. Get something in the hands of your potential customers quickly! 📌 Identify your “reference customers” - folks who are willing and actively able to talk to others about your product/service 📌 Build relationships. 99% of the PR your startup needs in the early stages can be done yourself. Warm introductions. Structure your pitch. Follow-up. Let the relationship remain valuable 📌 Schedule your meetings with investors as quickly and as tightly as possible. Don’t forget the FOMO agenda 📌 Have growth. The more you grow, the more investors spend time finding you 📌 If you have a launch plan that involves fundraising, change it! 📌 Spend less money. It’s the #1 way to extend your runway 📌 Hire people who are a lot smarter and slightly less risk averse than you. Be fair and transparent with them. Loyalty is earned 📌 Hire slowly. You can do a lot with just a few people. When Instagram sold for $1Billion in 2012, they had just 13 employees! 🌟 Super excited about the growing number of signups for The Maven Cohort - My Group Coaching Program for applicants who are keen and ready to commit to applying for the UK Global Talent Visa. Get ready in 4 weeks! 🌟 Join now using this link: https://lnkd.in/exfaGcsc If you have any questions, feel free to reach out: hello@strategywithifeoluwa.com We launch officially on October 2nd! 🚀🚀🚀 strategywithifeoluwa.com On eagles’ wings

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Kalder isn’t playing games. With $10.5M in seed funding locked down, this NYC-based fintech is turning loyalty programs into full-blown revenue machines. Led by Gökçe Güven, a Turkish founder with a vision sharper than your average unicorn dreamer, Kalder isn’t here to give brands a cute app—they’re here to put cash back in their pockets. Backed by Javelin Venture Partners, 8VC, Deel Co-founder Shuo Wang, and Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, this isn’t just funding; it’s a signal. Loyalty isn’t just retention anymore—it’s ROI, and Kalder has the numbers to prove it. Kalder’s platform is already flipping the script for global brands like Godiva Chocolatierand LVMH-backed MILE. And if you’re wondering how serious this is, take a look at their clients. Take S.L. Benfica, for example: 67,000 loyalty cards in action, driving $88M in transaction volume. That’s not some “nice-to-have” feature—it’s a revenue engine. Average clients are pulling in $450K a month linked directly to Kalder’s system. This is where loyalty stops being a buzzword and starts being a game-changer. Automated payouts, white-label cashback, real-time analytics—Kalder’s tech makes it seamless, scalable, and undeniably lucrative. The $10.5M infusion is pure fuel for a team already miles ahead. With plans to scale their global partner network, deepen payment integrations, and roll out AI-driven personalization tools, Kalder is positioning itself as the default loyalty platform for brands that don’t just want to compete—they want to dominate. And with acquisition costs hitting insane levels, Kalder’s ability to convert customers into lifelong advocates is about to become the gold standard. #FinTech #Loyalty #LoyaltyPlatform #VentureCapital #Startups #StartupFunding #Technology #Rewards #Innovation #LoyaltyProgram #BrandRewards #AI #Data #NYCTech #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem

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Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

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During my time at Microsoft, I worked with an IoT startup as a co-sell lead, aiming to sell their solution to large enterprises. I decided to reach out to a key contact at Starbucks, and he eagerly responded, setting up an intro meeting. I was confident we had a deal🚀! However, 15 minutes into that call, he seemed disinterested and abruptly left, citing an urgent matter. We never heard from him again😳. A few days after the surprisingly disappointing call, I read an article stating that Starbucks was strongly focused on optimizing their supply chain using IoT innovative technologies. This is when I realized we had pitched the wrong use case! This explained why he initially seemed enthusiastic but then lost interest. Yesterday, I participated in a panel about "Closing Your First Design Partners" led by Amazon Web Services (AWS) alongside Orit Balicer Tsur and Chen Shir, where I shared lessons on identifying and engaging design partners, hoping to help founders in the program avoid the mistakes I once made. Yael Kahn, Omer Karny thanks for the invite! #SalesStrategy #LessonsLearned #designpartners #startups #VC #ValueCreation #israelinnovation #israelistartups #nomatterwhat

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20 meetings w/ investors and startups in 3 days around SF/Bay Area. Here's what’s happening in hiring right now: 1) Elite engineers demand elite offers. Early-stage startups are winning top talent by paying up (sometimes as high as $250k-$300k + equity). 2) Startups are prioritizing candidates with brand names, interest in startups, history of solving complex problems, ambition, higher ego (not too high). 3) The best candidates have clarity on career direction. Some good questions I heard founders ask, “Where are you going?” and “How can we help you get there?” 4) Despite early funding surges in Q1/Q2, investors are becoming more selective - especially in AI.  This creates an opportunity for startups to hire from struggling shops with top talent. Invest now before the market shifts again.

