Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 20, 2024

When I sat down to write this post, I wrote : Write an introductory paragraph telling a story about when I was in grade school, my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. L, insisted on the class outlining their paper. AI frees us to focus on the higher-order goal while the computer sweats the details. A good outline remains essential.

AI 127

AI Finance Data Software 127

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2023

So it’s OK to write smaller checks at first. And if you are writing smaller checks … do more deals (per year). That way is different for all of us, at least, a tiny bit different. Dear SaaStr: What Advice Do You Have For a First-Time VC? My advice is hard learned, and pretty contrary to what you’ll be told.

Investment 288

Investment Cloud SaaS Management 288

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2023

Earlier than that is too early for us to see it; after that is a bit too late. We write checks from $750k-$4m and ideally lead the round. My first year with no brand new investments, only follow-ons. So we’re behind. The goal for SaaStr Fund is to invest in 2-4 of the very top seed / late seed startups from $10k-$150k in MRR.

SaaS 256

SaaS Investment Startup Branding 256

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 25, 2022

Intercom has been growing, and will only continue to do so – many of our longest standing customers have evolved with us over the years. That means being able to accommodate huge workloads in a reliable and performant manner, and continuously expanding them as our customers grow with us. At Intercom, we aim to run less software.

Scaling 252

Scaling AWS Software Review Technical Review 252

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2023

Move with urgency and focus Our users entrust us with their money, their businesses, and their livelihoods. To paraphrase from an internal document written by Eeke de Milliano : Writing is an equalizer; it provides everyone the same information. Writing leads to higher-quality thought because it forces attention to detail.

Startup 215

Startup Scale Systems Review Compensation 215

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 31, 2023

This means we need to think carefully about how to apply the tech in practice to make it truly useful. We’ve built some exciting new features into Intercom using this new GPT technology and have given access to several hundred customers – and the response has been astounding. Great stuff!” All in all, I love this.

AI 188

AI Artificial Intelligence New CTO ChatGPT 188

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2021

when and will you write us another, second check if we need one? what will you do to help us raise the next round? First, like almost all of us, founders are attracted to brands. When and will you write us another, second check if we need one? What will you do to help us raise the next round?

Venture Capital 338

Venture Capital Branding Pricing Investment 338

Tom Tunguz

JULY 4, 2022

Last week, I installed Github’s Copilot , a machine learning tool that helps engineers write software. AI enables us to focus to higher level tasks, not worrying about an errant semicolon, the syntax of a particular API, or taking notes during sales calls. I typed in def get_tweets_for_user(username) in ruby. They have it wrong.

AI 265

AI Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering 265

Buffer Resources

JUNE 19, 2023

So even though we use AI in our processes on Buffer’s Content team (there are only three of us, and it helps us work more efficiently), we wanted to clarify exactly how and where we use AI in our work. Spending time with the different tools powered by AI has allowed us to define our boundaries better.

AI 123

AI Social Media ChatGPT Interviewing 123

Buffer Resources

OCTOBER 17, 2023

For instance, the prompt: “Write a tweet about Black Friday” will deliver this post:  "Gear up for the shopping spree! 50 AI prompts to kickstart your creativity  Create a post that features [number] essential tools or resources for [target audience] related to [topic] ( use ). BlackFriday is near.

AI 127

AI Social Media Trends Engagement 127

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2022

Write your own investment memo. Forget the business plan, but instead, write a memo on why if you were a VC, you’d invest in your own company. And force yourself to write a memo you’d have to write as a VC, to get your partners’ buy-in. Usually, “you are too early” just means Not For Us. It is selling stock.

CTO 262

CTO Investment Branding Churn 262

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

But writing 30 truly epic blog posts? It is for us. So I don’t really know as much about digital marketing as I should, and as you might think, but every time I look at our Google Analytics, I learn a few new things: One small reminder is that, at least for SaaStr, LinkedIn now drives materially more traffic than Twitter.

