The architecture behind a one-person tech startup
As grandiose as the title of this article might sound, I should clarify we’re talking about a low-stress, one-person company that I run from my flat here in Germany.
NDA expired, let’s spill the beans on a weird startup
Many moons ago, when I was very young and you were even younger... London was in full bloom of tech-startups. I was running my own consultancy. Dashing from business to business, trying to pick up work as an expert in this new-fangled "Mobile Internet" thing. Some of the companies I worked with were great. Some of…
I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
When good ideas make bad business
Zillow lost money because they weren't willing to lose money
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About that time I had an outburst during the Y Combinator Interview
And what it taught me.
5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
This is a story about me dreaming of building an online project that generates revenue, seeking financial independence and creative freedom. After five years and no success, it's still a dream. Let me tell you more about my failed projects. Planetoid (2015-2016) It's all started with a game. Who doesn't
Building apps in minutes, not months
In order to build the many experiments for my research on the future of personal computing, and the subsequent demos for these Lab Notes, I needed a way to build much faster than was presently possible...
Use Pixar's story formula to win over investors
A framework to make your pitch 10x more compelling in a few minutes
How I helped build a profitable MVP over a weekend
A couple years ago, a good friend of mine, who was in charge of operations at a food delivery company, got laid off after a merger - they kept the guy from the other side.
What I wish I knew before building a Shopify App
I spent the last week building an App for the Shopify Marketplace. It was unlike anything I've done before on the Web. Knowing some of the things I'm going to share, before you start building, could save you some headache.
Evaluating Modest SaaS Business Ideas
I'm evaluating new SaaS business ideas, and I wanted to share a little bit about exactly how I'm evaluating them.
Abundant Capital
The venture capital industry was built on the premise that both capital and high quality companies are scarce. For most of the history of the industry, this has been true. I remember sitting at...
How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co
In January 2020 I closed a $5.1M seed round, my first financing for my first company. I’ve closed another ~$6M since then. This is how I raised that first round.
Goodbye YC
I sent this email to the whole team at YC yesterday: When I joined YC 7.5 years ago, there weren’t many people around. PG and Jessica were still running things. We had offices in Mountain View,...
How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
Considering every startup confronts this question at some point, I was surprised by how little has been written about it. Particularly anything actionable. So I decided to do my own digging. I spent the past month personally reaching out to founders, scouring interviews, and tapping the Twitterverse. Below, you’ll…
How to Kill a Unicorn
I took a deep dive on freemium pricing and decided to document it in this post. Why freemium? I think it’s how the little guys can win against market leaders. Basically, it’s how you kill a unicorn. Notion, Figma, Canva, Mailchimp, and Segment. What do all of these
Want a killer product? Become more opinionated
I laugh at this tweet every time I remember it:
It's time to build: a New World's Fair
We must look to the past — to the World's Fairs — to build the future.
How to Create a SaaS and Compete with the Big Players as a Solo Founder
Nowadays in the internet it is pretty well known that you should validate your product before you even start building it. However, if the product already exists, then the market is already validated for you. Therefore you can consider yourself in a low risk position.