Dan Chuparkoff

In his latest piece, Paul Graham dives into a thought-provoking realization sparked by Brian Chesky's memorable talk at a recent YC event: **what if the conventional wisdom on scaling companies is fundamentally flawed for founders?** Graham dissects why advice that works for professional managers often fails founders, leading to disastrous results. He introduces the concept of "Founder Mode" — a distinct approach to running a company that clashes with traditional management practices. Graham argues that embracing this mode could be the key to unlocking greater success for startups, potentially revolutionizing how founders scale their companies. Made me think. https://lnkd.in/exHmEE5M

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I haven't slept on a factory floor, but I have slept in a data closet, and several times haven't slept at all for way more than 24 hours 😂 - critically if this is the definition of founder-mode than I guess I was quite constantly in founder-mode in my 20's when I wasn't a founder. But that misses the essence of it all - it's not about pulling in all nighters or working on the factory floor or data closet, I think of it in the following ways: 1) Doing whatever it takes - even things you normally don't like doing as long as they don't compromise your principles - I don't drink alcohol and I am not going to, to win a client or an investor! 2) Caring deeply about what you do - you intrinsically care about your work, not due to a promotion, a raise or an investment - you simply care about the quality of what you put out in the world. 3) Constantly learning - you can't be afraid of not knowing something and having to pick it up - the first 20+ years of life teach you this, it doesn't need to stop once you graduate. Critically you don't need to be a founder to be in founder-mode - it's a particular way of approaching life and work - to some people (my youngest daughter for example) this is intrinsic, to others it takes a bit of push - but none the less everyone has it in them to operate in this mode and it isn't about face time or putting in all nighters!

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Have you ever thought about how compliance laws are a lot like design systems? I recently spoke with Joe Toscano, founder of DataGrade, and he made a fascinating comparison. Joe explained how Brad Frost's atomic design methodology took an engineering approach to design: → Creating standardized elements → Templatizing them → Scaling them across a system This led to the rise of human interface guidelines (HIGs) from tech giants like Google, Apple, and IBM. But here's where it gets really interesting: Joe argued that privacy laws and regulations are like the ultimate HIG for product design. Just like how HIGs provide rules and constraints for design systems... Compliance laws set guardrails for what we can and can't do with user data. If we design something that isn't compliant, it doesn't matter how sleek the UI is. Legal requirements become the top-level framework we have to design within. That's what got Joe into studying laws - to understand this new "design system" for building products. So next time you're cursing a lengthy legal doc or trying to make sense of GDPR... Remember, it's all just part of the atomic design of compliance. — Do you agree with the analogy of compliance laws as the ultimate design system? Why or why not? Hear more of Joe's unique perspectives on the intersection of product, privacy, and law on the latest episode of The Minimum Viable Podcast.

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We often say this. The winners in our space? They won't be the most innovative. Or the ones with the most fetures. Or the LLMs trained on the most data. Or the lowest latency model. Innovating in eldercare is first and foremost about acknowledging the current environments, workflows, tools and processes The winners will be the ones who know inside out how the industry works today. The ones who spend the time and the energy to be in the trenches, and sweat the details to understand how it's done today. Looking at the way the industry works, it's easy for tech people to be horrified and think about solutions that "I know that if they use it, it will make their life sooo much easier". What's hard is to build a solution that "based on what they know, this is so natural that they will actually use it". From the beginning (okay, it's still very much the beginning) Junus and I know where we stand 👴! There's truly never been a better time to make aging Glorious 💃!

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💚How My Co-Founder and I Found Our Shared Vision💚 Building a company isn’t just about products, markets, or profits—it’s about people. My co-founder and I bonded over a shared belief that true innovation stems from a culture that prioritizes balance, well-being, and creativity. We’re not just talking about a typical work-life balance. We’re committed to creating an environment where our team’s happiness directly fuels groundbreaking innovation. This isn’t negotiable—it’s the foundation of our vision. As we embark on this journey, we’re looking for partners who see the value in this approach. We’re driven by the conviction that a motivated, balanced team is the key to creating something truly transformative. If this resonates with you, we’re excited about the possibilities ahead. P.S. To be clear, this is one tiny snapshot of long conversations we have had. They have helped me refine my strategies in directions I didn’t think of before, we don’t always agree but we always find a way to align. They were also my “Leader” for an initiative ~7 years ago and I was theirs a couple years later. We have known each other as friends, peer mentors, advisors, collaborators and more for almost a decade and in no way should this snapshot of me talking and they agreeing shall reflect on how we align and collaborate. Some personal DMs from my fam members didn’t feel fair. Don’t overthink things, fam. With all your beautiful intentions, there’s also a degree of understanding, trust and less skepticism that fam members shall have in each other. Thanks for the constant support, but I’ve higher priorities than sometimes responding to the skeptical analyses of all my posts, as I believe is expected by all my supportive fam members during my journey as an early stage founder. #Entrepreneurship #TechLeadership #InnovationCulture #ProductManagement