B2B 230

B2B Engagement Data Marketing 230

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 30, 2022

She is the coauthor of Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability , and she’s been working as a survey consultant for companies and government agencies that want to improve the way they design their surveys.Creating winning forms and surveys has been top of mind for us lately. ?. For years, people have been abusing surveys.

Systems Review 239

Systems Review Technical Review Government Banking 239

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 19, 2024

One way that I (Scott) personally do this is by writing out my post, then actually rewriting it with the hook in mind. Often, the best hook is the last part of the what I write out – don’t underestimate starting with the conclusion. For example, if your ICP is executive level, consider writing for varying levels.

Scale 93

Scale Social Media AI Engagement 93

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

This worked great for many of our clients – and led to very strong Gross Retention – but made it harder for us to scale over time. This worked great for many of our clients – and led to very strong Gross Retention – but made it harder for us to scale over time. Maybe they are misunderstood.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Customer Success 267

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 28, 2021

Large software companies accelerated growth this year, despite their scale reinforcing the notion that users write data into systems but rarely delete it. Not this one; I enjoy writing too much to automate it). Toil will be automated by these robots, leaving us to garnish the vanilla cake output with a layer of digital frosting.

Scale 268

Scale Blockchain Banking Machine Learning 268

Buffer Resources

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Our research wasn’t just about setting rules; it was about understanding how to define our goals and create something beneficial for us and our writers. This means we receive many pitches we can’t publish, but it has helped us maintain the quality we strive for on the blog. So what changed?

Scale 102

Scale Benchmarks Social Media Communication 102

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

The US venture capital ecosystem has grown 40x in dollars from $8b to $320b invested in 10 years. In the meantime, I’ll continue to be a student of startups, writing this blog, hosting Office Hours , investing, & partnering with founders. After more than 14 years at Redpoint, I’m starting a new chapter.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Innovation 202

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 30, 2020

She writes often on topics like these on our blog Memory Leak. We’re starting to expand the scope of Office Hours, so look for more from us in the future. Prior to HashiCorp Adam was the Head of Worldwide Developer Marketing at AWS and held senior positions at Pivotal, VMware, and SpringSource.

Development 312

Development Scale AWS Scaling 312

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

I know the two of you have been using “old school” AI for some time now, but why don’t we start with how you’re using GenAI in your companies? They discussed the wide-ranging implications that generative AI will have across fintech and how it will boost jobs, rather than replace them. It’s still not GenAI.

Payments 107

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Payment Solutions 107

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 29, 2021

I discovered rhetoric in 2021 and read this book and The Elements of Eloquence which demonstrate the hundreds of literary devices we use to imbue language with flourish to entice or cajole the reader to hurdle over the period at the end of a sentence and sprint through the next, till the end of a tract. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

Government 260

Government Finance Engineering Innovation 260

Buffer Resources

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

There are many cases where discussing something synchronously (on a live video call) is the best solution for us. Through iterating over time, we feel we’ve found the right balance for synchronous and asynchronous communication for us during this current season of Buffer. We aren’t an async-first company.

Communication 107

Communication Development Management 107

The Daily Egg

MARCH 23, 2020

An offer with a ticking clock cuts right through our inertia, forcing us to act right now. The post Limited Time Offer: How To Write a Discount Offer For Limited Time Only appeared first on The Daily Egg. Getting anyone to act isn’t easy. But you can’t just promise a time-constraining offer and leave it at that.

Marketing 263

Marketing 263

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

As we enter the AI era, we predict the benefits to consumers will be as profound as the technology is magical; what indeed are the implications for software that can write poetry, listen emphatically, compose music, or provide dating advice? Specifically: Consumers will rediscover the latent creativity that lives within all of us.

AI 140

AI Travel Technology Communication 140

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 24, 2021

Clickbait, those attention grabbing headlines all over the internet, thrive because they shock us, grab our attention. Use it to your advantage whenever you present, write, or discuss. At the same time, it can teach us how to liven up our small talk. But if it reports few accurate anomalies, it’s invaluable.

