Most acquisition stories just skim the surface. So when @evolution_iq announced its $730M acquisition in December, marking one of the first major vertical AI exits, we did what we do best on The Review: We went deep. 11K+ words, 45-pages deep. We spent weeks interviewing founders @tvykruta, Mike Saltzman, and Jonathan Lewin right after the acquisition, digging through @btrenchard’s 2019 investment notes, and unpacking every decision that shaped EvolutionIQ’s path to PMF. The result is one of our most detailed breakdowns in our 10+ years of publishing. Inside the essay, you’ll find out how they: 🔹Built in a small market (~150 buyers) 🔹Eventually got first design partner data set 🔹Built trust with frontline adjusters & CIOs 🔹Pulled off a premium pricing strategy 🔹Navigated 12+ months-long sales cycles 🔹Sold into majority of carriers w/ 6 sales folks 🔹Built an elite early ML team It’s a detailed examination of exactly how they built an enduring AI business — and a must-read for AI founders attempting to do the very same thing today. More below.

Proudly presenting the standout pieces of advice we heard in 2023. 11 editions of our annual retrospective later, and we are still serving up great tactical advice from @gokulr, @dremilyanhalt, & many more to start 2024 off on the right foot. 🔗

Today's new article is a big one — because we're marking the 10-year anniversary of The First Round Review. 🍾 To celebrate, we've curated a list of 100 of the best bits of company-building advice we've heard in the last decade. We'll share 10 of our faves here, but check out the piece for the full list (link in the comment): → "If you personally want to grow as fast as your company, you have to give away your job every couple months." @molly_g → "There are decisions that deserve days of debate and analysis, but the vast majority aren’t worth more than 10 minutes. It's important to internalize how irreversible, fatal or non-fatal a decision may be. Very few can't be undone." @davegirouard → "Can you say with confidence that each report would want to be on your team again? If you aren’t sure that the answer is yes, it’s probably no—much like how if you have to ask, “Am I in love?” you’re probably not." @joulee → "It sounds so simple to say that bosses need to tell employees when they're screwing up. But it very rarely happens. Picture a basic graph divided into four quadrants. If the vertical axis is caring personally and the horizontal axis is challenging directly, you want your feedback to fall in the upper right-hand quadrant." @kimballscott → "Your customers or patrons make sweeping judgments when first interacting with your creation. The first mile of your customer’s experience using your product cannot be the last mile of your experience building the product." @scottbelsky → "Sharing the good, the bad and the ugly in your company and investor updates provides accountability and is a forcing function. If you see numbers that are less than great, you’ll be tempted to make an excuse, point to another bright spot, or hold off on sharing until things improve. But you can’t afford to do that." @collinmathilde → "Delighting the customer always yields better returns than countering or copying a competitor. It’s just a lot harder to do." @arachleff → "Whatever the idea is, blow it out of proportion and see where that takes you. Come back to me when you've thought about that times 100. Create an environment where people can see a glimmer of something and basically throw dynamite on it." @jgebbia → "The longer someone works for you, the harder it is to change their behavior. The longer you don't deal with something, the less likely you can fix it." @rands → "A lot of people say they want to found a startup, but they don’t know what they want to do. You can’t force it. But you can be thoughtful about building an audience while you’re waiting for the right idea. If you want people to listen to you eventually, you have to build trust over time." @rrhoover Tons more from @drewhouston, @stewart, @lennysan, @natsturner, @pattymccord1, @alexisohanian, @DavidSpinks, @dcancel, @fosslien, @EstherPerel, and too many others to name here. P.S. Here's what The Review homepage looked like circa 2013 👀