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Chicago's AI community is growing like wildfire. Nothing shows this more than Logan Kilpatrick and Matt Ridenour's developer week at the Google Chicago office last week. We talked about all things Gemini for developers, AI product development, and how Google is leading the market in multimodality, context window length, and developer tools. The highlight of the week was getting to meet other incredible AI startup founders in Chicago, and hear their Nicolas Cage (That's a gone in 60 seconds joke) pitch. If you haven't met them already, check out: Babafemi Ekundayo from Calabax Srirajasekhar Bobby Koritala from ChatMemoir Corp. Tim Moore from Clixie AI Joel Dokmegang from World Prayer App Josh Streets from Efficiencies.AI Raul Alcantara from Entiendo (Neo ‘23) Gautam Ankala from Gitty AI Morgan Jones from G-Data Labs Kenya Brooks~Jones from Jones Software Corporation Sebastian Hooker from Nimstrata Kanav Setia from qBraid Mustafa Pesh from ClassBuddy Luis Emilio Suarez from Sanarai Nico Aguilar from Speeko — A.I. Speech Coach Edmund Dantés Hamilton from Zitnalta AI Shout out to the ones jumping into the arena and building with the Google suite to solve real customer problems. If you've been following along, part of my reason for moving back to Chicago was to turn the city into a hub for AI knowledge sharing and building. With support from Big Tech Players, we have the fertile soil to build an incredible ecosystem when combined with what AI Tinkerers Chicago has built for technical players. Special shoutout to Edmund Dantés Hamilton for sharing this video of our pitch, Matt Ridenour for letting me go a few seconds over, and Roya Kandalan for her exceptional knowledge sharing on the panel. Had to get an Indiana University Bloomington Basketball example throw in there. #gocharliego #letthedogsout #google #gonein60seconds #startups

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AI in Vertical SaaS ____ I've been learning from SaaStr content for over a decade now. I loved Jason M. Lemkin's recent interview with Mangomint's Founder / CEO, Daniel Lang, about the growth of vertical SaaS. The entire video resonated with my own vertical SaaS founder experience at CampusLogic as well as the high-growth vertical SaaS companies I have invested in at PHX Ventures (e.g., Virtuous, equipifi, Nurture Boss, Soraban, eVisit, Rivia Health, Botco.ai, Coursedog, etc.). This clip below captures why I am bullish on AI in a vertical SaaS context. I believe the next decade will be the biggest period of productivity gains in my lifetime in most industries. It's a great time to be building an AI-driven vertical SaaS company. ___ PS - I hope everyone has a great week at SaaStr Annual 2024. #b2b #saas #founders

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Let's talk Global Efficiency... When I started Terminal in 2017, VCs were telling companies that they would never invest if your team is outside the US. This claim was poorly supported by anecdotes like, "it's too risky", "not attractive for acquirers", "talent outside the US is sub-par", etc. Fast-forward to today, VCs now say we'll never invest in your company if you only plan to hire in the US. Now with better data and anecdotes to support, they know "it's not risky, it's a competitive advantage", "cost efficiencies are huge", "talent can be world-class if you can tap the right markets", etc. I recently read through Redpoint's State of Talent report (linked below). Lots of worthwhile data throughout the report, but what stands out most to me is the emphasis on global efficiency. Global Efficiency: Startups can significantly reduce equity burn by hiring outside traditional tech hubs. Data shows that alternative geographies offer a substantial decrease in compensation costs, with equity expectations in non-US markets being up to 50% lower than in major US cities (Redpoint Ventures, 2024). VC world it catching on. And we see it - some of the leading startups out of Kleiner Perkins, a16z, Sequoia, Craft, Redpoint, Uncork, 8VC, Cathay, Cherubic, Founders Fund, etc using Terminal to build global engineering teams, capitalizing on global efficiency. report 👉 https://lnkd.in/gqjestkt

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