The Network Effects Map continues to help @NFX founders see what others do not and max their efforts to build the dominant companies in their sectors. nfx.com/post/network-effects…

After investing in 60+ marketplaces, we made a list for Founders of the 19 tactics we’ve seen to solve the classic chicken-or-egg problem. What comes first, supply or demand? The solutions were often counter-intuitive. @NFXGuild @GigiLevy @peteflint. nfx.com/post/19-marketplace-…

Fundraising is not natural. As a Founder of 4 VC-backed companies & now a VC, it's painful to see great Founders get tripped up by counterintuitive realities of pitching. Today I'm sharing 16 non-obvious pitching lessons that make a critical difference. nfx.com/post/16-fundraising-…

Thread: What city you live in. Who you date or marry. Which job you choose. We think we make these choices ourselves. The unseen hand in them all is the networks that surround us. Networks are key to life's 7 big crossroads: nfx.com/post/your-life-netwo…

Today we're releasing the Network Effects Bible: a comprehensive collection of terms & insights related to network effects, all in one place. Very excited to finally publish. A great effort by the whole team @GigiLevy @peteflint @NFXGuild nfx.com/post/network-effects…

As a Founder I learned that growth for your startup takes personal growth, too. There's no company transformation without personal transformation. Highest return for your company is often investment in yourself.

Our new $450M Fund 3 @NFX is the largest pre-seed & seed-only fund in the world. We don't do Series A's. We're here to be your first investor and have the firepower to really have your back, including 45 employees and software systems. nfx.com/post/announcing-fund…

Today my friend Keith @rabois and I break down the highly contrarian mental models behind @Square @PayPal @Yelp @Tesla @SpaceX. Top Founders do not study rules so they can follow them. They master the rules so they can reinvent them. nfx.com/post/how-contrarians…

As a 4-time Founder, here's a big thing I learned when fundraising: Avoid complex investment terms at all costs. If a VC comes at you with a complexity in their terms, walk away. Get money elsewhere. The best deal terms go to those who set their own.

Silicon Valley is no longer a place. It's now a mindset -- a set of cultural network protocols that power the high density and network efficiency of the tech ecosystem.

A great startup idea has compounding benefits for you over time. It's a myth that execution is the only thing that matters. Mediocre execution of an excellent idea will often win over excellent execution of a mediocre idea.

It's a myth that startups are 1% idea & 99% execution. The idea matters, a lot. At @NFX we work w/ many repeat & new Founders at idea stage. After >300 investments, we've seen clear patterns behind A+ ideas. Now we're sharing 5 patterns we've seen: nfx.com/post/hidden-patterns…

Just announced our NFX Fund II $275M. We're doubling-down on seed stage because we think it's the most important stage. And we're fighting for creative-startup culture over money-first culture. nfx.com/post/announcing-nfx-… @peteflint @GigiLevy @NFXGuild

I've heard mediocre PM's say: "We can build a product fast, good, OR cheap. Pick two. You can't have all three." This is a corrosive mindset used by bureaucrats to justify mediocrity, or people afraid of failure so they set the bar low. Build your product fast, good, AND cheap.

<Contrary to what many Founders believe>, As a CEO, you are Storyteller-in-Chief. Telling your story in compelling ways, and adapting that story to the audience and the moment, is your most important job.

Founders in 2019 are the luckiest generation of entrepreneurs. You were bequeathed the internet, mobile, tracking software, AWS. You can get feedback on your product and iterate instantly. There's never been a better time in history to be a Founder.

Big day for @NFX. Announcing our fourth equal GP, Morgan Beller (@beller). She is a star. Co-founder of Libra & Fb's @novi wallet. Alumna of @Facebook @Medium @a16z. One of the most connected people in tech. Here's a look into the decision: nfx.com/post/announcing-new-…

Over the last 15 years, we saw tremendous consumer marketplace success stories: Uber, Airbnb, Etsy, etc. In the next 10 years, I predict we'll see the same thing with B2B marketplaces and Market Networks that are being built today.

If you're wondering whether or not your startup idea is any good, ask yourself this question: "What technology has changed in the last 3-36 months that will let me create this new product?" If you have an answer, that's a good sign.

When people ask me how to build a great startup career, I ask them what their superpower is. What's the one thing you can be counted on to do better than anyone else on the team? No matter where you work, get a superpower. Then people know what to come to you for.