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This is the story of the legendary Wordware (YC S24) launch. 𝟏𝟎 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬: 𝟕𝐌𝐌 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬; 𝟐𝟕𝟖𝐤 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬; $𝟏𝟎𝟎𝐤 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝟕 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬; 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝟕𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐮𝐩𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬). This is the whole story of how an 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ��𝐤 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫 and a guide on how to replicate the launch: Just to remind you: Wordware is the first AI Operating System (aiOS) that enables anyone to build, iterate, and deploy AI with Natural Language. In simpler non-VC trillion-dollar TAM terms, we make everyone an AI Developer. You can run your AI on our front end or get an API and hook it up in your product. With this, you get to great Agents 20x faster cause everyone can iterate, yielding better quality. Like, how the hell can an engineer know what a good contract should look like? And yup, today they are the one who has to iterate on it (or deal with hundreds of requests from PMs/CEOs and rebuild the application again) Try it or sign up for a workshop if you are building in AI: wordware.ai Okay, so back to the story: I have been in startups for over six years, and going viral has happened to me for the first time. Is it PMF? Probably not yet, but it gives us a chance! 𝟏𝟎𝟏 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐚 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒕-𝑼𝒑 This might apply only to AI Infra companies. Also, we were primarily lucky, but maybe somebody can plan this out with what we learned: (0.) get yourself some amazing angels - Azeem Azhar, Ben Tossell, Ben Parr, Matt Schlicht, Yohei Nakajima, Shawn swyx W - their advice and help with virality have been invaluable 1. Use your underlying product to launch something viral — in our case, it was twitter.wordware.ai (Kudos to Kamil Ruczynski, our head of growth, for the idea) — an AI Agent that reads all your tweets, roasts and analyses your personality. BTW read my roast here: https://lnkd.in/dinS4Ti9 or our compatibility report with Robert Chandler: https://lnkd.in/dkyzrTTs 2. Plan the launch of your main product (wordware.ai) at the peak of virality. Make it evident that the viral product was built with your tool and redirect interested people to your website. Check out the above links to see how many references to Wordware there are. 3. We made it extremely easy to play with the agent. If you click Duplicate, you land in a fully functioning prompt that you can edit quickly. Try it. This clever technique meant that we redirected a LOT of traffic to wordware.ai. From there, there was an offer to book a free workshop and a link to our ProductHunt Launch. 4. Ridiculous exposure means that even a couple of per cent matters (X was perfect for this as there are more techie people there). 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 rest of the story+business insights here https://lnkd.in/dxwkqsF2 (I run out of characters) Also we hiring for all positions -- but i must have known you before, dm me on WhatsApp

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⭐Thank you, Ben Lang, for sharing this insightful framework. It provides a valuable resource for those exploring the potential of AI

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B2B startups in emerging markets have a superpower. They can sell to Western corporations while maintaining a cheap cost base. Take Turkey: the tech talent there is excellent. Turkish founders can craft products that are on par with American ones, even better. But Turkish founders have a much lower cost base. Turkish employees are cheaper than US ones. The depreciation of the Lira, Turkey's currency, has exacerbated this situation. The country suffers, but talent is even cheaper. The so-called "cost arbitrage" Turkish startups enjoy grows as a result. In this exclusive Realistic Optimist piece, two Turkish VCs (Idil Azizoğlu and Basar Yenidunya) dive into how they optimize this arbitrage. https://lnkd.in/gMVp9xhF

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2004 - Google buys Where2 (Google Maps) 2005 - Google buys Android (Phones) 2006 - Google buys YouTube (Video) 2007 - Google buys DoubleClick (Ads) 2009 - Google buys AdMob (Mobile Ads) 2012 - Google buys Motorola Mobility (Phones) 2013 - Google buys Waze (Maps) 2013 - Google buys Boston Dynamics (Robotics) 2014 - Google buys DeepMind (AI) 2014 - Google buys Nest Labs (Smart Homes) 2019 - Google buys Looker (Cloud) 2021 - Google buys Fitbit (Hardware) 2022 – Google buys Mandiant (Cybersecurity) 2024 - Google *doesn’t buy Wiz (Cybersecurity) Acquisitions don’t just create value; they tell a story.

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VC Secrets: How I Use GRR and NRR Signals to Identify Investable Software Startups When evaluating software startups for investment, I rely on two key retention metrics: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Gross Revenue Retention (GRR). These metrics reveal how well a company retains its revenue and grows it through upsells, providing clear indicators of scalability and product-market fit. 📊 NRR > 100% and GRR > 80% are my go-to benchmarks. Here’s how I break it down: 🚀 Rocket Ship (High NRR, High GRR): These startups are ideal candidates because they retain and expand revenue, signaling product-market fit and efficient scaling potential. 🪣 Leaky Bucket (High NRR, Low GRR): Growth through upsells, but customer churn is dragging retention down. I ask: Is the ICP misaligned? How quickly does the product deliver value? These insights help me assess whether the company can plug revenue leaks. 🔗 Shackled Sprinter (Low NRR, High GRR): Great retention but no upsell strategy—my focus shifts to understanding their upsell/cross-sell strategy. Even great retention won’t lead to the scalable growth I seek if expansion opportunities are lacking. 🧟‍♂️ Walking Dead (Low NRR, Low GRR): Weak product-market fit with high churn. High risk without a clear pivot strategy. I look for potential pivots or I pass if no clear path to recovery exists. 📍 Sometimes, just one is enough: While I usually consider both metrics, sometimes one carries more weight than the other, depending on the startup's stage. For example, early-stage companies with strong GRR show retention potential, while growth-stage companies with high NRR indicate scalability. 👉 Bottom Line: By analyzing GRR and NRR within the retention dimension, I gain insights into how well a company maintains and grows revenue from its existing customer base. In addition, I evaluate the economic dimension through unit economics to understand the underlying financial sustainability. Together, these metrics reveal a company’s growth potential, with segment-level insights often uncovering hidden risks or opportunities that guide investment decisions and post-investment support. #VentureCapital #SaaS #Fundraising #SeriesA #Seed #Startups #CustomerRetention

