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From the Operators

Tikhon Bernstam of Scribd and Parse breaks down similarities and differences in founding two startups and the repeat YC experience in “The Challenges a Repeat Founder Faces”

Elad Gil of Color Genomics surfaces potentially insidious terms founders might face while seeking financing in “VC Negotiation Tricks: Simplified Term Sheets & Post-Money Valuations”

Blake Scholl of Boom responds to a grilling over business model, technical capabilities, timelines, and overall feasibility of building the “renaissance” of supersonic flight in “Supersonic Flights Could Be a Thing Again If the Market Is Large Enough”

Jordan Kong of Expa suggests tactics startups can use to mitigate the risk of an industry giant squashing new products in “The End of Disruption”

Bobby Pinero of Intercom removes marketing complexities and uses two simple scenarios to demonstrate the significance of time when evaluating ROI in “The power of payback periods in online advertising”

From the Investors

Matt Turck of FirstMark Capital covers winners, losers, market strategies, capabilities, and complexity to paint a picture of “Why AI Companies Can’t Be Lean Startups”

Ted Wang of Cowboy Ventures argues that not skipping a Seed investment may be in a hot startup’s best interest when it comes to longer term success in “How a seed financing can put you at the head of the class”

Om Malik of True Ventures reminds that a company not being publicly traded doesn’t mean it’s a startup in “Are top US startups really startups?”

Sammy Abdullah of Blossom Street Ventures compiles CEO salary data at the time of IPO in “The best CEOs in tech pay themselves modestly”