We are looking for very specific founder types that we’ve seen be successful in consumer. Sometimes we call them “savage.” They are obsessive, competitive, disagreeable, opinionated, insanely smart, and neuro-divergent. They are fast, confident enough to take in new information and change, and sensitive to the nuance of psychology and language. They think small on the details and big on the business. A bit angry, a bit crazy.

Speed is your greatest weapon in a startup, so be careful about spending time with potential acquirers. If you're ready to sell your company, sell. If you're not, walk away and get back to business.

On LinkedIn @eladgil just calls himself a "Startup Helper." Humble title for one of the best angel investors I know (@stripe @Square @airtable @coinbase @Airbnb & more). Today we explore what he sees in future Unicorns that others do not: nfx.com/post/unusual-signs-b…

Now is the best time in 8 years to be a Founder of social/communications products. Needs are shifting, and that creates new opportunities for both consumer and enterprise. In this essay & discussion w/ my friend @joshelman, we break down what's happening. nfx.com/post/next-social-era…

1/ Founder psychology is the greatest point of startup leverage during downturns. Leading my own VC-backed startups successfully through the 2000 & 2008 downturns, I noticed 8 mind shifts of CEOs that excelled despite the crisis. nfx.com/post/psychology-winn…

Long term thinking has the biggest payoff at the greatest moments of volatility.

We know of 13 distinct types of Network Effects - each with their own complex playbook. Today we're making the Network Effects Map & Manual available to all Founders. Resources for learning how nfx work, & primers for understanding the playbooks. Enjoy. nfx.com/post/network-effects…

Founders... “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. When it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone only I will remain.” — Dune

C'mon people, are we really surprised by @deepseek_ai? Did you really not see it coming? From our @nfx blog in 2022: "The [core AI models] are going to be open-source and easy to use. Models is where the generative AI revolution started – but it’s not where it will end. It’s not going to take long, maybe 3 years, for models to approximate each other and reach human limits. The ability for these models to differentiate themselves stops at those limits. Data network effects asymptote over time. An AI model that is 5% or even 20% percent better than the competition is a pretty slim defensibility. The AI models will be switched out at will. Which of course ... commodify them.” There will be several more 100X reductions in speed and cost in the next two years, and eventually it will run on CPU's and we won't need GPU's, and it will run on your smartphone and laptop without heating it up. Note that @Meta pulled the same trick as DeepSeek but not as well (yet) with Llama which is to say "Fuck, I lost, so I'll blow the whole market up by doing opensource 6 months after you. If I can't win, I'm going to keep you from winning." Many players have it in their strategic insterest to open source AI capability. Meta is one. China is a second. There are many more. It's inevitable. Hasn't this been obvious from the beginning? The defensibility of these models companies is not to have the proprietary model that is better than another. That advantage asymptotes within a few years. They have a short window to create network effects on top of those models with workflow software, or security layers, or marketplaces, or 10 other methods. But that window closes. DeepSeek or the next DeepSeek, whoever it is, signals the closing of their window. These big dick swinging $500B projects, "I'm good for my $80B," or whatever, just got caught up in the competition with each other, ignoring the reality of the technology, misallocating VC money, shareholders money, and now trying to get taxpayer money. Once again, faster and smarter beats bigger. And look, if DeepSeek turns out to be not as great as we think now, don't worry, the next DeepSeek will be. And the next.

Great product people are a paradox. The must have the faith to fully commit, but also see how their product is flawed & can be better. "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas and still retain the ability to function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Launching VCMatch today! A better way for Founders to find the right VC, and for VC's to get matched to the right companies. It's like taking a test on you and your startup. 6,600+ VC profiles and 4M+ connections between Founders and VC's. @NFXGuild nfx.com/post/announcing-vc-m…

Founders, when you meet with VCs, don't just fixate on getting their money. Learn from them. Even if you get a meeting, there's a 90%+ chance you won't end up raising money from that VC. So if that's your only goal, you're wasting 90% of your VC meetings.

One of the things we look for in Founders we invest in is a deep understanding of networks & network effects (nfx). In the internet age, this is such an advantage that we made it a core part of our investing thesis. It's why we're called NFX @nfxguild.

Being right is not as important as being fast.

People think that because we live in a digital age, everyone has equal access to information. But this isn’t really true. In a world of superabundant information, knowing what to pay attention to is the hard part. And our networks are the best knowledge curation filters.

