Highlights from 2024

Hey y’all — last week we previewed 2025, but what should we be taking away from 2024?

One way to answer this is to look back at some of our favorite reads of the year.

So this week I’m revisiting a few things:

1. Our readers’ favorite Founding Journey posts of the year

2. My favorite posts from others that I added to my reading list during the year

3. Standout episodes of the Founding Journey podcast

On the Pod: Aleksandr Volodarsky

Aleksandr’s got a big voice on X/Twitter and he brought strong opinions to our chat.

We touched on some interesting topics like:

• Why he regrets raising a small bit of money early on in the company’s history

• Why it was hard to commit to a pivot away from a grand vision into something simpler… but that was working

• Why he went viral after laying people off despite the company being profitable

Check it out below on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

The Best of 2024

From the Founding Journey Archives

These were some of our top performing issues of the year, in terms of feedback from all of you. There’s a good mix of fundraising, growth, and interpersonal leadership topics.

• Who Should Be The CEO?

• How to Decide Whether to Raise Money or Not

• Escaping the Churn Plateau

• 6 Reasons to Launch… Slowly

• How Gamma Acquired 10 Million Users in 9 Months

• How to Set the Right Valuation

• 8 Common Mistakes When Choosing a Co-founder

From Houck’s Reading List

Each month I add a bunch of articles I found and liked that month to my reading list, which all Founding Journey members can check out in our Telegram chat at any time.

Here’s a small sample of my favorites from this year:

• How to Build Your Early GTM Strategy

• How VCs Evaluate Startups

• How First-Time Founders Fail

• How Repositioning a Product Allows You to 8x Its Price

• Founder’s Guide to Optimizing Your Fundraise

• Steal These Brilliant Growth Tactics

• Building Products with Incomplete Information

From the Founding Journey Podcast

Tyler Denk of Beehiiv

This was our first episode, and it’s worth revisiting. Tyler’s managed to scale Beehiiv incredibly quickly in a market that many thought had already been captured.

Sam Corcos of Levels

This was a special episode where we focused almost exclusively on growth. Sam went deep explaining how the a16z-backed Levels uses various channels, and how to maximize impact from each.

Pujun Bhatnagar of Kintsugi

A more recent episode that stood out to me immediately after the convo — Pujun’s candor, ambition, and remarkable track record already in his journey as a founder makes for an inspiring listen.

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