Sublime

A startup that prematurely targets a growth goal often ends up making a nebulous product that some users sort of like and papering over this with ‘growth hacking’. That sort of works—at least, it will fool investors for awhile until they start digging into retention numbers—but eventually the music stops.

"50% of executive hires at high-growth companies fail"

One of the most legendary shareholder letters there ever was. Lahde Capital, 2008. If you read anything today, make it this.

In 2008, Airbnb sought $150,000 in funding for 10% of the company. They emailed 7 big investors. 5 sent back rejections. 2 others didn’t respond. 10% of Airbnb is now worth $7 billion.