The best Founders I meet treat their VC fundraising meetings more like strategy sessions. Their mindset is not to raise money, but to learn and improve. Today I describe this winning psychology and share 40+ great Q's to ask VCs in your next meeting. nfx.com/post/40-questions-to…

I'm excited to share @jeff_jordan @a16z led the $15M Series A in NFX company Incredible Health @JoinIncredible, a hiring marketplace for nurses & hospitals. Here's what we saw in the Founders early-on, so all Founders benefit: cc/ @jamesjoaquin @obviousvc nfx.com/post/why-we-invested…

Great Founders do something different. They are both “here and now” and also obsessed with what will endure 10 or 50 years from now. I talked with my friend @Kevin2Kelly — one of the great tech futurists — to break down this paradox. nfx.com/post/paradox-of-geni…

Speed is your startup's only advantage - like an X-Wing fighter in Star Wars going up against the Death Star.

Having the "best place to work" is no longer about having a fancy office with 3-star chefs. Now, it's about offering talent: 1. The chance to do great work. 2. Great compensation for that work. 3. Access to a strong culture and community of coworkers

Media Marketplaces consistently top stock charts & form the fabric of our society - FB, G, Twitter, CNN, NYT, Netflix, Substack, etc. They monetize attention. How they really work and what's next: nfx.com/post/media-marketpla…

Founders, keep in mind that VCs are a resource for more than just capital. They're pattern recognition machines that have been trained by thousands of data points from all the startups they've seen. They're a strategic wellspring of the startup ecosystem.

Product Founders have to be like water running downstream between rocks. We don't know the exact path the water will take, but we can see the stream bed very clearly.

As a Founder, your product is your whole world. You eat, sleep, and breathe it. Your customer is very different. They have a big, complex life. A job, family, friends, smartphone with 100 apps. You're somewhere buried in all that, fighting for a tiny sliver of their attention.

Very excited to be announcing!

In practice, relationships don't form at random. 5 conditions predict how likely it is you'll form a lasting relationship with someone: 1. You see them a lot 2. You know the same people 3. You met them in a formative life period 4. You live close 5. You go through difficulties

96% of value in tech companies is created after Year 10. But to capture that value, you have to design for durability now - right at the beginning. Here's how to think through your own Durability Formula. nfx.com/post/durability-form…

Building a great social product means creating something that compels our emotions, our psyche, and our identity.

"Pitch meetings" are badly named. They're better seen as strategy meetings that sometimes result in raising capital.

Watching so many people -- in both startups and politics -- struggling to make things better, I keep thinking: “You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” -- Buckminster Fuller

1/ What you name your company matters a Lot #nfxguild essays.nfx.com/your-company-… Bodega is a stark negative example

Forbes article about the new fundraising systems we're creating @NFX. The next one is The Bio Startup Draft, in partnership with @SynBioBeta and involves 10's of other VC's and top founders. Apply by July 17 at startupdraft dot org forbes.com/sites/johncumbers…

Good Founders spend their day thinking about their products. Great Founders spend their time thinking about how users think and feel.

You can't just go around cloning products. (Founders do it anyway to play it safe) On the other hand, 100% original product ideas are unlikely to work. The sweet spot is what I call "new energy"- the right balance between being original but not taking on too much market risk.

Had a great time as always talking with my friend Shaan Puri @ShaanVP on the My First Million podcast @myfirstmilpod open.spotify.com/episode/6dC…

Today we @NFXGuild are announcing The NFX Archives, the 31 most important network effect resources (so far). It features iconic lessons from @BobMetcalfe @fredwilson @WarrenBuffett @benthompson @bgurley @ttunguz @anuhariharan @andrewchen @benedictevans + nfx.com/post/network-effects…

We've found "Founder-Market Fit" to be one of the most predictive signs of startup success. But it's not just CEO industry experience. In reality, there's a lot more to it than that, including psychology, personality, and team fit. nfx.com/post/4-signs-founder…

I don’t think most people know that Lyft was first to launch peer to peer ride sharing and Uber copied them (30 days later).

The biggest companies that have arisen since the Internet Era began in 1994 have one thing in common: they found a way to unlock new supply. Google: newly accessible supply of websites Facebook: new supply of online user-generated content Airbnb: new supply of lodging etc.

Second Time Founders have an advantage because of their experience and deeper network. You have a statistically higher chance of succeeding with your second company than with your first. 30% vs 21%

The biggest thing @tfadell learned from Steve Jobs was storytelling, storytelling, storytelling. Today, Tony and @peteflint take a candid look at how great product designers build stories that are 50% emotional, 50% rational nfx.com/post/product-framewo…

My article on @TechCrunch on the rise of Market-Networks. We have 6 of them in the first @NFXGuild class.​ techcrunch.com/2015/06/27/fr…

Growth is not a gimmick or a set of techniques. Growth is a mindset. I've founded or or helped >10 startups get >10 million users. These are some of the key ways of thinking that I believe are the true drivers of lasting startup growth. @NFXGuild nfx.com/post/psychology-star…

"There are 13 ways of doing any given thing. 11 of them will work. Just pick one and do it." -Dennis Hightower, former head of Disney International once told me this. Still one of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten as an entrepreneur.

Our values are what make us.

Founders are swimming in changing VC waters. AI is reshaping how the industry works, and there are now 32,000 active VC's, up from about 150 30 years ago. This essay about what we're calling Venture Capital 3.0 covers the history, the present and the future. nfx.com/post/venture-capital… 1) With VC 3.0, for founders, more investors means more capital and better terms for you. It also means more competitors will be funded to fight you. 2) AI is accelerating this shift. Investors are using AI to find, analyze, and reach out to founders before they even start fundraising. You may get 10+ LinkedIn messages or emails the second you land a big contract or change your LinkedIn to say "working on something new." That's AI at work. And you have to decide which of those 10+ calls (if any) are worth taking. 3) AI will help VC's support you better, connect you with resources faster, and make smarter investment decisions. 4) AI lets VC's expand the surface area for startup investments -- they are able to looking beyond software into defense, energy, robotics, bio, climate, and even into really weird ideas. If you’re building something ambitious, now is the time. Venture Capital 3.0 is here. Go get 'em.

During the consumer software winter of 2014-2023 only one VC invested in the two biggest hits — TikTok and Discord. @joshelman who was at Greylock then. (He also pounded the table for Snap at both the series A and B in 2012. )

1/ Today we're making public our Second Time Founders Manual. As Founders of 10 companies ourselves, this is what we wish we'd known earlier: advantages and disadvantages, your psychology, your team, capital raising, etc. nfx.com/post/second-time-fou…

The fastest startup is almost always the winner.

In partnership with @crunchbase, today we're releasing the VC & Founder Sentiment Survey. Purpose is to track the ongoing thinking/actions of early-stage startups/VC's during the COVID-19 crisis. We hope this helps everyone navigate more confidently. @nfx nfx.com/post/the-vc-startup-…

Social media has become more about media and less about social.

Huge congrats to @AnnaPinol_ as we promote her to Partner at @NFX! Originally from Barcelona, Anna went to the GSB and then cofounded a startup as COO. We backed her startup and got a chance to watch her operate before we made her an offer to join as Principal 2.5 years ago. We're lucky to have her, and so are founders. nfx.com/post/anna-pinol-nfx-…

In every era, technology favors some creative skills with huge quantities of money, while other creative skills bring the creator little or zero money. It pays to understand what talent is being showered with money and status - and why. nfx.com/post/economics-of-cr…

It's rare for Founders to see a teardown of the Idea-to-IPO journey, in the Founder/CEO's own words. But today @jeffiel uncovers with @PeteFlint the playbooks & counterintuitive strategies that took @Twilio from crazy idea to $63B market cap. nfx.com/post/the-insider-sto…

There's growing demand for intimate shared online experiences around doing things we love. Online connection is becoming less about asynchronous consumption and more about real-time togetherness.

What people don't understand about @pdavison's and @rohanseth's Clubhouse funding is it's just the beginning. They will iterate. Like @benrbn and Houseparty did. These are artistic products that depend on the talent of the team over time. nfx.com/post/next-social-era…

After founding 4 VC backed startups and investing in 300, you start to see some patterns. There are some non-obvious habits and states of mind that turn out to be real engines for world class co's. We describe some here. nfx.com/post/9-habits-world-… @Peteflint @gigilevy @NFXGuild

Speed is everything. You can beat a chess grandmaster if you can move twice for every one move.

