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How are you, Crunchers! Welcome back to Monday Crunch, where we sift through the seemingly never-ending array of gems posted on businessroundups.org on Friday.
If you read nothing else today, read The Great Pretender by Devin. It’s a great piece that goes into AI and how it (sometimes/usually/theoretically) works: “All that matters is that these systems don’t discriminate between something that is correct and something that looks like correct. Once you understand that the AI considers these things to be more or less interchangeable, everything makes a lot more sense.”
Oh, and this gave us a good giggle over the weekend.
Table of Contents
The businessroundups.org Top 3
Startups and VC
In a major blow to shared micromobility companies, Paris has voted to ban e-scooters from the streets, Rebekah reports. Many in the industry fear that the move from Paris, where free-floating scooters initially started in 2018, will affect other cities.
Connie reports that Andreessen Horowitz, despite pressure, is seeking Saudi money. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz took the stage with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann to talk about their company’s $350 million investment in Flow, Neumann’s new residential real estate company. Their choice of location was deliberate: the conference was hosted by a non-profit organization backed by one of Saudi Arabia’s largest state funds.
And we have five more for you:
5 Growth Lessons I Learned While Scaling From $0 to $1 Million ARR
Annual recurring revenue is a critical health metric for any subscription-based business. It’s easy to calculate, but it’s a hard number to move around since ARR measures how well a startup is doing in terms of product-market fit.
In his latest column, Jonathan Martinez, Sales Kiwi co-founder and TC+ contributor, shared five essential tips he learned along the way to lead his startup to a $1 million ARR. Lesson one?
“I never tested more than two paid channels at a time, which ultimately allowed me to unlock acquisition for my team,” writes Jonathan.
“This applies to all forms of growth, so if you’re trying to unlock lifecycle marketing, don’t go out of your way to unlock four paid channels at the same time.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
businessroundups.org+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Do you like to travel? What about the price, is that important to you? Google is testing some new travel search features, including a “price guarantee” tool for flights. Aisha writes that there will be a small badge next to the price to indicate that Google doesn’t think the price will go any lower. If so, Google will tell you the difference.
Meanwhile, Nintendo Systems, a joint venture between Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA, has taken off. Lauren reports. Nintendo Systems aims to provide consumers with more convenient entertainment.
To wait! There is more:
