1
A startup doesn't need to be a unicorn
The Missing Middle Path: What VCs Don’t Tell You
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 25 posts.
2
I hacked a dating app (and how not to treat a security researcher)
Update: This post received a large amount of attention on Hacker News — see the discussion thread.
3
I am (not) a failure: Lessons learned from six failed startup attempts
A while back I wrote : I've had many, many failures in my life. (Hm, maybe I should write a blog post about that.) This is that post. I'm ...
4
Do things that don't scale, and then don't scale
There’s an old startup mantra — probably from the early Airbnb or Y Combinator days — that goes: “Do things that don’t scale.”
5
Practical UX for startups surviving without a designer
How to figure out what the user experience should be when you don’t have time, budget, or a design team.
6
Goodbye, Slopify
There’s no way I’m going to continue a subscription to a streaming service that suggests AI-generated music with AI-generated album covers. A bloated, Electron-based desktop application with a terrible UI is only going to add up.
7
Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
This is Verdi's personal website. He writes about interesting ideas or projects.
8
Microservices are a tax your startup probably can't afford
Why splitting your codebase too early can quietly destroy your team’s velocity — and what to do instead.
9
You’re a little company, now act like one (2009)
You're afraid that looking like being a small company means you'll lose sales. It's actually the opposite -- you're alienating your best customers.
10
I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)
This is the story of five years spent wandering around the JavaScript tech stack, wasting time, getting lost, and finally taking off.
11
Four years of running a SaaS in a competitive market
Looking back on the last four years, what worked, what didn't.
12
Why I stopped angel investing after 15 years, and what I'm doing instead
Plus: My interview with Oscar co-founder Mario Schlosser
13
Circular Financing: Does Nvidia's $110B Bet Echo the Telecom Bubble?
Nvidia's $110B vendor financing strategy mirrors Lucent's telecom bubble playbook. Analyzing customer concentration, GPU-backed debt, depreciation schedules & cash flow patterns to assess AI bubble risks.
14
HN Slop: AI startup ideas generated from Hacker News
Fresh AI generated startup ideas from the current Hacker News front page. Powered by Claude.
15
Angel Investors, a Field Guide
I’ve been lucky to work with some of the best angel investors in the business. When I started Akita, my angel investors were my mentor Jason Hong, superangel Elad Gil, #ANGELS co-founder Jana Messerschmidt, Eventbrite co-founders Kevin and Julia Hartz, Stanford professor Dan Boneh, and NBA player Kevin Durant. I…
16
Five years as a startup CTO: How, why, and was it worth it? (2024)
CTO as a Service / Fractional CTO by Sergey Khaladzinski2025155 points114 commentsCareer & Management details
I can't believe it's been five years since my last post… Five years since I decided to join an early stage startup as the CTO / "the tech guy". Five years since I took my last train
17
Shipping 100 hardware units in under eight weeks
Someone once told me hardware is hard...
18
Valve is running Apple's playbook in reverse
How a video game company built an empire by inverting the playbook
19
Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future
How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or di…
20
What's working for YC companies since the AI boom
The goal of this analysis was to understand what’s working for YC companies by looking at which ones have raised Series A rounds.
21
"Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore
We are in the middle of the biggest red ocean I have ever seen in software development.
22
We don't need startups, we need Digital-Mittelstand
While the German economy is stagnating, Digital-Mittelstand may offer a solution.
23
Let's get real about the one-person billion dollar company
The biggest hurdle is not AI capability, but founder pain tolerance.
24
Where to find ideas
A no-BS guide for new startups, new products, new GTM approaches, and new features
25
The buyer-pull and seller-push theories of sales
And 11 signs you've got it backwards