VC's have the upper hand negotiating with Founders because they do it more often. Here are some of the ways they do it, and what Founders can do to balance the scales. Better communication leads to better outcomes. @GigiLevy @NFXGuild @peteflint nfx.com/post/8-top-skills-fo…

Startup value creation mostly accrues in the out-years when usage, revenue, and growth compound. But in order to capture all of the compounding value in your business, you need to start at the beginning to position for long-term durability. nfx.com/post/durability-form…

Pleased to announce our investment in Moov. B2B marketplace for used manufacturing equipment. 400 companies signed up when co. was in stealth. $1/2 billion in listed equipment. Profitable. news.crunchbase.com/news/moo…

There are 3 levels of network topology that shape our lives: 1 - Physical (cities) 2 - Social (friendships, co-workers) 3 - Digital COVID-19 accelerates the growth of the digital level. Our online relationships are becoming a much more powerful network force than before.

Sometimes an innovation is so much better, faster that it scares people. Dating apps. Ubers. Online payments. Scary at first, normal now. Generative Tech. Uncomfortable now, normal soon. There’s a pattern to it.   Let's break it down.   @NFX 🧵1/9

1/ As a Founder, your data strategy can be powerful — but it's typically not. That might be disappointing, but to build a lasting business, we need to understand the realities of what actually makes data valuable. nfx.com/post/truth-about-dat…

Today @NFX we're launching a new software tool so Founders can quickly find the top Scouts & Angels. Often the unseen hand in fundraising, these operators are the friends of VC firms. Until now there wasn't an obvious path for Founders to find them. Introducing Scouts & Angels.

The most useful information isn't published publicly. Despite the digitization of everything, the information that really moves the needle is still often transmitted in person. That's why it's still so important to be embedded in a network that's concentrated on tech.

We’re in Wave 1 of a 3-Wave Generative Tech revolution. 1: Wrappers around AI models 2: Generative AI Inside 3: Visionary But Wave 1 thinking is starting to repeat. There's an extreme window of opportunity in Waves 2 & 3. nfx.com/post/3-waves-generat…

For most founders and their startups, remote work is unlikely to mean working in isolation from a cabin in the woods or a beach in Bali. Instead, they will continue to cluster in cities because they remain points of access to dense networks of capital, talent, and ideas.

Marketplace Founders commonly overfit their growth strategies to well-documented examples like @Uber and @Airbnb. But what worked for other marketplace businesses rarely maps perfectly to yours. nfx.com/post/marketplace-exp…

Speed is a magnet for top talent in an ecosystem. The best nodes are attracted to rapid cadence.

My god. It’s the VC podcast Cambrian explosion. This category must be growing 50% per month. Someone just sent me an email with 38 VC podcasts in the last 9 days, and the list is missing several podcasters I already know about.

In this conversation, my friend @Houseparty Founder @benrbn & I share the candid story most Founders never get to hear about the long, authentic, and personal journey of building a #1 social media product. @GigiLevy @NFX and I were lucky early investors. nfx.com/post/insider-story-h…

It's no coincidence that the 3 most valuable social networks outside of China - LinkedIn, FB, & Twitter - were the first to offer real identity profiles. 100s of social networks launched before real names became acceptable. They all died. Real-name identity was the unseen key.

Read or listen to a conversation I had with @eugenewei about engineering status & scarcity into product design. We dig deep into the psychology of what makes products and services work. Very compelling stuff. nfx.com/post/status-games/?u…

Some people who would make poor colleagues in-office may be great remote workers, and vice versa. Remote work will change who we consider to be top performers.

Be careful not to lose the energy and camaraderie that in-person work creates if you transition fully to remote. Remote work may be lifestyle-friendly, but in the startup world competition is fierce. You have to retain a competitive energy level to stay in the game

Great article about venture capital and black founders from the top healthcare reporter at CNBC featuring our own @nfx @ImanAbuzeid and Rome Portlock. cnbc.com/2020/06/06/vcs-miss…

There's a reason we named our firm @NFX. NFX = Network effects. Founders who build network effects into their companies, win. And we know how to teach it. So we made The Network Effects Masterclass to get you started. Get early access for your team: nfx.com/masterclass/network-…

Amazing what @t_xu @andyfang @stanleytang did with @DoorDash over the last 7 years. Thanks to @saarsaar who led the seed round and brought @stan_chudnovsky and me into that seed round @nfx. Great privilege for all involved to be able to create at such scale.

We've forgotten the phone call. It's incredibly efficient. Please add your phone number to your email signature. Let's talk on the phone again. @nfxguild