The top 5 early-stage startup lessons for 2025

He raised $1.3M, hit $100K ARR—but failed. Here's the lesson every founder needs to hear. | Tolga Ermis, Founder of PromiseQ

24 ways to get your first customers—based on real examples from the last 100 episodes.

He bet on voice AI when no one else did. Now he has $1M+ customers & $100M raised. | Ankit Jain, Founder of Infinitus

YC said his idea "would never work". So he lived in his office for months—then raised $17M from a16z in 14 days. | Marty Kausas, founder of Pylon

He built a $4B unicorn & crossed $100M ARR—here's why it took 10 years of 100-hour weeks. | Martin Basiri, Founder of Passage & Applyboard (SaaS North Keynote)

His sports betting app went from $0 to $10M ARR in a year—& to $150M ARR in 4. Here's how he did it. | Jon Robin, Founder of Dabble

He grew to $90M ARR, was about to exit for $1.5B—and then, it all fell apart. | Yanni Giannaros, Co-Founder of Wyre

How to build great products—lessons from Amazon, Facebook, Twitter & Deel. | Aaron Goldsmid, Head of Product at Deel

He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, Co-Founder of ZayZoon

After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I missed. | Francois de Kerret, Co-Founder of Zeffy

He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founder of Later.com

He raised $16M, hit $1M ARR—& failed. Here are the top 3 lessons he learned. | David Anderson, Founder of Tandym

He sold his 1st startup for 8 figures, grew his 2nd to $3M in a year—while battling panic attacks from the pressure. | Justin Adams, Founder of Aiwyn

He raised $1.5M, hit $400K ARR in 9 months— but had to Exit Early. Here’s the top 3 lessons he learned | Rob Palumbo, Co-Founder of Outpoint

His startup Cameo was a unicorn—until it crashed 90%. Here's how he went from near-bankrupt to profitable again. | Steven Galanis, Founder of Cameo

VC funding is not popping back. THIS is the new normal—here's how to adjust. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta

His robotics startup raised $400M, his VC fund over $4B—& he ran both at the same time. Here's how he did it.| Lior Susan, Bright Machines & Eclipse Ventures

This 1st-time founder raised $4M, kept the team to 5 people—& just raised a $28M Series A. | Parker Gilbert, Co-Founder of Numeric

In 2004, they "almost bankrupted themselves". In 2024, they hit $500M ARR & a $5B valuation. | Mike Wessinger, Co-Founder of PointClickCare