Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 330
Jul 5, 2022 · 64 min
“As a startup founder, you need to do the impossible. You build something that has never been built before, with a team that’s never worked together before, while learning dozens of new skills, making countless no-going-back decisions, all before you run out of money (and energy). It’s like being lost in the wilderness, in the dark, with only a vague sense of where you’re heading. Imagine if you had a map. From TikTok to Reddit to Uber…”
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 494
Aug 8, 2023 · 40 min
Lenny Rachitsky opens a seven-part B2B startup playbook by examining how successful B2B companies found their original ideas. Drawing on dozens of founder interviews, he argues that a strong B2B idea combines an…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 148
May 10, 2022 · 56 min
Todd Jackson, a seed-stage investor at First Round Capital, interviewed founders of eight companies (Vanta, Flexport, Cocoon, Good Dog, Snackpass, Rec Room, LaunchDarkly, Pinwheel) about how they chose and validated…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 326
Sep 12, 2023 · 35 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyPart five of a B2B startup series argues there is no formula for product-market fit, but founders' stories reveal a pattern. It proposes a five-step progression from one loving customer, to a paying customer, to…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 204
Oct 31, 2023 · 11 min
Jake Fuentes, co-founder of Cascade, reflects on the lessons from shutting down his B2B data-visualization startup after four years. He argues that failure rarely gets studied carefully, and that several decisions which…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 108
Nov 22, 2022 · 26 min
Suril Kantaria, co-founder and CEO of Savvy, recounts the arc of a fintech startup that let employees buy their own health insurance with payment cards, from early missteps to a 2022 acquisition by a market incumbent…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 243
Sep 17, 2024 · 24 min
Seed fundraising is presented as one of the most high-stakes and confusing parts of a founder's job, and this guide, co-written by two seed investors who have been involved in over 1,000 seed rounds, aims to make it…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 566
Dec 9, 2025 · 12 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyGuest author Terrence Rohan shares how five early employees who joined multiple iconic companies, including Palantir, OpenAI, Stripe, and Spotify, spotted breakout startups early. The post argues that three signals…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 275
Jan 9, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA founder whose product isn't gaining traction gets seven concrete options: talk to more users, narrow the target audience, rework positioning, try growth 'kickstarts', pivot to whatever shows pull, allow more time, or…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 239
May 16, 2023 · 11 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny explains what investors mean by a "venture-scale" startup: a credible path to roughly $100M in annual revenue and a $1B+ valuation within about a decade. He argues most ideas, including many successful products…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 305
Aug 15, 2023 · 37 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyPart two of a B2B startup series examines how founders validate an idea before committing. Drawing on interviews with about two dozen companies, it lays out four validation paths (manual, listening, prototype with…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 92
Sep 1, 2020 · 21 min
Marc McCabe, an experienced angel investor who has helped dozens of startups raise money from pre-seed to Series C, argues that fundraising is best treated as a structured, trust-building process rather than a scramble…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 93
Jan 25, 2022 · 25 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky reviews more than 140 of his angel investments, sharing seven surprises, a practical path into angel investing, and his startup evaluation criteria. His core argument is that access to good deals and a…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 193
Jan 28, 2020 · 8 min
Lenny Rachitsky compiles the most concrete and actionable definitions of product-market fit (PMF) from leading investors, founders, and operators, organized into signals before a product exists and signals after launch…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 254
Jul 26, 2022 · 54 min
Lenny Rachitsky's fourth installment in a six-part series on launching consumer businesses argues that reliable early growth comes from a small menu of tactics, and that founders should pick two or three and focus…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 26
Jun 23, 2020 · 3 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky answers an investor's question about evaluating marketplace ideas by arguing that the business fundamentals matter more than the marketplace structure itself. The free preview lays out the first several…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 30
Jul 21, 2021 · 4 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky examines whether startups need a strong 'why now' to win over investors and build large businesses. He argues a clear answer helps, since it can enable a much better product or open an untapped market…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 136
Sep 29, 2020 · 19 min
Lenny Rachitsky asked founders of about two dozen well-known companies when they first knew they had product-market fit. Every company had a recognizable moment, but many only saw it after months or years of compounding…
SVPG · Marty CaganJun 14, 2005
Jun 14, 2005 · 3 min
Marty Cagan argues that the common startup approach of funding engineers to build a product before validating it is inefficient and causes many good ideas to fail. Founders typically act as product manager, build in…
The Looking Glass · Julie Zhuo♥ 195
Jun 13, 2026
Subscriber post — summary onlyJulie Zhuo writes to people about to become wealthy through an IPO, acquisition, or successful business, framing a sudden liquidity event as a turning point. The essay appears to address how to handle that new reality…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 221
Sep 5, 2023 · 29 min
Lenny Rachitsky's fourth installment in his B2B startup series argues that finding your first ten customers starts with trust and hand-to-hand effort, not scalable channels. Drawing on interviews with founders of…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 571
May 12, 2020 · 22 min
Lenny Rachitsky surveys how major consumer apps acquired their first 1,000 users, drawing on founder interviews, books, and public accounts from companies like Tinder, Uber, Dropbox, Pinterest, and Airbnb. He distills…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 63
Jan 4, 2022 · 11 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny answers a first-time B2B founder's question about prioritization before product-market fit. He argues that typical frameworks suit large companies, lists common early-stage pitfalls, and proposes a single goal…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 53
Feb 16, 2021 · 13 min
Lenny Rachitsky announces Atelier Ventures, the debut $13 million fund of Li Jin, who coined the 'passion economy' term in a 2019 essay. The fund backs platforms that broaden access to new forms of work, lower barriers…