Education 233

Education Engineering Software Revenue 233

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2022

The largest check I’ll write is about $4m, for example. For the rest of us, be direct. . $10m tells me you are really ready to scale. Which is too late a stage for me, but not many others. Especially as a “late seed” investor, I want to quickly find out if you’ve passed my sweet spot or not. So if you are raising $1m, fine. $3m,

Investment 221

Investment Scale Scaling Sales 221

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2023

We specialize in late Series A/early Series B investments, writing checks of $5-$15 million. Instead, we have remained extremely consistent in our strategy over the past 10 years, leading rounds at a steady pace that allows us to be dedicated, thoughtful board members. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Venture is cyclical.

Scale 230

Scale Venture Capital AI Generative AI 230

Tom Tunguz

JULY 20, 2020

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post about US Economic History. The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of US Federal Entitlement Programs : a pointed analysis of US programs meant to support citizens in need (welfare, social security, healthcare). Empire of Wealth by Gordon : a history of US economic power.

Healthcare 186

Healthcare Technology Pricing Management 186

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

And our early customers wanted us to do all like, ‘Can you write our blogs for us? Halligan: “Everyone around us was tempted. Everyone else in the world, even now our big investors ask us now, ‘when are you going to go sell to the Fortune 500?’ Can you do our social media posts?’

Social Media 273

Social Media Content Marketing Enterprise Retention 273

SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2021

It’s been great to have the CEOs of Qualtrics join us multiple times over the years, as it scaled from a late-stage startup to IPO to $8B+ acquisition. Fast forward to today, and Qualtrics is now worth $20B and CEO Zig Serafin joined us to share his lessons in scaling with Julia Laroche, Correspondent at Yahoo Finance.

Scale 178

Scale Scaling Business Model Company Culture 178

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 5, 2021

So what should your problem statement include, and how can you write a great one? Closer to home, we made sure to get a deep understanding of why Intercom customers were asking for tickets , which in turn allowed us to solve these customer problems without creating tickets as they exist in many other products.

Transportation 279

Transportation Travel Underperforming Technical Team Finance 279

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 14, 2020

With most of us working remotely, many startups have thrown out Google slides and replaced them with Google sheets. Once you start writing, you realize how much time slide decks consume on font size, icon alignment, and formatting detail. Many people don’t write in business. So how do you do this?

Finance 201

Finance Startup Engagement Business 201

Stax

APRIL 2, 2024

Best practices for effective surcharging communication include using clear and simple language, making it visually easy to read, and ensuring total compliance with regulations. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about credit card surcharge signage to set you up for success. Learn More What is Credit Card Surcharging?

Merchant Services 88

Merchant Services Payment Methods Payment Services Accept Credit Card Payments 88

Buffer Resources

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Financial transparency is especially close to our hearts, which is why we’re proud to share Open Books, a series of small business owners giving us a peek inside their books in the spirit of being open about finances as well. Reflecting on her past projects and assignments, she noticed that writing was a common thread.

Scale 111

Scale Scaling Payment Solutions Payment Services 111

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Keeping our customers’ needs in mind helps us create content that sets our customers up for success, and motivates them to achieve it. Here are 7 strategies you can use to create help articles that really help. Here are 7 strategies you can use to create help articles that really help. It can be frustrating when …”. “A

Data 211

Data Communication Metrics Strategy 211

Neil Patel

JANUARY 2, 2023

It can be a little bit confusing… luckily for us, Google has provided an explanation to avoid confusion. That’s what is hard to replicate using AI… or at least for now. But even with all that, if I just write another marketing post it doesn’t mean that it will stand out or be amazing. So now it’s E-E-A-T.

Travel 145

Travel AI Marketing Data 145

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 1, 2021

Last year, she joined us on a fascinating panel episode of Inside Intercom , where we talked about allyship, representation, and privilege. This time around, we’ve had the absolute pleasure of delving further into these as she walks us through her mission for the Wikimedia Foundation and her fight towards knowledge equity.

Healthcare 223

Healthcare Technology Scale Artificial Intelligence 223