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Tell your story from the customers point of view

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✨ Breaking: Swish Ventures Announces New Fund.- Swish Ventures Managed by Omri Casspi, Swish Ventures is a $60 million seed fund focusing on cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI. Looking to invest in fast-growing tech companies. Includes notable investors like Sequoia. Launch Date: December 2, 2024. https://lnkd.in/d9rWJdd6 Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

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The Racist AI Glitch That Exposed Google's Blind Spots (🧵) 🔹In June 2015, Brooklyn-based programmer Jacky Alciné tweeted a disturbing issue with Google's new Photos app. It mistakenly labeled photos of him and a black friend as "Gorillas." 😨 🔹Jacky tweeted, "Google Photos, y'all f****d up. My friend's not a gorilla." This highlighted a major flaw in Google's algorithm, revealing a glaring case of racial bias. 🔹Google quickly responded, with senior engineer Yonatan Zunger asking for permission to analyse the data and promising to fix the issue ASAP. 🔹Google later apologised, saying, "We're appalled and genuinely sorry. There’s a lot of work to do with automatic image labelling, and we’re working to prevent these mistakes." 🔹The error came from the algorithm, which could recognise categories like "graduation" and "skyscrapers," but wrongly labeled black individuals as "gorillas." 🔹This wasn’t an isolated incident. Tech's racial bias had been seen before, from digital cameras misreading Asian eyes to webcams struggling to detect darker skin tones. The 2015 incident shined a light on how algorithmic bias in tech can reinforce harmful stereotypes and why diversity in AI development is critical. 🔹Five years later, Google still blocked users from searching for the word "gorilla" on Google Photos, highlighting the persistent challenge in fixing this issue. 🦍❌ 🔹Neural networks can learn tasks beyond what engineers can explicitly code, but the responsibility falls on engineers to choose the right data for training. The wrong input can result in dangerous bias. This incident depicts that while AI can be powerful, the data it’s trained on is crucial. The tech community must remain vigilant to prevent bias from creeping into our algorithms. Follow me for more such stories! ✨ #ArtificialIntelligence #aiethics

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"First-time founders often brag about how many employees they have, whereas second-time founders brag about how high their revenue is per employee is."

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𝗜 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝟭𝟬 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 💎 Using ONLY Brainz's Partnership Approach 🤝. Below is the Brainz Growth Blueprint I follow 👉 That accelerated startups from 0 to $20M in <24 Months 🚀  It's Called 👉 Vision to Value Catalyst 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟰 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗹 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘇: ⏩ Concept Validation & Refinement 🔍 ⏩ Rapid Prototyping & Development ⚡ ⏩Strategic Branding & Positioning 📢 ⏩Scalable Growth & Market Dominance 📈 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 "𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆" 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭 - Understand Your Vision & Challenges 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮 - Align Tech With Your Goals 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯 - Prototype & Iterate Quickly 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰 - Craft a Compelling Brand Story 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱 - Launch With a Solid Strategy 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟲 - Scale Operations & Resources 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟳 - Leverage Our Partner Network 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟴 - Achieve Market Leadership 🏆 𝗕𝗨𝗧     The Channels of Collaboration Can Evolve 👉  We Adapt to Your Startup's Needs 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲: ⏩  Dedicated Project Management 📋 ⏩  In-house expert Consultations 🧠 ⏩  Investor & Partner Connections 🔗 ⏩  Ongoing Strategic Advisory 🎯 𝗔𝗡𝗗    The Trick is Adapting to Change👉 Agile Mindset 🔄 (This is what separates success from failure) Because let's be real  👉  Markets Evolve Rapidly! ⚡ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲: 👉  Weekly Progress Tracking 📊 👉  Monthly Goal Realignment 🎯 👉  Quarterly Strategy Recalibration 🔭 👉  Annual Vision & Impact Review ♻️ Stay Ahead of Market Shifts 🌊 𝗔𝗡𝗗 you need to make sure. You Embrace Our Guiding Philosophy. Brainz Platform is just the catalyst 🆙 If you want to Build a Legendary Startup 🏰 You NEED a Visionary Partner 👉  NOT Just Tools REPOST: ♻️ If Startup Greatness drives you? 🔥 𝗣𝗦.  𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀: 1️⃣  Read this, feel inspired, but wait to take action. 2️⃣ Work with Brainz to scale your AI/Blockchain startup to $20M and beyond. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱?  ✅ Start Your Project: 👉 Book a discovery call at https://lnkd.in/eN9d5kuj.

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