Fareed Mosavat

Yesterday, my team at Vareto announced the first-ever multiplayer modeling platform for Finance. 😍 Now that I can finally speak publicly about what we've been working on, the first thing I want to share is a screenshot from a live multiplayer session we did internally at the company. One of the interesting things about building enterprise software as a startup is that we're still too small to *need* our own product. So instead of doing what our customers do--expense budgeting, headcount planning, etc.--we use Vareto's multiplayer modeling to forecast fun things like total pet spend. Yep, that's right. We had 40 people go into a Vareto model and enter in bottom-up inputs for how much they expect to spend on their cats and dogs this year. 😂 While this isn't very useful--especially since many people entered in clearly exaggerated numbers--sessions like this helped prove that our new 2.0 platform can handle even "extreme" usage situations. (In reality, even if some enterprise customers have thousands of users in Vareto, only a handful are ever likely to be in the same model page at the same exact time given granular data permissions.) You can see more useful, realistic ways that finance and business teams can use Vareto multiplayer here: https://lnkd.in/gV9gqKwz

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Google asked yours truly about what it takes to succeed in today's market. ...And like a broken 💔 💿 record I had to talk about my "anti-lean startup" thesis. Here's the issue I see with lean startup thinking: 1️⃣ Encouraging rapid experimentation risks neglecting compelling strategy, leading teams to work on ideas without proper analysis, and crafting games they find fun but that is not enough to succeed in the current market. 2️⃣ MVPs prioritize quick release but often result in premature pivots from potentially strong ideas, failing to impress players due to their unpolished state. 3️⃣ Overemphasizing testing can stifle innovation, discouraging radical ideas. When resources are limited teams play it safe with incremental improvements. 4️⃣ Focusing on product over growth overlooks critical aspects of successful games, like planning for growth from the start. Relying solely on solid KPIs for marketing teams to scale games is insufficient in today's market. Suggest reading the more interesting thoughts about AI by Tomi Huttula and Belinda L.

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YC is right about so many things, but I think it gives one piece of unhelpful startup advice: "Don’t worry about competitors; listen to your customers." This advice worked when there were few excellent tech companies. Just listening to your customers and building fast in tech was a way to differentiate. But that’s no longer the case. Listening to your customers is still essential but must be paired with a strong strategy. I have wasted a lot of time treating this advice as gospel. I built a product that a small group of people loved but could not break into the market because listening to our users was not guided by a sound strategy. In an increasingly competitive market, you must understand how you will differentiate from your competitors in a way that cannot be quickly copied or competed away. Ultimately, there are three broad approaches to do this: Do something your current or future competitors (A) can’t do or (B) don’t want to do. Approach (A)—traditional “moats” or “powers”—sounds great, but it requires particular circumstances when in a crowded market with similarly funded and sized competitors. (B) is often the right strategic move for most startups competing in a crowded market—doing something your competitors don’t want to do. Three ways to do (B): 1. Adopt a counter-positioned business model If most competitors pursue a particular business model (e.g., freemium, PLG SaaS), switch to closed free trials through salespeople. Or vice-versa. The model still must work with your segment and give you some asymmetric advantage. But if so, it will be hard to copy you. 2. Focus on an undesirable segment Find a sub-segment of your market that is unattractive for some reason (e.g., longer buying cycles, harder needs to satisfy, harder to reach) and focus on them. They still must have a burning problem that your product meets in a differentiated way. And there should be a path to grow deeper with or extend beyond them. 3. Narrow to an uncomfortable level so that it feels like your “TAM” is too small This is a subset of 2: Find a way to further segment your existing ICP into a more targeted/narrow definition. This deeper segmentation needs to be along a meaningful dimension that creates differences in needs, preferences, and behaviors. It's a bonus if this smaller segment is fast-growing (H/T to YC for the excellent advice). Often, people are scared to do this because of a smaller “TAM,” but focus is a source of power. TAKEAWAY Struggling to get traction in a crowded market? Start doing one of three things today: change your business model to something hard for your competitors to copy, focus on an undesirable segment, or narrow your ICP to an uncomfortable place. Doing so will help you run in a less crowded lane where you’ll control your destiny. — I wrote this with Alper Yurder 🤝 at Flowla 🌊 from a discussion about how we're competing in crowded markets. Check out what he’s building; he’s thinking about this right.

