Hey y’all — here’s today at a glance:
PS: I’ll be running some more events this fall and beyond. A mix of mastermind retreats and small-group dinners in SF, NYC, and more cities.
Drop a quick note here if I should reach out when we launch some (takes 30 seconds, literally).
Opportunity → Duolingo For Trades
Framework → Design Thinking Process
Tool → Galactic Fed
Trend → Companies Spending More On AI Are Hiring More
Quote → It Won’t Work If You’re Not Obsessed
PS — Become a member to get access to my founder membership including an engaged community, fundraising support, fireside chats and more.
Growing fast is hard enough! Runway visibility shouldn't slow you down.
Pegasus Insights integrates with the tools your finance team already uses to give you a real-time picture of your runway so founders can stay focused on building, not chasing numbers.
Most teams are up and running in under 30 days — no lengthy implementation, no ripping out what already works.
Founding Journey readers get their first 2 months free.
Want to stop seeing ads? Upgrade now. Want to get in front of 65,000+ founders? Go here.
🔗 Houck’s Picks
My favorite finds of the week.
Fundraising
Matt Higgins shared advice to first-time founders who are fundraising (Link)
Growth
Finn Mallery shares the 1% of sales advice that actually matters (Link)
Peter Kazanjy on how to loop your pipeline every week by stage (Link)
ICYMI
Describe the app you want and Emergent handles the building and deployment. (Link)*
Andrew Duca shares a common trait the most successful founders have (Link)
Mariya Valeva on how most founders hire for the person they used to be (Link)
Matt Epstein on how people need to stop building self serve products (Link)
Vadim Strizheus on the 3 things founders need to think about everyday (Link)
💡 Opportunity: Duolingo For Trades
Saw this from Logan Gott and haven't stopped thinking about it.
The trades (as in the careers you’d go to a trade school for) are one of the last corners of the economy nobody's building real consumer software for, and the labor shortage there isn't slowing down.
I invested in an awesome company called Flashpass that’s building the software to power the schools themselves, and imagine there’s an opportunity for someone to build a consumer-first version for folks who aren’t able to make it into the trade schools themselves (due to location, cost, etc).
Gamified, bite-sized skill building for welders, electricians, HVAC techs, and more.
I could see it.
🧠 Framework: Design Thinking Process
It’s tempting to jump straight to building (these days more than ever) but you can still move very fast and invest just a little time in your thinking upfront.
Here’s a five-step framework (from CapCut, surprisingly) to consider:
Empathize → Talk to actual users. Watch how they behave, not just what they say they want.
Define → Turn what you learned into one precise problem statement. A vague problem gets you a vague product.
Ideate → Brainstorm solutions without filtering yourself. Judgment comes later, not here.
Prototype → Build the cheapest, fastest version of the idea that lets you test it.
Test → Put it in front of real users again and let their reaction, not your opinion, decide what happens next.
What I see is that a majority of products didn't fail at Prototype or Test, they actually failed way sooner. Back at Define, most of the time, because nobody forced themselves to nail down the actual problem before building the solution.
🛠 Tool: Galactic Fed
Get a Free Paid Media Audit from the team behind 600+ growth campaigns.
As a Founding Journey reader, you've been selected for one of Galactic Fed’s limited 20-minute executive review spots. You’ll meet with senior growth specialists who will:
Assess your strategy
Identify smarter growth levers
Deliver a custom audit + action plan you can execute immediately
📈 Trend: Companies Spending More On AI Are Hiring More
Here’s a counter-intuitive datapoint:
The companies spending the most on AI aren't the ones cutting the most headcount. It’s actually the opposite. They're hiring the most. They’re the ones with the balance sheets to actually operationalize LLMs.
The pattern holds across the board.
Meanwhile the layoff headlines (Atlassian, Block) are mostly companies playing catch up, cutting cost centers to fund experiments rather than reinvesting productivity gains into growth.
Worth remembering next time someone tells you AI just means fewer jobs.
💬 Quote: It Won’t Work If You’re Not Obsessed
Obsession isn't something you develop after you pick a problem to work on, or a direction for your startup.
It isn’t really something you “develop” at all.
If you have to work yourself to care, you’ll never be as obsessed as someone who inherently gravitates towards that same thing.
I've watched founders grind for years on businesses they were never actually obsessed with but rather were just… committed… to.
The problem is that commitment without obsession looks identical from the outside for about 18 months. Then it doesn't.
The replies to Darren’s tweet that are calling this out by saying things like "I got too obsessed and it still didn't work" are missing the point.
Burnout is just obsession without a filter for what actually moves the business.
Obsessed founders waste less time because they can't stand doing anything that doesn't matter.
So if you're asking whether you're obsessed enough with your startup, you're not.
How We Can Help
Become a member to get 100 fundraising case studies.
And grab our free playbooks for growing your influence:
TikTok Playbook
Be impossible to forget with our free system to build your founder brand with shortform video.
This is how my co-founder but her account to 70k followers.
LinkedIn Playbook
Make investors, candidates, partners, and more chase you instead of the other way around with our free playbook.
This is how I built my account to 45k followers.
X/Twitter Playbook
Drive and dominate the cultural conversation in your niche with our free playbook.
This is how I built my old account to 56k followers.
Newsletter Playbook
Build, and stay top of mind for, an audience relevant to your startup with our free playbook.
Like FJ? This is how I built it to 60k readers.
Advertise in my newsletter to get in front of 65,000+ founders.
Our Partners
Founders: treat yourself for once.
A few of our partners are offering $$$ for taking a quick call with them (that’s it).
Honestly, block off a couple hours, knock them all out, and walk away with some cash to get off the ramen diet for the weekend.
Numeral ($250) → AI for sales tax and compliance across states and countries. Take a call here.
Secure Cloud Innovations ($250) → embedded cybersecurity consulting / consulting team for B2B SaaS companies. Take a call here.
A Rising Tide ($200) → creates unique and cutting edge financial products for Startup Founders. Take a call here.
GrowthPair ($200) → helps companies hire top global marketing talent while saving them up to 84% on payroll. Take a call here.
Atrios ($50) → routes warm introductions to those targets through a curated network of tastemakers. Take a call here.
We've got more partners btw, click here to see the full list.
Founder Interviews
Fundraising
Growth
Product & PMF
AI
Founder Mode
