Source: Ahref Excalidraw branded search This article was orginally posted on my Linkedin timeline One month ago, there was a sudden spike in branded organic searches for Excalidraw, an online whiteboarding tool. What happened that day? Andrej Karpathy released his 3.5-hour Deep Learning video that’s now hit 1.7M views. The interesting part? He never explicitly endorsed Excalidraw. He simply used it expertly throughout his presentation. This created a more powerful impression than any other sponsored promotion ever could. ...

This article was orginally posted on my Linkedin timeline One common concern among founders is that their online acquisition channels are dying: Organic traffic? Down 35% YoY. Search ads? CPAs up 47%. Affiliate clicks? Nearly extinct. Think about it: when users get complete answers from ChatGPT or Perplexity, they never visit your site. Sources get listed, but rarely clicked. What websites will thrive in this new era? Sites with premium experiences AIs can’t replicate - Poki (gaming), Masterclass (courses) Platforms with unique data AIs must reference - Yahoo Finance, Indeed, or any unique marketplace. Community-driven destinations with real connections - Reddit, Discord Tools & utilities (not just information) - Canva, Codecademy etc We must build sites that deliver value beyond information alone - plain content won’t cut it anymore. ...

My second startup, OSlash, was born during COVID-19. Traveling and meeting customers was challenging—Zoom was the default. I had to invest in a good camera setup to record product demos and attend virtual events. A few of my demo videos went viral, and many people have requested that I share my camera’s setup details. With a budget of less than $1500, you can create YouTube-quality videos and look extremely professional in your Zoom calls. ...

The title for this post is inspired by the book “Several Short Sentences About Writing” by Verlyn Klinkenborg. Over the last five years I’ve been collecting thoughts, quotations, anecdotes and ideas that I have experienced, used or learned. These reflections aim to distill the essence of what it truly means to launch and grow a startup. on finding a cofounder Avoid equal splits among co-founders. Split equity like you split responsibilities. Control, once surrendered, rarely returns. When hiring a co-founder, test for competency first, trust later. producy-market-fit Live your customer life. In the Product-Market Fit (PMF) equation, your product is a liability, Market fit is an asset. Avoiding problems is better than being forced to solve them. Don’t get office signs till you have found PMF. Speed, Scope or Scalablity. You can only have two. You can be profitable and grow fast. Doesn’t have to be a choice (Source: The Profitable Startup ) On hiring When hiring, trust is earned. Competency is proven. Don’t hire unless absolutely necessary. Avoid working with agencies. They will never take enough agency of your work. Remote teams need culture too. Every person in the company should only be responsible for one thing. Focus is the name of the game. Check whether people are coming to you with problems or solutions. Reward your team for completing challenges, even badly.

This article was orginally posted on my Linkedin timeline G2 and Capterra might not have the same leverage. There is a fundamental shift in how B2B buyers find software: Reddit’s traffic is up 2,500% in two years. Users don’t just search anymore. They add “reddit” to find real discussions. (Google’s -$60M Reddit data deal made this even stronger) Google Search for Best CRM for Small Business ...