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💯 If your team is drowning in support tickets and customer "rough edges" you should probably sit back and evaluate if you have a viable product. At the very least, you should evaluate if your product team is correctly focused on the needs of your customers when this pattern emerges. "Jessica pointed out that if our solution was to hire someone to deal with customer issues, then next week when we grew more we’d have to hire another person, then another, and so on. Her point was that the real solution isn’t solving tickets, it’s listening to customers and building a better product so customers never need to write in the first place." "In a sense, every customer support ticket is a privilege – someone took time out of their day to write about how to improve your product. But it’s also a failure – you could’ve saved them that time by making the product better and more intuitive in the first place. You can’t out-hire a bad product, or compensate for poor taste with a big support team." Customer feedback is a gift. Don't squander it or pawn the problem off on a man-power to solve it. A pile-up here is *always* a sign that your product direction needs improvement.

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20 hours in and Hoyo's formidable craftsmanship is on full display with ZZZ. ⭐1.0 release pool of 16 characters. Hoyo games have always prioritized quality over quantity, leaning instead on deep systems to enable diverse team comps / fun theorycrafting. Interestingly, Wuthering Waves also launched with the same # of characters in its 1.0 pool. I'm personally a big fan of this approach, and hope to see more games adopt it going forward. ⭐Female to male character ratio of 3:1. HSR currently stands at ~2:1 and Genshin at ~1.7:1. Every faction shown so far has only 1 male char. Surprising given Hoyo's recent titles have focused more on the "mainstream anime" audience instead of catering only to the core otaku audience. Very happy to see Hoyo honoring its roots here. They cooked and core fans are going to be very pleased with all of the fanservice (e.g. cinema artwork, main menu char selection, etc.). ⭐C6 / Cinema artwork is... IYKYK. They clearly tested it with HSR and are fully leaning into it with ZZZ. Congrats to all you Grace C6 havers. They knew exactly what they were doing. ⭐First Hoyo game with dedicated furries / anthropomorphic races. Ellen, Ben, and Von Lycaon are all very compelling characters. Wakayama Shion does such a fantastic job as Ellen's VA. Hoyo absolutely nailed the launch banner here. ⭐Just like other Hoyo games, ZZZ is more "casual" than it is "core." It doesn't demand much of your time as a single player live service title. For me it's the perfect side game that I can see myself spending 1-2 hours per week on. I don't expect everyone to like it (might be too "easy" for core gamers), but it's a winning formula that Hoyo has perfected for its target audience. ⭐One of Hoyo's underrated special talents is making "core" genres widely accessible from a gameplay standpoint across all platforms. ZZZ plays flawlessly on mobile, PC, and console without diluting the experience at all. Everything from the simplified switching system to the flat level design was intentional to make it incredibly accessible even for someone who has never played action games before. This is something really only Hoyo is capable of pulling off with such finesse. ⭐Really digging the comic / manga style storytelling. Glad to see Hoyo continue to innovate on how it delivers its stories and really looking forward to seeing more of this. ⭐Hoyo's investments into its music / animation departments are really paying off. The release trailer for ZZZ is Hoyo's best yet and their character drip marketing is perfected to the point where I'm basically forced to pull on every banner. In many ways, Hoyo is slowly becoming the Apple of the gaming industry, and their IPs are rapidly expanding the audience for gacha and anime on a global scale. I'm honestly humbled. Shut up and take my money... #zenlesszonezero

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I 💯agree with Oz Merchant on this topic. Some folks advise founders to pitch very selectively and 'pick your pitch' - you get one shot, choose it wisely? I'm 180 degrees opposite of that - be a promiscuous pitcher! - ABP - ALWAYS BE PITCHING. Because your pitch gets better with every no, take that feedback, learn, iterate. Right now it's taking 50-100 no's for Triangle co's to get funding, it's still tough out there, so get through the no's fast to get to a yes. Check out the event - also go see others pitch, it all helps you get better - pitching is like PMF - lots of iteration, tons of grinding to get through to the other side.

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In this week's episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with notable X personality Trung Phan about the evolving social media landscape, and how to tame the mayhem and pandemonium of X. https://lnkd.in/dVHMzbui

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🔥Tune In to the Latest Fireside Chat with a VC in Healthech🔥 What percentage of VCs are former founders? 30% maybe more? I'd think a fair amount, yet how *exactly* does that transition happen and what perspectives change *radically* afterwards? Sigvards Krongorns shared exactly that - his journey from PwC consultant to Healtech founder, to a VC shaping the future of Healthtech startups. What we talked about: ✨ Sigvards' transition from a PwC consultant to founder to a VC ✨ What steps are necessary to bring innovative medical devices from concept to market ✨ How being a founder can prepare you for a role in venture capital ✨ What strategies help navigate the regulatory landscape in healthtech startups ✨ The right way to engage with VCs for startup funding ✨ What future trends in venture capital and Healthtech look like #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation #StartupJourney #HealthcareInnovation #Entrepreneurship #FiresideChat #VentureCapitalInsights Full conversation can be found here:

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One of the most challenging parts of running a tech startup is raising investment. It takes patience, persistence, lots of phone/ zoom calls, and true belief in your product to build trust. If you're thinking about raising capital, here's a quick list of a few things that many VC’s and private investors look for: ·     A clear, concise pitch deck that both tells your story and paints a business case. ·     At least one builder founder, preferably an engineer, but UI/UX may be considered as well. ·     Traction including on-boarded clients, revenue and testimonials. ·     A strong team who has demonstrated past success.   If you’re an investor in the SaaS and/ or entertainment space, I’d love to connect with you to see what makes a project stand out in your eyes!

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Nice overview of how we're using data to inform how we invest in early-stage founders. We'll be announcing more this summer but we're seeing some really interesting early data. https://lnkd.in/exU_Juf5

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I’m seeing an increasing number of founders (and friends) exit their startups this year. Most of them have never exited a business before, and unfortunately, roughly half of them are likely to end up in dispute post-close. The most common reason is a term that almost everyone has never heard of. Working Capital Adjustments (WCA) are part of the broader Purchase Price Adjustments (PPA) in a standard M&A agreement. They intend to adjust the purchase price based on the actual working capital at closing compared to a previously agreed-upon target. This prevents the seller from emptying the bank accounts and running off with inventory before the deal closes. This mechanism is disputed so widely because Working Capital is often defined as “GAAP, consistently applied” — and this is not specific enough. A dispute arises when the buyer and seller interpret items differently, such as accounts receivable. These may seem small, but the cost can be in the millions. Many lawyers suggest that the solution is to draft a detailed dispute resolution process, which ultimately leads to higher fees for the lawyers. We believe the better solution is transparency. Referencing a pre-agreed set of financial statements and calculations that are up to date in real time during the closing process can align buyers and sellers. Combining this with a defined list of Accounting Policies and using GAAP only as a fallback mechanism safeguards against dispute and ultimately protects the sale proceeds.

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In a recent interview, I was asked about the declining interest in strategy games over the last decade. Quantic Foundry adds data to the conversation but can't answer the fundamental question. They pose these, instead: 💡 Why do you think gamers have become less interested in strategic thinking and planning? Are there other potential causes that come to mind? 💡 Do you feel your attention span and ability to think deeply has changed since the emergence of social media and/or smartphones? 💡 Are there other documented changes in our media-consumption habits or cognitive metrics that you think might be related to this? 💡 Have you seen similar or related findings specific to gamers and games research?

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🚨 Announcing the 2nd cohort of the FundraisingHackers.com “Seed+ bootcamp” we’re hosting together with Slava Solonitsyn (ex-VC and top YC founder, $180M+ raised), read below. A few weeks ago we ended the 1st cohort and it truly was a blast 🎇 14 startups across Seed, Seed+/Series A stages (and US/Europe/Asia) participated, including YC alums and exited founders. A bunch of them have already successfully raised. Some are in the process right now. Some have postponed their raise saving them a bunch of time/nerves not spent on failed fundraising. This pic is from the final workshop we’ve hosted. If you’re fundraising (or planning to in the next 3-6 months) you defo wanna check this out. This is not a course — we’ve already outsourced our “parallel fundraising playbook” (comment with “playbook” if you want the link). Instead, we provide you with a deep dive into YC-style best fundraising practices and give you a supportive environment to go and raise, period: 1. Share the “off the record” ins and outs of the parallel fundraising playbook with real-life examples/stories we’re never going to share anywhere else publicly 2. Help you understand your momentum and fundraising timeline so as not to make the wrong (too early/too late) decision 3. Provide you with an accountability group of peer founders (your first taskforce members if you don’t have any yet!) 4. Help you to refine your story/narrative and pitch materials to meet the expectations of top VCs 5. Work through your challenges/questions during office hours/group workshops 6. Give you access to our exclusive FundraisingHackers.com workspace with tons of useful content: from investor databases to guides, tools, templates, and much more Places are limited and you can get in on a first come first serve basis, so hurry up and apply, link is in the comments.

