Hey — It's Nico.

This newsletter contains:

• 5 resources for founders.
• 5 startup news.
• 1 failed startup.
• 1 hot startup.

🔥 Btw, I’ve partnered with 4 of my favorite business and marketing newsletters to bring you a Newsletter Bundle.

If you subscribe today, you'll instantly sign up for all 4 and get the chance to win a $1,000 Amazon gift card. You can sign up for free here.

This issue is brought to you by Drata:

Security professionals spend an average of 4,300 hours annually achieving or maintaining compliance.

Reduce your workload and duplicate compliance tasks with a central view to manage 14+ frameworks including SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA. Start simplifying your audits and stay audit ready 24/7 with G2's highest-rated compliance automation platform.

​

What to read this week?

📖 Why Founder Market Fit is more crucial than PMF.

🧵 A thread on how BluSmart is competing with Uber and Ola in India's ride-hailing duopoly.

✍️ Jesse Pujji shares his 7 biggest lessons from launching GrowthAssistant.

🧠 How the MSPOT tool helped Hubspot learn to say no and streamline operations.

❓ How to find your niche.

​

What happened this week?

💰 US startups raised $5.9 billion in venture capital in January 2023

📊 Link Ventures has announced a new $150M fund aimed at early-stage tech companies.

📈 Fintech decacorn PhonePe has raised an additional $100M at a $12 billion valuation.

👋 Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has been charged by the SEC with defrauding investors.

🔍 Harvey AI's chatbot got used by a major international law firm.

​

Failed startup story: Quillion Technology

Quillion Technology, a Chinese-based startup that developed CPU chips, ceased operations in August 2022. According to CB Insights, the company had raised $177M.

The startup focused on high-performance computing and data center solutions, offering energy-efficient and self-controllable general-purpose CPU chips.

In between the lines:

Quilion Technology had the ideal founders, with each having 25 years of industry experience and being involved in developing Intel's Itanium Server CPU and Huawei's Kirin smartphone CPU. However, close sources alleged that founders could not reach a consensus on control rights, making it difficult for the company to operate smoothly.

Founder Lin Wei also abruptly resigned as its legal representative. Although the reasons for the departure were unclear, investors viewed the situation as a lack of stability and leadership at the management level.

Lessons learned:

The failure of Quillion Technology highlights the importance of clear communication and alignment among partners. Maintaining stability at the leadership level helps build investor confidence and a solid foundation within the company.

Quilion Technology's failure also suggests that premature fundraising can lead to misusing funds and a lack of direction. Raising money shouldn’t take precedence over building the fundamentals of the company first.

​

Hot startup of the week: FreshToHome

​FreshToHome, an Indian-based startup that sells fresh fish and meat to consumers, has secured $104M in a Series D financing round led by Amazon through its India-focused venture fund.

This was the largest check written by the venture fund bringing the company's total funding to over $250M.

In between the lines:

FreshToHome’s mission is to deliver natural and unprocessed food directly from farmers and fishermen to consumers without intermediaries.

FreshToHome's success can be attributed to its focus on streamlining the meat and fish sourcing infrastructure, improving the quality of produce and delivery time.

Due to their procurement and delivery system, fresh meat can be delivered from Delhi to Dubai within a day. For instance, a customer who orders fish on Monday morning can expect delivery on Tuesday, ensuring that the products are always delivered fresh and on time.

Lessons learned:

In an interview with Techcrunch, the company's co-founder stated that it took seven years to establish its competitive advantage, which was made possible by his partner's thirty years of experience in the industry.

This highlights the significance of having a co-founder with industry-specific expertise to ensure the success of a business venture. Usually, one co-founder focuses on the technical aspects while the other handles other business tasks.

Moreover, the co-founder mentions that by focusing on unit economics, FreshToHome has maintained profitability over the years which is a significant achievement for a startup. Focusing on unit economics helps businesses understand if they're making more profit per customer than the total cost of acquiring them.

​

What do you think of today's newsletter?

• ​🔥 Great​
• ​😒 Meh​
• ​👎 Not interesting​

Cheers,

Nico