The Opening, Midgame and Endgame in Startups

kept by eddie feb 12

The best founders operate across three simultaneous startup phases—opening, midgame, and endgame—rather than sequentially, enabling superior adaptability and strategy.

Meta's AI Chief On AI Beef, New Models And Life With Zuck - EP 71 Alex Wang
Meta hired Scale AI co-founder Alex Wang to lead its AI resurgence, resulting in the Muse Spark model as Meta attempts to catch OpenAI and Anthropic.
also on Alex Wang, #startups
Services: The New Software
Sequoia argues the next $1T company will sell work as an AI-native service, not a tool, capturing the larger services budget by automating intelligence-heavy tasks.
also on Sequoia Capital, #startups, #business-strategy
Exclusive | The Fundraising Tactic AI Startups Are Using to Juice Valuations - WSJ
AI startups juice valuations by selling stakes to lead investors at a lower valuation, then offering shares to other backers at a much higher valuation soon after, as exemplified by Serval and Sequoia.
also on Sequoia Capital, #startups, #business-strategy
How Universities Should Prepare Founders
Universities should prepare future founders by teaching them to build things through technical disciplines and encouraging independent projects, rather than offering formal entrepreneurship courses.
also on Paul Graham, #entrepreneurship, #startups
The Brand Age | Hacker News
Paul Graham argues that as technology eliminates functional product differences, brands become the primary moat, using Swiss watch industry as a case study.
also on Paul Graham, #business-strategy