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The discussion with Jason Fried, Co-Founder and CEO of 37signals, during a recent ProducTea with Leah episode (#42) was great. A particular one-minute segment (~14:20) really stuck with me. When asked about failures, Jason states: 🗣 “I don’t really think about failure. How does evolution work? Evolution is not sitting there using energy thinking about the wing shape that didn’t work. The wings that worked let’s make them even better...What’s working? Let’s do more of that. Let’s evolve.” This aligns perfectly with the concept of “slightly better problems” from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. It’s a never-ending upward spiral. The key takeaway? Don’t ignore failures, but don’t dwell on them either. Focus on what works, refine it, and evolve. This approach ensures continuous improvement without getting bogged down by setbacks. #ProductManagement #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement

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VC funding in healthcare has been more resilient than in other industries. Here are some key takeaways from recent Carta data: 👉 At the priced seed, Series A, and Series B stages, dilution for health startups has noticeably decreased, while dilution for SaaS startups has stayed flat or increased slightly. 👉 In priced seed rounds, median dilution for healthcare companies dipped to 14.2%, compared to 20% for SaaS.  👉 The frequency of bridge rounds surged in the health sector in Q1, jumping to 44.3% from 36.9% in Q4 2023. This is the first significant increase in bridge rounds in healthcare over SaaS since early 2022. 👉 More founder-friendly terms for health startups may result from enduring VC interest since COVID. Healthcare has remained strong through economic turmoil, enabling higher valuations with smaller round sizes. What are the implications? The healthcare sector might see a rise in new ventures due to favorable investment conditions and lower dilution rates. The surge in bridge rounds suggests that certain sectors within healthcare face unique challenges that require interim financing solutions. Founders and investors in the healthcare space- what are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear from you. If you know a founder innovating in healthcare, tag them in the comments! The Artemis Fund is especially interested in groundbreaking care tech companies. You can check out Carta’s full blog linked in the comments. If you haven’t read our latest blog on care tech, you’ll find that there too. #healthcare #caretech #fundraising

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Sometimes I get so caught up opining on public software companies as a loosely (at best) qualified pseudo-analyst that I forget to talk about all the fantastically crazy stuff happening at Superfiliate.. Not today! It's safe to say we've had the most exciting months in our short history, and I want to shout out what was one of our best-received product releases thus far. Social Listening and UGC Collection Built on the back of a formal Meta / Instagram integration, our customers (at no cost) are now able to see all the content they're tagged in on IG and instantly download that content, request usage rights, add it to a Superfiliate landing page, and much more. The integration makes our users' lives MUCH easier as they're not switching platforms constantly. As importantly, merchants are able to identify creators/partners they aren't formally working with but are already tagging them on social. The best creators are the ones who love your product, and nothing says that like an organic post. More social platforms coming soon, but I'll let you guess who that might be 👀 It's truly a pleasure watching Anders Bill and the product, design, and engineering teams ship impactful, beautiful features at such an impressive clip. Investing in great people and processes compounds over time, and we're seeing that in a very real way right now, and it's only going to continue. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast As we say, rah rah!

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Valuable guidance here. TY Peter Walker

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🔮 What's the future of developer platforms? ☠ Or the death knell for open core companies? Get the answers (and more) from Ethan Kurzweil; longtime partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and soon-to-be founder of a new, early stage venture firm. In his time at Bessemer Ethan invested in Launchdarkly, Twilio, PagerDuty, Intercom, Twitch, SendGrid, HashiCorp and npm. He's seen it all, you won't want to miss his takes on what's next and what isn't going to work. I'm sharing our closing lightning round questions here, but the full interview (which is much juicer) can be found at calyx.substack.com. ⚡Lightning round questions!⚡ *What's the developer platform that you respect most?* 🔶 Zapier. It's the ultimate democratizer of development for 4,000 different esoteric use cases and some not so esoteric use cases. And they built it in a way to allow anyone to use it. *Who is a developer GTM leader you respect?* 👨 Adam FitzGerald at HashiCorp. Disclaimer - he’s a Bessemer operating advisor. He is the best thinker to help companies structure developer evangelism programs at scale. *Unpopular opinion re: dev tools?*  💼 That a lot of dev tools shouldn't be businesses. Many should be free or part of a larger developer platform offering. The difference between tool and platform can make a big difference as to whether you have a sustainable business. *How do you feel like you’re able to uniquely work with developer-first companies?* ⚾ I’ll keep it to one for the lightning round: I’ve gotten lots of experience with false signals. If you’re a founder working on a startup sometimes you’ll respond to a false signal and it’s hard to go back and unwind those choices—we have lots of experience with developer platforms and can help founders avoid those pitfalls. Disclaimer: Ethan would never use emojis like this. He actually...doesn't use emojis!? I've just added them in an attempt to improve readability on LinkedIn... enjoy!

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